Layton 7 (lost production material of cancelled "Professor Layton" mobile spin-off game; 2013-2018)

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Layton-7-Announce.jpg

The initial game's logo.

Status: Lost

Layton 7 was a mobile game spin-off of the Professor Layton series of games. The "7" in the title referred to the number of characters, rather than the number of the installment while also being the 7th Professor Layton title. The game was supposed to be released on Android and iOS and the 3DS at one point, with plans to localize it for western audiences.[1]

The announcement teaser image showing the seven main characters.

Announcement

The game was originally revealed during LEVEL-5 Vision 2013, where it was announced for Android, and iOS. The game is described as a puzzle RPG where you walk around a tiny 3D town and take control of up to 7 different characters. The game, at the time, had no relation to the Professor Layton series other than the name. The game showcased seven characters whose names are currently unknown, but they were a young boy, an old man, a woman with a sunhat and dress, a man with a suit and briefcase, a man in a yellow taxi cab, a small dog, and a zombie with Professor Layton and Luke also set to appear to the game along with the other characters. No other details or a plot were given after this announcement, besides the Android and iOS ports. Additionally, a 3DS version was also set to release also but no mention of this was made during the reveal.[2]


The finalized logo and titlescreen.

Redesign and Cancellation

At LEVEL-5 Vision 2015 they revealed Layton 7 again but this time the game got a complete makeover that resembled close to the original series and had some returning characters, they also replaced the zombie and little boy. It also had a plot similar to Layton Royale and Phantom Thieves where instead of walking around a town and solving puzzles, you were on a hunt to catch a vampire. They also confirmed it to still be coming to mobile devices[3]. At the start of the game, the players are divided into different roles. A Villager (村人), a Fortuneteller (占い師), a Knight (騎士), a Traitor (裏切り者), and a Vampire (吸血鬼). Each of these roles would have different abilities also like the Traitor's ability to help the Vampire and betray the other helpers, the Fortuneteller's ability to pick two people to guess who is the Vampire, the Knight's ability to protect the villagers and so on[4].

The game happens in two alternating phases: the Day phase and the Night phase. During the Day phase, players will communicate with the others in order to identify the vampire. By using a certain number of keywords you can accuse players with being the Vampire, you can also quote keywords and use them against other players to see who is telling the truth or lying. During the Night phase the aforementioned special abilities can be used. The vampire would get a chance to attack a villager during this phase, and if successful, that villager will be killed off and no longer will be able to participate. The 3DS version was announced to be cancelled and was instead going to be on the newly released Wii U, as confirmed by Level-5 CEO, Akihiro Hino.[5]

In June of 2018, Layton 7's official website went offline that month, and the link for it was removed from the franchise's Japanese homepage. Then there was never any further mention of the game, it was replaced by Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy in 2017 being the seventh Layton game. Whether or not Layton 7 was still in development during the making and production of Layton's Mystery Journey is unknown either.

Availability

As of 2022, the game has still not been released and assumed to have been completely cancelled. No finalized details or updates have been announced. Whether or not the game was eventually discarded has never been confirmed either, but given the lack of details in the last eight years could very well be likely. Only one single video of the initial version can be found online and is a low-quality video showing off the game that was posted to NintendoEverything.com's YouTube channel. A few trailers of the final version have been included on some Japanese gaming websites as well as a presentation from Akihiro Hino. It is relatively possible that we'll never hear any news of this game in the future.

Gallery

Videos

NintendoEverything.com's video showing off the old Layton 7.

Announcement on the re-worked version.

Images

Original Version

Final Version

See Also

References