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You and your trusty White Knight Chronicles monster-slaying team don't have to repeat the same quests over and over again (though you will, simply for the experience and materials). Every Thursday, starting this week through June, Sony will add new quests to Level-5's RPG, visible in the world map, and all downloadable for free.

Each week, a new permanent quest will be available, along with limited-time quests that you can only download for two weeks. And to mark the occasion, Sony is giving away a 12-inch White Knight figurine to one lucky player that logs into one of six quests during a certain time period. See PlayStation Blog for all the details.

A western release of Inazuma Eleven remains a distant and unclear goal, but Level-5 is already up to a third game in the popular soccer RPG in Japan. Having just announced Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge of the World!!, Level-5 has yet to offer many details about the plot or gameplay changes.

What is known is that the game contains a "Super Link" feature that allows players to import characters from Inazuma Eleven 2. We hope, then, that Inazuma Eleven 2 comes out in the West before Inazuma Eleven 3 (which is out this summer in Japan), and we hope that all of these things happen in our lifetimes.

[Via Famitsu]

During the same event in which Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino teased new Wii and PS3 games, he also suggested that the company may be setting up operations in the US. According to our own imperfect translation of 4Gamer's summary of statements, "Mr. Hino, in order to release software overseas, spoke about a plan to establish a new company in America," describing his intention to expand the company's activities from its current home of Fukuoka to the world.

This new enterprise would be the second new office opened by the company for this purpose -- it recently established an overseas-focused office in Tokyo. Perhaps we'll see self-published Level-5 games soon. Perhaps that way we can get timely Professor Layton releases!

[Via Siliconera]

Giving a speech at the deliciously-named C.C. Lemon Hall in Tokyo, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino revealed that the developer has unannounced Wii and PS3 games in the works.

The developer's current lineup is heavy on DS and mobile titles (including Professor Layton games, Ni no Kuni, and Fantasy Life), with one known console game: the followup to the PS3 role-playing game White Knight Chronicles. One of the unnamed Wii titles could be Inazuma Eleven Break, a console soccer RPG whose platform was never specified. Dragon Quest X, whose Wii development was confirmed by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, but whose developer was never named, is also a possibility. But this is all conjecture, since Hino said nothing other than that there were some new Wii and PS3 games.

[Via Andriasang]

The hype for White Knight Chronicles seemed to run out in the long wait between its 2006 announcement and its 2010 North American release. Had it been released closer to the PS3 launch, it might have wowed some gamers with its large enemies and online integration, but the time seems to have elapsed for that as well.

Instead of the grand system-selling RPG many expected back then, Level-5's PS3 debut is a fairly standard JRPG with excellent character building options and nothing incredibly special to do with those characters.

Sony made us wait a few years for a North American release of White Knight Chronicles, but it's not waiting at all to give us a chance to spend more money on the game -- the official Sony blog has news that the first DLC for the game will be out ASAP, offering up microtransactions for items to fill out the in-game "Georama" space, as well as a $4.99 "key" that will allow you to completely re-customize your character without having to start the game all over again. Of course, Sony guarantees that "there is PLENTY for you to work with in the game itself," but just in case you want to pay a little more of your hard-earned paycheck, Sony will be happy to take it.

And finally, just in time for launch day, it's offered up a brand new trailer. That won't cost you anything but a click on the link below, as it's available to watch after the break.

[Via VG247]

It's hard being Professor Layton. Always solving puzzles, talking with strange people and, of course, dealing with that snot-nosed kid, Luke. Even a gentleman like Professor Layton needs to relax now and again, and what better way to relax than a soothing session of figure skating? That's exactly what this Professor Layton does, though, admittedly, it's actually just some guy in a Layton costume. Still, it's oddly mesmerizing to watch. Check it out after the break and we're sure you'll agree.

One bit of advice for the Professor: Be careful out there or you might just end up in an unintentional sequel, Professor Layton and the Exorbitant Hospital Bill.

[Via Kotaku]

Professor Layton, White Knight Chronicles, and Dragon Quest IX developer Level-5 is expanding from its Fukuoka, Japan base, founding a new office in Tokyo focused on its ROID mobile gaming platform, overseas business, and "new enterprises." The move could portend worldwide release of the developer's mobile games, or even expansion of its publishing business.

In Japan, Level-5 publishes the Layton series, Inazuma Eleven, and other titles independently. If a localized Inazuma Eleven is indeed on the way, Level-5 could be looking to start up its publishing business outside of Japan with that title. Or, less spectacularly, we suppose the new office could be tasked with localization of games and dealing with Western publishers.

[Via Siliconera]

If there's one enigma we can't wrap our heads around, it's the one involving the rather curious naming of Japanese figure manufacturer Revoltech Yamaguchi. Revoltech? It sounds like they should be making soggy clumps of hair -- not these rather dashing and highly positionable approximations of Professor Layton. As noted by GundamLunatics.info, the quick-witted puzzle buff features 14 points of articulation, a jacket made of a soft material and loads of apt accessories, including a puny pen and a tiny teacup.

