Level-5, the development team behind the Ni No Kuni and Professor Layton series, is working on a new game. Not much, or anything at all, is known about it yet. But fans of the team can expect an announcement sometime next year. President and CEO Akihiro Hino spoke to Japanese site 4Gamer, which The Gamer courteously translated.
Hino first praised Cyberpunk 2077, saying he was most impressed with it in terms of 2020 releases. He put around 60 hours into the action RPG, noting that his playthrough featured few bugs. But, of course, that isn’t the case for everyone. When it comes to his own studio, Hino said he aims to continue creating great content for the whole family. And then he dropped the news that Level-5 is working on something new.
We are preparing an unreleased new work. And I can’t talk about the details yet, but we are steadily proceeding, so please look forward to it as well.”
The History of Level-5
Admittedly, Hino’s statement offers no information. But Level-5 has built a strong reputation for puzzle games and RPGs, so it will undoubtedly excite eager fans. Hino founded the studio in 1998 and the team put out its first game, Dark Cloud, in 2000 for the PlayStation 2. One of its biggest claims to fame is the Professor Layton series; puzzle games that appeared on the DS and 3DS. Level-5 is also responsible for the anime-influenced Ni No Kuni RPGs, the latest of which released in 2018.
However, as noted by Nintendo Life, Level-5 began to scale back work output in its American offices in 2019 before closing them in 2020. And a report stated this meant the team had no plans to release future games outside of Japan. Whatever this unannounced game is, fans may be waiting a long time before it gets localized.
Are you excited about a new game from Level-5? Are you worried about it not getting localized in the West? Let us know in the comments.
