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It's been a long time coming, but talented Japanese developer Level-5 is finally back — and it's back with a bang.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time takes the blueprint of the original Fantasy Life — a Nintendo 3DS title from 2014 — and massively expands upon it.

Seriously, we're still in shock over just how much stuff has been packed into this successor. What starts out as a straightforward adventure soon transforms into a time sink of epic proportions, as the game doubles down on just about everything that it brings to the table.

Fantasy Life borrows from a lot of popular properties, but for the most part, it mashes together action RPG exploration with Animal Crossing-esque life sim elements. The result, as mentioned, is a shockingly robust release that'll appeal to a wide range of players.

The whole thing revolves around 'Lives' — jobs that your custom character can unlock and subsequently master. The pitch is that you can play however you want — you can take up a combat-focused class like a peacekeeping Paladin and hone your skills against wild monsters, or you can spend your days smashing rocks as a Miner.

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With a nice variety of Lives on offer, each one gives you a fresh perspective on the game's structure, and the way its (somewhat open) world is designed. However, as you progress, it becomes increasingly obvious that Fantasy Life wants you to branch out into multiple Lives — it becomes less about defining your own character and style of play, and more about making use of every tool that's available to you.

Case in point: your road to being the land's most famous Mercenary is made much smoother if you're able to forge your own weapons and armour as an experienced Blacksmith. And what's the best way to obtain the metals you'll need to craft that equipment? Yep, you better start grinding that Miner Life.

Fortunately, The Girl Who Steals Time does its best to streamline your progression across multiple Lives. Simply interacting with a tree, for example, will let you instantly switch to the Woodcutter Life, and drawing your weapon lets you jump straight back to your chosen combat Life.

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But make no mistake, you're going to be grinding if you want to see everything the game has to offer. Alongside levelling up your Lives, you'll need to complete challenges set by each Life's master, upgrade your equipment appropriately, unlock Life-specific skills via individual skill trees, and keep track of all the best places to gather experience points, materials, and other resources.

Throw a fairly in-depth town building system on top of all this — complete with unlockable allies, each of whom can be befriended through additional side quests — and it's easy to feel overwhelmed.

Fantasy Life i demands a methodical approach, then. On its surface, this is a breezy, all-ages adventure, but you can end up spending hours upon hours upon hours just ticking off menial tasks — and that's without even mentioning the narrative that runs through the experience.

Story-wise, the title makes use of just about every trope and cliche in the book, but in a similar fashion to something like Dragon Quest, the plot is relayed with such charm and sincerity that it's hard not to be swayed. We wouldn't go as far as to say that you should be playing for the storytelling alone, but it's fun enough to string you along, and it'll probably keep younger players engaged.

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Speaking of, it's worth noting that Fantasy Life i supports a limited kind of couch co-op. A second player can take up the role of Trip, the protagonist's quirky bird companion, and assist their partner both in and out of battle. It's a thoughtful little feature for parents who may want to help their kids through the game's trickier moments.

There's no doubt that the release flourishes when you're beyond the initial barrage of tutorials and newly introduced systems. It takes a good few hours to get to this point, but with a handful of Lives at your disposal and much of the game's semi-open world ripe for traversal, exploration becomes a joyous hook.

The gameplay flow peaks as you casually hop between mashing monsters and gathering resources via fun little minigames. Once the training wheels are off, this is a downright addictive RPG, and it always feels like there's a goal to chase.

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For many players, hunting down the title's most dangerous foes is one such challenge, and it helps that the combat system is so easy to pick up and enjoy. At its core, this is a very simplistic take on action-based battling, centered around one-button combos, special attacks, and dodges — with spacing being important if you're up against multiple foes.

It might not have the mechanical depth to keep action aficionados coming back time and time again, but as with everything in this game, there's a satisfying progression curve at work. Each combat Life plays differently, and steadily besting tougher opponents feels rewarding — especially when there are increasingly rare materials up for grabs.

Indeed, it's the way in which all of the title's systems intertwine that gives Fantasy Life i its staying power. Rolling credits on the story may only take you between 20 and 30 hours — largely depending on how much grinding you're doing between main quests — but you could be spending double, triple, even quadruple that amount of time just chasing your own objectives.

Conclusion

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a surprisingly monstrous outing. It can be a seriously addictive RPG adventure, utterly stuffed with things to see, do, and eventually master. The grind can be a bit overwhelming at times, but Level-5's trademark charm and well-designed gameplay loops should keep you coming back. This is vibrant all-ages fun, pretty much from start to finish.