Yo-kai Watch has already established itself as a hit franchise in Japan, but Level-5 president Akihiro Hino doesn’t plan on stopping there. He recently spoke with news website Wedge Infinity to talk a bit about what he has planned up for next year.
When asked about his thoughts going into the year 2015, Hino replied that 2015 will be a year where Level 5 create a hit game that’s even bigger than Yo-kai Watch.
“I have some ideas on taking something I liked during my childhood days and giving it a modern arrangement,” Hino continued. Similar to the Yo-kai Watch series, he plans on creating more than a game, making the new franchise another cross-media project with its own anime and manga.
He also explained that while Level-5 have been putting most of their time into working on Yo-kai Watch’s scenario, depending on the week, they also invest more time working on the new title.
“I believe that both Yo-kai Watch and Level-5 will be seen in a different image around this time of next year. We will continue changing in the year 2015,” he concluded.
Last year, Hino spoke of future plans and revealed that he was interested in experimenting with comedy, so this could possibly have something to do with the new project Level-5 are working on. Every single one of the company’s biggest hits to date have been Nintendo DS or 3DS games that are aimed at a fairly broad audience, so it should be very interesting to see how that factors into the equation, too.
For those of you wondering about when we’re getting Yo-kai Watch in the West, Level-5 haven’t made any official announcements regarding the game, but they recently announced that the anime will air in the U.S., Europe, and other regions. The company’s latest release in the West is Fantasy Life, which—like many of their other titles—was published by Nintendo.
