What really makes Fantasy Life such a fun little game is the mix of RPG-style combat and everyday life aspects. While there’s plenty of time you can spend going out adventuring, you can spend just as much time talking to villagers and customizing your house. Ever Oasis strike very much the same balance, although its customization aspects are a bit different from Fantasy Life.Ever Oasis casts you as a young seedling, who with the help of a water spirit named Esna creates the last oasis in the world, the only place safe from a malevolent place known as Chaos. Building up your oasis and expanding it is the crux of the game, and there are some light town-building elements that come into play. Other seedlings will come to your oasis and settle down, or you can find them out in the world, and some of these characters will even open up new Bloom Booths – shops for you to buy items and gain resources. You can take requests from NPCs to upgrade Bloom Booths, mostly by foraging for materials in caves and dungeons out in the world.Outside of building your oasis, Ever Oasis sports a real-time action combat system that lets you build a party. It’s fairly simple combat, but still has enough complexity and depth to make it engaging, much like Fantasy Life.

With the innovative Life system, your choices don't just upgrade characters - they help shape your journey. Explore a huge fantasy landscape beside surly dark paladins, slick pirate captains, regal princesses and others who share your taste for the unknown. Change to one of 12 Life classes at virtually any time to access different abilities. Fantasy Life has few problems in Citra. Graphically, the game appears to suffer from little to no issues, but requires powerful hardware to obtain near full speed. It suffers from minor audio issues at times, but this does not hinder gameplay in any way. An issue exists where the game crashes at character creation when choosing a job as a female.

Ever Oasis may not have the same absolute freedom as Fantasy Life, but if you’re looking for another title that creates a blend of action-RPG and sim, then look no further than Ever Oasis. Stardew Valley is one of the best simulation games we’ve ever gotten, even against the likes of Harvest Moon, which it is clearly inspired. The game does contain elements of combat and dungeon exploring, but Stardew Valley really is about simulating your life as a farmer, and adjusting to life in Pelican Town.In Stardew Valley your grandfather wills you a small plot of land, and after you create your character, you leave your city office job behind to till the land. You’ll need to clear out all the weeds first, and then set about constructing your dream farm home.

As your farm grows, you’ll need to tend to the crops and livestock you put in, while increasing the size and scope. Apart from your own farm, you can explore Pelican Town, getting to know its diverse cast of residents, and even find romance if you so choose. Just outside of town there’s a procedurally generated network of caves you can dive into to gather resources and valuable items, although the caves are infested with creatures you’ll need to battle so be sure to go in prepared.Stardew Valley is a charming little game that lets you play things out at your own pace, however you want to. The game uses a day-night and calendar system to play out each day, and at the end of your third year you’ll be evaluated on your performance. Other than that, there are no guidelines or restrictions to how you need to play, so it really is up to you. Also, if you happen to pick up the game on PC, the multiplayer update is coming in August 2018, providing a brand new way to play.

If the sim aspects of Fantasy Life are what appeal to you the most then boy do you need to play Animal Crossing, as it serves as the inspiration for a lot of what Fantasy Life does. Like with previous Animal Crossing games, New Leaf drops you right into the middle of a town of anthropomorphic animals as the new neighbor. After dealing with Tom Nook, in the renovation of your new house, you’ll incur a massive debt you need to pay off. Besides the debt, Animal Crossing gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. You can go fishing, collect bugs, search for rare fossils, buy new clothes, decorate your house, hang out with your neighbors, and much more.New Leaf gives you the position of mayor in the town, adding more variety and options as to how you want to customize everything.

You can use Public Works and Ordinances to install new things in your town like lampposts or fountains, and even have your fellow townspeople do things like plant more flowers. The series is known for its quirkiness, and talking to the other animals can be great fun. Once you get to know them a little better, they might even give you some presents in the form of new clothes or decorations.Pocket Camp on the other hand, takes the core formula of Animal Crossing and simplifies the experience a little bit to fit on mobile. This time you’re building your very own campsite, collecting decorations and inviting characters to stay over. You still have a ton of freedom over what you want to do and how you want to do it, but it’s easier to play Pocket Camp in small bursts.The similarities between Animal Crossing and Fantasy Life are pretty obvious, and it’s easy to lose yourself for hours, if not days, on end in the world of Animal Crossing. The Rune Factory series is actually an offshoot of Harvest Moon, with a similar type experience but a much larger focus on fantasy aspects.

It was actually described by Yoshifumi Hashimoto, producer of the Harvest Moon series, as “Harvest Moon where you wield a sword.”In Rune Factory 4 you play as a young man or woman who develops amnesia and is accidentally mistaken for royalty, after they fall from their airship into the town of Selfia. The actual Prince of Selifa, Arthur, is more than happy to let you take over his duties, and now it becomes your job to attract tourists, get to know the villagers, and work to expand the town.Planting and tending crops is still an integral part of Rune Factory 4, as is exploring dungeons, and finding your bride or groom to be. Unlike Harvest Moon you actually don’t have livestock in Rune Factory games, but instead can defeat and befriend monsters while exploring dungeons.

These monsters can then help you in dungeons, or help tend your crops. Combat is done in a real-time action role-playing style, and crafting is the main form of progression for your character, instead of a traditional leveling system.The Rune Factory games are probably the most similar you can get to Fantasy Life without actually being Fantasy Life.

It may not have the job system of the latter, but there are a ton of similarities regardless. Disney Magical World essentially borrows ideas from the likes of Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and Animal Crossing, and adds in a few unique elements and that Disney magic to make it something different. You can play as a previously made Mii or a new in-game character, living out life in the city of Castleton and interacting with a ton of different Disney characters.One of the main features of Magical World is running your very own cafe, which is your main source of income. You’ll need to personally make all the food and drinks served at the cafe, and you can even decorate the location and change its style to match what you want.

Outside of the cafe there are other activities to engage in like Harvest Moon-style gardening, card collecting, fishing, and crafting apparel. There’s also a dungeon system that lets you dive in and collect materials to craft weapons and armor, battle enemies, and complete quests that are given to you by Disney characters.Magical World rewards you with stickers for completing its myriad activities, which works as a leveling up system of sorts. Having more stickers means you can enter new areas and do more things, and it’ll help you progress. There are four main plotlines that’ll take you to four different Disney worlds; Cinderella, Wonderland, the Hundred Acre Wood, and Agrabah.Just from the description, you can probably see the similarities between Disney Magical World and Fantasy Life, but the game serves as a sort of mish-mash of ideas between different games.

Somehow, this combination of ideas and mechanics works really well, and despite the overtly cutesy art style, Disney Magical World can be a great experience.