Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam Will Be Playable at TGS

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Sep 112024
 

TGS is coming up at the end of the month, and I have my fingers crossed for exciting announcements.

One of my most-anticipated games that’s already been confirmed to be there is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam!

Level-5 announced their TGS lineup today, and Professor Layton is on the list. Not only will New World of Steam be featured at TGS, but it will even have a playable demo!

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Fantasy Life i, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will all have playable demos in addition to being included in Level-5’s live broadcast, while Decapolice is listed as only having a video showcase. There was no mention of the new titles (two are listed now instead of just one) set to be announced at the upcoming Level-5 Vision.

I’m surprised that Professor Layton will have a demo while Decapolice won’t, since Decapolice is supposed to come out first. I already thought Decapolice had probably been bumped to 2025, but maybe Professor Layton will come out ahead of it after all.

Although the TGS demo will be in Japanese, I’m hopeful that we’ll get a better idea of what New World of Steam will be like. I’ve been getting nervous about Level-5’s delays lately, but I’d like nothing more than for them to knock it out of the park with an excellent demo.

Update: The website has now been updated to say the demos will be in both Japanese and English.

(People who play the Professor Layton demo will also get a hint coin keyring.)

A small gameplay segment was shown last November, but I don’t believe we’ve seen anything since then. Hopefully this will be a longer segment that provides a good look at the new game.

Are you looking forward to seeing more of Professor Layton and the New World of Steam?

Level-5 Vision 2024 Scheduled for September 24

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Sep 042024
 

When we discussed the Fantasy Life i delay a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that Level-5 had yet to announce a date for their showcase that was delayed from April to this summer.

However, we now have a date!

The rescheduled Level-5 Vision 2024 has been announced for September 24 at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET. It will have English and Chinese subtitles.

So… that’s not actually “summer” anymore, but at least it’s not too far off.

Titles featured in the showcase will be Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Fantasy Life i (including information about the delay), Decapolice, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, and a brand-new title.

Now, with the delays we’ve seen so far, I don’t know how I feel about them announcing a new game before any of those four are even out. It’s probably going to be the maybe-Yokai-Watch-maybe-spiritual-successor teased last year, but I just wish it didn’t feel like they were taking on too much all at once.

But who knows? Maybe this was the final stumbling block and things will finally get moving. Hopefully we’ll get a release date for both Inazuma Eleven and Fantasy Life i. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at least Decapolice has now been bumped to 2025, and I worry Professor Layton could get pushed even further off as a result.

(Hey, what ever happened to Ushiro? We never heard anything after it was un-cancelled, although it amusingly keeps showing up on Famitsu lists of Japan’s most-anticipated games.)

Level-5’s resurgence still has me worried, but here’s hoping we get some good news. What do you expect from the Level-5 showcase later this month?

Fantasy Life i Delayed (Again)

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Aug 192024
 

The Nintendo Direct in February 2023 had a huge number of exciting announcements, including the great return of Level-5 with DecaPolice, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

Fantasy Life i was eventually delayed to 2024 and given a Summer 2024 release window, and then at this February’s Nintendo Direct, it got a release date of October 10.

The delay made me a little nervous…

…and now it’s been delayed again.

The announcement says they’ve decided to “change the release date,” which I was faintly hopeful about since it doesn’t actually use the word “delay,” but Nintendo of Europe tweeted about it and called it a delay. So I doubt this is one of those rare cases of a release date being moved up.

More information will come at Level-5’s live stream, which was originally planned for April but was itself delayed to summer and still has no specific date.

As a Level-5 fan, I was so happy to see their big return, but now I’m getting worried. Maybe Fantasy Life i’s new delay is a strategic one, to avoid it being released on top of highly-anticipated games like Metaphor, but it doesn’t feel good that all of the games announced last February still seem to be in limbo. Plus, as a Professor Layton fan, I can’t help but worry this will push New World of Steam even further out.

On the other hand, I don’t want Fantasy Life i to be rushed, either. Here’s hoping that when it does come out, it’ll live up to its predecessor.

In unrelated news, Silent Hill 2 got a new story trailer that looks pretty good (although it’s uncanny to hear lines that are word-for-word the same as in the original but being said with new voices) and Final Fantasy XVI is coming to PC on September 17. Gamescom is tomorrow, so we might get some new announcements there as well. There’s a lot of great games coming out, so I hope Fantasy Life i will be one too when it has its time to shine.

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