Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has made an unexpected strong debut as the sequel to a relatively unknown 13-year-old Nintendo DS game. Level 5, the developer, has expressed gratitude to fans for their enthusiasm and has announced plans to release free DLC in response to “popular demand.”

For context, The Girl Who Steals Time is the sequel to Level 5’s Fantasy Life, a life sim and RPG hybrid that had a decent but modest reception when it launched on Nintendo DS in 2012.

Despite its obscure origins, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has resonated with audiences in the current post-Stardew Valley era, where village simulation games are abound. It has received positive early reviews and achieved over 45K concurrent players on its first day on Steam, outperforming Doom: The Dark Ages in that metric. Level 5 is now celebrating this success with news of upcoming updates.

“In response to the positive reception from players worldwide,” Level 5 stated on its website, “we have decided to release free DLC that will ‘update the world’… to ensure players can enjoy the game for an extended period.”

Although details are scarce, the DLC is expected to include new recipes and “high-rarity weapons” obtainable through dungeons and other methods. Level 5 plans to release the DLC as soon as possible and promises to share more information in the future. Additionally, the studio mentioned plans for further updates to enhance the game experience over time.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is currently available on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Switch, with a Switch 2 version scheduled for later this year.