The game was first hinted at as a crossover between
Capcom and
Level-5 by
Keiji Inafune, who was talking to Japanese business magazine
Diamond prior to the
Tokyo Game Show 2010, where he mentioned that he had great respect for
Akihiro Hino, CEO of Level-5. On September 25, 2010, the game was 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. This led to rampant speculation of a new
Ace Attorney game being developed by Level-5, similar to how newer Capcom games from established franchises were being developed externally, such as
DmC: Devil May Cry being developed by British developer
Ninja Theory. The mistake was quickly covered up by Jiro Ishii who tweeted later that day that, "A misunderstanding seems to be spreading, so let me say that I'm currently working only on
Time Travelers." The game was officially announced at the Level-5 Vision 2010 press conference on October 19, 2010. The game was originally an idea of Hino's, and a project that he himself proposed to Capcom, sometime after some initial development work had been completed. However, according to Inafune, Hino was able to convince Takumi to accept the idea, giving him creative control as the main scenario writer for the project, although Takumi was not in charge of the script. Inafune described the game as a true collaboration between the two companies jointly sharing in the effort, as opposed to the licensing of characters by one company; he felt that they "wanted to create a great history, which would have been impossible if both parties were not fully involved". Both Level-5 and Capcom contributed towards the game's development, with Capcom specifically handling the visual design, while Level-5 took charge of publishing duties.
Yo Oizumi and
Maki Horikita, who voiced Professor Layton and Luke in previous games, reprised their roles, whilst Phoenix and Maya were voiced by
Hiroki Narimiya and
Mirei Kiritani, who also played their roles in the
Gyakuten Saiban live action film.
Localization The game had originally only been announced for release in Japan, with Capcom gauging interest from the community over whether or not to localize it for other territories. In July 2011, Level-5 International America Inc. conducted a
Facebook poll in which fans were asked what currently Japan-only Level-5 game they had the most interest in.
Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney ultimately won the most votes, with over 6,000. Although the game had yet to be officially announced for release outside Japan, an English-language press release from Capcom at
Tokyo Game Show 2011 hinted as such. Journalists had also noted the game's listing on various Western online retailers, further suggesting a release outside Japan. Level-5's CEO Akihiro Hino had earlier stated that
Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney would be released in North America and Europe by its international studio in 2013, however a later statement from Level 5 following its Japanese release asserted that a Western release had not been confirmed or announced. During Japan Expo 2013 in France, when asked about a localization of the game, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino said that "something was in the works", but that he couldn't talk about it at the time. Level-5 International America posted about it on their Facebook page later the same day. A release for North America and Europe was finally confirmed on Nintendo's
Nintendo Direct presentation on August 7, 2013, slated for release in 2014. Due to the fact the North American release fully retains the European localisation as is, this is the first
Professor Layton game in the region that features
Maria Darling's voice as Luke Triton, instead of
Lani Minella as in previous games.
Music The soundtrack to the game was a collaborative effort between
Professor Layton series' composer
Tomohito Nishiura and newcomer Yasumasa Kitagawa of Capcom. Aside from producing new compositions, both additionally arranged music from previous instalments of the respective franchises, with Kitagawa arranging some compositions from
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney composer Masakazu Sugimori. Nishiura and Kitagawa arranged and orchestrated the music with the help of Yumiko Hashizume and Norihito Sumitomo; whom had both previously worked on the
Professor Layton series. While the arranged pieces were used mostly with gameplay, the animated cutscenes were accompanied by more cinematic orchestral music. All orchestral pieces were performed by Layton Grand Caravan Orchestra. Awarding it a score of nine out of ten, Oliver Jia of
Game-OST.com praised the album as "the soundtrack that fans of both series have been wanting for years." Luna Lee of
RPGFan Music similarly responded favorably to the soundtrack, but criticized the tracks for being, "segregated into two camps and [having] few overlaps with one another." Japanese pre-orders of the game included a special bonus soundtrack containing five musical tracks and a celluloid film strip containing select animation cels. The entire soundtrack was officially released on a 3-disc set as
Layton Kyouju VS Gyakuten Saiban Mahou Ongaku Taizen ( Professor Layton vs. Gyakuten Saiban Magical Mystery Music) on April 10, 2013. The first disc contains all
Professor Layton related tracks, the second disc contains all
Ace Attorney related tracks, and the third disc contains the music used during the cinematic cutscenes throughout the game. ==Reception==