The Professor Layton series is celebrating its 10th anniversary by introducing a new character, a new world and bringing the puzzle-solving adventure to a broader audience on mobile platforms this summer, before returning to the Nintendo 3DS platform in the fall.
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy will follow the young detective daughter of the good Professor Layton as she gets to the bottom of the mystery surrounding some of London’s upper class.
“The game itself is as you know it, for the most part. The previous titles have always been about this big solve, at the end of the day you’re solving this one big puzzle in this one big journey. This one as Katrielle is learning and growing her detective agency and sort of letting people know that she’s Layton’s heir to the detective agency,” Lucy Pozniak, director of games marketing at Level-5, told Player.One. “She’s also learning about solving these cases in small chunks, so her story is 12 different chapters, different mysteries in this one big game. So as she’s learning and establishing herself as the hero and this great detective she’s taking you on this journey along with her.”
Pozniak described the Layton journey in the Millionaires’ Conspiracy as being “rebooted” in a way that deviates from the world-saving mysteries of recent games and focuses on one location, in this case, London. But Pozniak assured that the gameplay itself, “the essence of it being Layton,” is still there.
But with Katrielle taking the lead, Layton fans will see a shift in visual and tone.
“When it comes to visuals, in the previous series we had this set tone color that was basically brown or a variation of brown,” Yukari Hayakawa, chief operating officer at Level-5 told Player.One. “But when we started [Millionaires’ Conspiracy], we added some color so you’ll see some more colorful visuals.”
Hayakawa revealed that Katrielle is more humorous than Layton, so there will be more jokes as players go through the story. In a way, the evolution of Kat as a character was accidental. “This wasn’t intended but it just kind of happened. She’s more like the female hero of today,” Hayakawa explained. “She’s not bodacious or a violent gaming heroine that you may be used to but she’s more intelligent, independent, strong, and yet humorous and kind. She’s a real female hero that you would look up to today. Again, that wasn’t intentional, it just happened to be that way.”
But how will Layton fans take to the Millionaires’ Conspiracy? As Pozniak described it, the series is taking a step back from the world-shattering events and it may seem that the years of fans playing the past titles will be reset with the new game. But even the longtime fans will find something to love in the upcoming game.
“It’s the Millionaire’s Conspiracy, so we have some of London’s most famous millionaires in this game. Whether or not returning characters or the other world of Layton will appear in this one that’s to be told, that’s to be discovered,” Pozniak said. “There will be a homage to [past characters], there are mentions but we don’t know when or where they will show up.”
Those nods to past games and characters is intentional, as the original Japanese title, Lady Layton, was changed to Layton’s Mystery Journey, because Level-5 wanted to have the freedom to go beyond Kat’s story. The iOS and Android versions of the game will have similar assets to the 3DS version, but there’s a specific approach needed to bring new and older Layton fans to the mobile version.
“There is definitely a learning curve as to the broader audience you have on iOS and Android than you do on the 3DS or DS system,” Pozniak said. “Introducing the title on a new platform is always a little iffy, because you don’t want to upset or alienate the fans that you have, but you also want to be able to acquire new fans. So it was just that balancing act of keeping the integrity of the brand, the integrity of the story, characters, visuals and that entire journey and experience and putting it on a new platform and getting the message across to fans and players that the essence, the brand and world that they live in hasn’t changed it’s just a new avenue that we’re bringing the game to.”
Millionaires’ Conspiracy will bring over 50 puzzles to mobile devices after a $15.99 purchase. And yes, there will be in-app purchases, if you feel the need. This business model is unique to mobile gaming, a fact that Level-5 recognizes, but the team is excited to see how fans take to the game.
“I think this is the perfect title for a mobile game. I don’t see a future where we walk away from mobile. I think this is a title that’s good for a handheld,” Hayakawa said.
“Mobile is changing its overall perspective. Everything is free-to-play, people making duplicates of every other game over and over again,” Pozniak added. “This gives us an opportunity to be a market leader as a full, robust, console game that is pocket-sized and you can take with you everywhere at anytime to play it. To have that opportunity to be the guinea pig and really stand behind it is a really great opportunity for us.”
Layton has made the jump from handheld to mobile but what about a move to home consoles, like the Nintendo Switch?
“Level-5, especially [Layton creator] Akihiro Hino is a big fan of Switch. And we would like to get any opportunity to bring our 3DS titles to it but one challenge we have with the Layton series is that it has to be portable,” Hayakawa said. “So once we put it on the dock there are problems. We’re trying to solve it, but that’s the reason we didn’t put it on Switch at this time. We can’t keep doing this on 3DS, we will have to do something with Switch.”
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy will release for iOS and Android July 20 and Nintendo 3DS this fall.
