The long-awaited successor to the beloved 3DS cult classic has finally arrived. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a triumphant return of Level-5’s unique life-sim/RPG hybrid. With the significant leap in hardware power since the 3DS era, I anticipated a bigger, bolder experience—but I never expected Level-5 to craft something as ambitious as this. It’s a vibrant experience seamlessly weaving together four distinct gameplay styles into one cohesive, addictive package. Drawing heavy inspiration from recent Nintendo heavyweights like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Fantasy Life i enhances the already compelling gameplay loop of its predecessor while introducing fresh mechanics that make it feel modern.
After sinking 70 hours into this time-sinking adventure on the Nintendo Switch 2, with plenty of endgame content still calling my name, I can confidently say this is Level-5 at their peak. The game offers unparalleled freedom, allowing players to chase the main story, relax with cozy village-building, tackle challenging roguelike dungeons, or lose themselves in a sprawling open-world adventure. Fantasy Life i is a masterclass in variety and gameplay design. It’s a game that doesn’t just steal your time—it makes you glad to let it.
Developer & Publisher // Level-5
Platforms // Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4, PC
MSRP // $59.99, $62.58 (Switch 2)
Release Date // May 21, 2025
Reviewed On // Nintendo Switch 2
Narrative & Setting — A Whimsical Journey Through Time
In Fantasy Life i, you step into the shoes of an archaeologist’s apprentice, setting sail with your mentor Edward, his pet bird and best friend Trip, and a crew of quirky anthropomorphic cats. The adventure begins with the discovery of a glowing dragon fossil that emits a mysterious beam of light, guiding your ship to an uncharted island. Just as you spot land, a massive, missile-launching black dragon attacks, threatening to sink your crew. In a dramatic turn, the fossil springs to life. The skeletal dragon fends off the attacker but ultimately succumbs to its power. As it falls from the sky, a portal opens, pulling you and Trip into a new world.
After landing, you meet the princess of Mysteria, Rem and her baby dragon, Growler. She soon realizes that you aren’t from another realm but the same island you and the crew were aiming for 1,000 years in the past. Your journey becomes a quest to unravel the mysteries of the past and find a way back to the present, all while learning about this kingdom’s culture centered around “Lives”.
The narrative is lighthearted, leaning heavily into Level-5’s signature goofy humor and puns. While it’s not the deepest or most sophisticated story, it’s charming, with occasional emotional depth provided by Breath of the Wild-style flashbacks that flesh out key characters.
However, the writing can feel overly childish at times. Repetitive story tropes used to gate progression can become tiresome after their initial charm wears off. Voice acting is sparse, reserved for major cutscenes, with most dialogue conveyed through text and expressive soundbites. While serviceable, the narrative is more a vehicle for the gameplay than a standout feature.
Presentation & Soundtrack — Charming, but Epic
Visually, Fantasy Life i isn’t a technical powerhouse, but its vibrant, chibi-inspired art style bursts with charm and perfectly suits its whimsical tone. On the Nintendo Switch 2, the game shines with crisp visuals and a stable 60fps framerate, a significant upgrade over the original Switch version. The art direction builds on the 3DS original by blending Animal Crossing-like aesthetics.
Animations are a highlight, from the satisfying swing of an axe in woodcutting to the fluid motions of combat and crafting. However, the character creator is a weak point, offering limited options, particularly for afro-centric features, which feels like a missed opportunity for a game centered on personalization. NPC designs are varied and delightful, though quest-givers often reuse models, a minor nitpick that doesn’t detract from the overall polish.
The soundtrack, with contributions from the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, is a standout. The whimsical, upbeat tracks perfectly capture the game’s carefree vibe, while occasional hard-hitting pieces add gravitas to key moments. The fanfare that plays when completing a craft or leveling up a Life is nothing short of epic and infectious. It makes every small victory feel monumental. Whether you’re battling a fierce boss or crafting a new weapon, the music elevates the experience.
