1. "Professor Layton"'s Hidden Rival

Iwata: Today we are going to talk about the 3DS game "Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney." At first glance, Level 5's "Professor Layton" and Capcom's "Ace Attorney" may seem to be completely different, but because the makers overcame the boundary and formed one game, I thought "I need to ask about this no matter what," and so got each game's creator to come. This will be the second time I'm interviewing Hino, after "Iwata Asks."

Hino: Yes, it's a pleasure to be here.

Iwata: We also have Takumi.

Takumi: Yes, nice to meet you.

Iwata: Nice to meet you. Thank you very much for appearing on Nintendo Direct the other day.

Takumi: Thank you for having me. I'm a bit nervous.

Iwata: Please, make yourself comfortable.

Takumi: Thank you.

Iwata: First I want to ask how this this normally impossible project got started at the very beginning.

Hino: This is going back a bit, but when I first created Professor Layton, as I said in "Iwata Asks" I was aware of "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training," but the truth is the one I truly considered its rival was Ace Attorney. I did a lot of research on how I could defeat it.

Iwata: Saying "defeat it" even though its creator is sitting right next to you? (laugh)

Takumi: (laugh)

Hino: Well, that's how enthusiastic I was. (laugh) I personally love Ace Attorney, and have been enjoying it for a long time. When I made Professor Layton, I replayed the Ace Attorney series to inspect the good and bad points.

Takumi: I'm personally worried about those "bad points."

Everyone: (laugh)

Iwata: Since we aren't here to discuss Ace Attorney's bad points... (laughs) But on that note, since you said last time on "Iwata Asks" that you wanted to create the game after Brain Training, does that mean you could say that if Brain Training and Ace Attorney hadn't existed, Professor Layton wouldn't have been made?

Hino: Yes, I suppose it would. I've been paying attention to its creator Takumi since then, and even after Professor Layton first started selling I was secretly thinking "If I could sometime do a collaboration with Ace Attorney..." But before that, so that I would be able to get my suggestion considered, I tried to properly raise Professor Layton, and was always secretly holding that thought in my mind.

Iwata: When was it that you first talked concretely to Capcom about this?

Hino: Now it was about 3 years ago, at the beginning of 2010.

Takumi: Actually, about a year earlier when Hino was at Capcom, from that seat I was openly told the idea by Hino. I've been calling it "The Okonomiyaki Shop Incident" since then. (laugh)

Hino: It's become an "incident"? (laugh) But that was certainly the first time I said it, and I directly said to Takumi "Won't you do Professor Layton together?"

Iwata: Had you two met each other before then?

Hino: That was the first time we had properly met, but before then I was sending copies of Professor Layton to Takumi and he was sending me letters of thanks. For each game I would get polite, "This time it was like this" sort of impressions.

Iwata: So you hadn't met, but still had a connection.

Hino: Yes. When I said it to Takumi it was basically still just a dream, so from then I put the form in order, and after many twists and turns it started as an official project around January 2010.

Iwata: And how did Takumi get involved in the project?

Nintendo usually translates those themself. Perhaps they are holding back this time due to the fact that the game isn't in English yet?

If I remember correctly, Professor Layton himself was designed by looking at Phoenix, and sorting out anything they felt Capcom did wrong in designing him, and then did the opposite of that.

If I remember correctly, Professor Layton himself was designed by looking at Phoenix, and sorting out anything they felt Capcom did wrong in designing him, and then did the opposite of that.

Well that's pretty....nutty considering how radically different they turned out. Hell I really wonder where they drew inspiration from, aside from mutual pointing they are just so....different.