We were hoping to see DECAPOLICE, the upcoming detective RPG from Level-5, at today's To The World's Children showcase. However, what we weren't expecting was a pretty big delay.
Originally due out in 2023, then delayed to 2024, Decapolice has now been pushed all the way back to 2026. Woof. That's a long wait — but we're still excited.
The game will also be coming to PC, and the plan is to release the game and an anime series at the same time. Decapolice will feature a large open-world and systems that complement the game's structure. Pretty ambitious, but that feels like Level-5 all throughout this presentation.
At least we got a brand new trailer featuring the game's theme song, City of Love, by GARNiDELiA vocalist MARiA (Mai Mizuhashi). You can listen to the song and watch the brand new trailer up top.
Are you disappointed with Decapolice's delay? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 48
Deca-scuse me?!
That's my first Switch 2026 pencilled-in game I think.
Unfortunate that it's coming out in 2026 instead of next year, but I'm all for it if means the game being even more ambitious and hopefully better in the same way shown for Fantasy Life and Victory Road during this very showcase!
This is just....baffling. I'm not waiting for this game, but this is ridiculous.
Why do their faces look like that? A world of baby faces.
@Slowdive Nah, it'll be one the last Switch 1 games to release at this rate.
Seems like 1st release dates doesn't really matter anymore to most developers, I guess...
Wow that kid is special. Already a seasoned detective and it's not even his 10th birthday.
Yeah, there must've been some hardcore development/financial drama at Level 5 for all of these delays upon delays to make any sense.
Since early 2023, level 5 efficiency is like "see you next year, preparing the next year who will prepare the year after, and the year after".
Where are the games ?
Aaaaah Level 5 lost me since a long time.
oof... was looking forward to this...
Why don't they just, like, make one game at a time? This five-at-once approach is kinda whack.
Well there goes almost all my excitement.😞
@gcunit Don't forget about Ushiro. 😉
2026!?!?
Wha-?
How do you announce something for 2023 and delay it for 3 years??? The heck kind of production is going on there?
Honestly, Level 5 makes Valve look like a Swiss train.
I still wonder about the gameplay.
Mixture of turn based RPG with Detective Pikachu style for solving the criminal case.
I thought this one looked good. Here’s hoping that the delay doesn’t signal something wrong with the development of the game. A delayed game is eventually blah blah blah etc.
3 years of delays for a game that probably should have taken them 3 years to make in the first place is kinda whack.
Still have a long way to go to match 8 year Concord though, and this should sell better. Concord will be the gift that keeps on giving to all delayed games going forward. 😜
Expecting this, and at least a couple of other games, to be a Yooka-Laylee scenarios by mid 2026. ie not on Switch, just Switch 2.
Edit: Wow, in March of 2023 they really said "Decapolice" would be released in 2023, so they had at most 9 months to get it out. And now, 18 months later, they are still talking needing an extra 16 months at least to get it out. Just wow.
Oh and by the way "Fantasy Life i" was also supposed to release in 2023 and it is now due out in April of 2025.
https://www.nintendolife.com/features/round-up-everything-announced-at-the-level-5-vision-2023-showcase
Maybe whoever is in charge of predicting release dates at Level 5 should not get their next paycheck until 2025. 🤑
That's crazy! Hopefully it'll be worth the wait, the reveal trailer looked promising.
@MSaturn I think we need to amend that saying to "A delayed game is... probably a Level-5 game".
Ouch. But I can wait.
How bout just make it a Switch 2 game instead.
Kinda sad to read that but I have faith they'll deliver and hopefully it'd play even better on new Nintendo hardware!
I wonder if this is more about brand synergy than needing extra time. Looking forward to playing this on my Switch…. 2.
...Ouch. Hopefully the delay is due to further polishing and not only to time it with the anime. I like Level-5, but sometimes it seems like their multimedia pushes hamstring them more than anything.
@Dom_31 You mean Megaton Musashi? I had completely forgot about it until I came across a YT video singing praises about it. Sadly, I don't think it had much advertising, plus it was digital-only to boot. It's like they sent the game out to die.
mannnn, I wanted to play this game. What has level 5 been up to that has caused so many games to be pushed back?
Also, I feel as though this game should not be open-world. I was hoping for something more linear. A bit bored with open-world games as of late.
Wow, 2026, way too far away... Fortunately, we'll have Fantasy Life and Professor Layton for the meawhile. This one will be a Switch 2 game for sure.
Pro tip: Don't announce your game if it's more than two years out from release. Also fire your project manager if your game gets delayed by more than a year.
So this will launch on switch 2? Perfect for me, I have no problem with the delay then 😃
I see Level-5 got its announcement skills from Atlus. They revealed this game way too early and now I'm concerned that there will be no hype by the time it actually releases. Shame because I was excited to play this...
I wish Japanese devs would make a few more games where the main character is an adult. I don’t understand why its away a child.
@Dom_31 I'm honestly more surprised that they can afford these missed moon shots AND be a private company.
So, Switch Succesor... got it.
Hey if they need to delay it I have no problem since I have a bunch of games to finish.
Side note though how can game developers Know when their game will be finished and put a release date? If I ever become a game dev I probably won’t announce release dates and just release games when there ready.
Definitely going to be a Switch 2 title. I won't be surprised if Level-5 is working on some improvements so it will run better on the Switch successor
Killed my hype for the game. When I see things like this happen it makes it seem like they scrapped what was shown and started over.
See you on the Switch 2 Advance then?
Bummer, 2026 is a ways off.
Thank goodness it’s coming out on PC, that and the Switch 2 being backwards compatible, otherwise this game would definitely flop due to the super late release
This is stupid thats 2 years away, and nobody's going to care about this.
Aww maaaan... I been waiting for this game since FOREVER!!
...I hope this means it will be even better than what was originally showed to us in the reveal trailer at that Nintendo Direct from 2022.
Whelp, that's game development for you. At least they are able to afford the dev team time to do what they need to do to ensure this is top notch.
Whilst it was announced on Switch, it seems a lot more likely they'll phase it over to the successor instead at this rate. Time will tell.
Switch's 2025 is already a feast despite expecting the dawn of Gen 10, and now we even have its first 2026 title to look forward to?😄
@Slowdive quite likely, unless the presumable backward compatibility makes that port a lower pipeline priority.
@Sonicka "phase it over" from a userbase potentially eclipsing PS2 sales by then to a grand total of 15-25 million at most (and that's assuming Nintendo actually aims to supply that many during the first year)? This isn't Vita.
@nhSnork it wasn’t the point I was making.
I’d love it to still support the current gen hardware, and that’s great if they still do (I’m still buying new games on my PS4 four years into the PS5 lifecycle).
It’s more that the more I see of the Decapolice, the less convinced I am it will run efficiently on the present Switch hardware which is what makes me wonder if they’ll abandon the platform altogether.
BUT, cross-generational games are of course always a thing, and this is announced to be available on all current and previous generation of consoles, so that’s far more likely the route they’ll take.
I wish they’d just put it on all platforms. I definitely won’t want to play it on a decade-old switch in 2026.
@Dom_31 megaton musashi would have done fine if they’d marketed it. They didn’t, at all. They’ve already marketed this more than they did that.
@Sonicka the game doesn't even tap into photorealism which is memetically associated with hardware tolls, and it has been developed with Switch in mind from the start. Only optimization routines going south could possibly hinder its hybrid performance, and the bunch of delays we've seen should only help lower the odds thereof.
Switch 2 Launch Title?
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