Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time First Impressions (PS5)

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is easily my most anticipated game of 2025, and yes I am putting this game ahead of Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World. I’m excited for those games as well, but if you know anything about me, it’s that I absolutely love a good cozy game. I remember loving Fantasy Life back on the Nintendo 3DS and wasn’t sure if 1) I remembered it wrong and had too much nostalgia that this game couldn’t live up to; and 2) that perhaps I had outgrown the franchise. Safe to say, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time might be my game of the year, or at least, a candidate. It is FANTASTIC.

I cannot fully review my experience yet as I am only just concluding Chapter 4 and have only scratched the surface of the games three different worlds. You heard me right, three worlds for you to explore, each with their own unique mechanics, characters, items and more. I think I’ve enjoyed my time in the “Past” the most, where you will learn all of the different Life’s you can take on, and do most of your questing. The other areas are fun as well but I cannot talk about them at length as I haven’t really explored them yet. The “Present” is where you will build up your base, Animal Crossing style. You will add houses, roads, bridges, and other amenities to your island, all the while welcoming new friends who will help you on your adventure.

I’ve heard Fantasy Life i described as a checklist simulator, and to be fair, that is probably a pretty good description of the game. You get a long checklist of things to do and you need to complete them to move on and get a new checklist of things to do. Somehow, though, Level-5 makes this a fantastic and rewarding experience. You are slowly dripped new items to craft and use, and the thrill of snagging a good item after a fight is incredibly enticing. I stopped and fought so many enemies just in case they MIGHT drop something good. I have found new items this way, better tools, and more. It is the excitement of “The Chase” that gets me coming back to Fantasy Life again and again, and I’m not sure that will stop anytime soon.

Story wise, I’m pretty invested in the games many main characters. While I’m not totally sold on some of them – are they good, are they bad? – I think that the story team will keep players guessing throughout the tale. Again, I don’t think I’ve done enough to really talk about it at length, but it’s definitely not a bad story, as I initially feared it might be.

The game runs brilliantly on the PlayStation 5, with very quick load times and really great graphics. I haven’t noticed any major framerate issues either. I’m curious to see how this runs on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. There is also an Xbox version we hope to try out soon. For more on Fantasy Life, stay tuned to GamesReviews.com – we will hopefully have a few writers working on a variety of different articles!