Fantasy Life i is a game that wants to brighten my day

If you’ve been on the internet for more than a month, it’s likely that you’ve seen that gif of Danny Devito saying “Oh my god… I get it.” which originated from a season finale episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. When I fired up Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time and saw numerous hours of my life vanish over the next few days, this was my exact reaction.

Throughout the years, I’ve met several people who played the original Fantasy Life on the Nintendo 3DS. More often than not, those people usually ranked it among one of their favorite games ever. Our own staff writer Mikhail Madnani is among these folks, and has vouched for it along these lines. For whatever reason, I just simply missed out on it.

Fast-forward to present day, present time - I wasn’t sure what to play next after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. When 2025 began, I didn’t think I was going to get around to Fantasy Life i. I mentally wished it the best of luck, since I was well-aware of the multiple years of development hell it went through. Much of the pre-release footage that developer Level-5 released didn’t sell me on the game; a lot of it was when it was still planned to be a Switch exclusive title… and the footage of that they did show looked like a mess performance-wise.

Needless to say, I didn’t have the highest expectations for this title. It wasn’t until several days before its 3-day Advanced Access launch that a friend and I goaded each other into buying it and seeing it for ourselves. Perhaps the most alluring thing about Fantasy Life i to me is how little anyone knew it would turn out.

This is going to be a bit of a tangential peek behind the curtain to provide some context. No western outlet received Fantasy Life i review codes before the Advanced Access period. The only pre-release review was from the Weekly Famitsu magazine issue in Japan, and I personally don’t pay much credence to that. So I’ll admit that part of what made Fantasy Life i appealing was the mysterious nature of the final product. It was enough for me to pay full price for its Deluxe Edition to gain access into its Advanced Access period.

When I asked people what kind of game Fantasy Life was, the most intriguing response I received was that it was a non-MMO Old School RuneScape. This spoke to me because many eons ago, I devoted many hours as a wee lad to RuneScape on my internet browser - even before it got 3D models. It’s probably one of the earliest games that made my brain neurons awaken to the concept of leveling job classes in a video game, even ones that were devoted to non-combative mundane tasks such as woodcutting, mining, and fishing.

There’s a certain compelling aspect to Fantasy Life i that is rekindling my passion for this flavor of “slow-life RPG” once more. I thought I wouldn’t have the patience for this type of game now that I’m much older, and don’t have the same amount of free time for games as I once did. Here I am nearly 40 hours into Fantasy Life i, and I’ve never stopped smiling whenever I play it.

Fantasy Life i is a game clearly aimed for younger audiences. Colorfully bubbly menus complement the cartoonishly large heads of the 3D chibi models roaming its world, along with playful dialogue exchanges free of any swearing. There are distinct, vibrant visual and auditory cues for important interactions, such as when landing a critical hit on a monster or gathering node. All of its gameplay systems are relatively simple to understand; there is no trickery or 4th-wall breaking meta-commentary that Fantasy Life i is trying to convey. What you see is what you get.

I think the most important aspect of Fantasy Life i that clicked for me is that it is a game that wants to brighten the player’s day. In 2025 alone, I’ve played several titles such as the aforementioned Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The First Berserker: Khazan, Split Fiction, Blade Chimera, and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. I want to be clear that I think none of these games are bad or terrible; they may not be all my absolute favorites, but a handful of them are certainly incredible on their own merits.

Just from that pool of games alone, I wouldn’t say any of them necessarily aimed to cheer up or brighten my day. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The First Berserker: Khazan, and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy speak for themselves with a bleak story premise from the outset. Split Fiction’s plot involves a cliche setup of a new technology, and by extension the CEO behind said technology, being utilized for nefarious means - sprinkled by the tragic backgrounds of its dual protagonists unveiled throughout the game. Blade Chimera has an amnesiac main character gradually uncover the truth of how the apocalypse of humanity took place.

I’ve had my share of fun with all of them, but they are all either depressing from the get-go or become depressing over time deliberately by design. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any “sad” moments or moments of conflict that transpire in Fantasy Life i, but its kid-friendly nature packages it in an efficient manner. The story beats are presented in a simple and straight to the point fashion, without ever beating it over the player’s head. They aren’t laid out in photorealistic scenes produced with elaborate cinematography. Level-5 wants players to get back to playing the game at their own pace, while providing a narrative goal whenever players choose to advance towards it.

As time goes on, I’ve begun to cherish when a game is built and crafted to be a moment of reprieve. Last year, I chose Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival as my favorite game out of all the fantastic ones that came out largely because of that reason. It is a video game that is simple, straight to the point, and maximizes the amount of time people spend playing it rather than watching it. I have nothing against the tide shift of many games trying to be films, especially in the RPG space, but when it feels like almost every game is trying to be as cinematic as possible… it becomes tiresome.

Meanwhile, Fantasy Life i is, at its core, a game about knocking things off numerous checklists. Each of the 14 Lives (job classes) have ranks that people can ascend by completing each of their task lists. It strikes a fulfilling balance where each of these Lives’ checklist tasks never feels super grindy to complete. I could spend three straight hours never leaving my base camp’s townhouse because I’m just crafting to rank up my Alchemist, Cook, Tailor, Carpenter, Blacksmith, and Artist Lives. In this span of time, I’ve achieved a state of zen. There have already been numerous times I booted up Fantasy Life i, and eight hours will fly by in the blink of an eye.

Every single gameplay system in this title is meant to interweave with one another. It’s very easy to get sidetracked, and Fantasy Life i is fully aware that this will happen to players - so it makes this inevitability an enjoyable process.

For instance, I may want to get the party member that’s rewarded after completing three relatively simple quests from a NPC. One of their quests might be to bring them a “Top” quality Gold Pickaxe. Well, I might be running low on gold, so let’s go mine some gold. Hold on, my current Miner tasklist has several tasks involving gold ore, so I might as well knock those out.

There might also be nearby monsters that my Hunter has quests for, so I should dispose of them as well. Oh look, the area that those monsters inhabit has trees and fishing spots that my Woodcutter and Angler Lives have on their tasklist. In this span of time, I’ve achieved a state of zen.

Throughout this whole cycle of being sidetracked, my three party members have either been cheering me on with buffs and debuffs. If any of them was a Miner, Woodcutter, or Angler, they would’ve helped me out too. As I’m leveling up, they’re leveling up and my Bond with them is gradually increasing, which unlocks new skills for them at certain thresholds. Whenever I get around to smithing that Gold Pickaxe, I can also choose Blacksmith party members I’ve recruited to help me make it.

Even describing this hypothetical scenario has me itching to boot up Fantasy Life i immediately. I can’t stress enough how enjoyable this game has been, and I feel great supporting it. Level-5 has done an amazing job addressing outstanding issues in a timely manner, especially the game’s multiplayer support. It had pretty restrictive conditions when it first entered Early Access, but a lot of them were removed within days right before its full release. I wholeheartedly hope that it continues to do well beyond its much-deserved 500k sales milestone.