Decapolice from LEVEL-5 Was Originally Intended to be Presented as the Professor Layton Series’ Successor

During the March 30, 2023, Famitsu issue, the LEVEL-5 President, Akihiro Hino, was interviewed by the outlet. One particular exchange discussed the recently announced turn-based mystery RPG, Decapolice, and its correlation to the Professor Layton series.

It was revealed that at one point early in development, an early marketing strategy was to present Decapolice as the Professor Layton successor, but seeing as that franchise is now being revived, that plan fell through.

The full exchange has been translated below via our team’s Ryuji:

Interviewer: I was very surprised by Decapolice when it appeared at the LEVEL-5 VISION broadcast.

Hino: The development team has been working on the title for about three years. I think we obtained the trademark for it three years ago. The timing for getting a trademark to present the game to cross-media partners coincides with the timing of creating a proposal with a general outline of the game. In fact, I would say development was running in parallel with Megaton Musashi.

Interviewer: I see. So the two games were being developed in parallel?

Hino: I’ve been working on Decapolice more carefully than ever before, just as I have been with Megaton Musashi, scrubbing and polishing it over and over, rereading and rewriting, seeing if I could make it more interesting. If I’m being honest, it might even be in the process of trial and error. 

Interviewer: This is your first detective scenario, isn’t it?

Hino: I think the reason why the Professor Layton series is so popular is that it tickles the intellectual curiosity of adults. The starting point for this project was that if we could combine Level-5’s expertise in creating RPGs with the image of a narrative mystery, we thought it would be interesting.

Interviewer: Well, it is a detective RPG that tickles our curiosity, like the Professor Layton series, but it also sounds very interesting because it seems so unique.

Hino: The truth is, at first, we were going to use something like “from the staff that brought you Professor Layton,” or “The successor to the Layton series is here!” or something like that as an advertising point.