Lives Intro & Combat — Choose Your Fantasy Life
At the core of Fantasy Life i are its 15 “Lives,” the game’s job system that defines its identity and sets it apart from traditional RPGs. These Lives split into 3 types: Combat, Gathering, and Crafting. Unlike the original, context-sensitive mechanics allow seamless switching between Lives when interacting with objects like trees or crafting benches, creating an interconnected gameplay loop. Each Life has a Life Master and apprentice, with introductory quests varying from engaging (like Chemmel the Alchemist’s) to forgettable. Afterwards, they turn into background characters which is wasted potential.
The five Combat Lives—Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, Magician, and Brand New—offer diverse playstyles catering to varied combat preferences. The Paladin excels in defense, using a sword for quick attacks and shield to negate damage. The Mercenary wields a greatsword for slow, devastating strikes that embody raw power, while the Hunter employs ranged agility, dodging nimbly while landing precise bow shots. The Magician sacrifices speed for powerful magical barrages that can decimate enemy groups, and the Brand New Life starts humbly with a flimsy branch, encouraging progression to specialized roles.
Combat involves light and heavy attacks, charge moves, and Life-specific abilities. Stamina management is key for utilizing special attacks and abilities, but perfect dodges and blocks can be used to replenish it. The system itself lacks depth, with one-button combos and enemies that rarely stagger, making fights feel stiff. Enemy AI uses poorly telegraphed moves, though bosses demand caution with relentless attacks. The Hunter’s sleep arrows shine against high-level bosses, offering a rewarding experience. Though less polished than action RPGs, Combat Lives complement the game’s crafting and gathering focus.
Gathering & Crafting Lives — The Backbone of Progression
The four Gathering Lives—Mining, Woodcutting, Angling, and Farming—turn resource collection into an engaging mechanic. Players deplete health bars on trees, ore veins, fishing spots, or farm plots by striking “Sweet Spots” for maximum damage, with precise positioning and stamina management crucial to avoid losing progress.
Boss resources, like ancient trees or legendary fish, challenge with large health pools, shifting Sweet Spots, and regenerating health, yielding unique crafting materials. These Lives fuel the game’s economy, integrating with crafting and village-building to create a rewarding loop, making every swing as compelling as combat.
The six Crafting Lives—Cook, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Tailor, Alchemist, and Artist—transform raw materials into powerful tools and decor through an engaging mini-game. Players hit buttons or spin the analog stick at three stations within a time limit, aiming for ‘Excellent’ ratings to boost item quality, while poor timing risks failure or lower quality items.
Life level and tool quality unlock higher-tier crafts with randomized bonuses like extra stamina or elemental effects, allowing gear customization. Resources from Gathering Lives fuel crafting, empowering Combat Lives, and village-building. This synergistic, addictive cycle makes crafting a standout feature of the game.
Quests & Skill Tree — Masterful Progression
The skill tree system adds depth to the 15 Lives, each with unique abilities that enhance their gameplay. Combat Lives gain new special moves or boosted attack power. While the gathering Lives skill tree improves Sweet Spot damage for faster resource collection. Moreover, the Crafting Lives skill tree extends prompt time windows for better item quality.
Players earn three skill points per level-up to unlock these abilities, but progression ties to Life ranks—Fledgling to Hero—unlocking powerful skills only after mastering Life Quests, like forging weapons or defeating enemies. This customization tailors each Life to your playstyle, making mastery feel transformative.
However, quest design falters: main quests drive the time-traveling narrative but lack challenge or unique scenarios, while repetitive fetch quests encompass the side quests. Despite this, the gameplay’s strength lies in optimizing skill trees and watching your character evolve from novice to master. While quests provide structure, the real draw is the Lives’ progression, making every combat, gathering, or crafting action engaging and rewarding, even if the quests themselves don’t fully match the game’s ambitious design.
Building a Village — Your Own Cozy Island Resort
After befriending Skelegon, the skeletal dragon from the fossil, players travel through time and discover most of their crew safe building a camp near a mysterious chasm where the Kingdom of Mysteria once stood. A creepy and mysterious laboratory lies deep inside. When you’re not exploring the chasm, Fantasy Life i offers a village-building system, inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, that lets players shape a customizable island village. Using an ancient robot named Hagram, players terraform the land, adding waterways, paths, and cliffs, and purchase structures like homes and crafting stations through the guild office.
