Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has had an unexpectedly strong start for a sequel to a fairly obscure 13-year Nintendo DS game. And developer Level 5 has now thanked fans for their enthusiasm, pledging to release free DLC in response to its “global success”.
The Girl Who Steals Time, for context, is a sequel to Level 5’s Fantasy Life – a sort of job-focussed mash-mash of life sim and RPG – which enjoyed modest critical and commercial success when it launched for Nintendo DS back in 2012. Eurogamer’s celebrated its “abundance of features” in our 6/10 review at the time, but noted the result was often “less than the sum of its parts”.
But in this post-Stardew Valley world – where you can’t watch an indie showcase without seeing a dozen new village sims jostling for attention – the newly released Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals seems to resonated with audiences. It’s garnered a positive early critical reception and even surpassed 45K concurrents on its first day on Steam (that’s more than Doom: The Dark Ages managed) – and Level 5 is now celebrating its launch with news of more to come.
“Due to the game’s global success and the warm support from players around the world,” it wrote in a message on its website, “we have decided to release a free DLC that includes new recipes as well as expanded content under the title ‘Update the World!’.”
Level 5 hasn’t shared much in the way of specifics, but it promises “new content designed to make use of high-rarity weapons obtained from Treasure Groves and other sources”, as well as “even more opportunities [for players] to showcase their gear”. The studio says it’s working to release the DLC “as soon as possible”, and will provide further details at a later date. It sounds like there’s even more on the way too; “We will continue to update and improve Fantasy Life i,” it adds, “so that players can enjoy its world more comfortably and for an even longer time.”
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is available now on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Switch, with a Switch 2 version coming later this year.
