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Level-5 has certainly been riding quite the high of late with the release of its very well-received Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. We gave the game a 9/10 in both its Switch and Switch 2 forms, so we can confirm it’s a bit of a banger.
Now, straight off the back of all this success, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has revealed that a huge aspect of the game’s positive reception is actually due to some crucial and very clever changes the dev team started implementing into the adventure just a year ago!
During a chat with YouTube talk show Denfaminicogamer, and reported by Automaton, Hino, who’s also been chatting about AI recently said that that at one point during its development, the team felt as though the game played in a very “suffocating” manner, in that it was “trying to extend playtime at the expense of making things stressful,” and so his team, very late in the day, decided to “practically remake” the whole game, as he puts it. Cools as cucumbers.
Hino highlights that the game’s map and original movement system were of particular concern, which had previously consisted of just a small world map without any parkouring. Thankfully, this was then replaced with the large open world and slick traversal we now have, as the team “thoroughly removed anything that made the game feel stressful.”
Amazingly, Hino also says his team managed to create the finished open world map in just two months, which seems ridiculous – and it would have been, if the team hadn’t created its own bespoke system to turn 2D artwork into 3D terrain.
As the Level-5 boss says, “In the final version of the game, you can chop a tree, climb up somewhere high, chop a three while you’re up there, climb back down, run around – and just performing these simple actions feels good and comfortable.” Yes, we have to agree with you there, mate.
Fantasy Life i faced many challenges throughout development, with previous producer Keiji Inafune leaving the company in 2024 and Hino having to step it. It seems like many of these changes were as a result of that departure, and we’re glad things worked out for the team!
Glad that Level 5 decided to make some drastic overhauls before it launched Fantasy Life i? Make sure to let us know how you’re finding the game, too!