Not Dead! Just Not In North America Anymore
A new report suggests that Level-5, purveyor of such fine titles as Ni No Kuni, Dark Cloud, Yo-Kai Watch, and all those Professor Layton games, is closing up shop here in North America. This means, among other things, no more Western releases from Level-5! All those franchises, lost, like tears in the rain! Good God, what will we do now? I mean, probably nothing, right? This is happening because we’re not buying those games anymore. We (figuratively) bought this ticket years ago. This is all our fault!
It’s also my fault, slightly, because I don’t play Level-5 games. And I don’t know anyone who does? Especially poor Yo-Kai Watch, that Pokemon contender that simply couldn’t capture our attention. Layton and crew at least got some love from the Americas for several years. We like solving mysteries, okay? Or at least, we used to. Megaton Musashi? Inazuma Eleven? Slim chance we’ll see any more from these IPs. If the reports are to be believed, we’ve seen the last of Level-5 outside of Japan.
If you don’t think this news matters, you are the wrongest, the high chancellor of Incorrect Cathedral. The acting vice president of Wrong Inc. Every company like Level-5 that pulls up the anchor and sails away is a huge blow to Japanese games in Japan. What about Atlus? What about NIS? We must protect these uhhh, these bastions of otaku diversity? Listen, we can’t have one or two companies in charge of bringing us Japanese games. I won’t pretend that mystery games and whatever Dark Cloud was are institutions that require preservation, but we gotta cast a wide net. The more publishers on the shelves, the better the odds we get another bizarre gem like Earthbound, Contact, or Disgaea. Keep videogames weird, you guys,