Immortal Life Preview

Immortal Life is a new farming sim where you'll take on the task of trying to help rebuild the Guiyun Sect, which was utterly destroyed when asteroids hit it and the surrounding area. 

Just like other games of its genre, you'll find tons of things to do in this title: fishing, farming, decorating, building up relationships, and helping the people from the town. The way Immortal Life goes about it, however, is much more charming than I had anticipated. 

The main difference I found was that you won't have machines to help you automate things; instead, you'll rely on more magical means. As an example, one of my favourite additions was the gourd, which you can use to cast a cloud above the crops and very quickly water them all. This was an incredibly useful mechanic and felt very fresh in the genre, as you'll still be doing the work, but it feels much less taxing and repetitive.

Aside from the usual fishing and farming, you'll also be able to go to the Inn and use their kitchen for cooking, as both a side job and for yourself. It's much more complex than in other titles, as in Immortal Life, you actually have to go through the trouble of preparing everything, including chopping the items, mixing, boiling, etc. Although it was a bit difficult to get three stars at first, the more I did it, the easier it got, and there was a great feeling of accomplishment after every meal cooked. The downside is that it's much more time-consuming than in other titles, so it's not a reliable way to get your stats (stamina, health, and magic power) up easily.

Another task you'll do quite often is going to the mines. The combat is quite different than in other farming sims, as it has a more bullet-hell approach to it which helps keep the fights fast-paced and intense. Here you'll gather the resources necessary to complete missions, enhance tools, rebuild the sect, and construct other buildings.

The gameplay is quite smooth; everything you do generally works towards a goal, and many of the mechanics implemented in Immortal Life brings freshness to the genre, such as being able to send paper cranes to the cast of characters. This felt quite a bit like a visual novel type of feature, where you'll have a more personal connection to them throughout your days; the charming and colourful personalities of the characters also further enhanced that feeling, something I happily welcomed.

That all being said, I would like to mention that the translation is a bit awkward at times, and there's still work to be had on the menu. As an example, I couldn't change the resolution of the game, and I also couldn't slow the speed of the text during the automatic scenes, causing me to miss out on some of the dialogue due to it being way too quick for me.

Immortal Life is going on a great path of innovation; the simple change of setting and the addition of magical elements really brought a lot of novelty to the genre, something I am quite excited about.