Ever since having to readjust my gaming life considerably, I've had a lot of conversations with people about mobile games. Surprisingly, almost everyone I talked to still thinks of phone games as the relics of app store garbage from a decade ago. It's a mentality that I've seen a lot, with multiple genres. Every free game is pay-to-win, every gachapon game is a cash grab and every mobile game is not worth more time than a standard bathroom break. People are very reluctant to try new things, even when the barrier is as low as possible. As such, these ancient ideas become monoliths of judgement. Something something about exceptions making the rule.

Additionally, I mentioned in my previous, totally nondescript blog that I've used a lot of mobile games as distractions lately. So, to chart a more positive course, I thought this would be the perfect storm to periodically highlight all the stuff I've installed on my phone over the years. Most of those installs are good! Some of them are very bad. Just like my other tastes, I spend a lot of time on garbage.

We're going to start off with the opposite of garbage, however. The first mobile release I want to point out to every soul I can is Fantasy Life Online. To put it bluntly, Fantasy Life Online is my Game of the Year. If I were to keep up with Giant Bomb tradition, this would be the sort of thing I'd take out the whiteboard and PowerPoint presentation for. Do I think it should be at the top of your list as well? Maybe we don't need to go that far, but it deserves some more general spotlight.

As I like to say, Fantasy Life Online is certainly the biggest massively multiplayer online (MMO) game with Fantasy in the title that was released this month. Even its servers just work, which can't be said for everyone. For the uninitiated, the series started as a cult hit on Nintendo 3DS, but as with every Japanese project at the time, the next installment went mobile. That's where the audiences are, now that phones are basically just computers. Tough cookies for non-Japanese people who see that platform as below them, which is also why the game wasn't localized until right now. In fact, it's half a miracle that you can play this outside of Japan today, with the double whammy of developer Level-5 no longer looking to localize their stuff and them also announcing the death of this very game in Japan. That's right, development of Fantasy Life Online has already ended before it was even out. That's going to make this localized cycle extremely interesting.

The role-playing game (RPG) revolves around a dozen job systems; something that should be familiar to the Fantasy fans. Except, in this game, we call that job a life, hence the name. Each life is a specialty, whether you want to spend your time questing, crafting dozens of armors or just run around to fish. Each path has its own progressive arc, which is kept pretty similar, so that you can learn new things more easily. Think of it more as an obsession. Right now, I want to sow dresses and suits and make shoes and scarfs and and and… It's very easy to get lost in the sauce, as the game always has just that next step ready for you. When that line is done, there will probably be a tie to another job, so that the whole process can repeat there.

To get all the chores done, Level-5 uses an old reliable method: Town building. Your personal hub is a space that can be fit with kitchens, forges and whatnot. This is mostly where I shine, because all I want to do in any MMO is dick around and make my own little corner there as cozy as I can. I spent the majority of my first dozen hours working towards cosmetics, while everyone else was racing to end game content. My town has nice brick pavements, a picnic area and, not one, but two bars for people to hang out. Every other village I visit is a utilitarian hole. Everyone that lives in my town is constantly beaming with happiness and that's exactly what I like. My people will want for nothing. I say that, while most of my townsfolk are still working constant twelve hour shifts in their respective job facilities, but that's a bit too grim of a reality for this cute game. You get experience and rewards, okay? The numbers must go up, you understand.

To get those people to run about, Fantasy Life Online introduces the gacha aspect. It's a phone game, after all. There are slots to collect party members, who come from the story parts of the RPG. The one aspect about this game that just sucks is that, if you were to pay for any of it, the prices would be exuberant. Developer Boltrend Games, who also ports games like Disgaea, has a tendency to focus on high cost gacha trappings. By the by, those gacha hooks go way deep; a lot deeper than this feel-good game needs. Luckily, the nuance here is that you probably won't ever pay. Rather, you shouldn't pay these terrible prices. Even as an avid gacha fan, I haven't put more than a symbolic support payment in. There are plenty of opportunities to get a sufficient lineup for free. I don't even think about the gacha element, most of the time.

Further mitigating disaster is the multiplayer aspect, as a lot of the MMO is facilitated to be played with others. It's easier to jump in a session than it is to solo grind. By now, most active users have power leveled to carry anyone who enters an instance with them. And boy, is this the most effortless grind I've ever witnessed. A whole boss dungeon takes about five to ten minutes. That's without taking into account party members that use super effective elements. With the right party, a rush is over in a flash.

If Fantasy Life Online excels at anything, it's that it respects your time. It gets you in, you do the thing, you leave a nice emote and you're back out. This goes for obtaining rare ingredients and defeating powerful foes alike. Almost every goal is a straight shot to obtain, which is such a refreshing way to play an MMO. I can only think of a select few bosses that are out of immediate reach. You'll always feel like you got work done today. I've managed to grind end level gear for the first time in forever and it took me maybe two days worth of concentrated effort. Any other game would've asked for a full time commitment, but not Fantasy Life Online. The game understands that you might want to do something completely different at any time, so it doesn't keep you trapped down one specific path.

On top of that, the MMO is also incredibly easy to play. Actions only require a screen tap, while retaining the core elements of active combat, such as using items, dodging and charging up skillful attacks. There's a good amount of mixing and matching to optimize strategies, but it's equally possible to just mash it out, depending on the mood. Play this like a phone game or a standard RPG, up to you. As with most Level-5 releases, the accessibility of play and depth it can maintain is the best of both worlds. From Professor Layton to Yokai Watch to this.

I'm still amazed that we were somehow blessed with a game that should've never gotten to us. This makes up for Level-5 publishing a Ni No Kuni MMO this year and not launching it globally. Yeah, that's totally a thing too! We might get a global release of that next year, however, maybe. What's even more astounding, still, is that Fantasy Life Online flew under the radar of so many people who have been looking for the next Level-5 release. The MMO lives up to the expectation of the developer's excellence; it's just that it exists on your phone. It is my humble opinion that anyone should download this game and give it a fair shot for two or three days, the same way you'd give any RPG a chance. It might just become a daily distraction. Maybe, just maybe, it might redefine how you think about playing mobile games altogether. As long as you end up having a good time, because Fantasy Life Online is, if nothing else, a good time.