Decorating the island with crafted items offers a creative, relaxing outlet, contrasting the game’s action-packed adventure and making the village a personal sanctuary. Raising the village’s rating by improving infrastructure unlocks benefits like expanded housing and and building upgrades, encouraging investment. While less detailed than Animal Crossing, lacking seasonal events or deep NPC interactions, the system integrates with Lives and combat, adding a unique flavor. The village’s serene pace complements the game’s fast-paced nature, reflecting the player’s journey.
Villagers & Strangelings — Stranger Things
Building your village is great, but what’s a village without villagers to live in it? In the main quest, you’re introduced to Strangelings—talking inanimate objects like furniture or weapons—that players transform into human villagers via a shrine to the goddess Celestia. By collecting flowers called Celestia’s Gift, players restore Strangelings to their human forms, with some necessary to advance the main quest.
Nearly 50 Strangelings align with Combat, Gathering, or Crafting Lives, joining parties (up to three) to level up, fight, gather, or craft. Equipped with gear, they enhance battles with healing or buffs, speed up resource gathering, or boost crafting quality, allowing players to delegate tasks like crafting or gathering to bypass less enjoyable mechanics.
Villagers can be assigned to gather or craft independently, offering flexibility to focus on preferred gameplay, like combat while others handle resources. Housing favorite villagers unlocks personal quests and gifts, adding personality, though limited housing forces tough choices as the roster grows. The system integrates seamlessly with Fantasy Life i’s gameplay loop, creating an engaging pillar that complements the adventure and lets players tailor their experience with remarkable freedom.
Ginormosia — A Wildly Inspired Open World
Ginormosia, a dragon-shaped continent unlocked later in Fantasy Life i emerges as an awesome homage to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This mostly optional open-world expanse offers a treasure trove of resources and a swift path to character growth, distinguishing itself from the game’s past and present settings. Its sprawling map stretches across diverse biomes—scorching deserts that sap your vitality, lava-spewing volcanoes that test your endurance, and tranquil tropical capes that invite respite.
Leveraging enhanced draw distance on the Switch 2, Ginormosia delivers jaw-dropping vistas from towering peaks, with no invisible walls to curb your freedom. I was surprised when I attempted to swim from the dragon’s tail to its head, and there were no restrictions to bar me. Much like Breath of the Wild, you can scale any cliffside and uncover hidden secrets at your leisure, embodying a sense of boundless exploration.
The exploration mechanics hinge on a network of towers. Arriving with a blank map, you activate these structures by inserting your tablet-like device, unveiling regions one by one. Sounds awfully familiar, don’t you think? Each region boasts its own level range, enemy roster, and resource pools—lower-level zones feature basic foes and common ores, while higher-level areas teem with elite monsters and rare materials. This segmentation ensures a natural progression, with every region feeling visually and mechanically distinct.
Ginormosia Cont’d
Ginormosia’s progression system is a standout, driven by region-specific points earned through varied activities: completing random events, tackling quests from NPCs you meet, farming resources, or vanquishing enemies. These points allow you to elevate a region’s difficulty, leveling up its enemies and resources—common adversaries give way to tougher variants, and loot transforms into more exquisite treasures. This dynamic scaling keeps the continent engaging, catering to both newcomers and seasoned players seeking greater challenges.
Exploration is further enriched by shrines—striking green structures dotting the landscape. Yes, exactly like those shrines. Entering one plunges you into a bite-sized puzzle or combat trial. Success liberates a Strangeling, accelerating your community’s growth.
Another exploration interest is the Leafes, who are small plant-like beings that have gone into hiding outside of their secret forest home. Yes, exactly like those plant-like beings. Discovering them yields gifts rewarding meticulous adventurers. The continent’s verticality amplifies its allure. With no stamina costs for climbing, you’re free to ascend cliffs to unearth ore veins or survey the land from dizzying heights. Though Ginormosia lacks the sheer scale of Hyrule and misses some of Breath of the Wild’s finesse, its integration with the rest of the game’s systems elevates it to a standout feature. Blending combat, gathering, and discovery, Ginormosia crafts a captivating adventure that honors its inspiration while carving its own identity.
