Level 5 mortgages my soul
Level 5 has been on my list of game developers to watch for quite some time now, but their recent press conference pretty much confirms that they own me now. Seriously, they are pushing my fanboy buttons like nobody else at the moment (sorry Square). Let's review, shall we?
Right now I'm still knee-deep in the humongous post-game content of Dragon Quest IX, which is of course nominally a Square-Enix franchise, but for which L5 has been pulling development duties recently. It's awesome. And I'm just coming up on the end of the third Professor Layton game, which is always fun even when the plot twists get silly.
Let's stick with Layton for a moment. There was a fourth game in Japan last year, which I think they said they were going to translate, but we haven't heard much about it lately. Sure hope they do, though, since it apparently includes an entire Victorian London RPG/sim as an unlockable feature. But we're definitely getting the *fifth* game, which is a launch title for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld this winter in Japan and next year over here. And then they go and announce... Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright!? A-yup (also for 3DS). That should be something.
Meanwhile, a project that's been in the offing for quite a while and is finally coming to fruition is Ni no Kuni. An RPG with monster collecting, but the hook is the visual and world design is entirely by Studio Ghibli. Heck yes. Complete with score from Joe Hisaishi, it's probably the closest we'll ever get to playing a Ghibli movie. Two of them, actually, since they're making separate games for NDS and PS3.
And still another thing that's been in the works for ages is Fantasy Life. Seems to be some kind of adorable-looking RPG/sim game, though details aren't clear yet. But they've got both Nobuo Uematsu on music duties and Yoshitaka Amano doing art. Well then. It's been bumped forward from being a DS game to 3DS.
They also announced a few other things recently, like Time Travellers, a suspense-oriented adventure game for 3DS, and a... cabaret club hostess game? Which evidently features cameo customers from Lupin III, Nodame Cantabile, and Kaiji? Fascinating as that is, I may pass on that one at least.
Right now I'm still knee-deep in the humongous post-game content of Dragon Quest IX, which is of course nominally a Square-Enix franchise, but for which L5 has been pulling development duties recently. It's awesome. And I'm just coming up on the end of the third Professor Layton game, which is always fun even when the plot twists get silly.
Let's stick with Layton for a moment. There was a fourth game in Japan last year, which I think they said they were going to translate, but we haven't heard much about it lately. Sure hope they do, though, since it apparently includes an entire Victorian London RPG/sim as an unlockable feature. But we're definitely getting the *fifth* game, which is a launch title for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld this winter in Japan and next year over here. And then they go and announce... Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright!? A-yup (also for 3DS). That should be something.
Meanwhile, a project that's been in the offing for quite a while and is finally coming to fruition is Ni no Kuni. An RPG with monster collecting, but the hook is the visual and world design is entirely by Studio Ghibli. Heck yes. Complete with score from Joe Hisaishi, it's probably the closest we'll ever get to playing a Ghibli movie. Two of them, actually, since they're making separate games for NDS and PS3.
And still another thing that's been in the works for ages is Fantasy Life. Seems to be some kind of adorable-looking RPG/sim game, though details aren't clear yet. But they've got both Nobuo Uematsu on music duties and Yoshitaka Amano doing art. Well then. It's been bumped forward from being a DS game to 3DS.
They also announced a few other things recently, like Time Travellers, a suspense-oriented adventure game for 3DS, and a... cabaret club hostess game? Which evidently features cameo customers from Lupin III, Nodame Cantabile, and Kaiji? Fascinating as that is, I may pass on that one at least.