December2014
News Yokai Watch Anime Spiriting Westward
Level-5 also teasing an even "bigger" franchise for next year
It's already pretty well known that the runaway hit franchise Yokai Watch has had plans to spread out of Japan and peacefully annex the West into its empire. But in case you were worried they were beginning to forget about us, Level-5 head Akiro Hino recently confirmed that the anime will...
News Level-5 Confirms Some Handsome 3DS eShop Festive Discounts
Inazuma Eleven! All of the Guild01 and Guild02 games!
With the next download update set to fall on Christmas Day, we can certainly hope for some exciting releases and discounts across the Wii U and 3DS eShop stores. The home console's Virtual Console already has a tweaked version of Duck Hunt on the way in North America, and Level-5 has now...
News Yo-Kai Watch: Shin'uchi Storms to Japanese Chart Summit as 3DS and Wii U Sales Increase
Reports of Level-5 executives rolling in bundles of cash are unconfirmed
Yo-Kai Watch is a phenomenon in Japan — we're still waiting for it to come to the West — and has once again achieved truly impressive sales at launch, while Nintendo can enjoy some strong hardware sales in this week's Media Create Charts. Kicking off with the software top...
News Nintendo Celebrates Landmark of Record Sales Success for Million-Selling 3DS Games
Four games have sold 2 million copies in the last 5 months in Japan
While hardware results have slowed due to a certain level of critical mass, the 3DS remains a major success story in Japan, in particular. Along with the release of the New Nintendo 3DS — which is helping the portable maintain its dominance in the hardware charts for the country...
November2014
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Twelve: Cook
Bread to rights
In the final part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Today is the day I complete my Life journey in Reveria. All of the Lives I have spent time as, all of the monster parts and mushrooms I have gathered, my fears of a secret organisation creating a new world order...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Eleven: Angler
The never-ending quest for fewer fish in the sea
In the eleventh part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. After last week’s work as a mercenary defending Castele and other associated kingdoms from the scourge of overgrown lizards and smaller nuisances, I wanted a change of pace...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Ten: Mercenary
Paladins go to the palace balls, mercenaries go everywhere else
In the tenth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Last week’s adventure in couch-building and furniture storage left me living large in my well-appointed new digs, the manor house in Castele’s market district. I...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Nine: Carpenter
We do it awl
In the ninth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Last week’s outdoors adventure in nature walks and axe-handling left me with a dilapidated house full of logs, broken furniture, and a missing cat. Rather than move into the inn permanently and replace said cat I...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Eight: Woodcutter
If a tree falls in the forest, that was probably me
In the eighth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. At the behest of one of the forest spirits I got to know while summoning blasts of elemental energy and healing the scrapes I got from wearing flimsy but fashionable cloth...
October2014
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Seven: Magician
The guild master keeps asking me witch one
In the seventh part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Last week I investigated the potential causes of Reveria’s lack of cemeteries as an alchemist, and although I’m no closer to the answers I sought I did outfit myself with an...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Six: Alchemist
Things that make you go boom
In the sixth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Last week I got a lesson in Castelean civics as a paladin, and after thinking perhaps a little too much about the fact that no kingdom in Reveria seems to have any cemeteries despite all being...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Five: Paladin
Turn undead into what?
In the fifth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. NOTE: This week's entry contains a spoiler so diabolically genre-ruining that the esteemed Ant Dickens had to program a special tag in the Nintendo Life content management system to contain it. Click on the...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Four: Blacksmith
The glamour of the hammer
In the fourth part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. At the end of my turn as a miner I sold off enough of the floor covering of loose ore and gems I had robbed various kingdoms of to make a small path to the door of my small attic room, the bed, the...
September2014
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Three: Miner
Can U Dig It?
In the third part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. Clearly tailoring was not my calling, although I managed to stitch up some nice outerwear and the frilliest thing I’d ever be caught alive in, but with city life being all right for the most part yet lacking that...
