Level-5 turns 20 years old

Level-5 turned 20 years old today. The Fukuoka-based company—currently known for franchises like Ni no Kuni, Yo-kai Watch, Professor Layton, and Inazuma Eleven—opened its doors on October 28, 1998.

The artwork featured in this post was published on Level-5’s official Twitter account in celebration of the company’s 20-year milestone.

In the first half of its lifetime, Level-5 was an active third-party developer, creating titles such as Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Jeanne d’Arc, and White Knight Chronicles for Sony Interactive Entertainment, and two mainline Dragon Quest games for Square Enix. A Microsoft-published MMORPG called True Fantasy Live Online was also in development, but later cancelled. During the same time, Level-5 also launched and fostered its own Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven franchises.

Following the release of White Knight Chronicles II in 2010, Level-5 shifted its focus to solely cultivating its own properties, further developing Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven, and creating franchises like Ni no Kuni, Little Battlers eXperience, Fantasy Life, Yo-kai Watch, and The Snack World.

The company’s current slate of upcoming titles includes Yo-kai Watch 4 and Inazuma Eleven Ares—both the first high-definition entries in their respective series—as well as the all-new property Megaton Musashi, which we are expected to hear more about in December. A revival of the 2010-announced game Ushiro and MMORPG-scale 20th anniversary title are also planned.