Fantasy Life I Adds Snoozaland Roguelike Mode In Free New Year Update

Fantasy Life has taken an unexpected turn with a free New Year update that reframes part of its calm life-sim structure into a self-contained roguelike experience. The update, titled Sinister Broker Bazario’s Schemes, is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms. It introduces a new area called Snoozaland, where the game abandons persistence in favor of repeatable, single-run progression built around loss, reset, and adaptation.

Snoozaland functions as a separate mode rather than an extension of the main campaign. Each run begins with the player as a level one character with no equipment. There is no carryover of gear, levels, or unlocked advantages once a run ends. The area rearranges itself on every attempt, using procedural layouts that change enemy placement, rewards, and available paths. The structure follows a strict one-life rule. Failure ends the run outright.

Within Snoozaland, Fantasy Life leans into systems that already existed at the edges of the game. The flexible Life system, which allows players to switch between jobs such as mercenary, woodcutter, carpenter, or alchemist, becomes reactive rather than planned. New Lives are learned during the run itself instead of being selected or developed in advance. Equipment is scavenged or crafted on the fly, often with limited information about what will be needed later in the run.

Progression is driven by improvisation. Alchemy robots appear throughout Snoozaland and act as high-risk, high-reward devices. Players can feed them unwanted materials or excess equipment in exchange for a chance at powerful items. The process is not guaranteed, reinforcing the disposable nature of each run. At the end of the mode sits a single powerful boss encounter, positioned as the ultimate test of how well the player adapted to the tools and roles they were given.

The game’s official site describes Snoozaland as a contained experience, suggesting that nothing earned within it feeds back into the broader game world. That separation marks a shift from Fantasy Life’s usual emphasis on accumulation and long-term planning. Outside Snoozaland, the game is defined by gradual growth, town building, and layered skill trees that reward patience. Inside it, speed and judgment take priority.

Robert Purchese, associate editor at Eurogamer, previously described how strongly the core game held his attention after launch, writing that Fantasy Life i was a title:

“which stole a lot of my time last year on Switch 2.” — Robert Purchese

That appeal came from how Fantasy Life blended genres without forcing commitment to a single identity. At launch, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time positioned itself as both a life simulation and a role-playing game. Players could decorate homes, manage towns, and harvest resources, then pivot instantly into combat-heavy exploration. The Lives system allowed seamless role changes, letting players chop wood as a woodcutter one moment and fight monsters as a mercenary the next.

The broader structure of the game revolves around time travel between two versions of an island, separated by a thousand years. One version is lively and populated, the other empty and ruined. Progression depends on moving between these eras, building relationships in the past while restoring meaning to the present. Large adventure zones such as Ginormosia expand the scope further, introducing enemy scaling, shrines, towers, and biome-based exploration more commonly associated with action RPGs.

Snoozaland draws heavily from that adventuring side, particularly Ginormosia’s combat-driven design. However, it strips away the safety nets. In the main game, failure is temporary and preparation is cumulative. In Snoozaland, preparation is impossible beyond the current run. This contrast reframes Fantasy Life not as a purely relaxing experience, but as a system flexible enough to support tension and loss without rewriting its foundations.

The update arrives as Fantasy Life i continues to be associated with the Nintendo Switch 2’s early identity. Released as a launch-period title, the game stood apart from established franchises by offering a hybrid experience rather than a single, polished formula. Its success helped position Switch 2 as a platform willing to host slower, stranger games alongside more traditional releases.

By introducing a roguelike mode at no cost, Level-5 appears to be testing how far Fantasy Life can stretch without losing its core audience. Snoozaland does not replace the game’s existing loops. Instead, it isolates risk, allowing players to engage with failure on their own terms. For a series built on comfort and routine, the addition feels deliberate rather than contradictory.

Read also, Nintendo’s Risky First Year Defined Switch 2’s Identity, as the platform’s early lineup favored experimentation over repetition, shaping expectations through deviation rather than dominance.