The world cup football is upon us and I couldn’t think of a better game to get me into the mood for one of the world’s favourite sports. I don’t actually play the traditional football video games out there on the market, I’m scarily awful at them, but Inazuma Eleven GO isn’t like your traditional football experience. For this review I played through the Light edition of this title, the other is Shadow but the gameplay for both is the exact same if you fancied purchasing the latter after reading this. One thing you must understand before you read on is that this game doesn’t require you to be knowledgeable or even a hardcore fan of the sport to play. Please enjoy what you’re about to read as I’ve written this as a non-sporting fan and I’ll explain how this game grew on me and how I fell in love with this game.
What is Inazuma Eleven GO?
This is the first game from the series I’ve played through with no prior knowledge to the other titles. It happens to be the final instalment and takes place 10 years after the previous game Inazuma Eleven 3. You play the newbie protagonist and underdog, Arion Sherwind, who’s the most determined, upcoming and the biggest avid football player I’ve ever stumbled across, the fictional character that is. The game is set around his school that he’s recently joined called Raimon High that has its own school football club. The story you then embark on is a tale of the traditional zero-to-hero story about a boy who influences his teammates to take down an evil corporation that fixes high school matches to control the schooling system. I thought this approach had a lot to say about such sports out there in real life and tells this story through a cartoon Japanese art styled animation broken up into acts and chapters to set it out like a TV series.
How does it play?
The game has 2 types of play, the role playing game and the actual football playing. Whilst exploring the city and the school you’ll take control of Arion in an isometric angled RPG. You take him from home to school, from football practise to other schools for matches all whilst training up he and the team’s stats purchasing new football kits and challenging other small teams. At various points of the game you enter a scenario called Chat Lock that usually appears when you must speak to various people for their input on a situation before progressing which usually builds on the story and characters if you really want learn more. Other than that, the rest of this side of the game is about building friendships, exploration and buying and selling loot from shops.
The football side of this game is a lot more exciting, personally. I guess you could say it’s the fighting-the-foes side to a traditional role-playing game like the more commonly known Final Fantasy game series. Controlled only using the touch screen and stylus you tap to which player you want to pass the ball to and which direction to run in by drawing a line as a path. Each player has an assigned element of either Water, Rock, Fire or Grass which all plays a part in who can challenge who, a unique and tactical way to approach a football game. Now what makes this game different to any traditional football game is the Special Moves you can pull off which are quite awesome to watch. Think of them as mini video clips filled with over the top moves, some involving animal spirits and some with the ball being engulfed in fire. With these moves plus many more in a game involving football it’s quite the spectacle of bright colours and special effects, like living in a Japanese Manga action film.
Why play Inazuma Eleven GO?
I’m the type of gamer that loves a great story, usually the kind where the goal seems impossible. Striving for that goal seems like a long road but when you get there all your hard work is finally paid off and the reward I feel upon completion is very satisfying. This game, at first had me close to rage quitting on numerous occasions due to the fact that I didn’t know why I was so bad at the football side of the game for the first few hours. When you get into an actual football match, whether it is a 5-a-side match or the normal 11 players on each team, you’re instructed to selection your formation then begin, simple enough. I couldn’t score any goals however tactical I set up shots in the match against the goalkeeper. Until I bought my first Special Move, which was for scoring, I was at a major disadvantage. I guess this is the only downside of not knowing what the game was about by jumping into the series pretty late and even though there are tutorials throughout I just couldn’t seem to win on my own terms without having these moves. Yes, the earthly elements do play a part and you have to rely on the luck system to actually score but for a newcomer this wasn’t clear to me and it was pretty frustrating.
After coming across stores where I could purchase moves to help my player’s abilities I then started to enjoy the game a lot more. I was able to score goals at a significantly higher success rate and I was finally able to progress in the game. You’ll then slowly learn about the story of this regulated football world being the reason why this sport has become unloved by the players of the team instructed to lose. You learn that with this protagonist being the driving force to push for a revolution in this fight for real football is a story we all can get behind. And with the addition of even more fearless opponents who have the ability to possess a Fighting Spirit, an avatar that’s a mythical warrior only gifted players can summon, you’ll fight to win these tournaments and restore football to what it once was is quite the emotional journey. The game was a little cringey to begin with. Everyone in your team and in the game purposefully has strong regional accents from across the UK and various other continents. There are a lot of stereotypical phrases from each of these places that are pretty laughable, especially any characters from the West Country. After a while you’ll find this all charming and makes each character stand out differently seeing as you come across many across your journey.
Verdict
If you have the time and want to learn a different style of a football game, one with emotionally driven characters, special moves and the ability to unlock your own fighting spirits, or you’re just a fan of Level 5’s games and love a bit of Manga with a heart warming story about fighting against oppression then Inazuma Eleven GO is for you. I honestly love this game now I know how to play it properly. The learning curve isn’t too steep and you aren’t required to have prior knowledge from the game’s series. With the option to play against other players or team up against the computer, the replayability continuously keeps giving the options to even trade players which is a nice touch to encourage community engagement.
