Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time looks like the RPG take on Animal Crossing: New Horizons that I've been waiting for

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
(Image credit: Level-5)

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time might just be the Animal Crossing: New Horizons replacement we've been waiting for. 

During today's Nintendo Partner Direct we got to see more of the previously-announced Fantasy Life game, and even found out its October 10 release date. We also got a more in-depth look at gameplay and it's very reminiscent of Animal Crossing: New Horizons - mostly due to the fact both games have players living on a deserted island which they need to build from the ground up.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has a unique twist though. Rather than working hard to appease your tanuki landlord, players of the Level-5 title will need to travel back in time to gain resources and bring them back to the present. Similar to Animal Crossing, Fantasy Life will see players chopping down trees, crafting furniture, and all kinds of other activities to restore the island to its former glory. 

As the game's title would suggest, there's also more of a fantasy and RPG element to this life sim. For instance, each player will have a role, or Lives, as they're called in the game. This includes everything from Miners to Magicians, Carpenters, Farmers, Cooks, and more - which can all be swapped in or out depending on the task in front of you, whether you're fighting dragons, crafting furniture, or cooking up a feast.

One of the best things about New Horizons was having friends come over and visit your island. The good news is that The Girl Who Steals Time also has its version of this as up to four players can gather on one island at a time. There's also a lot of mystery surrounding the island which you can gradually uncover as you work towards rebuilding it, as well as enemies to battle, and friendships to build.

Find out what else is on the horizon with our upcoming Switch games list. 

CATEGORIES
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at 12DOVE before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

Read more
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Animal Crossing meets Breath of the Wild meets an MMO? I can see why Fantasy Life i has been delayed so many times, but it's finally coming out soon
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time trailer screenshot showing a a cyan ghost-like female figure floating as light glows behind her, her expression sorrowful or worried
Fantasy Life developer says it struggled with "compatible platforms and new hardware," but now the long-awaited 3DS game sequel is "shaping up to be an outstanding RPG"
Anime Life Sim
After unsuccessfully attempting to launch a Monster Hunter clone, this controversial dev is now supposedly releasing an Animal Crossing-like game on PS5
Three girls face the camera with big smiles in Animal Crossing New Horizons
15 Games like Animal Crossing that are so wholesome it hurts
Games like Stardew Valley
Games like Harvest Moon we think you should play
Wanderstop screenshot showing the main character sitting on a bench next to a jovial man holding a cup of tea next to a Big in 2025 logo
Wanderstop is a cozy management sim about a burned-out warrior who'd much rather be fighting than running a tea shop
Latest in RPG
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
The Witcher 3 devs created a Jekyll & Hyde-style character for their new vampire RPG "because nobody yet has done that"
The Witcher 4 screenshot with Ciri using sword and sorcery to fight an ancient monster
The Witcher 4 devs explain how Ciri's fighting style will differ from Geralt's: "He's nimble, but he feels like a block...she's liquid"
Kai and Giatta battle Xaurip in Avowed
I get why Obsidian doesn't like The Elder Scrolls comparisons, but Avowed is the first RPG to have its hooks in me this deep since Skyrim took over my life 14 years ago
Mass Effect 3
BioWare lead proves he's onto us while celebrating Mass Effect 3's birthday, clarifying that's all he's doing so that "nobody can say I purposefully teased them"
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip