All right, I want to talk about the Professor Layton situation.

I’ve mentioned a few times now how I lost my enthusiasm for Professor Layton and the New World of Steam because of Level-5 going all-in on generative AI.

For quite a while, I kept saying that I would wait to see if any AI was used in the game before deciding if I would buy it or not.

Now, here we are. After a Level-5 showcase that included AI in its presentation, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino issued a statement addressing fans’ reactions to the AI-heavy showcase, saying they only use AI for efficiency, and claiming it will reduce development times. As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well, especially when they released an AI-generated promotional picture for their TGS booth a few days later.

Shortly after that, Level-5 issued another statement mainly denying that the powerlines in the Yo-kai Watch 2 remake trailer were AI-generated and claiming it was human error instead.

There is also a single statement near the end saying AI wasn’t used in Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

So that should be what I was looking for. Now I can confidently go ahead and play the new Professor Layton game, right? Wrong! Because I don’t trust them.

I didn’t realize it until that statement came out, but they’ve been so pro-AI that I simply can’t trust their word about this. Some people are already concerned about some of the backgrounds in the game. Others have said we’ll know once the Steam page is up, but Inazuma Eleven doesn’t have an AI disclosure and we know they used AI during that game’s development. On top of that, it feels questionable to support the studio while they’re going in this direction.

In short, despite the recent statement, I still can’t feel good about getting Professor Layton and the New World of Steam. But what about you? How do you feel about it?

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam got a new trailer at TGS… and also a delay announcement.

It’s not a huge surprise; getting this late into 2025 without a release date made it seem pretty likely it was no longer set for this year.

On the other hand, I still remember being disappointed that it probably wouldn’t be out in 2023, and since then its 2024 release window has been pushed to 2025 and now 2026.

(Let’s just hope this isn’t a repeat of the Inazuma Eleven situation, with its constant delays.)

All right, with the delay news out of the way, let’s take a look at the new trailer.

The trailer doesn’t have subtitles yet, although the description says they will be added later.

As it is, we get some great new shots of Layton and Luke, and we also get to see some gameplay. It’s a short segment, but it looks very Layton – visiting a location from the map, tapping a character to get a puzzle, etc. Unfortunately, there isn’t much new shown.

The music choice is also… unique, and I cracked up listening to it. A Professor Layton rap was not on my bingo card.

There also was a playable TGS demo, and some players have uploaded videos, such as this one:

For me, the demo footage was great to see, because it really feels like Layton. There were some concerns when it was first announced, but it doesn’t look like they’ve made any drastic changes to the gameplay we know and love.

I’m looking forward to Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, although I can’t help but worry about it with all these delays. Still, Fantasy Life i saw numerous delays as well and came out to great reviews (I haven’t played it yet), so maybe the same will happen here.

What do you think of the latest New World of Steam videos?