Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Review
Inazuma Eleven: The Next Generation
Level-5's Inazuma Eleven football RPG franchise had a solid run on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, at least in Japan and Europe. While Europe received five of its six mainline titles, those in North America sadly only got their hands on the first title. Now, after a long developmental process, the series at last marks its global return on the latest generation of systems with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road . Despite requiring a complete revamp of the controls, Level-5 has done a fine job translating its larger-than-life take on "the beautiful game" and retaining all of the charm that series brought to the table it its original heyday.
The first thing to get out of the way with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is the naming conventions and English localisation options. In a nice touch to both connect with the series' history and give newcomers the option of a more "authentic" introduction, Level-5 has elected to let English players choose whether to use localised English character and place names or romanised versions of the Japanese names. As it was the version played for this review, this article will refer to names using their full English localisation. However, while all the other in-game text and English voicing reflect this choice, a few small elements -- such as a city sign and the shirt names in fully animated cutscenes -- are noticeable for retaining the Japanese names.
[caption id="attachment_180776" align="aligncenter" width="640"] This is a football RPG.[/caption]
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road' s Story Mode takes place some twenty-five years after the original trilogy, with Raimon now the powerhouse of the surprisingly popular Japanese youth football scene. Against this backdrop, the game stars Destin Billows, a young boy who has enrolled at South Cirrus Junior High precisely because of its lack of a football team. Destin's attempted shunning of football is quickly reversed, and he soon leads the charge to restore South Cirrus's football team and take on the famed Football Frontier tournament. The other main story thread concerns Harper Evans, current star of Raimon and son of previous protagonist Mark Evans, and his struggles to appreciate a sport he has immense ability in.
Destin himself stands out in the protagonist role as his abilities and initially hidden passion for football become clear. Playing against type for JRPG protagonists, his clear level of forethought and strategising solidifies him as one of the more memorable protagonists of recent years, constantly taking even his allies by surprise with his plans, and it's greatly enjoyable seeing him able to channel his love for football in a different manner and and get so much out of it. Players also quickly become acquainted with the main members of South Cirrus's reformed football club, who prove to be an entertainingly varied crowd that quickly develops a welcome camaraderie, while Harper's story provides a good counterpoint to Destin's. In addition to the main cast, players are also able to choose five more players from a pool of fifteen who fill out the initial ranks and interject during certain scenes to make them feel like part of the team, even if they aren't important to any of the events.
It is often quite easy to predict twists ahead of time, and some threads that could run on for longer are suddenly dealt with bizarrely quickly. As Inazuma plotlines go, Victory Road' s main story is fairly straightforward, and there aren't any true antagonists for the team to really have to deal with that offer any recurring threat or stakes, but the cast generates a great sense of charm that really helps carry the game. There is certainly room to continue the exploits of South Cirrus into a wilder plot in line with some of the other titles in the series, but this more grounded storyline works well to introduce returning players to the new cast and new players to the series, given Victory Road' s status as a soft reboot.
[caption id="attachment_180777" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Despite being somehow surprised here, Destin's meticulous strategising makes him a memorable protagonist.[/caption]
Once it gets going, progressing the story is done by advancing through various events before participating in each chapter's climactic story match, though with how the story unfolds, it takes several hours before any football is actually played. Instead, players are first introduced to encounters involving literal rock-paper-scissors combat. These do a fairly simple job of giving players some extra interaction other than advancing between story points and are later simply used to obtain resources or gain some extra experience.
Between story events and matches, players can explore South Cirrus and undertake basic sidequests, participate in training mini-games (which vary in enjoyability), purchase equipment or other upgrades, play friendly eleven-a-side matches or five-on-five football battles against other schools or clubs, and eventually start recruiting additional players from the school if they wish. Recruiting non-story students requires fulfilling an assortment of conditions unique to each player, but is certainly not needed to actually progress, especially as most story matches require some combination of main characters to be in the side anyway. Each story match has a set of requirements for players to meet before they can start it, which mostly involves selecting specific tactics and levelling the team enough to gain a sufficient rating. Once they have met the requirements, players can choose when to progress, and there's enough to do and unlock to make these interludes engaging and keep players entertained for as long as they wish.
