Fans of Level-5, the legendary studio behind Dark Cloud, Ni no Kuni, and every Professor Layton game, are concerned that the once-beloved developer is now openly embracing “AI slop” following its latest presentation—and the newly announced Professor Layton and the Curious Village remake is taking the brunt of the scrutiny.
Roughly 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 slam-dunk win for the studio as it featured the first full-length trailer for DecaPolice and the announcement of a remake of the very first Professor Layton game, it immediately drew the ire of Level-5’s fanbase instead.
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’s rather peculiar-looking animated recreation of CEO Akihiro Hino is only partially to blame for the “AI slop” allegations, 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 fire for its background art and the main character’s sudden face transplant; Inazuma Eleven: Bold Revolution is being criticized for “using AI too much” due to its characters’ stiff movements; the Professor Layton and the Curious Village remake is being accused of featuring “inconsistent” AI-generated backgrounds; and DecaPolice is suspected of using AI for everything previously listed and, somehow, more.
Ni 20 segundos he podido ver
El boli ni sigue lo que escribe
Fallos de iluminación por todas partes
Se bajan del coche y las posiciones de los dos personajes cambian de lugar porque no tiene coherencia lo que les saca la IA
Es increíble como muestran esa basura y se la pelan https://t.co/CBJ5vkQHzl
— Nyto está desarrollando Delirio 🦋💜 (@Nyto_98) September 10, 2026
Of course, none of this has actually been 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 out of left field. As spotted by Famitsu (and translated by Automaton) last year, Level-5’s CEO and president, Akihiro Hino, did make some rather worrying comments about AI use when addressing applicants for Japan’s Top Game Creators Academy program.
“Currently, around 80~90% of codes are written by AI and then fixed up and finalized by human programmers,” stated Hino. “In other words, it means that right now, around 80~90% of games are made by AI. And it does not just stop at programming – AI technology is encroaching on art, music and even game design on a large scale. Not to mention that it’s already becoming common sense in the creative world to rely on the power of AI to boost work efficiency.”
Oh, and in 2023, Level-5 outright admitted to using ChatGPT to create character designs and to generate the background artwork in Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. Yeesh. Hard to believe this studio once collaborated with Studio Ghibli.
Update 9/12/2026, 8:27 a.m. ET: Level-5’s CEO and President, Akihiro Hino, has addressed fans’ “uncomfortable” concerns about the studio’s use of AI in a post on X, while simultaneously promising that “the parts that relate to the charm and individuality of [Level-5’s] released works” are still “created by human hands.”
“This time, because we used AI for the footage within the event, it seems that concerns have arisen regarding the content of the works as well, so I would like to provide an explanation,” begins Hino’s statement (as machine translated from Japanese by X). “It was entirely due to the desire to make the presentation more spectacular that we incorporated processing that also served as an experiment using the latest AI. It appears that some people felt uncomfortable about this, so I deeply apologize.”
【AIの使用について・LEVEL５VISION2026Ⅱ】
今回、イベント内のでの映像についてAIを使用したため…— 日野晃博 (@AkihiroHino) September 12, 2026
“However, at our company, the parts that relate to the charm and individuality of the released works—such as scenarios, character designs, and basic settings—are all created by human hands,” Hino continued. “What we’re aiming for in terms of efficiency through AI is mainly the digitization of creative work made by people, for example, accurately converting original artwork into polygons and such[…]That said, it’s undeniable that this time, out of the desire to create a clear and flashy presentation, we ended up using AI in a wide variety of ways. We will take this as a lesson and carry it forward to the next one, so please look forward to Level Five’s next presentation.”
