Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban (レイトン教授 VS 逆転裁判 Layton-kyōju VS Gyakuten Saiban, 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 will be a crossover between the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton adventure series and will feature scenario designs from Shu Takumi, the series director for the Ace Attorney series. The game will combine the trademark puzzles and contradiction themes from each series.

Gameplay
The game will feature a combination of gameplay elements from both series, featuring the trademark puzzles from the Professor Layton series, as well as trials, known as "Witch Trials" in the game, from the Ace Attorney series. Layton has to solve the mysteries of the strange world while Phoenix Wright has to defend himself in witch trials, similarly to the court trials in the Ace Attorney series, to prove his innocence as he is accused of witchcraft. The game will also feature fully-voiced anime style cutscenes that are common in the Professor Layton games but a first for the Ace Attorney series, which has never used cutscenes or proper voice acting for its games.

Plot
Both Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright find themselves in a different world from their own, and they find that the strange medieval city known as Labyrinth City has been victim to a number of impossible occurrences recently. The town is home to witches who hide in the shadows, and is controlled by an evil villain known as the Story Teller.

Characters

 * Professor Layton, a professor who likes to solve mysteries through a series of puzzles.
 * Luke Triton, the professor's apprentice who assists him on his journeys
 * Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who has been accused of witchcraft
 * Maya Fey, a spirit medium in training, and Wright's assistant.
 * Story Teller, the main villain of the game. Whatever story he writes with his pen becomes reality as the future of the world.

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, CEO of Capcom, 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. Though this mistake was quickly covered up by Jiro Ishii, 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 has evidently turned out to be false.