Fantasy Life i dev talks about how changes made one year before launch helped make the game a success

One of the most talked-about Nintendo Switch titles of the first half of 2025, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has officially surpassed one million units sold worldwide. It’s a major milestone for a game that initially sparked concern due to multiple delays, with many fans unsure of what to expect. Now, it’s being hailed as a breakout hit.

Speaking during a special talk show hosted by the Denfaminicogamer Channel, Level-5 CEO and Fantasy Life i producer Akihiro Hino opened up about the game’s development journey and the pivotal changes that led to its current success. According to Hino, a major turning point came just one year ago, when the team made the difficult decision to rework large portions of the game.

Hino admitted that the gameplay felt “suffocating” during one point of development in that players would want to put down the controller very quickly. He describes the initial approach as “trying to extend playtime at the expense of making things stressful,” especially in terms of player movement being limited. As a result, his team decided that the only way to fix things was to “practically remake” the whole game.  He explained that the original design philosophy tried to artificially extend playtime by restricting the player’s movement and options, which resulted in a frustrating experience.

Among the major issues were the game’s map design and traversal mechanics. Originally, Fantasy Life i didn’t feature an open world – it was instead built around a much smaller, more constrained environment. Players couldn’t freely scale cliffs, parkour across the landscape, or explore at their own pace. “It felt narrow and constricted, as if you were trapped in the game’s space,” Hino said.

Level-5 decided to create a full open-world map and “thoroughly removed anything that made the game feel stressful.” One notable improvement was fast travel, after switching Life classes, players can now teleport directly to the nearest workstation, streamlining the gameplay loop.

Impressively, the team managed to build the open-world environment in just two months, developing an internal system that allowed them to convert 2D artwork into fully explorable 3D terrain.

“In the final version of the game, you can chop down a tree, climb up a high place, cut down three more trees, jump back down, and keep running – and just doing those simple actions feels good and satisfying,” Hino stated. He believes this sense of comfort and flow is a key reason why Fantasy Life i is resonating with players today.

Hino also acknowledged that part of the game’s turbulent development stemmed from the departure of Keiji Inafune, who was originally attached to the project as producer. After Inafune left Level-5 in mid-2024, Hino stepped in to lead the project in a new direction, following mixed feedback from internal testers.

Thanks to Automaton Media for the news today. You can check out more Nintendo Switch news here.