Fans of Level-5, the legendary studio behind Dark Cloud, Ni no Kuni, and all of the Professor Layton games, are worried that the once-beloved developer is now openly embracing “low AI” after its latest reveal, and the newly announced Professor Layton and the Curious Village remake is taking the brunt of the scrutiny. About 24 hours after finally showing off the long-delayed Professor Layton and the new world of Steam during the Nintendo Direct on September 9, Level-5 livestreamed its own presentation titled “LEVEL5 VISION 2026 II: Dreams.” While the presentation should have been a huge win for the studio, as it featured the first full trailer for DecaPolice and the announcement of a remake of the first Professor Layton game, it immediately drew the ire of the Level-5 fanbase. レベルファイブAI使いすぎじゃね？？😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qmjEei3Tmi – ぺいぺい (@lol5ns) September 10, 2026 The presentation is quite La CEO Akihiro Hino’s quirky-looking animated recreation is only partially to blame for the “disappearance of AI” accusations, as fans pointed out several perceived telltale signs of AI use in… well, every single game that was featured. That’s not an exaggeration either. Yo-kai Watch 2: Haunted Domain is under criticism for its background art and the main character’s sudden face transplant; Inazuma Eleven: Bold Revolution is being criticized for “using too much AI” due to its characters’ stiff movements; Professor Layton and the Curious Village remake is being accused of featuring “inconsistent” AI-generated backgrounds; and DecaPolice is suspected of using AI for all of the above and, in some ways, more. I haven’t been able to see it for 20 seconds. The pen doesn’t even follow what it writes. Lighting failures everywhere. They get out of the car and the positions of the two characters change places because what the AI gets out of them has no coherence. It’s incredible how they show that garbage and peel it off https://t.co/CBJ5vkQHzl — Nyto is developing Delirio 🦋💜 (@Nyto_98) September 10, 2026 confirmed. In fact, I’d honestly be very surprised if Level-5 was dumb enough to use gen-AI for a Professor Layton game, given that the hand-drawn backgrounds and characters are one of the series’ main selling points. However, the fanbase’s obsession with putting all of Level-5’s games under a microscope isn’t entirely misplaced. As discovered by Famitsu (and translated by Automaton) last year, Level-5 CEO and President Akihiro Hino made some rather worrying comments about the use of AI when addressing applicants for Japan’s Top Game Creators Academy program. “Currently, about 80% to 90% of codes are written by AI and then repaired and finalized by human programmers,” Hino said. “In other words, it means that right now, around 80% to 90% of games are created with AI. And it’s not just limited to programming: AI technology is invading art, music, and even game design on a large scale. Not to mention, it’s already becoming common sense in the creative world to rely on the power of AI to increase efficiency at work.” Oh, and in 2023, Level-5 openly admitted to using ChatGPT to create character designs and generate the background art in Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. Yes. It’s hard to believe that this studio once collaborated with Studio Ghibli.
