During today's Level 5 Vision 2024 online event, developer Level 5 announced that the latest entry into the Fantasy Life series, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has been delayed until A??pril 2025. Prior to this announcement, the social life sim RPG was expected to be released in just over two weeks on October 10.

In traditional Fantasy Life fashion, The Girl Who Steals Time tasks players with creating their own character and then leveling a variety of combat, gathering, and crafting jobs in a massive open-world RPG. In total, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time features 14 jobs in total, including the brand new Artist?? and Farmer j??obs.

As of now, the only platform that has been confirmed for The Girl Who Steals Time is the Nintendo Switch, which is honestly the perfect platform for a Fantasy Life game. The original RPG on DS felt like the perfect handheld life sim RPG, and I'm sure The Girl Who Steals Time wi??ll ?utilize the Switch functionality to do the same.

Also, for the first time in the series, players will be able to play online and locally with up to four friends, inviting them to their own personal crafted island and then work together on resource-gathering quests. It sounds very Animal Crossing-esque in that regard. There is also 2 player "couch?? co-op" if you hav?e a second controller, allowing one to join as a travel companion.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is now set to launch on Ni?ntendo Switch i??n April 2025.

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Get me away from this real life

One of my favorite video games on the Nintendo 3DS is Fantasy Life from Level-5. Originally an offshoot of Professor Layton’s London Life from Professor Layton and the Last Specter, the RPG life-sim?? offered players an open-ended approach to saving the world of Reveria from the fallen meteors known as Doomstones. It was a very relaxing game where you could spend an afternoon killing monsters or just working as a craft??sperson, building your wealth.

It was such a great experience on the handheld that the news its sequel would be coming exclusively to mobile was a bit of a gut punch. Eve?n more disappointing was t??he fact that there didn’t seem to be any indication the game would release outside of Japan. The sequel, now called Fantasy Life Online, released in the country back in ??2018. But now, it looks like people in our half of the world will finally get to try the game out for themselves.

Today, Fantasy Life Online started its official English closed beta in a small selection of countries, including Australia and Canada. The game is up for pre-registration on Google Play and it’s coming to us from Boltrend Games, which also brought wester??n audiences the surprisingly good Atelier Online: Alchemist of Bressisle over the summer.

Like its predecessor, Fantasy Life Online will let players find their own way through the game with ?12 different classes to choose from, including tail??or, miner, paladin, and alchemist. If you want to kill monsters, you can do that. If you’d rather start a business, that’s an option as well. Players will be able to build up their own village, and they can play solo or with up to three other friends.

I’m excited to see what this is all about, but I’m keeping expectations in check as microtransactions can greatly alter what I know can be a wonderful experience. At least I still have my 3DS copy to fall back on should Fantasy Life Online not meet expectations.

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Coming to Japan this summer

It's a dreadful time to be a Level-5 fa??n. Or m??aybe a great one. Dunno. I suppose that all depends on where you exist on this Venn diagram:

Level-5 announced Fantasy Life 2 for smartphones today, which probably displeases you, unless it doesn't. The follow-up to last year's role-playing game is taking its talents to the App Store with four-pl??ayer online questing and all the village-building gameplay you can shake a stick at.

It's coming to Japan sometime this summer. So you can get excited??/ang??ry about that.

Fantasy Life 2 [Level-5 via 4Gamer]

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Trip the life fantastic

One of the biggest gripes I hear from friends interested in but hesitant to play Japanese role-playing games is that they're too "complicated." It's a sentiment I've never understood; several take great pains to be accessible and enjoyable to a wide variety of players. Unfortunately, my explanations of tropes and tried-and-true mechanics aren't usually enough to sway the potential players??, and they're swept away by a t??itle of a different ilk.

That's why Fantasy Life is such an interest??ing case. It takes familiar elements such as classes, grinding for XP, and character customization and distills them into something that can be digested by just about any type of player. Oh, and it helps that it's a lot of fun, too.

Fantasy Life (3DS)
Developer:  Level-5, 1-UP Studio
Publisher: Nintendo
MSRP: $39.99
Released: October 24, 2014 

Fantasy Life is the child of Level-5 and Brownie Brown, having begun its own story back in 2009 and finding a Japan-only release in Decem??ber 2012. With notable names like Yoshitaka Amano and Nobuo Uematsu attached to the project, it's no secret that it was well-received, a project that stole the attention of role-playing fans, particularly those of Brownie Brown, which would eventually change its name to 1-UP Studio. It comes from trusted names, but most of all, it's absolutely adorable; a warm and welcoming sight that will feel simultaneously familiar to RPG lovers and anyone who appreciates Western fantasy alike. 

