It’s as if Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda had a whimsical, slightly chaotic child during a particularly enchanted night—Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is the result. This charming blend of life sim and RPG completely snuck up on me, devouring hours of my time before I even realized it. With its dangerously addictive job system, surprisingly heartfelt storytelling, and a nonstop stream of cozy-meets-epic gameplay loops, it’s easily one of the most delightful games I’ve played all year.
At first glance, Fantasy Life i seems like your standard slice-of-life affair. You’re introduced to the Life system, where you can switch between a variety of roles—mining, fishing, crafting, and running errands for villagers. Familiar, right? But just when I thought I had it pegged, the game opened up a massive, colorful world filled with monsters to fight and puzzles to solve. Not long after, I was whisked off to an island to build and manage a village. And just when that started to feel comfortable? In came roguelike dungeon-crawling. This loop of familiarity followed by delightful reinvention keeps Fantasy Life i feeling fresh even 50 hours in. Whether I was leveling up my Woodcutter skills or facing off against an enormous, sentient tree boss who very much did not want to be chopped down, I was constantly surprised and engaged. And the wildest part? Even after the credits roll, it keeps introducing new layers to explore. That’s just absurd—in the best way
What’s truly surprising is how well Fantasy Life i manages to juggle its many moving parts. Games that attempt to do everything often end up doing nothing particularly well, but here, the blend of cozy life sim mechanics and dungeon-delving RPG elements comes together shockingly smoothly. I found myself in awe the first time I entered a procedurally generated dungeon and faced off in a boss battle that reimagined a fishing minigame as an intense showdown with a colossal, elusive mega-fish. Somehow, it all works.
The core life sim activities—leveling careers like cooking, blacksmithing, and mining, running errands for rewards like furniture and coin, and decorating your home—stand toe-to-toe with the best games in the genre. Meanwhile, the more action-focused side of Fantasy Life i—its open-world exploration, simplified combat, and satisfying loot and skill grind—might be less complex than in traditional action RPGs, but it’s still thoughtfully designed, engaging, and well-matched to the game’s mellow pace. Each half is solid on its own, but together they form a relaxing, addictive whole, tied together by a consistently cozy and welcoming atmosphere.
What’s more, the story is far more substantial than you’d expect from a game like this. Featuring dragons, time travel, magical secrets, and ancient lore surrounding the 14 “Lives” that define Reveria’s culture, Fantasy Life i’s plot is both silly and surprisingly endearing. Yes, it’s melodramatic and a bit predictable—but it’s also genuinely well-written and compelling enough to carry the journey. Characters like the pompous but likable archaeologist Edward and your ever-wisecracking bird companion Trip bring charm to nearly every scene. The third act does stumble slightly, and the finale leans into familiar tropes a little too hard, but in a genre where story is often an afterthought, it’s refreshing to see Fantasy Life i take its narrative seriously—and mostly stick the landing.
The relaxed atmosphere unites the two halves, who each work independently.
While the main story occasionally reminds you that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, Fantasy Life i mostly thrives in the mundane. Much of your time will be spent leveling up your skills and lending a hand to the citizens of Reveria. Like any great life sim, the grind becomes strangely addictive—you bounce between professions, unlocking new recipes, gear, and materials with each new task. One moment you’re crafting a bow for a simple quest, and before you know it, you’re tracking down a specific type of wood, which requires crafting a better axe, which needs other materials, which sends you on a whole new string of errands. By the time you’ve finished making that original bow, your to-do list has exploded with twenty other objectives. The individual activities—bug-catching, fishing, and basic crafting minigames—aren’t revolutionary, but they’re just satisfying enough to lull you into a productive trance. It’s the same kind of magic that makes an afternoon disappear while you micromanage lives in The Sims.
That said, the grind can wear thin at times. Some missions demand a tedious amount of chopping, mining, or farming to get the resources you need, and the crafting minigames—while initially fun—quickly grow repetitive, especially since every crafting Life uses the same button-mashing routine. Fortunately, Fantasy Life i understands how to respect your time. As you level up each discipline, you unlock helpful shortcuts—like the option to auto-complete crafting minigames or buy common materials outright. That means the bulk of your effort can go toward more exciting pursuits, like tracking down rare monsters or hunting special resource nodes scattered across the map. In this way, the game trims the fat and lets you focus on the good stuff, keeping the grind from becoming a chore.
You’re also given a small plot of land to develop into a village—not just for yourself, but for the friends you meet along the way. As you build homes, decorate interiors, and upgrade the overall layout, this part of Fantasy Life i will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s spent time in Animal Crossing. You’ll craft furniture to personalize your space, hand out gifts to strengthen relationships and earn rewards, and beautify your town to increase its rating and unlock new facilities, like an art museum where residents can gather. While it doesn’t reach the same level of depth or variety as something like New Horizons, there’s less unique dialogue from villagers, fewer seasonal or weather changes, and your available territory is noticeably limited—it’s still a pleasant, low-pressure activity that nicely complements the rest of the game. And with all the ornate furniture and rare loot you collect during your adventures, it’s nice to have somewhere to show it off.
