Famitsu sat down with Level-5’s boss Akihiro Hino recently to check out the progress of the company, especially games they announced at last year’s Level-5 Vision 2008 event (see all their upcoming games near the bottom of the post). Although there is nothing too exciting out of the interview, published in 5/22 issue of Weekly Famitsu, Hino’s passion for creative games and visions are something I always admire. So check it out if you are interested.

Hino says Level-5’s prospect for the rest of 2009 is to “organize commercial events that will enliven the gaming industry“. He realized that this is a difficult task but is determined to do so. Famitsu noticed that the many announcements appear to be bearing fruits for the company right now. DS upcoming release Sloan to Michael: Nazo no Monogatari (screen above), which is part of the Atamania series, will heads the company’s challenge according to Hino. He says the game is even more interesting than he originally expected and his immediate task will be to build Atamania as a good series.

On the development status for Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha, releasing this October in Japan, Hino says he is currently play testing a new game system for the title and think it controls well. The first game sold more than 340,000 copies, which makes the sequel worth buying for the fans and it should strengthen the brand’s footing in the market further.

Moving on to the Layton Kyouju (aka Professor Layton) series, which will see its fourth game this fall, Famitsu think the fact that its story will be related to the upcoming movie is interesting. Hino says besides interaction with the movie, they are going to tackle the weaknesses of the Layton Kyouju games and introduce a new system for the new games. Since the third game, the spirits among the dev team is high and many players don’t want the series to end. So they are coming up with new ideas for the series and to make an even greater impact, three new games were announced at the same time.

Hino is secretive about Ninokuni’s development progress but says it will push the hardware limits and is confident that the game will looks “comfortable“. The project is a collaboration with Studio Ghibli and Hino is amazed at their attention to details, they even have some serious arguments over some of the scenes and the dev team is constantly “frightened” by them. It makes him realized “this is how creativity works“. Although Ninokuni will be released first, Hino says two other 10th anniversary titles for PSP, Ushiro and Danboru Senki, are also currently deep in development and he would like the two to come out in style. He also considers options like anime or other medias as marketing strategy for the two titles.

Famitsu asks if the company has plans for home consoles. Hino says the company made Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodou (aka White Knight Chronicles) and think there is a future for HD games, there are plans for more projects but there is nothing concrete at this point. Hino then apologize for the delay of Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito but tells fans to not worry because the content will surprise everyone. He realized that it’s probably a little over to say so but that’s because he is really confident that the wait will be worth it.

The interviewer says he is pleased to hear that and besides “really looking forward“, he has nothing else to say about Level-5’s upcoming titles. Hino says they are determined to produced something that will make a big impact on the game industry since it will be interesting for a smaller company like Level-5 to do so under this economic climate. Famitsu quickly follow up by saying if this means there are some secret titles to be announced soon. Hino hesitates a bit but admits that they are working on new title but says he can’t just slipped it right here (laugh). He would like everyone to keep an eye on more from Level-5 in 2009.

Title	Platform	Release Date
Sloan to Michael: Nazo no Monogatari	DS	21/05/09
Tago Akira no Atama no Taisou Dai-1-Shuu: Nazotoki Sekai Isshuu Ryokou	DS	18/06/09
Tago Akira no Atama no Taisou Dai-2-Shuu: Ginga Oudan Nazotoki Adventure	DS	18/06/09
Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha	DS	01/10/09
Layton Kyouju to Majin no Fue	DS	Fall 2009
Ninokuni	DS	TBA 2009
Ushiro	PSP	TBA 2009
Danboru Senki	PSP	TBA 2009
Inazuma Eleven Break!	TBA	TBA

Roid, the online game portal Level-5 is working on, is also discussed. Hino says this will become the place for original ideas and creative games. It will contains not only Level-5 games, but also those from third party developers or even individuals with good ideas. Mobile services will begin on June 1st in Japan and if there is any title that becomes a hit, porting them to PSN, Xbox Live or WiiWare should be workable. However, there won’t be free games or demos on the website but Hino says users will feel their purchases are worthwhile. As for pricing, although there will be games at ¥100 – 300, Hino says most of the titles will cost ¥300 – 500.

Source: Weekly Famitsu issue 5/22

Posted in News on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 11:50 pm | Tags atamania dqix famitsu hino inazuma layton level-5 ninokuni
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