The game's version of football is built around passing the ball or winning one-on-one focus battles, where the player tries to get past the defender or win the ball by either movement choices or using a special skill, to get close enough to the goal to unleash a shot. Special skills make use of the Tension Gauge, itself filled by participating in focus battles without using said skills, and guarantee winning a focus battle -- provided the opposition isn't using a special skill themselves, at which point the skills "compete", with one coming out on top -- or significantly power up a shot. Scoring goals is primarily determined by comparing the shot power to the opponent's keeper points, which deplete with each shot, meaning that even if a single shot isn't powerful enough, getting enough shots on target should eventually find a way through. Shots can also potentially be blocked by defenders, who can use their own special skills to significantly reduce the shot power or even stop it on their own.
[caption id="attachment_180778" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The game's take on football is built around one-on-one battles where special skills can be used.[/caption]
The game makes for a very enjoyable take on football and includes offsides, substitutions, fouls, and yellow cards (though the latter two feel more arbitrary than anything else when given), as well as a selection of formations and special tactics that provide temporary boosts when used. It definitely isn't trying to be a proper simulation, but it's still undeniably the same sport and evokes much of what has made it so popular worldwide, with its celebration of both team play and individual skills. Story matches come with the added wrinkle of scripted events, wherein the player is usually given a set of objectives to meet while also trying to keep victory within reach. There's a little bit of frustration when the game forces events such as the opponent scoring unimpeded, but it works from a narrative perspective and ensures that the games are a bit more exciting than regular matches. These scripted matches also offer a little bit more of a challenge, with skilled players otherwise being easily able to beat similar-level CPU opposition in regular games. There is also an element system with players having advantages over opponents of certain other elements, but for most CPU matches at least, players can readily get by without paying any attention to it.
Every squad member gains experience after playing in matches, which is used to automatically level up. A basic equipment system lets players equip football boots and accessories, which further boost their attributes and impact the likelihood of winning focus battles, shooting and special move power, and so forth. Thankfully, the game comes with an easy equip-all option, as the likely small gains from assigning equipment manually really aren't worth the time it would take. Each player has a skill tree that unlocks passive bonuses and new special skills, including some slots where purchased special skills can be inserted, with two routes that allow the player to play more adeptly in a different position if wanted.
In addition to its thirty-to-forty-hour story, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has multiple other modes for players to dabble in. Chronicle Mode has its own story that involves playing through a linear route of matches from the previous games, though unfortunately its format makes it a bit tough to really get into and doesn't properly convey the stories behind those games. Each node requires playing each opponent twice before moving on, a story match with the original team and a regular game with the player's own curated team, which gets tiresome quite quickly. A Competition Mode lets players compete against both the CPU and online against other players, and there's even a mode where players can create their own town and invite others to visit, so there's no shortage of things to do, even if the game struggles to provide motivation to engage with them.
[caption id="attachment_180801" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Competition Mode lets players revisit matches from previous entries.[/caption]
Competition Mode comes with gacha-like elements for the purposes of unlocking and upgrading players, and it comes with similar drawbacks. The store and upgrade systems make use of an unnecessary number of different in-game currency items that are that are neither particularly rewarding to obtain nor interact with. Further, the sheer number of potential team members that players have access to (covering over 1,500 players from across the series) in this mode is almost overwhelming. The Story Mode and other mode squads are initially fully separate, though once the Story Mode is completed, available players are shared across them. It's also worth noting that Level-5 plans to keep adding content to Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road with post-launch updates, including new routes for its Chronicles Mode and an upcoming Story Replay mode.
The graphics do a fine job maintaining the same visual style from the DS games, and translate into high-definition visuals very nicely. Though limited in number, locations are very well put together with great attention to detail while being enjoyable to wander through, and the animations for the event scenes, battles, and matches are excellent. Character designs are also impressively memorable, although who knows what is happening with some of the hairstyles. Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is fully voiced in English, including commentary on the main matches, though the quality of the English voice acting is a mixed bag. There's a definite Saturday morning cartoon vibe to it, and some characters are notably better performed than others. Music is much more consistent and remains strong and enjoyable to listen to throughout the game, and it makes good use of its upbeat Japanese theme songs, both new and old, that often play in the background to give added excitement as important story matches reach their conclusion.
It's very pleasing to see Inazuma Eleven make its return in strong form. Level-5 has translated its gameplay onto PC and consoles well, while keeping the series' nature and enduring charm intact, as well as ensuring that fans will have plenty to keep them occupied ahead of any potential sequel. There are still plenty of areas for improvement: the non-story modes struggle to find a gameplay loop that is particularly engaging, and there are times where more of a challenge would be welcomed. However, with a solid revival to build upon, here's hoping it's a much shorter wait before the next entry.
The post Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Review appeared first on RPGamer .
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