The RPG genre is filled with apocalyptic threats, and godlike power struggles that the player must overcome. Sometimes, it’s nice to do something trivial and relatively mundane instead, like making an omelet. So the cozy, self-proclaimed slow-life RPG Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is the perfect alternative to battering cosmic entities and fascist pretty boys.
The story of Fantasy Life i is some light, yet surprisingly convoluted time-travel nonsense that does at least facilitate some funny writing and varied locales. It’s not a great story by RPG standards, but to be fair, Fantasy Life i’s strengths are in other places.
While there are strong elements of Animal Crossing to the handyman approach of Fantasy Life i, it reminded me a lot of Dragon Quest Builders and its sequel. It’s a cutesy combination of life sim and action RPG with a family sense of humor. Did I care all that much about the mystery of the island of Reveria? No. Did I still enjoy interacting with a bunch of lovable goofs anyway? Absolutely.
Fantasy Life i gives players the dream of multiple job opportunities with fair rewards for their services and a clear progression plan. It’s truly the stuff of fantasy. These jobs (known as a ‘Life’) are essentially classes that you eventually use all of in order to complete your quests. There are traditional RPG-style Lives alongside more dedicated vocations.
As you select each Life, you’ll need to do some basic training to learn the ropes and be borderline qualified in that profession. From there, doing things in that Life helps to build your level of adeptness, opening up more abilities and unlocking ways to make your actual life easier.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Review: The Game of Life
Each Life features its own mini-game as well to do crafting. These usually involve switching between three different tools and pressing the corresponding button prompts. There’s a time limit, too, to add a little edge, but fret not; as you progress in one Life (Woodcutter) and the other to shape the wood into timber (Carpenter).
In the opening hours of Fantasy Life i, when the story is taking you here, there, and everywhere, the overload of Life information is high, and the game threatens to become an aimless slog. Thankfully, the game pulls it all together and gives you greater freedom to relax and choose your path before the breaking point is reached.
Then, the game becomes truly absorbing and starts to feel much more like a life simulation. There’s never a sense of panic or impatience from the game’s side, but the player’s patience is tested in the opening few hours. It’s a small portion of a wider experience, and there could have been worse ways to introduce the player to the many options available. The game understands this well enough to respect players’ time when taking on new jobs, as it lets you skip the tutorial mission for them without punishment.
The rhythm and flow of Fantasy Life i is always casual without being condescending, and that encourages you to dip into its Lives and learn more and more without pressure to be ‘strong enough’ for some doomy objective. There’s a satisfaction in suddenly realizing you’ve learned all these things and can now apply them to building and decorating your own house or serving up a smorgasbord of edible delights. Sure, I knew going in that Fantasy Life i was both RPG and life sim, but it takes time to really see the latter in action. Then it’s like the two things were always intertwined. Respect is due to the developer for juggling so many moving parts and making them gel together.
It would be the icing on top if multiplayer were more engaging, but alas, it’s a somewhat arbitrary part of the game that almost seems to discourage players from spending time together for longer than half an hour. You can team up for all sorts, but there is that aforementioned 30-minute time limit on things that don’t exactly tempt you into making this a mainstay co-op adventure for you and your pals. It’s good enough to show off what you’ve made in your world, at least. But a video clip or picture reel would do the same job.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time manages to blend the cozy life sim with fun dungeoneering (fungeoneering?), and once you get past an info-heavy opening, it’s an absorbing 50-plus hours of casual joy.
Score 8/10 – Great
Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Level-5
Reviewed on: PS5
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time copy was purchased by the review author.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is out now on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
