Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Review
Fantasy Life on Nintendo 3DS was my most played game on the system and one of my favorite games of all time. Back then, a friend of mine sold me on the idea of playing it by saying it was like Final Fantasy XIV meets Animal Crossing. I enjoyed it so much that I imported the soundtrack, and I also asked a friend of mine to help me find the Japanese-exclusive guidebook. Fantasy Life made me a Level-5 fan to the point where I eventually bought every single game they released on 3DS and DS. I never thought I'd get to experience a game like that again, with how it seemed to perfectly cater to what I enjoyed doing in an MMO, but also one that never stressed me out.
Now, over a decade later, a true follow-up has been released with Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. True to its name, the game has essentially 'stolen my time' with over 75 hours played across various platforms in less than two weeks. In fact, I literally have this game now set up on every screen in my home, so I can boot it up from anywhere in my house or play it on a portable when I'm outside. I'm nowhere close to having my fill of Fantasy Life i, and I can see myself getting well over 100 hours more out of it before even thinking of future updates and the free DLC.
If you're new to this series, it excels in how it blends elements of MMORPGs with relaxing life simulation games. Fantasy Life i smartly builds on the original 3DS game with new mechanics, quality of life improvements, and a plethora of systems that synergize with each other without feeling overwhelming. In fact, I'm surprised Level-5 managed to nail this, because it's hard to imagine a game with such a combination of systems not crumbling under its weight somewhere. Level-5 calls Fantasy Life i a "slow-life RPG". I definitely see that, but I was surprised at how free form it was with how you can basically do whatever you want, whenever you want.
There is some structure for the main story and how it gates some content and mechanics, but I've been thinking about how the opening chapters of the main story serve as the game's tutorial. Fantasy Life i is very much a game where you can just spend days fishing or mining instead of even engaging in the main story or any combat. Are you a fan of crafting in MMOs, but not the combat aspect, Fantasy Life i has an NPC system that lets you build your own party so you can focus on what you love. Are you the kind of person who loves checking off to-do lists and exploring a lot? Fantasy Life i will be your dream game.
Usually, I'd be talking about how you follow a specific gameplay loop in a life simulation RPG, but with Fantasy Life i, there are multiple sets of gameplay loops you will be following to some degree. After beginning the story and choosing your first class or Life, you follow a short tutorial, and then you are left to your own devices. While you are initially restricted from exploring everywhere, there is a lot you can do through gathering, hunting, side quests, and more.
Fantasy Life i is a game aimed at a younger audience, but it does not dumb things down. I'd go so far as to say it perfectly encapsulates what I love about Nintendo's approach to games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf and handheld RPGs on the 3DS, while making sure there's enough complexity across its many modes for those who want to sink their teeth into something meatier.
While the narrative or main story content isn't anything mindblowing, it ended up sticking with me a lot through its well-written characters and shockingly good cut-scenes. Fantasy Life i makes good use of Unreal Engine for some gorgeous effects and framing in cut-scenes that I didn't expect.
Without getting into any major spoilers, Fantasy Life i has you moving between three different major areas. The first is the initial island you will spend most of your time in. This is where you access the many masters for your various Life classes and largely where you'll experience the main narrative. As you progress through said story, different islands become accessible with their own NPCs and Life classes you can unlock.
The second area is where you can design your own island, have access to multiplayer, and spend time with the many NPC party members you recruit through the main story and exploration. This area feels very much like Animal Crossing: New Horizons with how you can terraform it to your liking, decorate it, and even try and raise the overall rating to earn rewards. Thinking back on how I was sold on Fantasy Life 3DS with "Final Fantasy XIV meets Animal Crossing"; the comparison hits even more strongly now.
Fantasy Life i's third area is an open world called Ginormosia that also happens to be the game's largest area. While I initially thought it was a bit too much like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's open world with towers to activate around the map and shines, Fantasy Life i smartly makes it so that you will always have new instances of certain events taking place, ranging from battling monsters, item gathering, and even witnessing recreations of The Tortoise and the Hare with this game's monsters. You do all of this to earn area points that let you raise said area level.
