Back in December, the reveal of Sloclap’s Rematch sent me into spirals of introspection about the classist origins of my apathy for football. Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is sending me into spirals of introspection about the fact that maybe football was a Dragon Quest RPG all along. Hypersonic penalty kicks that wreathe the ball in purple fire? Nobody told me football was this rad. So many years wasted, playing effing grass hockey.
Created by Level5 Inc – the studio behind such classics as Dragon Quest 8, the Professor Layton series and Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, together with the more recent Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – it’s a blend of open-ended school yarn and fantasy soccer with 5,400 characters to recruit.
There have been a few of these Inazuma Eleven games, it turns out, but this is the first mainline entry in 12 years, and the first time they’ve released one for PC. It seems smashing. Smashing! I don’t care that I sound like somebody out of the Beano. I don’t care that the centre-forwards all sprint like they’re battling to restrain the aftermath of a hastily eaten curry. I watched the trailer below and the score brought wholly non-curry-related tears to my eyes.
Watch on YouTube
SMASHING. Let’s proceed to the Steam page without further ado. Dear lord, it’s a tawdry logjam of special edition bonuses and bolt-on preorder tat. I read a blog post about how to structure a Steam page earlier and this pretty much breaks every rule on it. Keep scrolling, however, and you’ll eventually discover the game’s premise.
“This new story takes place 25 years after the first Inazuma Eleven,” the developers explain. “In search of a world without football, protagonist Destin Billows enrolls at South Cirrus Junior High. Meanwhile, within the prestigious Raimon Junior High – renowned as the top team in the nationals – rises a Football Monster named Harper Evans. When these two cross paths, a tale begins to unfold…” The story sequences include animations supplied by MAPPA, producers of such anime shows and adaptations as Dorohedoro, Chainsaw Man and Zombie Land Saga.
I can’t bring you any hands-on Victory Road impressions, sadly, as we’ve only just been offered code, and I’m worried the code offering person is a phisher. But there is much enthusiasm in the Steam forums, with the caveat that a lot of it is from advanced access buyers who are perhaps dabbling in a little sunk cost fallacy.
