Professor Layton and the Lawyer Crossover

In a surprise announcement at this year's Level-5 Vision press event, Level-5 announced Layton Kyouju vs Gyakuten Saiban, or in English, Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney, a collaboration between Level-5's Layton team and the Ace Attorney team from Capcom.

The adventure stars both Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright, along with their helpful assistants, as they end up within a new world together. The group enters a medieval place named Labyrinth City, where magic and witches exist and illusions distort reality. Together, the two will face off against the Story Teller, a writer whose magical pen brings what he writes to life. However, will the duo be able to work together, or will they end up bitter rivals in the new world?

It appears that the game will be split between game elements from both series. Professor Layton will face a number of puzzles to solve within Labyrinth City, whereas Phoenix Wright will have to focus on a "Witch Trial" to defend someone who is accused of witchcraft.

The scenario is being written by Ace Attorney designer Shu Takumi, so expect some of the awesome plot workings from that series to be commonplace in this crossover project. Furthermore, as the trailer demonstrates, the game will contain fully-animated cutscenes which should only make the story all the more delectable to experience.

Professor Layton VS. Ace Attorney will be releasing for 3DS, but the date has not been discussed.

TRAILER


OFFICIAL SITE (Japanese)

SOURCE: AndriaSang

Time Travelers Coming in the Future

Level-5 announced the platform and first game details for Time Travelers, the company's first suspense game, at its Level-5 Vision 2010 event earlier today.

Time Travelers was originally announced via a teaser image amid hints at a mystery platform. During the Vision 2010 event, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino announced that the game would be heading to the Nintendo 3DS, the next iteration of Nintendo's handheld hardware.

The game stars two major characters: Skeleton, a terrorist, and Mikoto Shinmichi, a young girl. While the two do not seem to have much in common, there is but one major connection: the two can both see into the future.

Time Travelers is being directed by Jiro Ishii, known for his intense adventure game 428 by Chunsoft. The upcoming venture is labelled as a "time travel suspense" which will have massive scope, so say the developers. The game's main gameplay elements were not disclosed, so the game may be more than a year off.

SOURCE: AndriaSang

Fantasy Life Goes to 3DS

At today's Level-5 Vision 2010 event in Japan, the company announced that it would be shifting its Brownie Brown collaboration Fantasy Life to the 3DS.

One of four major 3DS-related announcements, Level-5 stated that along with the platform shift for Fantasy Life, the game would be shifting from the original Mother-esque 2D look to a cell-shaded polygonal affair.

Fantasy Life was originally announced as a DS title in 2009. Dubbed a "Slow Life RPG," the game would be a life-paced adventure akin to Animal Crossing rather than the faster, action-paced RPGs of late. Players create their characters at the start of each game, ending with the choice of a "Life," or rather, a specific job that person will have in the world. Each job has their own goals and activities, and even their own ending theme once the game is completed. Not only will players need to strive for these daily goals, but they will need to watch for their Happiness and Richness levels in order to survive in the Fantasy Life world. The official artwork of the game is produced by Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano, and the soundtrack is being produced by the famous Nobuo Uematsu.

This was not the first game which was moved from DS to the 3DS from Level-5. The Fukuoka-based company had already announced its first major venture to the 3DS at E3, that game being Professor Layton and the Mysterious Mask. While it was originally in development as a DS title, the game was brought to 3DS to add a new method of puzzle-solving to the highly-acclaimed series.

A release date for Fantasy Life is currently unknown, as are more concrete details of the game.

Brownie Brown is a Nintendo subsidiary comprised of Ex-Square developers in charge of the Mana series for GameBoy and Super Nintendo. Since its inception, the company has released Magical Starsign through Nintendo and two Mana titles for Square-Enix: Sword of Mana and Heroes of Mana. The developer has also dabbled on DSiWare with A Kappa's Trail, and it was behind the programming development for Mother 3, a Japanese-only RPG for the GameBoy Advance.

SOURCE: Siloconera