Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time appears to supply precisely what the comfortable gaming neighborhood has been on the lookout for. A neighborhood so keen to leap right into a chilling, cute world of miniaturized characters that it helped Stage 5’s latest title attain the mark of 1 million copies bought and flooded TikTok and Reddit with posts concerning the sport. From cute characters to an entire island to customise, it’s the quintessential cozy sim sport, and I find it irresistible. Nevertheless, I discovered, finally, that the zen of the sport solely lasts so long as I steer clear of its cooking minigame, the place chopping lovable little greens and frying eggs turns into a race to be one of the best.
A Life in Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time is the equal of what’s normally a job in different role-playing video games — lessons that you would be able to equip to carry out sure actions. Proper off the bat, you possibly can unlock as much as 15 Lives, every in several classes. A battle Life like Mercenary permits you to have interaction in fight; a gathering Life like Miner permits you to harvest supplies from the setting; and a crafting Life like Cook dinner permits you to make issues like clothes or dishes of meals.
Picture: Stage-5 through epicgamejourney
After having fun with my time a bit as a Mecernary, I selected Cook dinner because the Life to start out my journey into crafting issues. Within the cooking minigame, there are three stations so that you can use: a pot on the left facet, a reducing board within the center, and a frying pan on the proper. You’ve gotten a time restrict to carry out a sequence, and in every one in every of them, you might need to press a button rapidly, maintain it, faucet it a number of occasions, or rotate the joystick. The thought is to carry out the actions proven above your character of their respective stations. Do an amazing job, and a passable “Nice Work!” seems on the display.
The entire idea is straightforward. It’s difficult however removed from as annoying as Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame. You’ll end most dishes if you happen to respect the extent requirement — however if you happen to do an OK job and nonetheless full the dish, the sport will merely describe it as “Carried out.” I couldn’t assist however really feel I might be higher at it. I must be higher at it. I wasn’t going to easily settle for the compensatory prize the sport was providing me by saying, “Hey, no less than you probably did one thing” each time I completed a dish. No, sir. I used to be going to hone my abilities.
Picture: Stage-5 through epicgamejourney
I started to review all of the choices I may consider to save lots of time and to attain each sequence completely. We now have round 8.5 seconds to finish three to 4 actions within the minigame, and dishes have completely different most numbers of sequences you possibly can carry out when making an attempt to arrange them. Step one was to cease taking part in with a controller and alter to keyboard/mouse, which felt higher and helped me carry out the rotating motion sooner.
In an effort to pace up the method, I additionally tried to cancel the animations, seeing if I may change stations earlier than my little man completed chopping his greens or stirring his soup. Getting caught in lengthy animations means, in video games like League of Legends and even Genshin Affect, dropping injury output. However in Fantasy Life i, I used to be dropping the prospect to fry one other steak.
Picture: Stage-5 through epicgamejourney
The subsequent step was to cut back my response time, which concerned memorizing the symbols for every station. I used to be taking too lengthy to know that I ought to maintain the button as an alternative of tapping it a number of occasions when practising my omelet. And I wished to rapidly determine which station I must be at and what sort of motion I ought to carry out. Whenever you play endgame content material like raids in MMOs, progressing in a combat requires you to determine the mechanics and rapidly reply to them. In relation to Fantasy Life i’s cooking minigame, the purpose was to finally make my mind perceive the symbols not as a spot within the kitchen, however as an enter on the controller. As a substitute of damage-per-second, I used to be growing my soup-per-second.
The final step required me to learn the interface of the sport extra effectively. Within the cooking minigame, whereas the sequence of actions you could carry out is on high of your head, you possibly can see the next one on the proper facet of the display. It’s like Tetris displaying you what the following form is. It permits you to at all times be one step forward. So, I practiced checking the following sequence whereas performing the present one, placing all my cerebral capability into getting ready the following three or 4 steps in my thoughts — a troublesome job that as a rule led to my cute character feeling upset once I mistakenly positioned him within the fallacious station.
Picture: Stage-5 through epicgamejourney
However I’m removed from having utterly mastered the cooking minigame in Fantasy Life i. I nonetheless want to determine what the quickest solution to stage up is. My gear must be upgraded. There are lots of abilities to unlock, and I must discover ways to higher apply them. I have to perceive the economic system to collect funds and purchase supplies. However I do know that, as soon as I attain the max stage with this Life, I can be okay… Perhaps take a while to really chill out taking part in this sport and begin one other Life the place I’ll should grind my means as much as changing into grasp as soon as once more.
I imply, Carpenter does appear enjoyable, proper?