Raising an area level in Ginormosia makes the enemies stronger, but it also makes the loot better. This applies to the level of gathering points, bosses, treasure chests, and more. While I thought it might be annoying doing this for multiple areas in Ginormosia, it only really felt like a grind to hit some of the higher levels. I view Ginormosia as the perfect place to spend time with friends in multiplayer or while listening to a podcast. It is crazy to me that Fantasy Life i manages to integrate not just some elements from games I enjoy, but deliver what feels like three different full games together with everything working in tandem to make me want to spend all my free time here.
I have not spent a ton of time with every single Life here. In games like this or even Monster Hunter, I focus on a few I enjoy and stick with them. In Fantasy Life i, I ended up sticking to one combat class (Magician), alongside all of the gathering and crafting classes. Farming is the only one I expected more from compared to the rest. In addition to just having a ton to do across the side quests, optional dungeons, bosses, various tiers of enemies, Fantasy Life i also has different skill trees for each Life, huge sets of Life quests to complete so you can raise your rank, and more. I also love that you can fast travel to your life master instantly from the life-changing menu.
On paper, it might seem like Fantasy Life i is more-or-less a huge checklist game, and while you could cynically reduce it to just that, it excels in how it constantly sprinkles something new onto the player. I can't imagine anyone will have experienced even a tenth of the variety of content available in Fantasy Life i until at least thirty or forty hours into it.
I also want to highlight how far ahead the developers thought with the various in-game systems. When exploring a dungeon in multiplayer or on your own, you might run into ore or trees in a room with enemies you've just cleared. Normally, you'd manually swap your Life to a gathering one here. In Fantasy Life i, the new quick change system automatically swaps to the correct Life (if you've unlocked it and finished the tutorial) so you can gather and immediately swap back when you press the attack button.
The launch experience for Fantasy Life i has also been a delight. When the original Fantasy Life on 3DS was released in North America in 2014, the game had already been released in Japan nearly two whole years earlier. English players could practically look up anything they got stuck on from players who put in a ton of time in the Japanese version. With Fantasy Life i, thanks to a simultaneous release, everyone is on the same playing field, it has been incredible discovering new things daily. Even the game's subreddit is constantly finding out new ways to find specific items or make money in-game. This community aspect adds to the Fantasy Life i experience. I usually wake up to messages from friends telling me they raised a level in Ginormosia to the maximum level and that we should explore a bit or even go into the Treasure Grove dungeons, because they got a specific dungeon ready for multiplayer.
Speaking of multiplayer, Fantasy Life i is not a game you play with friends to go through the story. In fact, you should think of the multiplayer as something to focus on as a break from the story or in the post-game when you are grinding your way to 100% completion. In its current state, the multiplayer has dramatically improved since the 19th when the game's Digital Deluxe Edition was unlocked to the point where almost all my complaints have been addressed. I'm not a fan of the time limits in place for multiplayer sessions, but everything else works brilliantly.
We recently had Elden Ring Nightreign and Monster Hunter Wilds released as big multiplayer experiences. The former has no cross-play or cross-progression, which is incredibly disappointing after the gigantic success of Elden Ring. The latter offers cross-play, but not cross-progression. As someone who plays on multiple platforms, I'd have loved to have Elden Ring Nightreign let me play on Steam Deck and then come home to pick up my progress and play with friends on PS5. I haven't spent too much time with Monster Hunter Wilds on Xbox for the same reason. I'm hundreds of hours into my PS5 save, and I would love to carry that over to play on Xbox in the other room.
With Fantasy Life i, Level-5 delivered a mammoth RPG that ships with both cross-platform online multiplayer support and cross-progression. I've been playing the game across all consoles and Steam, bringing my progress with me without any issues. Level-5 already had this in place for Megaton Musashi W: Wired, but I'm very glad to see it in Fantasy Life i specifically. Being able to play on Steam Deck or Switch when outside the house and then come home to pick up my progress on PS5 or Xbox is incredible. Fantasy Life i has joined the likes of No Man's Sky, Spelunky, and Monster Hunter Wilds as a part of my "Always" folder, which includes games I want to always have installed.
