Despite having been revealed in the February Nintendo Direct earlier this year, it looks like we are going to have to wait a while before we get our hands on Professor Layton and the New World of Steam as Level-5 has today revealed that the title is now scheduled to release in 2025.
Featuring in today's Vision Showcase, the publisher and developer shared a new gameplay trailer for the upcoming entry in the beloved DS puzzle series. This has provided our first idea of what the title will actually look like (remember, we have only seen cutscene footage so far) and it is all looking really rather neat.
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As well as revealing that the gameplay will take place from a slightly different angle — notice how Layton and Luke now stand at the bottom of the screen — we also got a look at one of the available puzzles from QuizKnock (the team that will be handling the puzzle department this time around).
The important detail that made our heart sink a little, however, is that the game has been pushed to a 2025 release window. Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino made clear that this delay is to make sure that the team can release the best game possible (which we always like to see), but no more specific information can be provided for the moment.
Does this mean that the game is reserved for some kind of future hardware, then? With all the rumours pointing towards late 2024 for Nintendo's much-anticipated 'Switch 2', this is going to have to be cross-gen at the minimum, right?
A day of peaks and troughs for Layton fans, then. On the one hand, it looks like the nasty 3D art style has mostly been replaced by something that looks a little more natural (hooray!), but we still have a good long wait before we can actually get our hands on it. Will it all be worth it? We hope so!
What do you make of this delay? Do you like how the game is looking so far? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 29
I wouldn’t be surprised with how Level 5 games are being delayed that this releases late 2025 or even 2026 and by this time they’ll be no “steam” left in the Switch. This may end up releasing on the next gen Switch at this rate
Fine, okay. But how about a retrospective Professor Layton collection on Switch in the meantime? That would tide us over nicely.
@Limberlost That would be pretty awesome but me thinks that is about as likely as us getting a localised version of Yokai Watch 4 which they promised us at Anime Expo 2019, 4 years later we are still waiting with no updates. Pretty rude really.
It's a shame it's delayed but considering how I never expected another Layton game at all, plus I'd rather games launch in the best possible state, I'm definitely not going to complain about it. Still looking forward to it. Loved the Layton games growing up!
If their aim is 2025 now then I guess we'll probably see it in like 2027. Glad we're getting a new game in the series eventually but personally I'm not a big fan of super early announcements in general.
Prof. Layton for next Smash sequel!!!
oh good grief.
I dunno about everyone else, but next year is looking sorta empty. Hopefully this one has smooth development moving forward. I’m interested in trying the series out.
That is going to be a long, long wait. I'm excited to play this, and hopefully the game will be in great shape by the time it gets released.
Not surprised to see Layton moved to 2025, but I don't mind as long as the final product will be good and more than anything I'm happy to see the Professor back!
It doesn't seem that Level-5 is owned by Nintendo since they also made games for PS4. I was also hoping for a steam version. If not Layton is the only game that will make me put the switch out of storage.
Wow, the visuals are beautiful. They’ve really thoughtfully translated the presentation to console. I always thought the series’ formula was so utterly married to DS and smartphone touch screens that trying to reproduce it elsewhere would come up lesser. It seems the solution was the make richer, denser and more complex environments.
The expanded use of voice over is cool. I wonder if Layton and Luke providing commentary on the puzzles is going to be a feature or just part of this presentation. Either way, I am stoked.
Alright then, how about a Layton collection then? Gotta give us something Layton-related for next year Level-5...
@belmont: Level-5 has made games for non-Nintendo systems that dates back as far as the PS2. Nintendo has never owned them.
@somnambulance I'm betting a lot of it depends on the Switch 2 release (I'm theorizing it's going to be announced in Feb 2024). I'm sure the calendars will fill up with game announcements during the Spring Direct and other game presentations.
After dealing with Metroid Prime 4, this wait doesn't seem that bad, especially if it's first half 2025. Seems like a lot of love and care is being put into this.
I hope this will be a cross gen title or at least that the Switch 2 is backwards compatible.
A little frustrating, but just another example of "set it and forget it" for me. Gives me time to play the ones I've missed tbh. Never did finish Miracle Mask or Azran Lrgacy, and playing Katrielle's game has been on my mind lately.
I do echo the sentiments of everyone here though. A collection on Switch would be really nice to have about now.
@Axecon Yeah, I think you may be right that things are on ice for the Switch 2 announcement. I think the Game Awards may fill out the schedule a bit, but I’m sort of surprised, honestly, with how little is piquing my interest right now in 2024. I’m not a fan of the remake approach that Nintendo is taking early on next year.
I think they release the game for the next console, that drawing they show not for Switch 🤔
@somnambulance It doesn’t look empty to me. There’s already like 7 games I’m excited for next year.
@TheImperfectInsider Which games? As of right now, FF7 is the only game with a confirmed release schedule that I’m definitely buying next year… at the time of this post. I’d like to say I’m definitely buying more games!
@somnambulance Another Code: Recollection, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Princess Peach: Showtime, and DecaPolice.
I don’t even know how I’m going to find the time to play the first 4 though when they release so close to each other. (Especially with Infinite Wealth and Tekken 8 releasing on the same day lol)
Edit: I guess it’s 8 games because I forgot Another Code: Recollection comes with 2 games on one cartridge.
Can't say I'm surprised, and I'm fine with waiting since delaying games - especially when it comes to polishing - is often beneficial. That said, with the speed Level-5 typically localizes titles, I don't think we'll see this in the West very soon.
Ah well. Gives me more time to work in Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy on Switch at some point. I gotta see if it's as subpar (compared to the main series) as everyone says lol. I did enjoy the Layton Brothers: Mystery Room mobile spinoff earlier this year.
@Thoughts Not every franchise needs to go crazy reinventing itself every few years. Considering we haven't had a proper Layton game for years now, it's not as if the formula has been used too much recently anyway.
@somnambulance Honestly I'm ok with this, I have a massive backlog that I need to work through and I'm not likely to buy the new Nintendo console at launch. I'm finally satisfied that Zelda TOTK released so there's not really a big game I'm looking forward to (I'm mildly interested in Silksong but still have a lot in Hollow Knight to do; also interested in Metroid Prime 4 but that game feels like a fever dream).
Delayed until 2025? Cool. I just thinking of going through the DS Prof. Layton games before getting to the game about his daughter. Hopefully I can do them all before this one comes out.
I've been getting into detective and mystery games lately, so I'll be looking forward to this. Also appreciate any extra polish, since moving from sprites to HD 3D models tends to be janky at first.
It' good to see Professor Layton finally back, but to wait for so long.
I think I just heard every Layton fan the world over fall to their knees at the exact same time.
2025 is a surprisingly long time from reveal-to-release but given how Layton is Level-5's golden child, I fully trust them to use that time to make New World of Steam as good as possible (plus I was planning on getting a used 3DS in order to play through the entire Layton series in preparation for the release of NWoS so this just allows me even more time to do that )
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@Thoughts Firstly, we have barely seen any of the game. Secondly, there clearly are some changes and there would have to be considering the Switch doesn't have the same features as the DS.
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