Level-5: Share Your Memories, Anticipate a Lost Future

Well. I certainly didn't see this coming. Did anybody see this coming? Maybe everybody rushing to buy the Guild01 and Guild02 games before the 3DS Shop shuts down gave them enough money to do this. Or maybe Nintendo are just bankrolling them. I'd like that.

I didn't get into Level-5 games as much as some did on the DS and 3DS. I played the Professor Laytons, but I only really liked the ends of the trilogies: the bullshit they pulled at the end of almost every game put me off otherwise, and that's before it infected Ace Attorney with that horrible crossover. (Sure, everybody's robots now. Why not?) I bounced off Fantasy Life, overwhelmed by what I saw as a game full of busywork. I finished Yo-Kai Watch and liked it well enough, before they drove that formula into the ground. I only tried Crimson Shroud of the Guild games, and found it characterless and dull. By the time I got into Ni No Kuni (at the second time of trying, and on the second machine), and belatedly picked up Weapon Shop de Omasse, Level-5 were barely more than a puff of dust in the West.

And now we have three very different games for international release this year, apparently. A Fantasy Life sequel, to get Andy excited; Deca Police, a detective RPG to get me excited; and the return of the Professor, to get everybody excited. Given that I barely had any love for Level-5 games outside Layton, and that was tenuous, I'm far more chuffed than I should be to see them coming back to the UK in style. Please, please be good...

There'll be time for separate threads later I'm sure (or down the line maybe I can discuss Deca Police in here with myself). For now, I'd love to read your Level-5 memories and how excited, or nervous, you are to see them back in action over here.

DecaPolice, looks silly and I like silly Japanese games.

Fantasy Life i, heard good things about the 3DS one why I picked it recently before it became a hidden gem & spenny.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road of Heroes, you forgot this one Balla which is getting a showcase thing the end of the month, Zero is excited somewhere.

Layton doesn't even have a 2023 date and I've never really played any to say if I like or not.

And Nintendo aren't banking rolling everything as least two of these are coming to PlayStation.

Only Level 5 games I've played through are the first Professor Layton game and the Ace Attorney crossover one. I liked that first game well enough but the puzzles made me feel a bit stupid. I was definitely much more interested in the Ace Attorney part of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, especially with Shu Takumi the original Ace Attorney writer penning that one. It's not really one I'm in a hurry to get back to, but I did like it a lot more than Dual Destinies.

I think I would like the Yo Kai Watch games, whenever I get around to them. It's a shame Yo Kai Watch 4 didn't get localised because that one looked quite good.

Agreed, I was quite excited for Yo-Kai Watch 4 for a time. It looked like they were actually moving on from the by-then rote framework of the first three. Then it became clear that we'd never see it. I would be interested to see if you're as keen on Layton vs. Wright after you've finished it. It starts well. (Also, nice rank for the thread.)

Shocked that you've never even tried a Layton Mas! What put you off?

I think the Layton series is a pretty sizeable gap in my gaming knowledge and one I ought to rectify. After posting about Ghost Trick, I could see the ol' 3DS getting brought out of retirement at some point this year.

DS sorta past me bye till like Pokémon B&W, and never bothered with the 3DS ones, likely due to other releases at the time.

Layton FPS, where he finally takes out that annoying child sidekick of his that I forget the name of.

I liked the Layton games but I never loved them. 4 star vibes. I enjoyed Attack of the Friday Monsters - it was a cute and evocative little game. They're an interesting studio so it's exciting to see what they might pop out!

4-star vibes is exactly what I'd have said, except I think a lot of them were actually 3 stars for me. I usually wiped an entire star off every time a game came up with one of its stupid ending twists.

Oh yes, I forgot Friday Monsters was a Guild/Level-5 thing! I... liked it much less than almost everybody else who played it I think. The village was lovely, but I found the children twee and annoying rather than nostalgic. I'm a withered husk of a person, I know.

Level-5 had a showcase today, did what it said on the tin by showing the 5 games including Megaton Musashi which sure someone wanted on here, and the gameplay of the others looked decent enough to have all on my radar.

Not sure how excited to be about that. Big clunky robots are good, but it looks like the game might be big and clunky as well.

I played the first Layton with my high school girlfriend. It was a pleasant enough time.

Everyone being robots was ace, and anyone saying otherwise is a dweeb.

Buskalilly wrote:

I played the first Layton with my high school girlfriend. It was a pleasant enough time.

What about the game?

Is that really your only Level-5 experience Buska? Got to admit I'm a bit shocked, given how they were practically second-party in the DS days and how big a Nintendo-head you were. (I'll chalk off your wrong Layton robots opinion as the folly of youth.)

