Level 5 vs. the World 2011 Xtreme Edition: Part I

Level 5
threw their annual conference today (well, last night in American time) in the
form of “Level 5 Vision 2011,” an event where the company promoted some of their
upcoming games and revealed some new ones. They also had some multimedia franchises
(games, anime,toys, etc.) too, which are sure to be incredibly profitable for
them.

 

But that
doesn’t explain why the entirety of this year’s event is called “Level 5 World
2011.” Following the conference was an event where the press and public were
able to play many of the games shown. Of course, all of the games aside from
one aren’t planned for a release outside of Japan, so yeah. It’s probably
called Level 5 World 2011 because the purpose is to present everything that
exists in the wonderful world of Level 5, mainly pertaining to games and anime.
So here, have a feature detailing what games were shown.

 

They kicked
off the conference with Professor Layton
vs. Ace Attorney by showing the same trailer you already
saw at Tokyo Game Show about a month ago. They also announced that it’s
planned for a release on 3DS sometime in 2012. They didn’t have much new to say
about the game, unfortunately.

 

They also
had some Professor Layton-related
material to announce. First was the reemerging of Professor Layton Royale for Japan’s Mobage platform for social
games on cell phones. The second was Professor Layton-branded Pocky. Sorry, no
announcement for the sixth Layton game just yet; that team may be working on
Layton vs. Ace Attorney.

 

Gundam Age recently began its broadcast
on Japanese TV. If you’re unaware of it, it’s a different kind of Gundam series
in the sense that it’s aimed at a much younger crowd. Its intention is to
create a new generation of Gundam fans. (Fun fact: many older Gundam fans hate
it for this very reason.) Sunrise is, of course, handling the anime, but Level
5 will handle the tie-in game: an RPG for PSP due for release in summer 2012.
This is Level 5’s first time working with Namco Bandai’s Japanese offices.

 

The game’s release
date is a testament to how long the system will still live in Japan. There will
be a lot of PSP games English speakers will never play because of it being
nearly dead outside of Japan. Fortunately, some of those games are getting 3DS
and Vita versions, so we may not miss out on all of them.

Level 5 had
two Inazuma Eleven games to promote.
The first was Inazuma Eleven Go for
3DS, which will come in both Shine
and Dark versions. Some gamers who
played the previous games weren’t too happy with the game’s previous unveil
picking a wife for the previous main character, considering players previously
had more than one choice. To somewhat assuage this dilemma, you’ll get a
different wife for the main character depending on which version you purchase. Also,
the previous main character will be the coach of the new protagonist. This game
hits Japan on December 15th.

 

This year
also showed that Level 5 is willing to take a page out of Capcom’s book by
releasing an update to Inazuma Eleven
Strikers in the form of Inazuma Eleven
Strikers 2012 Xtreme, which releases on December 22nd. That means it’s
releasing a mere five months after the original on July 16th. 2012 Xtreme
contains players from the aforementioned Inazuma Eleven Go, along with
containing new super moves for existing characters.

 

They
finished by showing a trailer for Inazuma
Eleven Go: The Movie, which is due in Japanese theaters on December 23rd. Apparently
one of the scenes in the trailer contained a massive spoiler for the anime, so if you’re in the middle of
watching it, you’ve been warned (if you haven’t seen it already). Inazuma
Eleven has really become a big multimedia franchise for Level 5 now.

 

And on that
topic, they discussed their second multimedia franchise: The Little Battler eXperience. The first LBX title released for PSP
in Japan this past June, and guess what, it’s also is receiving an enhanced version for PSP. The Little Battler eXperience Boost will have new actions, updated
ranking battles, cooperative boss battles, and the ability to compete with
owners of the original game via multiplayer. Also, unlike the last version,
this one will receive a digital release via Playstation Network. It releases on
November 23rd.

 

Pretty much
the game most non-Japanese gamers wanted to see was Ni no Kuni for PS3, and Level 5 responded by showing a new trailer
to reaffirm how pretty it looks. Commercials featuring Mana Ashida will begin
airing in Japan on November 17th (the same day the game releases there), if you’re
into that. The gigantic book that came with the DS version will be available
for PS3 in digital form, but anyone who purchases the game in its first print
run will get the physical Magic Master book, which is officially called “Magic
Master Classic.” Apparently, it’s a scaled down version of the DS version’s
book.

 

Level 5 also
officially confirmed that the game is coming to North America and Europe as Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
Namco Bandai will handle the release, but Level 5 International America will
oversee the localization. It will release sometime in 2012.

 

That’s all
for now, but Level 5 had a bunch more games present there. Those will be
covered in the second part of this feature.