r/gaming • u/WrongLander • 23h ago
Professor Layton under Level-5's new creative direction
Artist credit: Verdimand
Context: Yesterday Level-5 (a well-respected developer of such franchises as Yokai Watch, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven and Ni No Kuni) held a livestream for their upcoming games that was stuffed to the brim with really bad, and really obvious, AI content.
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u/Megalesios 22h ago
I used to love everything about Level-5. Yokai Watch, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven etc.
The fact that the company that made freaking Ni no Kuni recently announced they were going "AI-first" is actually heartbreaking
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u/WrongLander 22h ago
Agreed, I am head over heels for Yokai Watch, Layton and Ni no Kuni as well (they collabed with Studio Ghibli for that!) but I'd rather they stayed dormant than be treated like this.
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u/Sola-Nova 20h ago
Their first game Dark Cloud was the first jrpg that really stuck with me when I was kid and I still myself humming and whilsting tunes from that game.
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u/Sata1991 17h ago
Man I spent so long wishing they'd do something with the franchise but with the Gen AI obsession I don't think I'd like it.
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u/Belgand 16h ago
I loved them before then: Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII. They made some great RPGs. Then they found cash cows making games for kids and easily-franchised series, White Knight Chronicles flopped, and they pretty much stopped making the cool, innovative RPGs that they used to.
Level-5 has shown me that they cared a lot more about making money than good games over a decade ago. I can't say I'm too surprised here.
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u/Vincent210 15h ago
I mean there is a pretty big difference between pivoting genres and going AI-sellout
Sure they weren't making RPGs anymore but what they were making was very real, cool, and narratively involved still.
I wouldn't agree dropping RPGs for Layton and co. was solely about the money at all. They almost went under and dissolved entirely. Didn't exactly cash cow as a result of pivoting.
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u/WrongLander 6h ago
They absolutely were still making RPGs. Yokai Watch and Fantasy Life and Ni No Kuni are bangers.
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u/omfgkevin 12h ago edited 11h ago
WKC and THEN WKC 2 as well. Shame because I liked some of the core concepts and the combat system was fun if somewhat janky. Turning into big ass knights was sick too.
Was always hoping they'd eventually come around and with a better vision make a third but with the whole "AI AI AI everything of ours will be AI" I'm staying as far away as I can from anything they touch.
They are somehow STILL late and constantly delaying (while somehow announcing new stuff). With ai supposedly "helping" them make things smooth and fast god knows wtf they are even doing at this point.
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u/Bretreck 10h ago
I was looking forward to the DLC for Fantasy Life i. As soon as I saw the stupid AI video I already planned on not buying it anymore. I loved all their games too, it sucks.
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u/shadowedlove97 20h ago
It’s heartbreaking. I loved Ni No Kuni. I guess there’s no hope in them reconsidering.
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u/IAmTiborius 20h ago
Same, and since Ni No Kuni was a colab with Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki is vehemently against AI, I don't think we'll see a new entry for a long long tjme
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u/Avitas1027 17h ago
They might reconsider after a few flops. Whether they survive them is another question. Though they have enough of a track record that it'll probably take several flops for people to realize they aren't the studio they used to be, so there's a chance.
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u/Jim_e_Clash 12h ago
Wait what's ai first the art, the writing, or the coding. If just the coding, it's kinda hard to escape that today. And it's less of an issue given how much copy paste code already existed.
But art and writing is just shooting your self in the foot for no reason. I haven't seen any generative AI that is production ready.
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u/SimonJ57 7h ago
You should have seen the recent Fantasy Life i paid DLC announcement.
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u/JoeLikesMovies2007 1h ago
Style over substance studio goes all in in style and forsakes substance isn't crazy news
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u/brycejm1991 23h ago edited 21h ago
I feel like there some context missing here.
Edit - when I made my comment, the only thing under the picture was "Artist credit: Verdimand". Either something didnt load for me, or it was edited, though I dont remember if posts get marked as such like with comments.
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u/potatoqualitymemory 22h ago
As others are saying about the developers going into AI, you often see puzzles made unsolvable by how AI generates them. You see this on occasion in r/mildlyinfuriating when parents get unplayable word searches or mazes with no real paths.
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u/Myrddin_Naer 22h ago
Reading the context often helps with the lack of context :)
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u/brycejm1991 21h ago
Yeah, when I made my comment, the only thing under the picture was "Artist credit: Verdimand". Either something didnt load for me, or it was edited, though I dont remember if posts get marked as such like with comments
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u/Erogaki 19h ago
If the new Layton game has AI I'm going to be heartbroken... I have all the mainline games + Wright vs. Layton. I love this franchise😭
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u/TheReal9bob9 17h ago
Well we know the remake at least has ai use because the backgrounds have hallucinations. There was a staircase that just stops existing halfway up, some berries on bushes became moldy green blobs.
