{"id":45097,"date":"2025-03-04T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=45097"},"modified":"2025-03-04T15:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T06:01:07","slug":"kenji-inafunes-silent-departure-from-level-5-last-year-complicated-the-development-of-fantasy-life-ceo-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kenji-inafunes-silent-departure-from-level-5-last-year-complicated-the-development-of-fantasy-life-ceo-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Keiji Inafune\u2019s silent departure from Level-5 last year complicated the development of Fantasy Life, CEO reveals\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese veteran game creator Keiji Inafune quietly left Level-5 last year, as revealed by the company\u2019s CEO Akihiro Hino on March 3. Inafune was a part of Level-5 for seven years as the head of Level-5 Comcept.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3053\u308c\u3088\u308a\u3001\u30d5\u30a1\u30f3\u30bf\u30b8\u30fc\u30e9\u30a4\u30d5i\u3068\u30a4\u30ca\u30ba\u30de\u30a4\u30ec\u30d6\u30f3V\u306e\u958b\u767a\u88cf\u8a71\u306a\u3069\u305f\u307e\u306b\u66f8\u3044\u3066\u3044\u304f\u306e\u3067\u3001\u7686\u69d8\u3054\u6ce8\u76ee\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\uff01<br><br>\u25cf\u30a4\u30ca\u30ba\u30de\u30a4\u30ec\u30d6\u30f3V \u30d2\u30fc\u30ed\u30fc\u30ba\u30b7\u30e7\u30fc\u30b1\u30fc\u30b9 2025<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/o6sF1dWtE9\">https:\/\/t.co\/o6sF1dWtE9<\/a><br>\u25cf5\u3064\u661f\u5de5\u623f\u65e5\u8a18<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FsV5Oe8rkj\">https:\/\/t.co\/FsV5Oe8rkj<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65e5\u91ce\u6643\u535a (@AkihiroHino) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AkihiroHino\/status\/1896473500409581990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 3, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In a new update on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.level5.co.jp\/blog\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Level-5&#8217;s official development blog<\/a>, Akihiro Hino reveals that Inafune left around the middle of last year, which was an \u201cunexpected obstacle\u201d in the development of Level-5 Comcept\u2019s&nbsp;FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time \u2013 a new Fantasy Life game slated for release in May this year. Inafune had been the producer of the game, so when he left \u201cwe had to reassess and restructure the project,\u201d Hino comments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The release of Fantasy Life has been postponed several times, with one of the postponements being announced mid-2024. According to Hino, at the time of Inafune\u2019s departure, the game was receiving harsh reviews in internal playtests, and required a complete overhaul of its game system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time - 2nd Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lRWmQq6lErE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Keiji Inafune is known for his work on numerous Capcom hits, including the Mega Man, Onimusha and Dead Rising series. After leaving Capcom in 2010, he founded his own companies Comcept and Intercept, producing titles like Mighty No. 9 and ReCore. He joined Level-5 in 2017 as COO of the Level-5 Comcept subsidiary, overseeing game and app design.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of writing, Inafune has not released any information or statements regarding the matter, so it seems that the new blog post is the first public mention of his departure from Level-5. However, it appears that his new home is the Sapporo-based game company Rocket Studios. In December last year, Inafune was selected as a judge at the Game Creator\u2019s Koshien 2024, at which point he was introduced as \u201cexecutive officer of Rocket Studios.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rocket Studios is headed by former Hudson developer Takashi Takebe. In recent years, the company has been involved in the development of Konami\u2019s Momotaro Dentetsu, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 and Sol Cresta.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Level-5&#8217;s CEO has announced the departure of veteran developer Keiji Inafune. Inafune appears to be affiliated with Rocket Studios now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":45099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-45097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Keiji Inafune\u2019s silent departure from Level-5 last year complicated the development of Fantasy Life, CEO reveals\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Level-5&#039;s CEO has announced the departure of veteran developer Keiji Inafune. Inafune appears to be affiliated with Rocket Studios now.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kenji-inafunes-silent-departure-from-level-5-last-year-complicated-the-development-of-fantasy-life-ceo-reveals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keiji Inafune\u2019s silent departure from Level-5 last year complicated the development of Fantasy Life, CEO reveals\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Level-5&#039;s CEO has announced the departure of veteran developer Keiji Inafune. Inafune appears to be affiliated with Rocket Studios now.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kenji-inafunes-silent-departure-from-level-5-last-year-complicated-the-development-of-fantasy-life-ceo-reveals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T01:51:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T06:01:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/level5-comcept-20250304-330317-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taijiro Yamanaka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taijiro Yamanaka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Keiji Inafune\u2019s silent departure from Level-5 last year complicated the development of Fantasy Life, CEO reveals\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Level-5's CEO has announced the departure of veteran developer Keiji Inafune. 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