Level-5 reveals a bold new concept for Yokai Watch, but struggles to get anything out the door

Level-5's Vision livestream showed a lot of cool stuff, but none of it is coming soon

Level-5

Level-5 just wrapped up its Level-5 Vision presentation, with the livestream showing off new details for seven games — five of which were previously announced, and another two were brand-new. Alongside delays across the board for existing projects, the two new announcements were certainly interesting, with one being a remake of a beloved game, and the other being a whole new take on one of Level-5’s biggest franchises. 

The remake comes in the form of Inazuma Eleven RE, a full remake of the first Inazuma Eleven game which debuted on the Nintendo DS 15 years ago. It looks like it’s much smaller scale than Victory Road – we’ll get to that later – so hopefully it won’t take quite as long to get it out. Level-5 says that it should be released in 2026, but we’ll see. 

More interesting is the new concept trailer released for the next phase of the Yokai Watch franchise, although curiously the new title is dropping the Yokai Watch name altogether. It’s called Holy Horror Mansion, and it’s a bold new take on the idea of yokai existing in the world and teaming up with the player. 

We don’t have a whole lot of details just yet, but the basic concept of Holy Horror Mansion is that you play as Ten Lordland – I didn’t make that up, that’s his name – a young boy who stumbles across a magic camera, in which is a ghost. That ghost can possess objects and creatures throughout the world, turning them into yokai which, presumably, fight alongside Ten. There’s also another ghost that lets you “craft” ghosts by combining two items, like a pen and an apple, which can then be turned into a yokai ally. It looks like a fresh new take on the Yokai Watch franchise, but it looks like it could be a long way off. 

While there was a bunch of new information, more telling was that none of it is coming anytime soon, with the exception of a new battle royale mode coming to Megaton Musashi Wired in November. After that, it will be Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, set to be coming in April 2025 – one of the most anticipated Nintendo Switch games – followed by Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, coming in June 2025. 

But there were some huge delays, too, most notably with Decapolice. The detective RPG was originally set to be released in 2023, before being delayed indefinitely, and now it has a release window of 2026. The Inazuma Eleven remake is also apparently coming in 2026, and Holy Horror Mansion doesn’t even have a date attached to it. Announcing two new games while the four you already have announced aren’t even out yet is a strategy that so few publishers can get away with, and Level-5 isn’t one of them, with its long history of delays and setbacks. 

Still, there was a glimpse of hope within Professor Layton: The New World of Steam, previously announced during a Nintendo Direct last year. A new trailer and some gameplay was shown off during the livestream, and it’s looking absolutely wonderful in its transition to full 3D environments. Level-5 says that it’s coming in 2025, and this is about the only one we actually believe will hit that target. At least, we hope it does.