Level-5 Release Dates Still Up In The Air For Some Potential 2026 Titles

Plus, Decapolice might just be coming to Switch 2 now

by Alana Hagues 1 hour ago

Today's Level-5 Vision 2026 Showcase... certainly happened. And while fans of Professor Layton are probably happy, the same can't be said for those who are waiting for updates on other Level-5 games.

Part way through the showcase, president Akihiro Hino introduced a sizzle reel-type video featuring three of the studio's upcoming titles: Inazuma Eleven RE, a remake of the first Inazuma Eleven game; Decapolice, an upcoming detective RPG; and Holy Horror Mansion, the next project in the Yokai Watch series.

The former two have been slated to release in 2026, but for Inazuma Eleven, no date was reiterated (but a Switch 2 version was confirmed). As for Decapolice, well, that's now sitting on an "In Development" in the trailer, but on the official website, it's still saying 2026. Fortunately, RPG Site has spotted that the upcoming RPG's release platforms have changed, and it now shows Switch 2 instead of Switch.

No doubt disappointing news for those who haven't upgraded to the new console yet, but there might still be time. Decapolice has been delayed multiple times, so another one wouldn't surprise us, but there's conflicting information out there.

Holy Horror Mansion (which never had a release date) got the most footage in the reel, but also ended its section with "Still a ways to go...". Sooo 2027? 2028? We have no idea.

Of course, game development is tough right now, and if you're a Level-5 fan, you're probably used to endless delays or vague dates at this point.

But fan frustration is seemingly at a tipping point following the showcase, particularly as president Hino has been one of the bigger proponents of GenAI in video games in recent months, going as far as to call it an "efficiency improvement" and even defending using it in game development.

But, as we suggested above, it's not all doom and gloom, as Professor Layton and The New World of Steam is still targeting 2026, thank goodness. Let's hope it makes that date, as it looks pretty good.

Following the developer's successful 2025 where both Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road finally launched, to a lot of critical love, we really hope Level-5 don't drop the ball with these titles.

Are you disappointed in the lack up updates for Inazuma Eleven RE, Decapolice, and Holy Horror Mansion? Let us know down below.

Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate.

1
Djreisat
1 hour ago

Not terribly surprising.

2
JohnnyMind
1 hour ago

It's exactly because they didn't hesitate to delay it that Fantasy Life i has been a success (there's literally an article about that on this very site) and most certainly the same can be said about Inazuma Eleven Victory Road, too - I don't mind delays in general if they mean getting better games from the get go, but even more so when it comes to Level-5 specifically considering the abovementioned!

3
Vyacheslav333
1 hour ago

«Holy Horror Mansion»
Is that what happened to Ushiro?

4
nhSnork
1 hour ago

We'll get there when we get there. But if Decapolice has changed platforms instead of adding more, it requires an announcement rather than a pauseframe-hunted logo adjustment. Barring an eleventh hour decision to add some mindblowing and proportionally CPU/RAM-devouring extra content, there would be nothing but frixel and filesize deadweight to expect from a nextgen iteration of a game that started development as a Switch exclusive.

5
CaptainQuo
1 hour ago

A good game delayed can become good or great. Most of the time.

I'm really annoyed they are only just now announcing a physical copy of IE: Victory road given I prefer physical and bought the digital thinking they would never release a physical version.

6
Wordbonder
1 hour ago

It's crazy how long Decapolice has been in the works and delayed. It's been years, right? I hope that doesn't spell trouble for the dev process and thus the end result.

7
Darthmoogle
1 hour ago

Personally I’m glad development of Decapolice seems to be moved to Switch 2. I was hopeful that at the very least we would get a Switch 2 edition. Sad for those interested in the game that haven’t upgraded yet though so I hope a Switch 1 version does release simultaneously. I’ve been hyped for this game since its first announcement. Hoping it finally makes it in 2026

8
Tyranexx
1 hour ago

I'd rather a game be delayed so that it isn't rushed out and receives the dev time it needs. The problem is, a large number of delays may point to a troubled development cycle. There are some success stories out there, but then there are games that were delayed or revived from the grave that...didn't exactly turn out well.

All that said, I'm glad I didn't get up early for this. I'm glad Professor Layton and the New World of Steam is still slated for 2026, but it sounds like the rest of the presentation wasn't exactly worth losing some Zs in my case.