Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Unreleased

Layton-kyōju VS Gyakuten Saiban (レイトン教授 VS 逆転裁判, lit. "Professor Layton VS Turnabout Trial") is an upcoming crossover adventure puzzle video game being developed by Level-5 and Capcom and published by Capcom for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is a crossover between the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton adventure series and features scenario designs from Shu Takumi, the series director for the Ace Attorney series. The game combines the trademark puzzle and trial themes from each series.

Plot premise
Hershel Layton, Phoenix Wright, Luke Triton and Maya Fey find themselves in Labyrinth City, a strange medieval city in a different world from their own that has recently been falling victim to a number of seemingly impossible occurrences. The town is controlled by an evil villain known as the Story Teller and its shadows conceal witches.

Development
The game was officially announced at the Level-5 Vision 2010 press conference on October 19, 2010. The game was first teased as a crossover between Capcom and Level-5 by Keiji Inafune, head of Capcom's R&D Management Group, who was talking to Japanese business magazine Diamond prior to the Tokyo Game Show 2010. He mentioned that he had great respect for Akihiro Hino, the CEO of Level-5. On September 25, 2010, the game was accidentally outed on Twitter when Jiro Ishii of Level-5 accidentally tweeted to Jin Fujisawa of Square Enix, "Huh? Oh, Gyakuten XX. I'm making it, with Mr. Takumi!" in Japanese, which led to rampant speculation of a new Ace Attorney game being developed by Level-5, similarly to how new Capcom games from established franchises are being developed externally. Jiro Ishii quickly covered up this leak, who tweeted later that day, "A misunderstanding seems to be spreading, so let me say that I'm currently working only on Time Travelers." This evidently turned out to be false; Ishii was working on both titles.

Gameplay
The game features a combination of gameplay elements from both series, featuring the trademark puzzles from the Professor Layton series as well as trials from the Ace Attorney series. Professor Hershel Layton has to solve the mysteries of the strange world while Phoenix Wright participates in "witch trials", which are similar to the court trials in the Ace Attorney series, to prove the innocence of his client, who has been accused of witchcraft. The game also features fully-voiced anime style cutscenes that are common in the Professor Layton games but a first for the Ace Attorney series.

Ace Attorney

 * Phoenix Wright is a renowned defense attorney who must defend a client accused of witchcraft.


 * Maya Fey is Wright's perky and upbeat assistant. She is also a spirit medium in training.

Professor Layton

 * Professor Hershel Layton is a famous archaeology professor with a fascination for puzzles. His love of puzzles has solved numerous mysteries and put his name in the papers many times.


 * Luke Triton is the self-proclaimed apprentice of Professor Layton and follows him everywhere to assist him on his journeys.

Labyrinth City characters

 * Story Teller is the main villain of the game. Whatever story he writes with his pen becomes reality as the world's future.


 * An unnamed blonde girl is the client/defendant, accused of witchcraft.