Last year, Keiji Inafune departed from Level-5, prompting the Fantasy Life team to “reevaluate and reorganize the project.”

Japanese video game producer and design legend Keiji Inafune left Level-5 in the middle of last year, in the middle of development for the next Fantasy Life game.

Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino detailed Inafune’s departure in a post on the company’s development blog, and described it as an “unexpected challenge” for the Fantasy Life team.

“In mid-2024, Fantasy Life faced an unexpected challenge,” Akihiro Hino, CEO of Level-5, wrote. “At that time, producer Keiji Inafune left the company, and we had to reassess and restructure the project.”

In addition to Inafune’s departure from the company, Hino revealed internal playtests for its upcoming Fantasy Life game – known as Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – had resulted in “harsh evaluations”, with changes necessary.

“In response, I decided to take on the role of producer, shifting the core development team from Osaka to our headquarters,” Hino said. “While the Osaka team had been dedicated from the start, the project evolved into a collective effort across our whole company – with developers from Fukuoka, Tokyo and beyond, we were able to significantly strengthen our development capabilities.”

According to the studio exec, this restructuring allowed the team to expand and “create an environment where we could focus on fine-tuning the game’s quality right up until the very end”.

Said Hino: “From that point onward, we undertook a complete overhaul of the game: adding open-world exploration and parkour-style actions, restructuring the system’s progression flow, improving the core mechanics, and refining the scenario to be even more emotionally impactful.”

All of this will “enhance what was already great about the game”, Hino continued, stating Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is now nearing completion.

We first got word of Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time during a Nintendo Direct in February 2023. At the time of its announcement, the game was set to release in 2023, but it later saw its launch nudged back.

We got a subsequent look at Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time in February last year, along with a peek at the various jobs players will be able to undertake in this time travelling adventure.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is currently slated for release across PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC via Steam on 21st May.