Yesterday Level-5 Vision 2015 event took place, and it brought us some surprising news. Some of it was good news for us 3DS lovers, other news..not so good. The fact that well known gaming characters are moving to mobile gaming, passing over the 3DS is a bit disturbing to me. We’ve already had the news a couple of weeks ago about the alliance between Nintendo and DeNA to take their IP’s to mobile gaming. Now this news about Level 5 moving toward app gaming.
Here’s the roundup:
Although we hadn’t really expected another Professor Layton title, Level-5 announced nearly two years ago that game number 7 was in the making. This time not only for the 3DS, but for iOS and Android as well. It’s been quiet around the game till now: Level-5 revealed that there has been a change in the design of the title. It’s going to be a “who done it” sort of card game focused around using clues and deduction to discern who the guilty party is. What’s even stranger though is that no example was shown of a 3DS version. Could it be that Level-5 will not be bringing it to the 3DS?
Even more shocking to me it that they revealed that the sequel to the 3DS title Fantasy Life is coming to smartphones only, and not to the 3DS! Fantasy Life 2: Two Moons And The Village of God will contain all the usual character-building RPG element, allowing you to chose from 12 “lives”. There will also be a stronger focus on building your village this time, including a mode where you collect townspeople to populate it. I’m sorry to see it won’t be available on the 3DS, but I will sure check it out on mobile too. They are expecting to release it this year.
We had already read about Hasbro bringing the Yokai Watch toys West this year, now it’s been confirmed that the 3DS game will indeed be released here in 2016. Yokai Watch 3 will be situated in the US and a new character is introduced called Inaho Misora, who has her own Yo-kai named USApyon. It’s so cool that we will get an entirely new game!
Japan will also get a new 3DS action title based on a mini-game featured in Yo-Kai Watch 2, called Yokai Watch Busters. The title will come in two versions – Red Cat Troupe and White Dog Unit – and will feature online play. It launches in Japan on July 11th. I guess it will depend on the popularity of the main game in the West whether or not this new entry will make it West too.
And as if all this Yokai Watch news wasn’t enough, Level-5 announced yet another cross-over game, based on Yokai Watch and Koei Tecmo’s Three Kingdoms: Yokai Watch: Three Kingdoms. No platform details were given, but it seems unlikely that we will ever see this outside Japan.
A very interesting announcement was the multimedia effort which will see Level-5 collaborate with Takara Tomy, TV Tokyo and CoroCoro Comics. Snack World will cover movies, manga, toys and video games. The toys will use NFC tech to unlock content – such as items and weapons – in the game, which is coming to 3DS, Android and iOS. The toys are like key rings, and come in cute little treasure boxes. The title hasn’t been confirmed for the west, but the Japanese website has an English section “coming soon”. So, I’m hopeful!
Check out the video of Snack World!
I am very disappointed by the Fantasy Life news. As for Layton, I think they had already said the next game of the franchise would be drastically different, so I am not excatly shocked.
Agreed, but Fantasy Life is really a shocker. Plus the fact that Level-5 seems to be shifting focus more and more to mobile gaming. Makes you wonder..
This news was also a shock for me. And rightly so. As i suspected, the games will only be released on iOS and Android, no mention of Window phones, even though they are in the uprising. Not going to change phones to play a game, i love my Windows Phone.
I must admit that I’m not at all knowledgeable about the Windows phone, I’ve had iPhone (in combination with iPad) for a couple of years now. But aside from that, it did put the other news about Nintendo bringing their IP’s to mobile in another light for me. I still think it’s the way to go, but it might just be that the clock is really ticking!
Yeah maybe. Our Phone can do so much now. I will Always prefer a console (or handheld) though 😉
As a fan of Layton games I was already disappointed at the strange direction Layton 7 was taking but was willing to give it a shot. Now that it’s for mobile only I find it unlikely to do so… I get that mobile gaming is on the up and up, but I don’t think alienating an entire community of gamers is the direction they should be taking. I paid great money for my 3DS, money I knew would be spent playing games and I want to get games. I also paid good money for my phone but not for the purpose of playing games. I actually find it extremely difficult to pay for content on my phone. I’d rather buy a $30 game for my 3DS than pay any amount for a game on my phone… I don’t think that makes much sense but I don’t think I’m the only person who thinks that way. If they want to go into mobile games, then by all means, they should. But I also think they should have made the transition smoother for those who’ve been supporting them from the beginning. Just my two cents!