Following several years of delays, multiple title changes, and a drastic increase in scope, Level-5’s Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has finally made it’s way off of the bench as one of the most unique JRPG’s I have played in recent memory.

For those unfamiliar, Inazuma Eleven is Level-5’s soccer-themed media franchise that has spawned several video games as well as successful anime and manga adaptations. Due to a perceived lack of interest in the sport, few entries in this series have ever been released in the United States with Level-5 primarily targeting Japan and Europe as it’s core audience. This exclusivity has caused the series to garner a bit of a cult following in the United States; thankfully, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has been released worldwide and on every major platform to boot.

Containing a handful of game modes, including a narrative-focused story mode that introduces a brand new cast of characters to the series, a gameplay-focused chronicle mode which allows you to play through nearly every match in the series’ history, and a multiplayer mode which supports online PvP tournament play, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has released brimming with content, with even more confirmed to be added in future updates. So far, I have only dug into the story mode and while I can tell I’m only just starting to get to the core experience of the game, my time with it so far has been interesting to say the least.

The narrative of Victory Road follows Unmei Sasanami, a formerly passionate soccer player who was forced to quit the sport due to his congenital heart disease. Having given up on ever interacting with the sport again, Unmei enrolls at Nagumohara Junior High School specifically due to the school’s outright banning of soccer following a mysterious incident that occurred several years prior. Despite this, Unmei’s love for the sport is quickly reignited as he meets Jouji Sakurazaki, another former soccer player and current delinquent who was forced to give up on the sport by his overbearing father. Following a conflict between Unmei, Jouji, and the school’s baseball club, wherein the club was proudly showboating while bashing soccer balls with their bats, Unmei sets out to restore the soccer club at Nagumohara Junior High School. Taking the role of captain/coach due to his inability to participate in the sport himself, the plot begins in earnest as Unmei begins to gradually recruit each of the club’s members while also seeking to uncover the truth behind the incident that got the soccer club banned in the first place.

If this all sounds like the plot of a Shonen sports anime, that’s fully intentional; Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is full of animated cutscenes crafted by MAPPA, the animation studio responsible for numerous highly-regarded adaptations such as Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Yuri on Ice. Pair that gorgeous animation with an episodic plot structure and the whole experience very often feels like a playable anime. This similarity is primarily in the game’s favor; however, much like your standard Shonen anime, the pacing has left a bit to be desired. I have placed a handful of hours into the story mode and have only just started to dabble with full-scale soccer matches. To be fair, these matches have been a blast so far but still very much feel like veiled tutorials rather than the real game. This slow progression isn’t entirely a bad thing, however, as I have enjoyed following the gradual formation of the soccer club with each new member receiving significant development in the process, ensuring that I have a reason to care about each and every one of them. I honestly respect the time the plot commits to each of the main characters as it has already resulted in several compelling and heart-touching moments; I can’t wait to see each of them continue to grow as the story unfolds.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road‘s patient pacing doesn’t necessarily mean the opening hours haven’t contained any fun gameplay either as there are numerous other systems in place that kept me plenty busy. The most prominent of these is the battle system, which I was honestly surprised to find was a core feature of Victory Road. These battles are reminiscent of the ATB systems seen in older Final Fantasy titles, where each character has a timer that determines how often they get to act. The unique twist to the combat is that it operates in a literal rock-paper-scissors fashion where you need to choose the proper sign to deal extra damage to your opponents while simultaneously building a tension gauge which unlocks a powerful finisher move once full. While some of these battles are actual physical confrontations, a majority are social situations where each rock, paper, or scissors option is correlated to a witty response that serve as reactions to the other side’s arguments/questions/etc. Many of these encounters are humorous in nature, such as providing directions to a hopelessly lost elderly woman or dealing with an unruly drunken man at the beach. In all honesty, this battle system felt a bit clunky and lacking in significant depth at first but the silliness has certainly helped keep it entertaining and it has become noticeably more fun now that I have a full party of characters to work with.

Another major facet of the gameplay experience resides in the various training regimes present within Victory Road which primarily focus on increasing the stats of your soccer club members and serve as an in-narrative explanation for how the skills of the players progress so rapidly. These trainings often retain the lightheartedness of the combat encounters, with one of the earlier examples requiring players to finish their bowl of ramen noodles before the noodles get soggy for instance. The minigames are brief and served as an especially nice change of pace during the early hours of the game when most of the experience consisted of running around progressing the narrative and watching cutscenes with encounters sprinkled in every now and then.

There are also dozens of other features worth exploring within Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, such as the numerous side quests, the rewarding exploration, and, of course, the several other game modes I have yet to even dip my toe into. At this point if I have your attention I would just recommend picking up a copy and discovering all this game has to offer for yourself. Despite only just arriving at what seems to be the core of the experience, that being the full-scale soccer gameplay, it became apparent fairly early that this is the sort of video game that doesn’t come around often. It is unique, it is compelling, and it nearly overflows with charm. Despite having some minor gripes with the narrative pacing, the more time I’ve spent with Victory Road the more I can see the plot and gameplay escalating into something truly special. Based on the game’s “Overwhelmingly Positive” score on Steam at the time of writing, it seems as though many others feels the same. Between this and FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time which released earlier this year, Level-5 seems to be hitting an incredible stride at the moment. Here’s hoping the upcoming DECAPOLICE and Professor Layton and The New World of Steam manage to keep the streak going.

What do you think about Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road? Will you be giving this game a shot? Have you played any of Level-5’s previous games? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.

Featured Image Source: Level-5 (via Nintendo)

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