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Week Two: Tailor
A stitch of mine makes you look fine
In the second part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. In addition to this series you can check out our review of the game. *Last week I got my start in Castele and surrounding kingdoms as a hunter, which was nice for exploring the environmen
Feature Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life - Issue One: Hunter
Wherein I get my start and pick on the local wildlife
In the first part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures. One of Fantasy Life's most notable features — the upcoming life sim/action RPG from Level-5 and Brownie Brown — is that it has twelve jobs, or Lives, that players can...
Preview Fantasy Life is Waiting to Become Part of Yours
Gotta live 'em all!
Originally released in Japan in late December 2012, Level-5 and Brownie Brown’s part life sim, part action RPG Fantasy Life was announced for the West at this past E3 and will see release in Europe on 26th September and on 24th October in North America for the Nintendo 3DS. Selling over 300,000 copies in its native Japan and...
August2014
News Win a Copy of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright from Nintendo of America
Just point at something with your mouth open (or not)
To celebrate Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney's arrival in the far west, Nintendo of America is holding a sweepstakes to give away copies of the game to fourteen lucky winners who can point convincingly and with a certain judge-pleasing style. To enter, take a photo of yourself...
News Yokai Watch Western Release Targeting Next Year, With Toys Also Planned
No detailed plans revealed as yet
Level 5 has been clear that it's exploring its options to bring Yokai Watch to the West, though quite what form it'll take remains intriguing. The popularity of the first title gained additional momentum when the animated TV show took off in Japan, and the sequel — which is a dual release — has well exceeded the...
News Fantasy Life Offers Multiple Ways to Connect With Other Adventurers
Work experience
It's likely that Fantasy Life will be given a fairly substantial marketing push by Nintendo and Level-5 ahead of its release in the West, arriving in Europe and North America in September and October respectively. It's an adventure RPG on 3DS that promises plenty of depth in its mechanics and in the size of the world, with a visual...
July2014
News Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright Art Books Coming West from UDON Entertainment
Top-notch finger-pointing for your coffee table
Art direction fanatics who can read this are in for a treat now that UDON Entertainment will be bringing two new art books to English-speaking territories; one for Phoenix Wright's latest "I can't shout OBJECTION! on the bus" screen-tapping epic Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies and another...
News The Fantasy Life Adventure Begins in Europe on 26th September
Opening movie shows off various character classes
Update: It seems that a North American release date of 24th October was confirmed in early June (thanks Tops), meaning it'll arrive almost a full month earlier in Europe. Original Article: Fantasy Life was a title given extensive coverage during the rolling E3 Nintendo Treehouse broadcast, with a...
News Yokai Watch 2 Sells a Whopping 1.3 Million Copies in Launch Week, Boosts 3DS Sales
Wii U sales drop again, but retains top home console spot
The latest Media Create chart results are in for Japan, and they bring an extraordinary début week for Yokai Watch 2, along with a boost in 3DS hardware sales and another dip in the equivalent Wii U figure. To begin with software, Level 5's Yokai Watch 2 — released as separate Ganso and...
News Yo-Kai Watch 2 On Course For A Phenomenal Début Week of Sales in Japan
Set to be first million-seller in Japan this year
Earlier this week we brought you some comments from Level 5's head honcho, Akihiro Hino, outlining the formula for the success of Yo-Kai Watch on 3DS. The first title had a reasonable but modest start in Japan, before the accompanying anime series boosted its popularity and took it beyond one million...
News Yokai Watch "In Consideration in a Big Way" For Release in the West
Level 5's Akihiro Hino outlines the formula for success
Yokai Watch — or Yo-kai Watch as the Western trademark has it — has become a major success on 3DS in Japan, giving Level 5 a timely franchise success as other brands (such as Professor Layton) take a back seat. The company's Akihiro Hino has recently spoken to Weekly Famitsu — via Kotaku...
