New Fantasy Life Game Delayed Into 2024

Fantasy Life i key art

Earlier this year, Level-5 announced its grand return to making games after it hit a little bit of a rough patch these last few years. The legendary developer announced a new Professor Layton game, narrowed down the release window for Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, and announced a brand-new IP, DecaPolice.

Among these announcements was a new Fantasy Life game, which was said to be coming in 2023. Unfortunately, a new report has suggested that the game has been delayed into 2024 — hardly surprising, given very little news for it has been released.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time was first announced during a Nintendo Direct back in February, where it was revealed to be a Nintendo Switch exclusive. It’s said to be a follow-up to the cult classic Fantasy Life for the Nintendo 3DS, which gained a following for mixing RPG mechanics with life simulation gameplay.

Fantasy Life i will let players create and customize their player characters, participate in different jobs – like fishing, dungeoneering, and farming – face tough monsters and craft materials, clothes, weapons, and furniture. Players will also be able to plan out and build their town however they like, and even decorate the interior of buildings.

According to Gematsu, via industry reporter Ryokutya2089, an advertisement on the back of a magazine has revealed the new release window of 2024. Since its announcement in February, little information has been given about the game, either from Level-5 itself or Nintendo.

It’s unknown if DecaPolice and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road will suffer the same fate — both are slated for a release in 2023, but as we reach the twilight weeks of the year, it’s looking more and more like they’ll miss their stated window. We have, at least, gotten a lot of details for DecaPolice in the last few months, so if any of the three games are going to make it, that seems like the one to bet on.

The company also released the first trailer for Megaton Musashi: Wired, a mecha game, a few months ago, but has yet to announce a release date for that yet. Professor Layton and The New World of Steam still does not have a release window, and is expected to still be in the early stages of development.