## 2025-05-25 Unfortunately, the "**Girl Who Steals Time**" subtitle is scarily accurate. For the past few days, all I’ve been able to think about is **Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time**. I’ve put 22.6 hours into and it came out on the 21st (and I only picked it up this past Thursday). I wake up and I think about **Fantasy Life**, I go to bed thinking about **Fantasy Life**. And I wasn’t even that big of a fan of the first game! Like it was fine, but this game is something else. **Fantasy Life i** is one-part **Animal Crossing**, one-part **Legend of Zelda** and one-part **RuneScape**, with a sprinkle of **Harvest Moon** on top for added flavor. It’s gorgeous and polished and one of the best definitions of [[Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain|goop]] I’ve encountered in months. I have loved every minute I’ve spent with it, and it’s all thanks to Level-5’s ability to make mechanics that are all in service of one another. This is something they’ve been good at since the **Dark Cloud** days, but **Fantasy Life i** feels like a culmination of everything that they’ve made before. The 14 jobs you can equip all help each other out and engage with all of the game’s primary mechanics. A few examples: - I’m a *Mercenary* that wants an upgraded Iron Greatsword, so I switch to *Miner* to get the iron ore and then switch to *Blacksmith* to create it. - I want to decorate the house on my island, so I collect lumber as a *Woodcutter* and then build some furniture as a *Carpenter*. - I want to make some new dishes, so I harvest the ingredients as a *Farmer* and then cook them as a *Chef*. On top of all the above, each of these jobs have mini-goals attached to them. Doing them levels the jobs up, giving you upgraded job gear to do things faster, and letting you put points into the jobs’ skill trees to get new abilities or have an easier time doing the mini-games. **Fantasy Life i** could be described as “cozy” but it has The Systems to make it worth a play if you prefer your games to be a bit more engaging[^1]. Running through dungeons, crafting, exploring, leveling up my island and progressing the game’s surprisingly cute story has been an absolute blast. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna stop writing this so I can go keep playing. [^1]: Hi that’s me