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Japanese game devs give their verdicts on TGS


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]

White Knight Chronicles coming February 2010

Now that Uncharted 2 is out, what first-party exclusives do PS3 fans have to look out for? Well, not much: other than Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time and God of War Collection, the holiday pickings are quite slim. Next year, on the other hand, is a different beast altogether. MAG will represent January, and according to this new trailer from the PlayStation Network, White Knight Chronicles will be ready in February.

Such an early 2010 release should give players a few months time to delve into Level-5's world before Square Enix launches Final Fantasy XIII. That should make Level-5's Yoshiaki Kusada pretty happy, right?

Time to start waiting for White Knight Chronicles 2

Ha! You guys are still waiting for White Knight Chronicles? That's old news, folks. It's time to get hyped about its sequel. Unofficially titled "White Knight Chronicles: Awakening of Light and Darkness" (according to Andriasang), the sequel takes place immediately after the events of the first game. Leonard and his allies return to a world in chaos, with the City of Greed, the Kingdom of Barandel, and the Magic Republic of Foria all in trouble.

You'll create another avatar to join Leonard on his quest, and this time you'll be able to transform (a power unavailable in the first game). In addition to the requisite new areas, monsters, equipment and skills, White Knight Chronicles 2 will also feature a brand new female knight, and the ability to have six characters in your party.

SCE didn't reveal when the second White Knight game would hit Japan, but we do know this: English-speaking fans shouldn't expect to it see any time soon.

Puzzling: No plans for Wii Professor Layton

Everything is improved with waggle. It's a fact. Scientifically proven. And yet, Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino has still seen fit to crush everyone's hopes of a waggle-infused Professor Layton. Hino told Official Nintendo Magazine that the upcoming Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel will conclude the trilogy, though it will soon be followed by the first episode of a new trilogy, entitled Professor Layton and the Flute of Malevolent Destiny. That's wonderful, and we're sure handheld puzzle enthusiasts will be thrilled, but Hino notes -- probably followed by a cruel, derisive laugh -- that there are currently "no plans for a Wii release."

Frankly, we're shocked at the revelation, as a Wii release of Professor Layton seems like the mannerly, logical thing to do. We're sure the world-famous Hershel Layton would agree.

Level 5 would consider new Dark Cloud if community shows interest

Level 5's Yoshiaki Kusada recently spoke with Kotaku at the Tokyo Game Show about whether the developer was working on a new installment in its debut franchise, Dark Cloud. "At this moment we don't have a specific plan for a sequel in the Dark Cloud series," Kusada explained, but later added, "there are some who decided to join Level 5 because they love the Dark Cloud series. So, if requests from users should increase in the future, we would seriously consider making it."

Level 5, please consider this our humble request: Please, please, please make Dark Cloud 3. Would it help if we went ahead and reviewed it? Fine, here we go: "Dark Cloud 3 is the greatest game ever created by anyone in the entire universe. Everyone should own it. In fact, failure to own it should be considered irresponsible. Its purchase should be federally mandated. If we did numerical scores, we'd give it a 68,439 out of 3."

There's more than a few box quotes for you, Level 5. Now get to work.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Interview: Level-5's Yoshiaki Kusada


Sony Computer Entertainment and Level-5 have been slow in bringing White Knight Chronicles out of Japan. We talked with Level-5 manager Yoshiaki Kusada about the lengthy delay of the international version, and if the developer is concerned about competing against Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII as the PS3 JRPG of choice next spring.

Joystiq: White Knight Chronicles has been out in Japan for a very long time. Why has it taken so long to find release in America?

Kusada: When Level-5 launched the Dark Cloud series in the past in Japan, we tried to incorporate feedback from users to make updates before releasing it overseas. In terms of White Knight Chronicles, since it's an online game, we have received a lot of feedback from users. So, we wanted to improve the title more based on the feedback from the users before releasing it overseas. In fact, in the Japanese market, these improvements have been made available through patching. We are awfully sorry we have been keeping the US users for so long, but we wanted to make sure that all the updates and improvements of everything up to the so-called "Second Wave," which includes Georama, before delivering it to the US users. After the "Second Wave," we started the localization of the game for the international market. We are so sorry that it has taken so much time. For the time, we believe we are able to deliver a much better game for the US market. So, I would like to ask for a bit more patience.

Continued →

TGS 2009: Hands-on: Ni no Kuni

Level-5's Ni no Kuni: The Another World is, in general, a pretty standard JRPG. However, it's a pretty standard RPG that takes place in a Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke) world, and is thus magical. It really feels like you're inhabiting a Ghibli movie, from the appearance of swarms of cute little spherical characters to the lush forest environments. The frequent animated cutscenes and the persistent voice acting (every line of text in the demo, whether in a cutscene or spoken in a pop-up text window) is fully voiced, which helps the cinematic feel.

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TGS 2009: Unboxing the Level-5 Premium Gift

Level-5's booth is one of the most popular attractions at Tokyo Game Show. It was our first stop this morning when the expo floor opened, and still we waited in line for at least 30 minutes -- a line that completely surrounded the ginormous booth. The line ended at a small theater lounge, in which we sat down to watch the Ni no Kuni, Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute, and ROID trailers we had just seen from the line.