But where Fantasy Life i separates itself from games like Animal Crossing is in its embrace of action-RPG elements. It goes all-in on combat in a way that most cozy sims never do, devoting four of its 14 Life paths entirely to fighting. The Paladin offers a traditional sword-and-shield approach; the Mercenary trades defense for raw power with a massive blade; the Hunter keeps a safe distance while firing arrows; and the Magician unleashes powerful spells from afar. Each class comes with its skill trees and satisfying progression systems, making battle feel far more engaging than you’d expect from a game that also asks you to fish and bake pies. These combat Lives offer real depth, and they’re a major reason Fantasy Life i manages to feel like more than just another life sim with cute graphics—it’s an RPG at heart, and a surprisingly solid one at that.
Slapping around a dragon is a pleasant diversion from watering plants.
One of the most satisfying aspects of Fantasy Life i is how seamlessly its adventuring and life sim mechanics feed into one another. Exploring the wilds and battling monsters isn’t just a fun diversion—it directly supports your crafting and gathering Lives. Slaying beasts often yields rare materials that you’ll bring back to town to forge stronger weapons or brew more potent potions, pushing your combat Lives forward in return. While the fighting itself is fairly simple—mostly a loop of basic attacks, dodges, and blocks—it provides just enough variety to keep things fresh. It’s rarely challenging, and I never once felt in real danger, but there’s something undeniably fun about stepping away from a peaceful afternoon of fruit picking and plant watering to throw hands with a giant red dragon.
The world outside of town is impressively packed with things to do. Open areas are filled with collectible resources, enemies to take down, and the occasional lightweight puzzle. These zones serve as a welcome break from the more relaxed rhythm of life simulation. You might find yourself climbing cliffs to reach a rare ore, chasing a mimic bursting with loot, or solving a shrine-based minigame—anything from a round of Simon Says to a timed boss fight. Completing these shrines unlocks companion characters who return with you to your homestead and accompany you on adventures. They’re more than just window dressing, too: each one specializes in a specific Life and will assist you in leveling it up. A Woodcutting companion chops trees alongside you, while a Tailor companion lends a hand in the sewing room. I found over thirty of these helpful partners during my playthrough, and selecting the right squad to match your current task became a surprisingly satisfying layer of strategy.
That said, they do come with one glaring flaw: constant voice line repetition. While I appreciated the help, there were times when I was ready to throw my controller after hearing the same phrase for the fiftieth time in five minutes. It’s a small price to pay for all the assistance they provide… but it tested my patience.
One of Fantasy Life i’s most surprising features is a clever roguelike mode that reimagines what a procedurally generated dungeon can look like in a game where your primary skills involve gardening, fishing, and crafting—not typically the stuff of dungeon-crawling legends. But these aren’t your average dungeons: each node on the map presents a Life-themed challenge that must be completed before progressing to the next area. You might need to harvest a specific set of vegetables in one room, while the next demands you fish every creature from a nearby pond. You’re also racing against a ticking clock to clear the entire dungeon, forcing you to make snap decisions about which tasks are worth your time and which to skip. These zones are much more linear than the broader open-world map, but that structure makes them great for focused XP farming or resource grinding. Plus, they’re endlessly repeatable, offering a compelling endgame loop once you’ve explored everything else the world has to offer.
Like many life sims, Fantasy Life i includes multiplayer—but unfortunately, it’s one of the game’s weaker elements. You can invite friends or strangers to visit your village, but their role is mostly limited to sightseeing, with little interaction or collaboration available. Players can also venture out together to gather materials or fight bosses, but these sessions are strangely time-limited, cutting off after 30 minutes and forcing everyone to regroup and start over. It’s a puzzling restriction that undercuts the fun of shared exploration. The one area where multiplayer shines is in the roguelike dungeons, where up to four players can team up to clear rooms faster and earn better rewards based on group size. Adventuring together is undeniably fun, but compared to the rest of the game’s thoughtful design, the multiplayer options feel barebones and tacked on.
Verdict
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time masterfully blends laid-back life sim elements with breezy action-RPG adventure, resulting in one of the most delightful cozy games I’ve played in years. Whether I was grinding through charming job quests, building up my island village, or venturing into the world to fight monsters and solve puzzles, I was constantly surprised by how much depth and charm this game has to offer. I spent countless hours happily chopping trees, collecting flowers, and unexpectedly getting wrapped up in its quirky, heartfelt story. If you’re going to lose track of time to a game, there are far worse ways to do it than this.
