Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is the long-awaited sequel to Fantasy Life, a popular Nintendo 3DS title from 2012. And this hybrid game defies easy classification. It invites players into a cozy life simulation that’s layered with different gameplay styles: dungeon delving, loot gathering, island building, house decorating, puzzle solving and RPG battles.
The game kicks off with your cute little adventuring character of choice discovering a mysterious island with the help of a determined archaeologist named Edward, as well as the enlivened remains of a fossilized dragon. You soon discover that the dragon can also transport you into the past. Your goal? Figuring out why the present version of the land has fallen into ruin.
On the way to that discovery and rescue, however, you’ve got a lot of work to do.
The foundational activity of the game is, well, getting a life. Fantasy Life i plops gamers down in a little island town with the option of choosing from three different groups of “lives,” or professions—fighting, crafting and gathering—and a total of 12 specific jobs.
You could, for instance, start off as a sword-swinging Paladin; a tree-chopping Woodcutter; or, say, a tool-and-weapons crafting Blacksmith. I say “start off” because you have the option of going back to the local guild headquarters and picking up a new “life” at any time. Then you can switch back and forth between the abilities you’ve chosen in order to earn money and build your world.
Of course, the more jobs you choose, the more time you’ll need to spend on grinding and ranking up those jobs through specific quests (chop down X number of trees, catch X number of fish, build X number of chairs, etc.). A higher ranking allows you to learn new and stronger abilities.
Additionally, there’s a bit of Breath of the Wild-like otherworldliness stitched into the alternate timeline of the island. There, you’ll search out secrets, unlock towers, find loot and meet battle companions. Players also leap into light RPG skirmishes and boss battles. And, of course, your ranked-up abilities (or lack thereof) play into your effectiveness in those challenges as well. So, if you’re great at woodcutting but lousy at shooting an arrow, you might need some new life experience.
Combat is fairly simple. It’s divided between the fighting classes of a sword-and-shield Paladin, the heavy hitting Mercenary, the ranged Hunter and the spellcasting Magician. And with the addition of newly discovered companions, multiplayer campaigns can also become part of your beat-the-monster battleplan.
Local co-op play is limited to two players, while the online multiplayer mode supports up to four. However, while those additional players can explore the open world and participate in activities such as fishing and combat, they can’t help complete the main storyline. An online connection is only required for online multiplayer.
Along with all its cozy-life sim play, Fantasy Life i essentially gives its protagonist the job of saving somone’s life and saving the world. Gameplay is generally engaging, colorful, varied and cute.
However, for all of this E-rated game’s easygoing play and silly banter, its fantasy story runs rather deep. And it heads in unexpected directions, with some Eastern spirituality woven into its story elements as well.
That spirituality isn’t heavy handed, but young adventurers will discover a tale that involves godlike beings, reincarnation and lots of magical happenings. Even that fossilized Time Dragon is closely connected to miasma-like elements that shape and control the world. Given all of those spiritual issues, some parents might balk at kids being a part of this universe, no matter how cute it looks.
There are also quite a few battling encounters that involve fighting monsters, robots and dragons with slashing swords and spell blasts. (Though none of that is messy.)
And on the subject of time, this game can actually be quite a time suck, too,depending on how involved you get. It’s pretty easy to invest 40 to 50 hours of gameplay, and completionists can spend north of 100 hours.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a colorful and cute combination of a cozy life sim and an RPG adventure. But it’s grinding gameplay and fantasy storyline may not suit everyone.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
