New Details About Fantasy Life i’s Development

You know I’ve had some concerns about Fantasy Life i despite my initial excitement when it was announced, both due to the increased scope and its several delays.

Well, thanks to a new Level-5 blog post, we’ve gotten some insights into what happened during Fantasy Life i’s development.

The biggest revelation is that Keiji Inafune left Level-5 last year.

In case you’re unfamiliar with how things went, Inafune’s studio Comcept was acquired by Level-5 in 2017 and became Level-5 Comcept, and they were in charge of developing Fantasy Life i. According to this blog post, his departure meant they had to “reassess and restructure” the game.

This included “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.”

Knowing this makes me feel better about the game’s expanded scope. At the time, it had me worried they were making it bigger just for the sake of being bigger, but now that I know it happened as part of the project being overhauled after the producer left, it makes a lot more sense. Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino took over as producer, and since he was the producer of the first game, that makes me more confident too.

Meanwhile, the blog post goes on to mention that Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road might be delayed again due to all the trouble with Fantasy Life i. That poor game’s been delayed so many times it’s almost funny. More information about Inazuma Eleven will be coming in a showcase on April 11.

It’s funny to read a blog post about troubled development and delays and come out feeling more optimistic about the game, but this look at what was going on with Fantasy Life i did clear some things up. I’m looking forward to Fantasy Life i when it launches later this year – hopefully without any further delays.

What do you think about the latest Fantasy Life i news?