Whether developers want to admit it or not, one of the most important aspects of video game design is looking at something and wondering if they can push it further. Oh, not just in a “let’s make it better” kind of way, but in a “let’s go out of our comfort zone and push in a new direction” kind of way. It’s incredibly easy for a game developer or publisher to stick with what they’ve done in the past because it’s been successful and never truly moved in new directions. However, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino thought quite a bit about “new directions,” and it’s just that the directions aren’t the ones you’d expect.
For those who aren’t too familiar with this developer, they’re the team behind Professor Layton, Yokai Watch, Inazuma Eleven, and other titles. All of them can be defined as “family-friendly, colorful, puzzle-focused, RPG-like,” and other such descriptions. But when talking with Denfaminicogamer, the CEO said he had something more “mature” in mind for the future if he got the chance:
“If I were to put it in extreme terms, I would go as far as to say that I want to make things like erotic games and 18+ games with violence.”
Before you freak out, there is some context to drop here. The discussion wasn’t by himself. He was in a talk alongside the one and only Suda 51, and Hino specifically praised Suda for the “edginess” of the titles that he’s put out into the gaming world. A fair way to define things on Suda 51’s side. Furthermore, he laughed when he made this line. However, he did note that he currently had ideas in his mind about these more mature titles he’d want to make:
“There’s an ‘abnormal world’ inside of me, but I’m not trying to go there, [and am] only making things from the righteous part of my mind instead. However, deep down I really want to visit that abnormal world. I want to go that dark, abnormal world, and I think I will definitely end up doing so. Once I feel that Level-5 is stable, and I have the room to make what I want, I will do it.”
That line about the company being “stable” is key here because they haven’t had too many big releases lately and are currently working on bringing back the Professor Layton franchise. As such, it might be quite some time before he goes into the “abnormal world” of his mind and creates something no one will expect.
