Level-5 is back with its second-ever Vision Showcase, providing more information on each of its five upcoming games that will be heading our way over the next few years.
The games were the same that we saw in the studio's March showcase, though the focus this time around was to provide release windows for each of them. Many of these windows are later than expected and Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino was quick to apologise for the delays.
Let's have a look at everything that was revealed, shall we?
Level-5 Vision 2023 November Showcase - Full Stream
The stream starts at the 00:09:57 mark.
Every Announcement
Megaton Musashi: Wired
The next entry in Level-5's mech action RPG series, we now know that Megaton Musashi: Wired will be blasting onto Switch on 25th April 2024. The game will be $49.99 on all platforms, and the studio has confirmed that cross-play will be available on day one.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
A sequel to the classic 3DS title, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time will be making its way onto Switch next summer. According to Akihiro Hino, the Level-5 team has already decided on a specific release date for this one, though they are keeping it under wraps for "strategic reasons". Hmm, mysterious.
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
After multiple delays and name changes, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road's beta testing period will finally kick off on Switch in March 2024, with a full release planned for later in the year. Aside from revealing this date, the presentation also gave us a look at some more gameplay and a tactical story sequence.
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
Despite being revealed in the February Nintendo Direct Showcase, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will not be released until 2025. The new trailer reveals some of the gameplay and puzzles in store, but we are going to have to wait a lot longer before we hear anything more substantial, by the sounds of it.
DECAPOLICE
Level-5's open-world crime RPG DECAPOLICE will not be released in 2023, as was initially planned, but will instead be pushed back to some point in 2024. We don't have a precise date for this one just yet, but we'll be keeping an eye out over the coming months for more information.
And that's your lot! Level-5 wrapped up the presentation by announcing that another Vision showcase will be heading our way in April 2024, where a new title will be revealed. Will this be something completely new? The return of Yo-Kai Watch to Switch? That Professor Layton collection that we want so badly? Only time will tell.
What are you the most excited to see from the November Level-5 Vision 2023 showcase? Fill out the following poll and then take to the comments to let us know.
Comments 41
Ok, I'll admit I may be wearing a tin foil hat here, but much like Nintendo suggesting Ubisoft delay Mario Rabbids 2 for the next console, could all these delays be of a similar 'strategic reason'?
Gah, I better take this silly hat off...
What happened to Ushiro!? I'm mentioning this game for years! On NL, I keep mentioning this game since 2021, and, it seems like I'm the only one who knows about the existence of this game! Why Level-5 can't cancel it?! They're toying with this corpse of a game for years! It's annoying! Ushiro didn't deserved a horrible fate like this! Ushiro looks and sounds like a good and interesting game. This game is a hybrid of horror and RPG. Sounds interesting and unique, imo.
That door puzzle in Layton was super weird
I hope Ushiro isn't dead again
@parttimegamer Wow! I'm not the only one, after all.
No Yo-Kai Watch? Snooooore…wake me up when YKW4 finally comes to the West…
2025 is sooooo far away. Maybe Metroid Prime 4 will come out before Professor Layton???
Deca police is by far the only game I'm excited for. I would be interested in fantasy life, but I played the original 3DS title and found it to be pretty bland. The animal crossing elements don't get me excited, as someone who isn't into animal crossing. I want to play professor Layton, but will find a way to start from the beginning before the new ones.
@John_Deacon At this point, Metroid Prime 4 2030
I saw a lot of delays, don't think I've seen a company announce so many delays in one go before. Pretty obvious they are taking on too much work at once and spreading their teams too thin. They would of been better off focusing on 1-2 games at a time.
I should be able to vote for layton and decapolice. Both are looking awesome
I am so excited for all these games!! It sucks that Professor Layton isn't coming until 2025 but I'll still be there to support it day one. I waited this long for it to come back and I can wait a little longer.
Honestly, a simple sequel to Fanatsy Life and I’ll be happy. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
@UltimateOtaku91 I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for them to be working on more projects as long as they're prepared to take their time and make sure they're all well polished before being released. They announced them all way too early though and were overly optimistic about the release windows.
@BenAV Yeah I can understand that but at the same time they aren't massive in staff size, they have 300 employees spread across 6 games. I think they announced them really early just to let people know they are back and in a big way.