I never got into the Yokai watch.
I played a bunch of the Guild stuff though. Liberation Maiden, Bugs V Tanks and Friday Monsters, at least.

They were mostly just pumping out Laytons as I recall, which were fine but I wasn't desperate for more.

I can go back to the beginning of time with my memories of Level 5 – that’ll be back to their first game, Dark Cloud on the PS2. It looked utterly amazing in the screenshots in the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, but made for a poor weekend rental when all I really wanted was the already-checked-out Rumble Racing or Sky Odyssey. Still, it’s a game I’ve intended on revisiting for a long time, I’ve since bought it and feel that it’s something I could likely enjoy (or at least admire).

Professor Layton is where I go next from here. I’d seen that NGamer Magazine went mad for it in it’s import review yet I paid it little attention beyond what I scanned over on those pages. I was probably pining after Rumble Racing or Sky Odyssey. I wound up getting in months after it released, taking a punt on it when my local GAME was letting you buy any DS game for 99p if you traded in any two others. Of course, I’d scour all the other second hand shops and buy as many cheap DS games as I could, take them into GAME and then buy new DS games for a fraction of their real cost. Good days!

Layton massively surprised me. Puzzle adventures were not my scene at all, but the quality of the animation, soundtrack and video really grabbed my attention, and the story and atmosphere it created truly captured my imagination. I loved it and eagerly anticipated each of it’s sequels, buying them from G-Force in Glasgow for exorbitant prices as soon as they could import them. That excitement diminished over time admittedly; there came a time when I wasn’t desperate for more either. I finished the first three and the fifth one, but the fourth one remains incomplete and I don’t think the sixth one even went into my 3DS. That Professor Layton/Ace Attorney mash-up just came too late in the day for me to be very interested.

I’ve given Level 5’s other games a fair shake, perhaps hoping to recapture how I felt about the first Layton. Buskalilly mentions Liberation Maiden and Attack of the Friday Monsters – I thought they were really good by the standards of the 3DS eShop. Elsewhere though, I didn’t really enjoy Inazuma Eleven and Yo-kai Watch when I tried getting into them. My copy of Fantasy Life is still sealed too, I just haven’t have the energy to start it.

Up ahead, I’ll look forward to Professor Layton & The New World of Steam, but I can't see a scenario where I give the Fantasy Life game a go (unless it comes bundled with Rumble Racing or Sky Odyssey)

I can confidently say you wouldn't enjoy Fantasy Life Cappa, even though I didn't either. Shame you didn't get to Layton 6/Azran Legacy: I think it's the second-best of the bunch after the immense third game. Still though, I know what you mean about there being too much Layton with too few changes in too little time. Maybe a break's been just what the series needs.

I presume you'll be buying Deca Police day one, natch.

Isn't Fantasy Life a tad Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon like but just tad more RPG, that can see Cappa maybe liking it plus can see him doing some sort of deal to get for 98p.

I dunno, I think there are too many numbers and systems and it's all thrown at you at once. Your mileage may vary on this one, but I also remember it lacking in charm compared to Nintendo's efforts. Combined with what I don't believe is the best battling, and I don't reckon you've got a recipe for Cappa love.

I've told myself every year that I'd get back to the fourth and sixth Layton games, usually around autumn time when I have those nostalgic memories of playing the other ones as the nights drew in and the gameplay somehow felt cosier. Other stuff's simply got in the way.

The new Fantasy Life might get a demo which I'd be open-minded about trying. I always had the assumption that it was a bit like Little King's Story on Wii - is that accurate or am I miles off? with that comparison?

I've not played LKS to my shame, but I understood it was a real-time strategy? And Fantasy Life is more a combination of RPG and resource gatherer? (I didn't play very much of FL either so I'm not even sure why I'm trying to help. )

Balladeer wrote:

I've not played LKS to my shame, but I understood it was a real-time strategy?  

nah, not really. You build up a village and then the characters follow you around, but you can't send them off even on a Pikmin scale - its almost like a less actiony W101

Shows how much I know, which is naff all. In which case Cappa's even more miles off.

Building a town is also a big element, though.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

I've not played LKS to my shame, but I understood it was a real-time strategy?  

nah, not really. You build up a village and then the characters follow you around, but you can't send them off even on a Pikmin scale - its almost like a less actiony W101

I appreciate it came out later so the analogy couldn't be made at the time, but yeah, Wonderful 101's a very good comparison gameplay-wise. I wish I had 80 hours somewhere to play it again; it's started to fade from memory...