Admittedly, one of the biggest problems in the gaming industry is certain developers or publishers thinking that certain franchises have “long legs” and go on nearly endlessly without issue or quality control. The obvious answer to that line of thinking is, “No, they can’t.” That’s why certain teams know that they have to either plan out the entire series or know when things are “running out of ideas” and stop them before it gets too long. The Professor Layton series by Level-5 is one such example of that. The team made a beautiful six-part saga featuring the beloved professor and did its best to make each entry compelling.
After the sixth entry, they stopped his story, more or less, and fans felt that the end was finally here. Then, Level-5 dropped a bombshell when they revealed Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, which wouldn’t just see him return but team up with his best ally in Luke once again. During the Tokyo Game Show, Automaton documented a conversation between Level-5 leader Akihiro Hino and fellow game creator Yuji Hori, where Hino noted that he was fine with ending Layton’s story where he did, but that a “certain company” convinced him to make a new one.
“Certain individual[s] from the industry really wanted us to release a new game.”
The “individuals” in question were labeled “Company N,” which obviously refers to Nintendo, who published Layton’s titles outside of Japan, including the crossover with Phoenix Wright, whom Nintendo also has a long history with.
So, the question now is, “Why would Nintendo push for a new game like that?” The simple answer is that they obviously feel that the series still has value and can be pushed forward. Just based on what we know about the new game, Level-5 is proceeding with a story that makes sense in the context of what came before. Luke leaves Professor Layton to go to the “new world,” and when Luke finds a mystery that he can’t solve himself, he asks the Professor to join him there so that they can work together and figure it out.
Plus, this would be the first game in the franchise to launch on a console versus a handheld, which would be an interesting thing indeed to see the visual and gameplay improvements within.
It also should be noted that Level-5 DID try to “continue Layton’s story” via another follow-up starring his “daughter,” Katrielle, but it didn’t pack the same punch.