Having played Fantasy Life i on multiple platforms, the PC version on Steam is by far my favorite. This isn't to say that the game is bad on console, but the Steam version is the only one that lets you disable the depth of field blur around the edges of the screen, for some reason. Barring that, Level-5 has done a good job on console with its DualSense features and Activity Cards support on PS5 with super fast loading and even rumble on Nintendo Switch. Playing Fantasy Life i is my favorite way to experience it, by far. I covered the Switch and Steam versions already here, and will be revisiting that article when I play the Switch 2 version.
The 3DS was such a unique system with its exclusives that I've always lamented how many of those franchises suffered when moving from the dual-screen setup to single-screen HD platforms over the years. Even Bravely Default II, a great game in its own right, didn't translate the original game's aesthetic well enough to modern displays. I still enjoy playing it, but it is also pretty ugly in many ways. Fantasy Life i somehow managed to deliver a game that looks excellent on high resolution screens, but also one that retains the charm of the original. Being built on Unreal Engine, I expected some tech issues, but the game does a great job of running perfectly on PC, retaining the series' aesthetic, and making full use of modern effects in its cut-scenes without looking disjointed.
Fantasy Life i doesn't have full voice acting, but is partially voiced with both English and Japanese options available. You hear some NPC shout-outs during combat & exploration, and some of the main story scenes are voiced, but it feels somewhat similar to Animal Crossing in this regard. I'm in two minds about this, but my only real issue is that some of the scenes I expected to be voiced were not.
Moving on from voice acting, Fantasy Life i's soundtrack is a mix of older and newer tunes. The original game's soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu is very much present here in similar scenes, including battles, specific areas, dungeons, and more. The new songs fit right in, but I admit that I was hoping for more new music. This will not be an issue for a newcomer to the series, though. There are moments where the music breaks from the cutesy aesthetic to deliver a grand orchestral feel in specific boss battles, and hearing one of those songs when you are chopping a boss tree never stops being funny.
I've praised Fantasy Life i a lot, but it isn't perfect. I'm glad that the game doesn't force fixed camera movement, but the camera has some issues in specific scenes. This makes identifying points of interest in the distance in Ginormosia a bit annoying. Honestly, that's my only largest issue with the game right now. The main story isn't some amazing narrative, but I don't want to spend all my time in a game like this watching cut-scenes or being railroaded into something. The characters are well-written, and the English script is definitely a highlight.
Even after posting many articles covering the game over the months, I just couldn't imagine that Fantasy Life i would live up to the memories I had of the original game. It had the herculean task of being a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time and being the first big game I played after completing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Somehow, Level-5 smashed it out of the park. It gets my highest possible recommendation.
Even nearly two weeks after launch and having spent at least a few hours on Fantasy Life i daily, if not more, it doesn't feel real. I suppose I've become so jaded with how people talk about "Dream Games" that I just never really was able to have that feeling myself until now, aside from some remake announcements. Level-5 delivered a game that I truly adore and look forward to playing for many years on my own and with friends. I know it will not be for everyone, but Fantasy Life i feels like a game made specifically for me, and one that continues to surprise and delight me every time I play it.
When I think about remakes or remasters of classic games, I've always wondered how developers balance accessibility for modern audiences while still trying to satisfy the desires of original fans. Before recently revisiting the 3DS game and eventually playing Fantasy Life i, I had this grand picture painted in my head about the original. It is funny looking back now that Fantasy Life i has managed to not only deliver one of my favorite games in years, but also live up to my nostalgia.
Fantasy Life i feels like meeting a friend after a decade and experiencing firsthand how they've grown and flourished in life after some ups and downs. I don't know how Level-5 managed to do it, but Fantasy Life i might just be one of my favorite games of all time, and one I can always count on to improve my mood. It perfectly captures what made the original great, builds on it, and delivers a gigantic RPG that oozes charm in every facet.