Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Is Out In Early Access and Climbing Steam’s Charts — Here’s Why

Whenever you check Steam’s Global Top Sellers, you can expect a few usual suspects; the latest live-service hit, upcoming high-profile releases, or the current popular game everyone’s eager to talk about. Open it up this morning, though, and you might have seen an interesting entry climbing the ranks: Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.

The latest from developer Level-5 is out now in advanced access for those who buy into the slightly more expensive version, and available for all on May 21. Announced during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, Fantasy Life i saw a few delays and a reportedly strenuous development cycle, alongside the departure of producer Keiji Inafune.

As of this writing, though, it’s currently holding a #2 spot on the Global Top Sellers list of Steam and, on a Monday morning, boasting a respectable 26.6k viewers on Twitch. If you’re unaware of what Fantasy Life is, you might be curious as to where this all came from, so let’s explore just how this new slice-of-life sim game managed to bottle lightning twice.

The Life Fantastic

The first Fantasy Life was released for the Nintendo 3DS roughly a decade ago, arriving for the west in Fall 2014 after a December 2012 launch for Japan. Developed and published in Japan by Level-5, and internationally published by Nintendo, its set-up is simple: live a fantasy life, mastering a series of fantasy jobs.

There’s a plot to follow, centered around the “Doomstones” and the dark energy they emanate, but the primary draw of Fantasy Life has largely been its cozy life-sim aspects. It uses various Life paths as “jobs” or “classes” for the player, giving them commensurate tasks to accomplish. You can be a Paladin or Magician for combat, sure, but you can also delve into the life of a Miner, Woodcutter, Cook, or Tailor.

In fact, the way each of this seemingly disparate jobs could link together ends up forming a lot of the appeal. “I could even combine my Life skills to complete special tasks for people, like using my hunting skills to forage for honey, then using my prowess as a gourmet chef to make them a honey pudding,” reads IGN’s 8/10 review of the original Fantasy Life.

While Level-5’s life sim came out to a 73 average on MetaCritic, it still garnered love from those who clicked with it. Alongside Rune Factory 4, it gave the 3DS two solid cozy life sims, years before Stardew Valley would revolutionize the genre.

As time went on, Level-5 would try a few follow-ups. Fantasy Life Link! was released as an enhanced version for Japan in 2013, and most of its content was included in the international edition a year later. A mobile follow-up Fantasy Life 2 was planned and then turned into Fantasy Life Online, arriving in 2018 for Japan and 2021 for the west. Its online services were shut down in December 2021 for Japan, and in February 2023 for the west.

Comments from the time were bummed over the state of the series, so seeing a new, premium entry in the Fantasy Life series would likely invigorate the patient and hungry devotees. But the degree of sudden popularity here doesn’t seem solely based on nostalgia.

The Game That Could Steal Your Time

It’s hard to deny that games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing: New Horizons catated the life sim genre to new heights in the general consciousness. Harvest Moon was certainly popular before, but it wouldn’t be hard to see a “rising tides raises all ships” argument for why Fantasy Life i is catching a larger wave the second time around.

Fantasy Life i also seems to be doing quite well on its own merits, too. Early reviews point to this being a worthy successor to the 3DS debut. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time picked up a 36/40 from Famitsu (via Gematsu), with a 9/9/9/9 split from the four reviewers. And those picking the game up early on Steam seem enthused, too.

“Gameplay is just like Fantasy Life on the 3DS but refined and polished to an insane degree,” reads one of the top reviews on Steam. “All of the sounds and music are back and better than ever and it’s just nostalgia gut punches one after another.”

Another Steam review notes that Fantasy Life i runs quite well on Steam Deck, and lists out a litany of reasons for why one might like Fantasy Life, including no breakable tools, save anywhere, NPC party members, and unlockable features over time.

It’s not all roses, as there are apparently some gripes with the co-op mutliplayer. This particular reviewer found the options wanting compared to the 3DS’ multiplayer capabilities, as it looks like story quests and Life Challenges have limitations on them while in multiplayer. “Running around the overworld feels totally pointless besides doing challenges of course, but that’s a (maybe) 1hr gaming session vs. basically playing the whole game together (without the main story) which is what we had on the 3DS,” the reviewer wrote.

Aside from the common refrain of multiplayer concerns, the consensus on the single-player side is that this is exactly what longtime Fantasy Life fans have wanted: quality-of-life adjustments, solid polish, and a new Fantasy Life to explore.

For those fans, it’s nice to see this piece of Level-5 history make it through all the tumult and out the other side, keeping the series alive. But even if you haven’t heard of the series before now, or only in passing, those looking for a chill summer game to pass the hours might find something to like in Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is out now for those who want to buy into the Digital Deluxe Edition. Otherwise, you can pick it up on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on May 21, with a Switch 2 version also in the works.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.