Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time appears to supply precisely what the comfy gaming neighborhood has been in search of. 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 offered and flooded TikTok and Reddit with posts concerning the sport. From cute characters to a complete island to customise, it’s the quintessential cozy sim sport, and I find it irresistible. Nevertheless, I discovered, ultimately, that the zen of the sport solely lasts so long as I avoid its cooking minigame, the place chopping cute little greens and frying eggs turns into a race to be the most effective.
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 — courses that you would be able to equip to carry out sure actions. Proper off the bat, you may unlock as much as 15 Lives, every in several classes. A battle Life like Mercenary permits you to interact in fight; a gathering Life like Miner permits you to harvest supplies from the setting; and a crafting Life like Prepare dinner permits you to make issues like clothes or dishes of meals.
Picture: Stage-5 through Polygon
After having fun with my time a bit as a Mecernary, I selected Prepare dinner because the Life to begin 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 slicing 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 shortly, maintain it, faucet it a number of occasions, or rotate the joystick. The concept is to carry out the actions proven above your character of their respective stations. Do an excellent job, and a passable “Nice Work!” seems on the display.
The entire idea is easy. It’s difficult however removed from as annoying as Stardew Valley’s fishing minigame. You’ll end most dishes in the event you respect the extent requirement — however in the event you do an OK job and nonetheless full the dish, the sport will merely describe it as “Performed.” I couldn’t assist however really feel I may very well be higher at it. I needs to be higher at it. I wasn’t going to easily settle for the compensatory prize the sport was providing me by saying, “Hey, a minimum of you probably did one thing” every time I completed a dish. No, sir. I used to be going to hone my expertise.
Picture: Stage-5 through Polygon
I started to check all of the choices I might consider to save lots of time and to attain each sequence completely. We’ve got round 8.5 seconds to finish three to 4 actions within the minigame, and dishes have totally different most numbers of sequences you may carry out when making an attempt to arrange them. Step one was to cease enjoying with a controller and alter to keyboard/mouse, which felt higher and helped me carry out the rotating motion quicker.
To be able to pace up the method, I additionally tried to cancel the animations, seeing if I might 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 Influence, dropping injury output. However in Fantasy Life i, I used to be dropping the possibility to fry one other steak.
Picture: Stage-5 through Polygon
The following step was to scale 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 shortly determine which station I needs to be at and how much motion I ought to carry out. While you play endgame content material like raids in MMOs, progressing in a struggle requires you to determine the mechanics and shortly reply to them. Relating to Fantasy Life i’s cooking minigame, the objective was to ultimately 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 have to carry out is on high of your head, you may see the next one on the proper facet of the display. It’s like Tetris exhibiting you what the following form is. It permits you to all the time 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 tough job that as a rule led to my cute character feeling dissatisfied once I mistakenly positioned him within the mistaken station.
Picture: Stage-5 through Polygon
However I’m removed from having fully 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 numerous expertise to unlock, and I must discover ways to higher apply them. I need to perceive the financial system to assemble funds and purchase supplies. However I do know that, as soon as I attain the max stage with this Life, I will probably be okay… Perhaps take a while to really calm down enjoying this sport and begin one other Life the place I’ll need to grind my manner as much as changing into grasp as soon as once more.
I imply, Carpenter does appear enjoyable, proper?
