Level-5 is no stranger to April Fools jokes, and this year, they came up with a fun way to promote the upcoming Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. The parody trailer released on Level-5’s YouTube channel showcases the totally legit game “Life Crossing: Fantasy Horizons.” Introducing characters like Tim Crook (why does that sound familiar?), the knock-off trailer plays up similarities between Nintendo’s Animal Crossing and Fantasy Life to the max. It even takes a dig at the Nintendo Switch logo, with “Nyantendo Orecchi” popping up at the start of the video.
While the April Fools prank was generally well received for being, well, funny and well-executed (as well as a pretty effective marketing stunt for Fantasy Life), it hasn’t gone without criticism either – especially among Japanese fans of Level-5.
Now, Level-5 seems to have been aware that their humorous project might divide viewers, as they joked on X that the video was “borderline against the rules” and asked fans to “watch with an open mind” (no doubt influenced by the fierce reputation of Nintendo’s legal department).
However, most of the criticism came from a different perspective. In a post counting over 58k likes on X, one user commented “Dear Level-5, only companies that don’t delay their games for 5 or 6 years can get away with elaborate April Fools pranks.” Just looking up the company’s name in Japanese reveals countless similar sentiments, with gamers criticizing Level-5 quite harshly for allocating resources to a practical joke despite the status of their currently in-development projects.
The most notorious example is that of Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. The much-awaited sports RPG was initially announced back in 2016 under the name Inazuma Eleven: Ares, with an initial release window in 2018. However, due to issues during development, the project was rebooted as Inazuma: Eleven Great Road of Heroes in 2019, and subsequently went through delays in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
After another name change to Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, the giga-game with 4,500 characters is in its final stretch of development and slated to finally release in 2025. However, even this is subject to “slip a tiny bit” due to the release of Fantasy Life, according to Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino.
Such delays have caused some of Level-5’s fans in Japan to lose trust in the developer, and this lack of trust is likely what’s driving the poor reception of their Animal Crossing parody, despite there being admittedly nothing poor-intentioned about it. Hopefully future releases will make it up to players and help rebuild trust in the company.
Level-5 will release Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Stole Time on May 18 for the PC (Steam), PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X❘S and Nintendo Switch.
On April 11, the company will host the Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road “Heroes Showcase 2025: Release Date & Final Specs Presentation”