Treasure Groves: Rogue-Life Dungeon Crawling
Treasure Groves are the last pillar of Fantasy Life i, introducing a roguelike dungeon-crawling experience. They are grown from seeds and planted in your village, serving as engaging endgame content. These dungeons feature branching maps with rooms tailored to specific Lives—combat arenas for Combat Lives or resource-heavy nodes for Gathering Lives like Mining or Woodcutting.
Unlike typical roguelikes, you can explore every room up to the final boss, but a strict time limit forces strategic choices: rush to the boss for a safe clear or linger to loot treasures, risking failure if time expires. Randomized layouts and room types keep each run fresh, while deeper groves, unlocked by finding more seeds, introduce tougher enemies and rarer rewards, testing your mastery of multiple Lives.
Success in Treasure Groves relies on leveraging your Lives’ strengths or deploying villagers to compensate for weaknesses, such as a skilled Miner villager handling gathering rooms. Packed with high-quality materials, rare gear, and unique village-boosting items, these dungeons balance risk and reward, appealing to completionists and speedrunners alike. Though grove levels are finite, their random nature ensures near-infinite replayability, weaving the game’s mechanics into a cohesive, challenging endgame. Treasure Groves crown Fantasy Life i‘s experience, rewarding dedication across all Lives with a thrilling, treasure-filled adventure.
Co-op & Online Play — Even Better with Friends
Fantasy Life i delivers a vibrant multiplayer experience, letting you team up with up to three friends locally or online. You can also host a lobby for matchmaking with random players, forming a party of four. From your village’s guild, you set conditions for your multiplayer session—choose to explore Ginormosia in search of treasure, tackle Treasure Groves, or just hang out and show off how cool your island is. This flexibility ensures every session matches your group’s mood and goals.
Hosting a lobby? You can restrict who joins by setting a level range, keeping the challenge balanced—whether you want peers at your skill level or slightly stronger allies to aid your progress.
When joining others, you’ll see the host’s destination and goals upfront, so you can pick a session that suits your playstyle, whether it’s resource hunting or dungeon diving.
The system is intuitive, and online stability is smooth. However, you are restricted from playing through the main questline in co-op, which is kind of a bummer. While it offers a robust single-player experience, playing with others—friends or strangers—unlocks the game’s full potential, blending camaraderie and collaboration for the best way to experience this enchanting adventure.
Conclusion — A Fantasy Life Worth Living
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time stands as an expansive evolution of Level-5’s brilliant formula, blending an array of differing gameplay systems into a captivating whole. The Lives system, with its unique roles, forms the heartbeat of the experience, delivering a satisfying loop where every task feels meaningful.
Adding to this, the village-building mechanics bring a cozy, creative flair, the expansive Ginormosia region elevates exploration to new heights, and Treasure Groves offer endless content brimming with peril.
The multiplayer features further enrich the journey by allowing you to team up with friends to tackle bosses, help gather resources or simply explore together, transforming a stellar solo adventure into a shared odyssey.
Though not without flaws—a combat system and narrative that lack depth, a limited character creator, and interesting Life Masters that aren’t utilized enough—these are mere blemishes on an otherwise radiant gem. On the Nintendo Switch 2, with enhanced visuals and a buttery 60fps, the game shines in handheld and TV modes. After 65 hours, with Treasure Groves and village projects still calling, Fantasy Life i proves its staying power. It’s a time-stealing triumph that balances nostalgia and innovation, making it a must-play for fans and newcomers alike.
Final Score: 9/10
Pros
- Addictive gameplay loop
- Caters to multiple playstyles
- Lots of mechanics and systems that blend well
- Made crafting and resource gathering engaging
- A sizable endgame with Treasure Groves
- Robust multiplayer enhances the experience
- Infectious soundtrack
- Feels like a complete experience at launch
Cons
- Combat is a little too simplistic
- Narrative is not engaging enough
- Character creator is lacking
- Life Masters feel underdeveloped
- Enemy AI can be basic
- While there is a breadth of content and systems, not all of it reaches its full potential
