The Good Life is a wacky, quirky slice of life adventure game focused around quests, photography, and dealing with your massive, MASSIVE debt.
I have been a fan of slice of life games lately – games with open worlds and lots of quests. One of my favorites which has been eating up my evenings is The Good Life. This game isn’t about production, fishing, or farming, but instead is about a young journalist and photographer who has a massive debt and an old camera.
Naomi, the character that you play, is a stuck-up person who really doesn’t understand how the world works. She has been sent to a small town where everyone is friendly and can turn into either cats or dogs. I know, that tidbit is a little shocking to literally everyone. Even the character you are playing as.
Your day-to-day life includes running around town looking to take pictures of random things, fulfilling quests from villagers, earning money through posting your photos on Flamingo (think Instagram), and keeping your needs fulfilled. It’s a challenge, and The Good Life has so many twists and turns, it will keep you on your toes. There are lots of upgrades for your camera that can be purchased, hashtags that can be followed for an increase in money or following, and other things to keep you busy. Also, your camera can even break if you use it too much, causing you to fork out for repair.
At the start of this game, I found everything to be clunky, but I think that is just a common thread in slice of life games that are this open and full of adventures to take on. You have a main quest, which is given to you via your work colleague who communicates with you through your computer. You will get more main quests as you learn about the town, which progresses the story. Along with the main quest, you can find yourself talking to villagers and getting side quests which will help you make friendships and unlock new areas or things for you to do.
These quests are quite fun. They can be anything from gathering a bunch of different mushrooms to riding a sheep and crashing it into a bunch of barrels. You can find yourself slowly moving a really heavy statue across the map at a snail’s pace (for some goofy reason) and then trying to take on an alien race who is living above a replica of Stonehenge. The Good Life is just wild – there is so much randomness to it, so many strange routes, and so much going on.
Quite a few of the quests don’t even really explain what they are, instead challenging you to figure it out or just ignore that quest and take on one of the many others. Activating these quests can change where people are around the town, depending on what you are doing, so it’s always interesting to cycle through them.
Moving around town in The Good Life is quite cumbersome at first, but as soon as you find yourself turning into an animal and then taming sheep, you can get around quickly. You just need to stick with the game, really, and it will give you everything you need.
I have found the game itself to be one of those titles you keep dipping into – it’s got so much playtime in it, so many quests, and just a lot to discover. None of it is anything you could ever really guess, which keeps your story interesting, and you can even become a part of the town and its magic.
When it comes to taking care of your character, you do need to eat, stay in when it rains, garden for food to keep yourself full, and even shower. If you don’t keep yourself healthy, you can get sick and need to pay money to fix yourself. If you die, the screen states Game Over, but you will find yourself at the doctor’s with a chunk of money missing. If you don’t wash and groom yourself, you will find that people of the town think you are dirty and charge you more for items. There is just a lot going on in the micro actions of the game and in what you need to take care of in order to continue playing.
The Good Life is a game that I know I will miss once it’s over. It’s a game that is so full of random stories, characters who are really unique to the game itself, and quirky moments that make it feel like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Am I living the good life? I am unsure, but I am really enjoying the experience.
The Good Life is available now on the Nintendo eShop, Microsoft Store, PlayStation Store, and Steam.
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