Update []:
The team has now fixed this issue, with Fantasy Life i playable in early access on Xbox, PC and PlayStation.
Original Story: Last week, we posted about how Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time got a pretty fantastic rating in its first public review - but if you were keen to get stuck into Xbox's first-ever Fantasy Life ASAP, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer.
Right on the eve of developer Level-5 unleashing its early access version of Fantasy Life i, the team announced that the Xbox version of 'Advanced Access' has been delayed. Level-5 cited "an ongoing technical issue on Xbox's side" as being the cause of the issue - which still hasn't been resolved as early access goes live on PlayStation and PC.
"Early Access for the Xbox Series X|S version of FANTASY LIFE i, originally scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM GMT on May 18, has unfortunately been delayed due to an ongoing technical issue on Xbox's side. As of now, the issue remains unresolved and players are still unable to play on Xbox platforms..
We truly want players to dive into FLi as soon as possible and it's incredibly frustrating for us that we cannot yet make that happen. We are continuing to work closely with the relevant teams to restore access as soon as possible, but are currently unable to provide a specific time for when Early Access will begin. We will share updates on this account and our official website as soon as we have more information.
We are also currently reviewing possible measures to compensate for the delay and will share more details once they have been decided."
As far as we're aware, the full release of the game will still happen on May 21st - this technical issue with Microsoft appears to be relating to early access only. As you can see in the above quote, the developer closed out its message by saying that it is looking into how it can compensate those Xbox players who purchased early access and cannot play.
When players can finally go hands on with Fantasy Life i on Xbox, it sounds like it'll be worth the wait. Japanese outlet Famitsu recently scored the game 36/40 in an early review - which is a very impressive score for this "slow-life RPG" coming to Xbox later in the week.