I’ve been losing time lately. You see, I open up Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and suddenly it’s hours later. I’m knee-deep in monster guts, I’m carrying a boatload of iron ore, and my guild master is proudly nodding their head at my accomplishments. By design, this is a game that wraps you up in its world, and inspires hours and hours of friction-free exploration through a magical, colourful land of many layers.
For those who played the original Fantasy Life on
You’re also playing through a sweeping fantasy story that lets you apply the skills of those Lives across a range of challenges. But all of this amplified, with multiple explorable worlds and timelines, all of which can be tackled at your own discretion.
The world of Fantasy Life i is your oyster
Fantasy Life i is wildly pliable. If you want to spend your days perfecting the art of mining, gathering ores and special crystals to craft items of all kinds, you can do that. An array of quests found across various islands will keep you very busy. If you want to spend your days farming and growing crops, emulating life on the range like in Stardew Valley, you’re welcome to do so.
You can also take on a variety of traditional combat roles (archer, magician, paladin, mercenary) and spend your days swinging swords or slinging bows and arrows to take down monster bounties in simple, snappy battles.
No matter which Life you choose, Fantasy Life i will give you the time to realise your deepest ambitions. And when you feel new pastures calling, it’s a simple matter of trying a new Life, or choosing to forge ahead within a rich, silly, fun story.
The many pieces of Fantasy Life i are well-balanced that way. It really doesn’t matter how you complete the game’s story, or if you prefer to spend your time advancing at a slower pace. So the saying goes, the world is your oyster. While there is a story impetus to advance – you’re running in the footsteps of your explorer companion, Edward, who gets lost in various dungeons – each new quest gives you ample options for proceeding.
Chapters also tend to balance high stakes with humour, diffusing tension even as the plot ratchets up. With an ebb and flow of panic, you eventually learn to take each new development in your stride, and pursue quests with the calm reasoning they demand.
In my first steps, I felt a pull to forge onwards, then Fantasy Life i slowed me right down, placing an ever-growing array of quests and new gameplay mechanics to encourage a more mindful pace. Eventually, I took this as permission to mess around for as long as possible, unlocking each new Life as I pleased.
This turned out to be the best path forward, as the different Lives integrate well within wider exploration. As you’re venturing forth to some new island or era (as you’d expect from the title, time travel is involved), you can work towards levelling up in your preferred lives, gathering rarer materials, strengthening your skills, or purchasing new upgrades.
A bounty of riches
In my first hours with Fantasy Life i, I was genuinely uncertain about what lay ahead. In the first five or so hours of the game, you’ll get into a routine of trying new Lives, improving your skills, and tackling new quests as they arrive (and as your level allows). But invest your time, and the game opens up – in ways that are frankly a bit staggering.
When Fantasy Life i was delayed for Level-5 to expand its scope, I woefully misunderstood just how much ambition was backing this game. Developers clearly aimed for this to be the biggest franchise entry yet, with a plethora of new features and new explorable worlds to enthral players.
It’s a genuinely wonderful achievement, with so many layers to unpack. Every hour in the game reveals some new facet, so that even past the first ten hours of exploring, you’re still adding new mechanics to your “Weird Pad” (the in-game menu). You’re still finding brand new worlds, some of which unlock new Lives. You’re still finding new friends (also known as Strangelings) to bring along on your quests and aid progression of your Lives. You’re still finding new activities and personal quests, and building skills on a range of boards.
You think you know what Fantasy Life i brings, and then it introduces a whole new world of surprises. Around the five hour mark, I suddenly discovered an entire plain that serves as an Animal Crossing game-within-a-game, complete with terraforming, and building villager houses. Hours later, I stumbled across an entirely new island, where tiny forests spirits guided me through a Zelda-like quest engaging a giant tree. In a seaside town, I embarked on a new journey to learn the ways of an artist.
This is a game that rewards your devotion immensely. It’s how I’ve lost so many hours to it. It’s why I’m planning to spend so many more exploring its vaster depths. The further you mine, the more riches this game reveals.
Looking to the past
Playing Fantasy Life i over the last week has been a rare joy, wonderfully evoking feelings from a childhood playing the original Fantasy Life. Whether I was taking on mining or forestry Lives in that adventure, I remember a pure feeling of freedom that few other games offered. The Girl Who Steals Time replicates that feeling tenfold, with so many new avenues to explore, and a sense of freedom that promises joy in every possibility.
Level-5 has done a fantastic job of realising the true potential of Fantasy Life in this adventure.
There was plenty working against it. The constant delays and platform shifts caused all sorts of worry for the game’s keen audience. A lack of mainstream marketing was also notable, as well as a lack of a physical release in Western regions. In a typical case, that might suggest a lack of confidence.
But pushing all naysayers aside, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has arrived as a brilliant, well-rounded RPG with clever mechanics, and an ambitious story driving it to greatness. It captures everything that made Fantasy Life memorable, and pushes it even further.
More than ten years on from the original Fantasy Life, Level-5 has definitively proven there’s plenty more life and vigour in this long-running franchise.
Four-and-a-half stars: ★★★★½
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S,
Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Level-5
Release Date: 21 May 2025
A PC code for Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time was provided by the publisher and played on a Steam Deck for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a ten-point scale.
