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NEWS: Level-5 Announces Keiji Inafune's Departure, Establishment of Osaka Studio for Fantasy Life i

In mid-2024, FANTASY LIFE faced an unexpected challenge. At that time, producer Keiji Inafune left the company, and we had to reassess and restructure the project.

Meanwhile, internal test players had given the game harsh evaluations, making it clear that major revisions were necessary. In response, I decided to take on the role of producer, shifting the core development team from Osaka to our headquarters.

[...] 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.

Basically placing blame entirely on Inafune for why things weren't progressing. Between this and Mighty No. 9, one starts to wonder if Inafune hasn't been propped up by others' work this whole time. Not that Level-5 hasn't had its own troubled development, but still, this whole thing has been a mess