Getting started in Fantasy Life is exceedingly simpl??e, as you choose a gender, body type, face, expression, and more for your character. You can customize him or her right down to the spacing of their eyes, voice, and hairstyle. There are a surprising amount of options for customizing your hero, but then it makes sense that there should be -- this i?s your "fantasy," after all.

Unfort??unately, the beginning of the game is riddled with JRPG narrative tropes, especially as you wake up? in the morning in a tiny house and rush out to choose your own Life, which is essentially the job a person chooses for themselves in the game world. There are multiple Lives for various proficiencies, though if you choose one and wish to swap over to another halfway through your training, that's perfectly fine as well. You're never constrained to one job, just like in real life.

The scope of jobs is interesting as well, ranging from the familiar Paladin or Blacksmith to the less flashy Tailor or Cook. Just as there are jobs that find you on the front line of battle, there are also more mundane professions where you'll be completing tas?ks for townsfolk  rather than lifesaving operations. Depending on which Life you choose, you might find yourself slaying a dragon or mining ore to forge weapons. All the jobs are interconnected, so even the smallest role plays a part. Though it would have been simple to offer 12 different j?obs and give them the same questlines, playing each Life ends up feeling unique.

With engaging writing and interesting interactions between characters, even if you choose to play as an Angler or a Cook, there's still plenty to see and do. And if and when you get bored with their minigames, you can just switch to a different profession at the drop of the hat to be?gin earning stars for another job. You'll retain many of your skills and recipes when switching, except for Special Skills that are tied to the Life you're currently developing. It's up to you to select which classes are important to spend time on in order to ensure your character has access to a wealth of different abilities and proficiencies that complement each other.

But don't mistake versatility for a game that requires you to learn all of these jobs to train a machine who can slay monsters and knit a mean sweater. Yo??u're never forced to pursue specific skills and there's no dark cloud hanging around the world of Reveria nudging you to pursue different skills in order to complete a quest.

You can play at your own pace, and if that means diverging from the main quest to focus on learning how to craft potions or forge w?eapons, that's your prerogative. That's where all the fun lies -- spending time trying new things and figuring out what it is you like to do within the game. It's a lot like real life in that regard, without any of the risks attached to uprooting and learning a completely new trade when the mood strikes. There's no hurry to complete anything, and that's what makes the game work so well.

Everything is done at a leisurely yet satisfying pace, even combat, which finds skills assigned to single buttons that works quite well with the real-time hack-and-slash system. You may need a bit to ??get used to timing your strikes, but it's simple to master and complements the rest of the game well. The minigames surrounding item product?ion are easy to learn as well, though if you happen to botch a crafting session while at a workbench, you can simply start over.

Aside from earning XP and levels, however, there's an additional system in play that's important to focus on. It's called Bliss, and you receive Bliss points when you explore Reveria and complete task?s for others. As you decorate your home, buy a new residence, or interact with the game in ways beyond combat and training, you'll earn Bliss?? points that can be used to upgrade your bag, allow for home expansion, and more. It's an interesting system that encourages players to focus on aspects of the game beyond combat and grinding, and acts as a reward system for completing tasks you were going to have to do anyway.

There's simply no shortage of things to complete in Fantasy Life. Beyond single-player's vast amount of things to do, you can also invite other players locally or online in groups of thre??e to tackle tasks together. You can't complete the game while working with friends, but you playing together via Link mode does allow for some MMORPG-styled fun that ensures each player's individual strengths are pooled together in a manner that's beneficial for everyone.

Of course, Fantasy Life's relaxed nature may not be for everyone. The lengthy tutorials and even the fact that there's no true urgency for the main storyline to be completed will grate on s??ome players' nerves. There's also the caveat that playing multiplayer with friends doesn't allow for "true" progress. They're minor nitpicks, but issues nevertheless, especially for a game where multiplayer is such an enticing proposition.

But there's so much to love about Fantasy Life, from its whimsical and colorful illustrations and lighthearted tone to its varied soundtrack. It's truly a role-playing game that allows you to forge your own path, and a breath of fresh air that feels at home on the 3DS. If you're looking for something to scratch that Animal Crossing or Tomodachi Life itch with a little more substance, Fantasy Life is the game for you.

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All jobs, combat or otherwise

It feels like we've been waiting forever for Fantasy Life&nbs?p;-- and we have! Years, in fact. Japan even got a full expansion before we even got the base game, but here we are with the game launching now in EU territories, and next month in the US.

If you want an idea on how this open-ended Level-5 project looks, check out the newest EU launch traile?r that shows off every core job and some of the activities you can do.

