John-ShepardLast year, Level-5 opened an office in California, which caused most to assume the new location would help the company sell Japan-developed titles in North America and overseas areas.
True, but that's not all: CEO Akihiro Hino told Nikkei Trendy that the new US division is developing its own projects. This comes as good news to role-playing aficionados who have greatly enjoyed past Level-5 games like White Knight Chronicles . Said Hino:
"We have five staff members at present. Titles that are being planned in the North American office are being developed in that region. The office staff is mostly Japanese, but we're using a style of development where we collaborate with local staff, so I believe we'll be able to make something that matches the North American market well."
Better yet, Hino says we can expect "specific title announcements at this year's Level-5 Vision." It's their annual press conference that usually occurs somewhere around the Tokyo Game Show in the fall. He says his company has noticed the rise of downloadable titles, so maybe they'll be working on a smaller project for US audiences; they'd be just the developers to handle a few traditional RPGs that we only find on handhelds these days, right?
Ahh. 134 quid down, but back from YLOD thanks to Sony's next day replacement and came on here for the 1st time on my new 60g ps3 (with 320g HDD upgrade) to a Level 5 headline.
Lovely stuff.
Cool. Hope to hear something soon. I just hope it doesn't go the same direction as a lot of other Japanese game companies have been lately. Not mentioning any names though (*cough* Square Enix *cough*).
Awesome, they just need to amp up their staff numbers with some creative minds and then get on top of an old school feeling RPG. And don't cater to the whole "western" twitchyness!
Rogue Galaxy 2 heheh
RG2 would make my day.
Western developers working with eastern ones focusing on creationg jrpgs with level 5 quality? just sounds awesome to me.
Dark Cloud 3 anyone?
me!
Can't wait to see what they come up with!
Easily my favorite jrpg dev at the moment. Hopefully it's not some kind of wrpg or something… We don't need a Fallout clone.
But seriously, when will they announce a solid release date for WKC2 in the US? We know it's probably in May since the EU release will be in May, but need a specific day…
I agree with scarecrow, we need to know the exact release date for wkc2. It feels like I've been waiting forever for this game. I am a huge fan of the first white knight. Its probably been the 1 rpg that's reminded me most of rpgs from the ps1 era and ps2 era. Perhaps that's just me…
Aside from that though, this is excellent news, I mean I've only played the 1 level-5 game (wkc) but ias long as they keep pumping out games like wkc ill be happy.
And I really hope that level-5 doesn't start to make their games more for the western populace. It seems to me that all the good classic rpg's are just that, classic. Here's. To hoping we see many great traditional rpgs from them.
OMG Just a few months ago I was playing Rogue Galaxy again. God I love that game. Level 5 is a great company.
Level 5 has become my new square, so obviously this is great news. I look forward to them building it up like I build up my characters in their awesome rpgs.
With only five team members yet employed, I get the feeling that they'll be doing mostly downloadable games. Still, I'll be interested in seeing what they do bring out.
Peace.
when will these people realize we dont want "westernized" games from a asian developer?
if i want Pizza i go to a Italian eatery, not a Chinese noodle house!
"With only five team members yet employed, I get the feeling that they'll be doing mostly downloadable games."
Not downloadable games, but rather games more focused on the handhelds, the DS/3DS in particular given the developer's focus.
they just better give me a white knight chronicles 2 US release after that I couldnt care less what they do next (unless its another PS3 rpg with online play lol)
What happened to Ni no kuni. That game literally just fell off the map. I want my RPG fix now!