Of course, every piece of merchandise has a price, and you'll look to spend 2,400 Yen (roughly $26) when he arrives on March 15. For more info and images, hit the source link.

[Via Examiner, Kotaku]

Level-5's fab football RPG franchise, Inazuma Eleven, could be headed to the United States if a recent trademark is any indication. According to Siliconera, the US trademark crucially covers "video game discs," along with arcade machines and, er, cellphone straps. There's no telling if Level-5 will move beyond a mere trademark and carry out its goal of bringing the game to America, nor is there telling which of the Inazuma Eleven games are under consideration (none of the cellphone strap blogs have to worry about this stuff).

We'd normally be inclined to share some of our own long-winded theories, but the last thing you need is for us bore you with our ceaseless puntification.

Alright, that was bad. But you know that we're complete soccers for p -- [AUTHOR DELETED]

Japan's infatuation with quaint, puzzle-filled villages has yet to wane. The second Professor Layton trilogy has started off on a positive note, with Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute topping the Media Create sales charts. The latest in Level-5's adventure series sold 306,000 copies in its first week at retail.

The rest of the weekly bestsellers list is almost entirely dominated by Wii and DS games, like Tomodachi Collection, Wii Fit Plus and another debut, Momotaro Dentetsu 2010!, the latest Wii release of Hudson's Japan-only, train-themed board game series. The sole exception: Winning Eleven 2010, charting at number 7 with 20,000 copies sold. (The soccer sim's life-to-date sales of 312,000 isn't that far off from Layton's first week!) Additionally, Cave's region-free Xbox 360 shmup Mushihime-sama Futari just missed the top ten.

[Via Kotaku]

The American version of White Knight Chronicles has just earned a release date and a subtitle. SCEA is calling it the "International Edition," thanks to the addition of 50 new quests, voice chat, Georama and Live Talk. However, we think "The Incredibly Tardy Edition" is probably a more apt title, considering the 14-month wait fans have had to endure.

White Knight Chronicles' February 2nd release date places it before other big 2010 games on PS3, such as BioShock 2, Dante's Inferno, Star Ocean, Heavy Rain, and most importantly -- our lord and savior Final Fantasy XIII. We wonder if Level-5's Yoshiaki Kusada will be happy with the distance between these two PS3 RPG juggernauts.

Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute is out in Japan tomorrow, so Level-5 decided it was an appropriate time to go ahead and announce the next DS game in the second Layton trilogy. At a Devil's Flute launch event, Level-5 president Akihiro Hino revealed the above artwork for Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.

This fifth game has Layton and Luke investigating the mystery of the title artifact in Casino City, which seems to have been created by the wish-granting mask. According to a Famitsu report that leaked before the official reveal, there could be major changes to the familiar gameplay system.

Miracle Mask will be out in fall 2010, and may be followed by a second movie, Hino said. The company first has to solve the puzzle of how much money it will receive from the first one.

[Via Famitsu, Andriasang]

We were going to comment on the creepy "sign of the witch" that Professor Layton, Remi and young Luke encounter in this screenshot of Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute -- and how it seems that this Layton game is going in an unusually spooky and dark direction -- but then we remembered that both of the Layton games out in North America contain some fairly scary supernatural-seeming content: mysterious murders, monsters, curses, and the like.

We tend to think of the Layton games as so pleasant and so light-hearted, but, really, there's often something a bit sinister in many of the puzzles Layton must solve. Grab a cup of tea and head to Famitsu for more totally spooky screens.

While plenty of games press and hardcore fans flocked to 2009's Tokyo Game Show, attendance was down versus last year, and developers noticed. "The total attendance is down from last year, but myself, it felt less like a crush of people and more like a fun festival atmosphere like we used to have," Hideo Kojima told Famitsu in an upcoming feature.

But not every developer looked favorably on the late-September show. Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya pointed out that only three titles out of the 12 awarded 'Future' prizes at the Japan Game Awards were non-sequels. "That seems to go crossways with the term 'future' in my mind and it's frankly kind of sad," he said.

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi revealed he was "a little disappointed" that there were very few Japanese-made titles positioned for the worldwide market. However, he does note the titles meant for Japanese consumption puts the industry (in the East) on a stable base. While Fumito Ueda -- currently working on The Last Guardian -- noted that he is extremely excited about offerings from the West, specifically Modern Warfare 2. "I feel a serious sublime beauty in all of Infinity Ward's FPSes," he told Famitsu, despite qualms that Western companies came to Japan to push their wares rather than discussing innovation.

According to Akihiro Hino, head of Level-5 -- one of the busier booths at TGS 2009 -- the show felt "kind of plain." However, he does agree that the show offered a lot of games he personally wanted to play. "So in that respect," he noted, "TGS was great." If you consider waiting in line for 180 minutes to play one title great, we agree.

[Via 1UP]