I'm here for Fantasy Life and Professor Layton. I can wait all time
@sForzan we most likely won’t be getting Yokai watch 4 in the west. Game requires them to translate a lot of materials, and it wouldn’t sell well.
Still hopelessly hoping for a Jeanne d'Arc re-release
Hmm first time learning of DECAPOLICE, colour me intrigued.
I’m probably overthinking this, but saying they have a release date for Fantasy Life i, then choosing not to share it for “strategic reasons” seems like they want the game to be a launch title for the Switch 2 or whatever it is.
If they had a remake planned, you’d think they would’ve announced it here. So… Fantasy Life i at the Switch 2 launch? I gotta stop speculating haha.
@UltimateOtaku91 A delayed game is only temporary but a rushed game is forever bad.
I’ve waited a decade for a sequel to Fantasy Life. I can wait a few more months.
The Layton trailer wasn't much of a trailer, just showing a puzzle. Odd to see L+L in the foreground during gameplay. Seeing Layton is supposed to be a big treat basically, it's so rare to see him in the actual gameplay. Exciting in Layton 4. The puzzle solved animation wasn't great either. Whatever, it'll be miles ahead of 5 and the Katrielle rubbish.
@GrailUK It's not going to be Switch 2 exclusive, at most it'll be cross-gen.
It's disappointimg, to see the next Layton game, isn't coming out until 2025.
@LilyGoMEOW What else do you know hmm? TELL US!!!
Is that last bit a teaser for Yo-kai Watch 5? It looks like it might be…
Maybe that game will finally give Level-5 an excuse to translate 4 into English.
Where is Ni No Kuni 🥲
You guys remember when Devolver Digital held a presentation a while back specifically designed to show off what games were getting delayed? Yeah this feels like that but for a publisher's entire upcoming lineup.
I was definitely prepared for delays going into this showcase, but seeing literally every Level-5 game announced this year get pushed back by such insane lengths caught me off guard in a way I didn't even know was possible.
...With that said, maybe it's just because I have the patience of a saint when it comes to games, but I honestly don't mind the delays here all too much. Yes, it absolutely sucks that stuff like Layton won't be coming out for a LOOOOOOONG while yet. But when this lineup is essentially Level-5's big return to the West after nearly half a decade of absence? I'd want them to make sure they come back swinging (lest they decide to abandon non-Japanese territories again) and everything we've seen from their upcoming titles looks extremely promising. So yeah: definitely sucks to see so many delays, but I have faith it'll all be worth it in the end.
also, as a major fan of the series, I am VERY excited by the tease of what appears to be a new Yo-Kai Watch game at the end there (BRING YKW4 OVERSEAS YOU COWARDS)
@GrailUK I’ve gotta take that tin foil hat off too… strategic reasons sounds like late summer launch for Switch 2 may be in the works and they plan to coincide with the launch.
@Wilforce Shhh, they may be watching...
@Altaria_97 Yes, I suspect Fantasy Life will be a Switch 2 launch title.
I really hope they do a Professor Layton Collection in the same graphical details as the new game. I am pretty sure the graphics on the DS/3DS games are scalable.
The only game on that entire list I am even remotely interested in is DECAPOLICE. I don't really have any reason to want to play the others.
Shame about Layton and Decapolice being 2025, I have no choice but to wait patiently for them.
Musashi looks interesting but I'll wait to see a bit more before determining if it is spend-worthy.
Some interesting titles all around. Hopefully everything is mostly set in stone so we can try these out eventually
Fantasy Life, Decapolice and Layton look SO GOOD. I can't wait for those!
They need to work out a way to remaster the old Layton games. I know it'd be a bit of a pain due to the dual/touch screen nature of the originals but I reckon they'd move a ton of units if they put the effort in.
Professor Layton and DecaPolice are the two that got my interest.
I'm the most excited for Fantasy Life, Layton and Decapolice (although Megaton Musashi and Inazuma Eleven look pretty cool, too) and if I have to pick only one I'd say Fantasy Life since it's coming out first and has a mostly confirmed release date!
@Zadaris I mentioned it in the comment section of the related article about that, but "post-2024" was a mistranslation, in Japanese they said "2024 or later" so hopefully we could get Decapolice next year!
Horrible. For all the promises made, to have 0 games come out in 2023, and Layton to move to 2025 after being on the Showcase, just terrible. Not impressed at all.
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