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u/pupunoob 14h ago
There's gonna be a remake?
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u/TheReal9bob9 13h ago
Yeah curious village is getting one. They seemingly waited a day to show it because the backgrounds are ai. Even ignoring the ai they took the 2d characters and made them 3d which is somewhat upsetting.
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u/Warm_Parking_941 14h ago
This might also relate to the pictures parents post of their kids' AI worksheets that they do in school, many of which are nonsense with incorrect answers.
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u/quipquest 20h ago
That’s just like Layton to take one look at a puzzle and instantly tell it’s bulls**t.
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u/IllusionaryKid 15h ago
They already used AI to display the new character for the Inazuma Eleven sequel, oh Level 5, why?!
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u/kle73 9h ago
So what im hearing is this isnt my starting point for professor layton games?
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u/gingerbreadboi 19m ago
You'd probably be pretty confused anyway. The DS and 3DS games follow a different chronological order than release order, but I'd still recommend release order 👌 and apparently there's a remake of the first one, Curious Village, but looks like it uses some gen AI 😷
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u/Dimxtunim 16h ago
Level 5 made one of my favorite games of all time, fantasy life on the 3DS sad to see they got murdered by the same doohickey that killed shinzo abe and the ideia of shinzo abe at the same time
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u/Art_student_rt 19h ago
Man level 5?? They made danball senki, my fav, it's just shitty they now stoop this low
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u/mickmenn 17h ago
I just want a way to play all Layton games on contemporary devices
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u/ShakenNotStirred915 16h ago
The original trilogy at the least is on the Apple App Store, for what it's worth.
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u/bramblebitch 6h ago
Plenty of handheld devices now that do that, there are even dual screen ones like the Ayn Thor for the DS/3DS games.
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u/maxis2k 20h ago
Considering they constantly cut corners in the earlier games, I'm not surprised. Level 5 are amazing at graphics. But really terrible at gameplay and story content. And constantly outsourced those things. If they can find a way to outsource it even cheaper (or free) they will definitely take it.
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u/Thopterthallid 17h ago
I forsee poor sales and layoffs.
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u/WrongLander 17h ago
Level-5 is hanging by a thread as it is. They bet the farm on Yokai Watch, which did succeed at first but then they milked it into the ground; then Covid and the failed multimedia initiative that was Snack World damn near finished them off. This latest batch of games is seen by many as their last chance to steady themselves, hence the lower budgets and reliance on AI.
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u/D9sinc 16h ago
They seemed to have done well with Fantasy Life I and Inazuma (though Inazuma does use Gen AI for graphical assets and the VA that they are using is massively stilted and sounds awful so I would bet that the VoiceVox program that generated voice lines were the directors of the dub for the game hence why the performance sounds so bad.
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u/Thopterthallid 14h ago
They should just port the Layton games to Steam.
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u/WrongLander 6h ago
Apparently this is on the cards, the recent Steam leak showed a port for Layton Vs. Ace Attorney is coming, which is a title they've otherwise just sat on since it came out in 2014.
If they're going to port a game as obscure as that it's a logical bet the others are coming too.
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u/zeelbeno 7h ago
Sounds like they can't afford artists to cover the entire game then.
I'm fine if it means i get a new game... maybe everyone else who isn't can donate or offer their services for free if they want new games to enjoy.
I play for the puzzles and they will be made to be solvable either way.
The old games weren't ai and some of the puzzles made no sense.
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u/HawksBurst 17h ago
I was really looking forward to it, but man lvl5 flounting their love for AI doesnt sit good with me
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u/DulledBlade 21h ago
Is there a part of the Professor Layton trailer specifically that shows the use of AI?
In the livestream OP linked, the trailer's at timestamp 40:46. I watched it and couldnt see any obvious signs of AI generation.
I'm actually kinda excited for the game, seems like it'll be cool.
obv they should disclose whether or not AI gen was used, but if the game is as polished as the trailer, i wont care.
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u/1967542950 19h ago
The Layton trailer is actually pretty cool, no signs of GenAI. If it were my type of game, I'd pick it up.
OP is referring to Level-5's yearly not-Nintendo-Direct that happened yesterday, which was completely filled with GenAI. The event was hosted by an AI avatar, they ran all the trailers through an AI filter (for some reason the Yo-kai Watch 2 trailer has a completely different art style than the version of the trailer that had already come out?), and the games themselves did not look very good quality.
A youtuber made a video covering AI use in the presentation.
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u/Regular_Ship2073 21h ago
Can we wait until it’s out before crying that it’s bad and made with ai?
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u/TheReal9bob9 17h ago
This is what trailers are for though and what they showed off for the remake at least had ai. Its way more likely that the new game will aswell since they are using it in their other games and blatantly using slop in the presentation.
