Level 5 won’t confirm if games like Fantasy Life and Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney are being localized into English, but they’re highlighting them in English anyway. Level 5 just put out a press release listing the titles they have on display at TGS. Here’s what their PR says, quoted verbatim:
FANTASY LIFE
FANTASY LIFE is a new and original RPG for the Nintendo 3DS from LEVEL-5, featuring music by Nobuo Uematsu and image illustration by Yoshitaka Amano. The game presents players with an open world where they create their own avatars, take up a vocation, and affect the storyline as the world of FANTASY LIFE evolves. The title will be released in Japan on December 27, 2012.
INAZUMA ELEVEN GO 2 Chrono Stones: Neppuu / Raimei
INAZUMA ELEVEN GO 2 Chrono Stones is the newest title in the INAZUMA ELEVEN series, which has now shipped over 5.1 million units world-wide. To defeat a shadowy organization that has traveled from the future to eliminate soccer, Tenma Matsukaze (Arion Sherwind in English) and the Raimon Eleven set out on an adventure that bends the very fabric of time to gather “the Strongest Eleven” from across the ages. Players will strengthen bonds with captivating characters recruited by visiting different eras. Newly added features such as “Armorfied Fighting Spirits” and “Miximax” take the already sensational hyperdimensional soccer… and power it up! The title will be released as two versions, “Neppuu” (lit. Scorching Wind) and “Raimei” (lit. Thunderclap), and will be available at the same time in Japan on December 13.
INAZUMA ELEVEN GO STRIKERS 2013
The release date for the newest INAZUMA ELEVEN STRIKERS for Wii has been set for December 20 in Japan! Hyperdimensional battle soccer evolves through the addition of new characters and special abilities that appeared in INAZUMA ELEVEN GO and INAZUMA ELEVEN GO 2. And of course, players will experience the intensity of the new systems “Armorfied Fighting Spirits” and “Miximax” as seen in the animated series. Many new elements are also currently planned. Enjoy an all-star battle that transcends time with family and friends!
INAZUMA ELEVEN 123: THE LEGEND OF MAMORU ENDO
Celebrating the 5th anniversary of the INAZUMA ELEVEN project, this title unites all six releases of INAZUMA ELEVEN for the Nintendo DS, from “INAZUMA ELEVEN” to “INAZUMA ELEVEN 3,” in one Nintendo 3DS compilation. On the beautiful 3D screen, event scenes look more real than ever before and the special attacks have never been so dramatic. Experience all of Mamoru Endo’s (Mark Evans in English) battles again on the Nintendo 3DS’s high quality display. This title is set to be released in Japan on November 15.
INAZUMA ELEVEN ATSUMEYO-ZE!!
“INAZUMA ELEVEN” is going social! Players step into the cleats of the team’s manager and set out to win matches by creating their own Eleven using characters from the INAZUMA ELEVEN series. All the illustrations used on the cards are specially drawn for this title. Strengthen your favorite characters by “training,” “synthing,” and “scouting” to create your original “strongest eleven”! Service will begin in Japan this fall.
Little Battlers eXperience W
Little Battlers eXperience W is the newest title in the “Little Battlers eXperience” series that has attained great cross-media popularity through its animated series, plastic models, and comic books. Set in the near future of 2051, a year after the last title, Ban Yamano and Hiro Ozora take their pocket-sized robots to stop the mysterious organization, the “Detectors,” from using their LBX in malicious ways. The game will feature new robots that have never appeared in the animated series, and the highly acclaimed customization system allowing players to personalize all five body areas returns with new colorization options. This title will also be the first to allow players to go head-to-head in a six-way battle, or to join up to 2 other players cooperatively between the PSP and PS Vita. The game is planned for release on October 18 in Japan.
PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE AZRAN LEGACIES
The newest and final chapter of the PROFESSOR LAYTON series, which has shipped over 13.5 million copies around the world, takes puzzle solving around the globe itself in the gentleman professor’s latest outing. After receiving a mysterious letter claiming that a living mummy has been discovered, PROFESSOR LAYTON and his team head to a city in the Arctic. There, the group find a girl encased in ice and, after releasing her from her icy prison, they embark together on a grand adventure in an airship that will take them to spectacular places as they solve the mysteries of ancient civilizations. Hershel Layton’s final adventure begins. The title will be released in Japan in 2013.
PROFESSOR LAYTON VS ACE ATTORNEY
An intriguing collaboration between two popular adventure games, “PROFESSOR LAYTON” and “ACE ATTORNEY,” will be released in Japan on November 29 for Nintendo 3DS! The destinies of Professor of Archaeology Hershel Layton and defense attorney Phoenix Wright collide in a parallel universe, the medieval city of Labyrinth. The player will be challenged to alternate between adventure and courtroom portions of the game as our heroes take part in an astonishing witch trial where “what is written in the story will always come to pass.” In a judicial system where common sense succumbs to irrationality, the stakes have never been higher!
PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE PHANTOM THIEVES
The second social game in the “PROFESSOR LAYTON” series will be a smart phone app! Players take the roles of detectives and track down the Seven Thieves who suddenly appeared in London to steal from the city’s riches. Their goal is to find and arrest the thieves by gathering testimonies and making deductions. The title features customizable PROFESSOR LAYTON -esque avatars, original illustrations and music as well as simple controls, bringing rich gaming experiences to the players. Pre-registration is now open in Japan.
LAYTON BROTHERS: MYSTERY ROOM
The PROFESSOR LAYTON series, with 13.5 million units sold around the world, makes its debut on iOS devices. Players can look forward to a new and intuitive type of touch-based mystery game that can be played wherever you are. This time you play the role of one of PROFESSOR LAYTON’s sons who has grown up to become a police detective. Challenge yourself to puzzling cases assisted by your newly-assigned apprentice, and using the “mystery room” system, a new technology that can reproduce crime scenes in a virtual environment. Solve the crimes on the go! The title will be released in Japan on September 21, 2012.
Naturally, there’s a disclaimer pointing out that none of these games are planned for release outside Japan “at this time,” and that the English titles mentioned above for these games are merely tentative.
When Siliconera spoke to Level 5 CEO, Akihiro Hino, this week about Level 5’s American branch, he said to us: “Our U.S. office mainly works to efficiently release the Japanese titles that Level-5 has created overseas and they are involved in production and distribution in the overseas territories. With Ni no Kuni, they are helping bring it to the overseas markets and potentially with other titles.”
Ni no Kuni aside, we probably will see Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies released in the west, just like all the previous Layton games. Oh, and there’s that trademark and Australian rating for Maiden Liberation, too…
Published: Sep 20, 2012 07:53 pm