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Good for them

Level-5's 3DS role-playing game Fantasy Life is releasing?? in Europe on September 26, 2014??, Nintendo has announced. As a reminder, we're getting it here in the States on October 24.

This overview trailer is perfect if, like me, you've only been following Fantasy Life he?re and there. I'm admittedly not much of an RPG player, but I want to fish and build stuff and battle, so being able to do all three and much more means I'm down for this adventure. It has ??taken years for the game to be localized but it won't be much longer now.

Thinking I might just leave the trailer play??ing on repeat in a tab -- that music!

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It's no Yokai Watch, but it's still awesome

Level-5 is bringing its glorious MMO-inspired Fantasy Life to Western gamers, and it looks to be every bit of a treat. Combining Animal Crossing-like sensibilities with the role-playing and combat of an MMO, Fantasy Life is a 3DS RPG that's got me intrigued. Having sold over 300,000 c?opies since its launch in Japan, it's time to make a splash o??ver here where we devour such games. 

Look for Fantasy Life and for me to be holed up in my room with it on October 24. Turn down for Fantasy Life, y'all. 

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One can hope, due to a US trademark

Following news of the game being sold out in Japan, it seems as if 3DS hit Fantasy Life has been trademarked in the States (and previously, Europe), according to Siliconera. If Level-5's history is anything to go by, trademar??k filing in other regions i??s basically a given for localization.

One part Little King's Story, other part Harvest Moon, this amazing looking title from Level-5 and Brown?ie Brown can't get here soon enough. Chalk up another localization win for the 3DS if the trademark holds up!

Fantasy Life [Siliconera]

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Sold out!

Remember that awesome-looking Level-5 3DS game Fantasy Life, that started as a DS game many moons ago? It seems as if it's doing very well in Japan, as retailers have reported multiple shortages, and i?n many cases, the game has sold out.

Although it is still available digitally in Japan, fans can't get enough of that hot box art, and are still demanding a physical cop??y. This can only be good news for a localization in ?the future.

Could we finally be inching closer to a US release ???date, after years of waiting? Who knows!

Fantasy Life.jp [Fantasy Life via Siliconera]

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After three long years of development that started on the Nintendo DS, Fantasy Life will finally release on the 3DS on December 27 in Japan. Level-5 was a much different company when the game was first announced. It was a company focused on making great RPGs instead of adventure games -- not that there is anything wrong with that. Along with Ni no Kuni, Fantasy Life looks to be another great return ??to form for the studio ?and one that will fill a much-needed niche in the 3DS' library.

Disregard the underwhelming Animal Crossing wannabe called London Life, attached to Professor Layton and the Last Specter last fall. Fantasy Life is also co-developed by Brownie Brown (Mother 3) and built upon the idea of being a peasant instead of a h??ero, but it is a much deeper and action-based game.

Fantasy Life sta?rts off with customizing your character by choosing their body, face, and occupation. It's not the most in-depth customization to grace an RPG, but if you want a square jawline and white hair, you can do it! In the final release, you'll be able to pick from many occupations, including postman, musician, and chef. The demo limited the class choice to solely a rather generic town guard role -- not much of a choice at all, really. Oh well.

After a brief exchange with a knight in town, I received armor and a sword. Naturally, I head south and started bashing sheep with my new weaponry. The combat is standard fare for an overhead action-RPG but I rather liked it. You attack with A and defend with X. I enjoyed the emphasis on using your shield to block attacks. It gives the combat a much different pace and a -- I know how out of place this is going to sound considering the cartoon aesthetic -- but a Dark Souls vibe.

You also have a buddy that follows you around and helps you kill things. He'll occasionally go down for the count, which summons a revive counter that lasts 20 seconds. What happens after those 20 seconds transpire, I don't know (because I'm awesome at videogames!). You are? given a lot of opportunities to use your buddy to distract an enemy, while you attack them from behind. For such a simple action-RPG, the combat has a bit of depth to it.

The game looks great! It's like Animal Crossing and Professor Layton had a baby which Mother 3 then adopted and nursed to health. The bottom screen is used for a large map that makes it very easy to see where things are and where you have to go. If you have a basic understanding of Japanese, you may be able to enjoy an import copy. As with most Level-5 releases, the vocabulary is simple and there is furigana for the kanji which makes it easier to look up in a dict??ionary.

This brief and basic demo doesn't offer an all-encompassing glimpse at Fantasy Life, but I enjoyed what I played of the game. The graphics, presentation, and combat are of the quality you'd e??xpect from Level-5. The game comes out December 27 in Japan, but there is currently no release date for the US. This makes me very, very sad.

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