Layton and Luke will sound like Layton and Luke again. According to Nintendo Life, Level-5 has revealed the English voice cast for Professor Layton and the New World of Steam. It's led by Christopher Robin Miller and Lani Minella, who Nintendo Life describes as "the returning North American Layton and Luke voice actors from the main series."
On the same day, PC pre-orders went live on Steam, according to Nintendo Life, which says they've "gone live today", and Gematsu.
A quick note on sourcing: Nintendo Life's report traces to Level-5's official Layton website, and Gematsu credits Level-5's announcement. We couldn't load that site, so we couldn't check the original directly. Everything below comes from Nintendo Life or Gematsu, and we've credited each one as we go.
The bonus you might miss
Gematsu reports that digital pre-orders are open now for PS5 and PC via Steam at $64.99, £53.99 and €64.99, ahead of launch on 10 December. Gematsu didn't list an Australian price.
The useful bit is the pre-order bonus. Gematsu says it's the "Layton Series Soundtrack Selection", a digital soundtrack with 11 tracks from across the series. According to Gematsu, the tracks are accessed through the in-game "Secret Content" menu.
Gematsu says Switch and Switch 2 pre-orders will open later.
Who's voicing who
Gematsu's full cast list has Miller voicing Professor Hershel Layton in both the US and UK English dubs. The UK dub has one change. Gematsu lists Cat Protano as Luke in the UK English version. Nintendo Life says Protano "seems to be" taking the role rather than Maria Darling, Luke's previous main-series UK actor. Lani Minella stays on as Luke in the US English dub.
The new characters are voiced by the same actors in both English dubs, according to Gematsu:
- Elinora and Elida Allinston: Amber Lee Connors (both roles)
- Eggmuffin Sonder: Nic Olsen
- Bolt Allinston: Andy Barnett
- Sheriff Bobsley: Caleb Jensen
- Falcon: Arthur Romeo
- Mystella: Kayli Mills
Nintendo Life lists some of their earlier work: Connors in Unicorn Overlord, Olsen in Genshin Impact, and Romeo in Street Fighter 6, among others.
Gematsu also lists French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Korean casts, with Yo Oizumi returning as Layton in Japanese. Nintendo Life says you can hear clips of the English cast on the game's website.
Why the cast news matters
Nintendo Life frames this as a relief. It says there was real uncertainty over whether Level-5 would hire human actors for the regional dubs or use AI, which it says Level-5's CEO brings up regularly. Nintendo Life calls the result "positive news" and notes that the European-language dubs on the website also use real voice actors.
Nintendo Life also points out that the new Steam page doesn't show Steam's AI disclosure, which Valve requires for games that use AI-generated assets. It notes that the lack of a disclosure "doesn't mean AI hasn't been used under the hood". It also says Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has stated that AI hasn't been used anywhere in the game.
What else is in it
Based on Level-5's overview, as Gematsu reports it, the game is set in America after the Wild West era, in an invention town called Steam Bison. QuizKnock designed the puzzles, and Level-5 calls this the most puzzles in any game in the series. There's fast travel and a robot called Coindar that finds hidden hint coins. Gematsu also reports that a new daily puzzle will be added every day for more than a year after launch.
Jax's take: Plenty of games list voice cast as a feature. For Layton, bringing back Miller and Minella will do more for fans' confidence than anything else on that list. The UK Luke recast is the one change that's likely to get people arguing.
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