Finally, we were ushered into a game demo area, and then handed the requisite swag bag. Having been told that the swag bag contained this year's version of the vaunted Level-5 "Premium Gift," with either a DVD or a DS demo cartridge, we decided to share the excitement of opening the sealed envelope with the internet. Enjoy the exciting conclusion in the video above!

Fantasy Life's collection of lives

Level-5 released character art of people working in the twenty different job-based "lives" in the developer's newly announced Fantasy Life. The designs show the very Little King's Story-esque style being used by character designer Hideo Minaba, which is going to charm the money right out of our bank accounts. Each one of these lives represents a unique set of quests, and a unique ending with a different Nobuo Uematsu vocal theme.

The identity of each Life isn't labeled, though Andriasang printed a list from Famitsu magazine of all the jobs to go along with the picture. Many of them seem pretty obvious given the tools in their hands, and six of them are outright revealed by a second picture. Both images, and the list, are available after the break.

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Level-5's CEO on lessons learned from Professor Layton's first adventure


In Level-5's homeland of Japan, the top-hat wearing sleuth Professor Layton is well past his originally planned trilogy, but North American gamers have only recently caught up to the second game in the franchise. According to Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino, a combination of localizing the game's puzzles and images and giving each title enough room to breathe at retail are contributing factors to Layton's slow release schedule Stateside. "We want to let each title have time to perform on the market before releasing the next game," Hino told Wired.

As for the recently released sequel Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Hino estimates the game features "roughly double" the amount of data than the first. Not only is Layton's new tea-sipping adventure bigger, but it makes more sense contextually. "One lesson we learned from the first title is that some puzzles seemed irrelevant to the storyline," Hino said, noting the Professor's second outing actually works the puzzles into the game's story to give them a purpose. "For instance, you may have to solve a puzzle about a key in order to enter a locked chamber."

If Layton's adventure piques your interest, make sure to check out our review of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Level-5 invites players into a 'Fantasy Life' ... in a doomed town

In addition to the London Life RPG inside Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute, Level-5 announced another collaboration with Brownie Brown, the Sword of Mana developer and Mother 3 co-creator: Fantasy Life, a town simulation in the vein of Animal Crossing.

Fantasy Life occurs in the world of Fantazeal, which shows prophesied signs of impending destruction after a shadow passes over the moon. If this were a normal RPG, you'd portray some kind of teenaged hero fighting to save the world from this catastrophe, but in this game, it basically doesn't seem to matter: you choose a job and undertake daily "Life Quests" related to that job, to improve your wealth and happiness levels. The game includes local and online wireless functionality, allowing others to visit your town.

Aside from Level-5 and Brownie Brown, Fantasy Life features more big names. Nobuo Uematsu is composing an opening theme, as well as ending themes for the ending of each job's "life," and character design is being done by Hideo Minaba, a Final Fantasy series alum who most recently designed the characters in Little King's Story.

[Via Andriasang]

Level-5 and Studio Ghibli's Another World delayed until another year

Ni no Kuni (The Another World), the Level-5/Studio Ghibli RPG for DS that includes the huge spellbook, will no longer be considered Level-5's 10th anniversary game -- because it won't be out in 2009. The game has been bumped to spring 2010.

A playable demo was available at the LEVEL-5 VISION conference, and the same demo will be playable at Tokyo Game Show, where it will also be handed out to lucky attendees as part of the Level-5 Platinum demo cartridge Said cartridge which also hourse Professor Layton and the Devil's Box and Inazuma Eleven 2 demos. Check out Andriasang for predictably lush new screens and artwork.

Professor Layton 4 includes unlockable Professor Layton RPG

Most American gamers have yet to get their copies of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and Level-5 has already released news that will make you yearn for the fourth game. At last night's LEVEL-5 VISION conference, the company announced that Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute will include a bonus game, Professor Layton and London Life.

The Brownie Brown-developed London Life is an RPG that, according to Level-5's Akihiro Hino, will last over 100 hours. It was originally announced for the ROID cell phone game service -- we have yet to learn whether it will still be released there in addition to DS. Devil's Flute will be out on November 26 in Japan.

Review: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

After more than a year, Nintendo has deigned to grant the second Professor Layton game to a DS audience clamoring for gentlemanly puzzle adventure. Is Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box worth the wait? Unless, for some reason, you were expecting a dramatic reinvention of the gameplay, yes.

To be clear, this is not the Zelda II of the Professor Layton franchise. It features the same combination of woodgrained old-world feel and Osamu Tezuka-style character designs, a similarly puzzle-minded citizenry, and a storyline intriguing enough that, somehow, the player manages to be drawn into a world that ostensibly exists only as a puzzle delivery system. There was absolutely no reason to change the formula after the magical Curious Village, and developer Level-5 knew it.
The Layton series is proof that almost any activity can be grafted into a video game to make an engaging experience. These games do for brain teasers what RPGs have done for menus.

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Meet the characters of White Knight Chronicles

We know the wait until gaming's favorite new Q is unbearable, but hopefully this new White Knight Chronicles trailer will help ease the pain. We've waited a few years -- what's a few more months?

A new trailer released at Gamescom showcases the various characters, and in the process reveals Sony's English localization and voice acting. Can you wait to play as a rogue mech-transforming warrior named, er, Leonard?

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