Level 5, the creators of the popular Professor Layton series and Ni No Kuni, are currently putting the finishing touches on their next game, Guild02. If some cryptic tweets from the company’s official tweets are to be believed, then it seems like Guild 02 may be making its way Stateside as well.
Like the original Guild01, Guild02 is a compilation of short, experimental titles created by some of Japan’s most acclaimed game designers, including Keiji Inafune (creator of Mega Man, Lost Planet,) and Kazuya Asano (who previously worked on Enix’s Dragon Quest series.) Guild02 hasn’t been confirmed for a US release yet, but Level 5’s official twitter has dropped some rather blatant hints that suggest that at least some of the games featured in Guild02 will get a localized release.
The original Guild01 featured 4 titles: “Liberation Maiden,” a fast-paced shooter designed by Goichi Suda (of Killer7 and No More Heroes fame,) “Crimson Shroud,” a very old-school turn based RPG by Yasumi Matsuno (best known for his work on Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and FFXII,) “Aero Porter,” a luggage sorting puzzle game by Yoot Saito (the creator of experimental titles like Don’t Panic! Seaman and the Gamecube’s Pinball/RTS hybrid Odama,) and finally, “Rental Bukiya de Omasse,” an RPG written by Japanese comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai.
Three of Guild 01’s four titles have been released on American and European e-shops so far: Liberation Maiden, Crimson Shroud, and Aero Porter. Level 5 previously announced that “Rental Bukiya de Omasse” won’t be getting a Western release due to the cost of localizing such a text heavy game.
If you missed out on Guild01, Level 5 will be marking down the games’ prices on the 3DS e-shop this Thurdsay: Liberation Maiden and Crimson Shroud will get marked down to $4.99 each, while Aero Porter will go down to $2.99. I’d recommend Liberation Maiden and Crimson Shroud: while both titles are pretty short, they’re still two of the best games available on the 3DS e-shop, and at that price, there’s no reason to pass them up.