With the completion of Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou, Weekly Famitsu sit down with three members of the development team to discuss about all things Layton Kyouju (Professor Layton in the West). I’m a big fan of Level-5, their attention to details in all their works is simply phenomenal, so let’s see what’s being said in the interview.

Saigo no Jikan Ryokou (The Last Time Travel in English) was completed in a year’s time, which Akihiro Hino (Level-5 president) noted is actually longer than the time taken to do Akuma no Hako (The Pandora’s Box). He explains that they tried to answer all the fans feedback in the game and as a result, the final game actually used 2Gb ROM, which is double of Akuma no Hako’s 1Gb ROM (and Fushigi na Machi, the first game in the series, used 512Mb ROM).

Famitsu asks if there is any difficulties in coming up with more character design after two games. Takuzo Nagano, the main character designer, says he avoided that by starting with a silhouette outline of the characters first and fill up the details later. Hino adds that Nagano also handled the character design of Inazuma Eleven, which resulted in massive amount of new characters from him in the same period.

On to changes in the game’s system, which is under designer Jun Suzuki, there are many usability improvements being made so that school children can enjoy the game more. He admits that they focused too much on making Akuma no Hako looks better and miss out on the usability part. Some of the changes include new interface for Memo, bigger buttons and more illustrations were used to explain some of the puzzles.

Music is, of course one of the most essential part of the series and it’s nice to hear that Saigo no Jikan Ryokou will features all new music from Tomohito Nishiura. Although every game in the series should ideally feature different music in order to give them their own identity, Hino explains that Akuma no Hako uses the same music as Fushigi na Machi because Nishiura struggled to come with a better music.

Although it is not necessary to play the first two games before picking up Saigo no Jikan Ryokou, the developers say that those who have done so will find it easier to understand the story and there will be references that make them smile while playing the game. Nagano reveals that there was a period when Hino was extremely worried about the ending of Saigo no Jikan Ryokou and spirits in the dev team pick up noticeably after that was settle. Although Hino noted that the team was in high spirits throughout the development thanks to their familiarity with the series.

The three also point out their favorite part of the game. Nagano says he really loves how the girl character Becky is being realized; Suzuki like the fact that he can now move the window and also praise the high production value of the animated CG; Hino, on the other hand, says he like the part where Layton finally willing to take off his hat and revealed the secret behind his reluctance in doing so in previous games.

Finally, Nagano hope players will pay attention to the many new animations and dialogs of the characters so they can enjoy the game more. Suzuki says that there were many instances where he hope to improve in the first two games and find Saigo no Jikan Ryokou the most satisfying so far. Hino also says that Saigo no Jikan Ryokou is truly how the game should really be and hope there will be more people checking out the game.

Having just gotten my DSi, I obviously haven’t check out the series yet and plan to do so when Play-Asia has the English version of the game back in-stock. For now, I can only look at these amazing screens and hope my poor puzzle solving skills will be enough to take me to meet these great characters and see these great locations.

Screens source: Game Watch

Posted in News on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm |
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