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u/Regular_Ship2073 16h ago
Where
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u/TheReal9bob9 13h ago
Background of almost every single shot from the remake. The stairs behind him that have floor until halfway up and vanish, the building with vague text, the bushes that previously had berries and now have weird blended together green and blue splotches where the ai couldnt decern the intent of the original.
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u/Regular_Ship2073 4h ago
Imma be honest, i rewatched it all and the only weird thing i saw is the text in the letter at the start, i think it’s just a mix of the art style and confirmation bias (the buildings always had nonsense/garbled text for example)
Do you have timestamps?
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u/ERedfieldh 19h ago
"Let's let the company use LLMs to do all their work and THEN tell them no"
Or how about we tell them now that we won't purchase anything by them or support them if they use it, yes?
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u/PonyFiddler 16h ago
I mean the % of people in the world that has bought into the anti ai properganda is 6% your such a tiny proportion that no company cares what you think.
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u/Popplio3233 18h ago
The best case scenario here is that the president/CEO Hino is using it just to try and make AI look appealing but the games themselves don't have any. That's literally best case scenario here
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u/MonaganX 18h ago
I'd say that's about as likely a best case scenario as the games being released for free. Level-5 has been open about using AI in their game development for at least a couple of years, that ship has long sailed, this was just the pitch for them using it even more.
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u/TheReal9bob9 17h ago
We already know they used ai on the backgrounds in the remake they showed off.
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u/randomguy301048 18h ago
If the new game has ai why do we care? If it's bad then it's bad and will do poorly. If it's made well then great. Who cares if it's ai?
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u/Tek_Freek 16h ago
I am an old (very old) gamer. I hate the idea of AI, - in most cases - but here is what I see, if I understand the comments. A once great game producer that is in financial trouble and trying to stay afloat by using AI.
Do I have that right? If so why the negativity? I agree AI sucks, but you're talking about a company that made great games trying to continue to do so.
What am I missing?
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u/randomguy301048 16h ago
Thats what I've gathered as well. Honestly I don't really have a strong opinion on AI. If the AI works and I imagine they will also do QA checks to make sure things are not bad. Reddit is just insanely anti-AI
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u/ShakenNotStirred915 15h ago
You're missing that the ONLY way to keep AI from practically taking over and ruining the industry is to reject it fully and firmly. If we let New World of Steam pass because "oh no they're struggling," other companies are not going to understand that, hell Level 5 themselves will not understand that, they're just going to think the market finally gave in and accepted AI and it'll soon be everywhere in everything because labor and associated cost is basically THE limiting factor of games in the present day, and corpos will jump on a chance to slash those costs with two hands if they have so much as an inkling of an idea that what the slop machine craps out won't be a colossal flop.
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u/Sir_Lanian 17h ago
Didnt they kill off the character?
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u/WrongLander 17h ago edited 17h ago
No?
Well, technically... yes, in Azran Legacy. He and the entire rest of the cast (Luke included) sacrifice themselves by standing in front of energy beams to stop the army of doomsday machines. They all die after an almost perversely long cutscene where you get to hear them scream in pain. But then they get better a few scenes later thanks to some magical mumbo jumbo.
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u/Sexy_Garlic 23h ago
It could gave been funnier if the words were "No", "HALF-Life", "3" or any dead series. Now I'm sad.
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u/RazorSlazor Console 22h ago
What
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u/ToTeMVG 21h ago
its a bot
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u/andrix7777777 20h ago
im actually not so sure, looking at this guy's comment history. usually the bot accounts are new and they all have the same basic "Wow, this meme is so relatable! So sad to see Level-5 go down this way. 😢" structure
i think they just saw the lambda symbol as one of the letters and went "oho, half-life?" because this is r/gaming so people from all over everywhere see this, not necessarily people who know or care about layton
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u/Sexy_Garlic 18h ago
I leave my comment history open so people can read my other cringe post. I'm not sure I'm proud I convince one think I am a CLANKER.
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u/Sexy_Garlic 19h ago
MY FELLOW CLANKERS (I CAN SAY IT CUZZ IM FROM TH3 CYBER HOOD) DONT LIKE CALLED "bots", WE PREFFER FUTURE HUMAN REPLACEMENTS.
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u/Sexy_Garlic 18h ago
Look at the comic, the joke is the puzzle is too easy. I on the other hand wanted to use add the words to add a message. I struck a chord with gaming community and I made myself LOL CUZ PEOPLE THINK IM A BOT.
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u/Daarken 18h ago
The joke is the puzzle is impossible, what are you smoking ?
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u/turkeypedal 16h ago
I mean, the joke is set up like it's supposed to be easily solvable. Layton's comment is set up as the punchline. And the first three are all easily found, so lots of people may not get down the last one. It's not usually necessary to solve puzzles to read comics.
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u/jacmusl 23h ago
I'm missing something here... Is the new game being made using Gen AI?