Well-known game producer Keiji Inafune has participated in the development of the “Mega Man”, “Onimusha” (Onimusha) and “Dead Rising” series at Capcom. After retiring from Capcom in 2010, he established his personal company comcept, which launched “Mighty No. 9” and “ReCore”. In 2017, he joined LEVEL-5 as the chief creative officer (CCO) of LEVEL-5 comcept, participating in the planning and development of games and applications.
Keiji Inafune has resigned in mid-2024
Recently, LEVEL-5 president Hino Kohiro published his development blog “Five Star Workshop Diary”, in which he talked about the development status of the game “Fantasy Life i” and “Fantasy Life i: The Dragon of the Rugs and the Girl Who Runs Through Time”, and revealed for the first time that Keiji Inafune had secretly resigned in mid-2024. At present, Inafune Keiji has not disclosed his personal movements to the public. This news should be the first time he has officially revealed that he has left LEVEL-5 comcept.
New destination: Rocket Studio exposed
According to reports, Inafune Keiji’s new location may be Rocket Studio, a game development company headquartered in Sapporo. In fact, as early as December last year, Inafune Keiji had been selected「Game Creator Koshien 2024」(a student game development competition sponsored by the Game Creators Guild), and the job title announced at the time showed that he was “Executive Director of Rocket Studio Co., Ltd.”.
Founded by former Hudson employee Takashi Takebe, Rocket Studio is headquartered in Sapporo and has studios in Tokyo and Osaka. In recent years, the company has participated in the development of “Momotaro Electric Railway”, “METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION Vol.1”,《Sol Cresta》與《Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon Everybody》and other works. It is unclear what Keiji Inafune’s specific position is at the company, but it is speculated that he will use his rich development experience to provide guidance and support for Rocket Studio.
LEVEL-5 makes major internal adjustments and takes over the development of “Fantasy Life i”
According to Hino Kohiro’s blog, Inafune Keiji’s departure had a major impact on the development of “Fantasy Life i”, forcing LEVEL-5 to make large-scale adjustments. Feedback from internal testers of Fantasy Life i was generally negative, indicating that the game needed extensive adjustments. The release date of the game has been postponed multiple times, and it was announced again in mid-2024 that it would be postponed to August. In the end, Hino Kohiro personally took over the producer position and turned it into a key development project at the LEVEL-5 company level.
“Fantasy Life i” is an open-world RPG developed by LEVEL-5. It combines life simulation, role-playing, construction and development, combat adventure and other elements to bring players an immersive fantasy world experience. This game is the spiritual sequel to “FANTASY LIFE” launched on the Nintendo 3DS platform in 2012. While retaining the features of the original game, it has made large-scale system innovations and screen enhancements, and added new elements such as open world exploration and time travel. The player’s adventure stage is located on a mysterious island called “Future Island”. This island carries the forgotten history and the upcoming future. Here, players will meet a mysterious girl who can travel through time and space, and through the ability of time travel, step by step uncover the truth about the island’s past and change the destiny of the future.
LEVEL-5 latest trends
Currently, “Fantasy Life i” is scheduled to be released on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X|S on May 22. In addition, LEVEL-5 also announced that it will announce the release date and other related information of “Inazuma Eleven: Road to Victory” on April 11.
Although the development process has gone through twists and turns, whether this adjustment can help the game escape the crisis of being unfinished and become a new peak in the series remains to be verified by players.