## Story Mode I got **Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road** because I have two cousins who have absolutely been obsessed with the series since they were kids, and because I remember liking whatever I played of the original game on the [[Nintendo 3DS|3DS]] 15 years ago. I promised them I’d get it around…2022? This game’s been worked on since at least 2016, where it had an entirely different name, play-style, and set of systems it planned to be released on. Yes, you read that right: **Victory Road** has been in development for around *9 years* — more if you count pre-production I’m sure. You might read this and think “development hell,” but after digging into the game’s history, it’s quite the opposite. **Victory Road** has been an absolute labor of love for [[Level 5]], with the CEO himself, Akihiro Hino, directing its release. As you’ll soon see, the latest Inazuma Eleven didn’t take forever to come out because it was a mess: It came out because it’s one of the most content-heavy video games I’ve ever seen in my fucking life. But it finally released in November 2025. And then uh. Well, then this happened. ![[Inazuma Eleven - Victory Road-1763326230283.png]] --- **Inazuma Eleven** is a series of [[JRPG]] football[^1] games. And I *really* wanna emphasize the “JRPG” part of that phrase, because it is the core of the game’s experience. Other than passing the ball and running around, it is effectively a turn-based game. The goalie is your team’s “health-bar.” Each character has a series of moves that they can perform which tends to occur when two players on opposing teams engage each other on the field or against the goalkeeper. When that happens, you and the other player can pick different moves to determine who’ll steal the ball, with each move having an elemental affinity, MP cost, and strength value. Then you have equipment your team can use to alter stats, buffs and debuffs you can apply on either side of the field, and summons and installs. Yes, summons and installs. Did you wish this game was also Pokémon? I have good news, freak! There are dozens of ~~units~~ players you’ll be able to recruit to your team if you so choose, each of them needing to be persuaded in different ways, and all with different passives and ability boards to customize. It’s a lot to keep up with and describe, to the point where I’d encourage you to take a peek at the spectacle of it all instead:  The game’s a JRPG in its over-the-top styling as well. I dunno what these kids are eating, but it lets them fire off energy beams, teleport, shoot a ball with two other team members down the field like a rail cannon, conjure up whirlwinds and snow leopards, and more. And that is literally just the tip of the iceberg. The refs are *not* watching (unless you do a rush, then suddenly, you get a foul called on you). I bring all this up with particular detail because I can’t stress enough to you how little of a fuck I give about football. In fact, I generally actively dislike it, because it reminds me of my dumbass dad, lmao. But I am obsessed with this game’s systems. It’s so fun adjusting each team member’s gear and equipped moves to take on the teams you face, then crushing them — or better yet, having a really close match. I can’t remember the last time I’ve shouted in joy playing a game, let alone a JRPG of all things, but I’ve done that multiple times playing **Victory Road** after clutching out a tied game. Anyways, for the first nine hours I played **Victory Road's** story mode, I touched a football maybe three times. “What the fuck?” you may think. That sounds unhinged for a game that is ostensibly about a kid who wants to bring his high school’s football team to the top. I assure you dear readers: I loved every second of those nine hours. The first secret layer of the thick-aah onion that is **Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road** is that it’s *not* a Sports JRPG. It is in fact a Sports Anime that snuck into my Steam library in a trench coat. For those first 9 hours, at least 4 of them had to be animated cutscenes, all lovingly crafted by Studio MAPPA, which handles the actual **Inazuma Eleven** anime. It also includes *two* different Anime OPs with different themes, effectively representing a Season 1 and Season 2. I wasn’t bored for a second, because like all Sports Anime worth watching, the game is setting up stakes. You learn about protagonist Unmei’s struggles with his relationship to the sport, and how he reclaims it (hint: the power of friendship may be involved. Shock, I know!). And all of this is emphasized by the lovingly built small-town aesthetic that I’ve [[Youth O Youth|praised Level 5 for before]]. I promise the table-setting is worth the wait. Even the game feels this way, because it straight up [[Inazuma Eleven - Victory Road-1763331007953.png|warns you that you won’t be playing much football to start]]! Yeah, **Victory Road's** story isn’t going to blow your mind, but it's sincere in the way it's told. The whole plot is wrapped around ennui in a way that I found surprisingly relatable. What’s the point of doing anything if you’re the worst? Hell, what’s the point if you’re already the best? You might already know the answers to these questions, but it doesn’t hurt to have a reminder. > [!Check] Dustin or Unmei? Why not both! > I didn’t know where else to put this so I’m just leaving it here. The screenshot I posted above calls the protagonist Dustin, but I called him Unmei. The game actually lets you pick the localized names for all the characters, or the original Japanese names, along with access to the EN and JP dub. Just because! That’s cool as fuck. I’m at the last match of the game, so in total it’ll have taken me about 28~ hours to finish. “Hang on,” you may interrupt, rudely, again. “That doesn’t seem like a lot. Why did you call this game ‘content-heavy’ Mint, you damn liar?” First of all, chill. Second of all, did you not notice that rather than writing today’s date, the header for this section says “Story Mode”? My friends. I’m not even close to being finished. Because after this I’m going to be playing Chronicle Mode. Which is a separate mode that includes every single **Inazuma Eleven** game that came out before **Victory Road**. Every match is playable, and every player, whether ally or foe, can then be recruited and added to your roster to create whatever team you want. Also, all of this is wrapped up in a meta-plot where you have to go back in time and find the 11 best players in the world to stop an alien apocalypse. No, I’m not joking. And before you ask, [of course it has an opening theme too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsJghTTCVW4). So yes, I’ll be back to write even *more* about **Victory Road** after I spend some time in Chronicle Mode. And if my cousins can convince me, I might even jump into the PvP, which is the real star of the game for some super fans. Regardless, if any of what I just wrote even slightly interested you, this game should be in your cart already. I’m not usually one to put much stock to the dollars-to-hours ratio of a game, but I can assure you that you’re getting your money’s worth from the newest **Inazuma Eleven** at full price. --- ## 2025-11-23 I finished the story mode, so now I’m grinding Chronicle mode. I’d like to play a little bit more to put my thoughts in for that, but in the interim, I’d say that story mode is worth the price of admission alone. I got a good 30 hours out of it, and enjoyed every second. The finale was a blast. I absolutely love this damn game. I can’t think of a single mechanical change that I'd want changed — maybe my feelings would be different in PvP mode, but I doubt I’ll poke into that much unless a friend buys the game too. And don’t worry, I’m trying very hard to convince them. --- ## Chronicle Mode If you’ve ever played a **Level 5** game, you know they have some kind of grind. **Rogue Galaxy** had you leveling up and combining weapons, **Dark Cloud 2** had that along with town-building. [[Fantasy Life i - The Girl Who Steals Time]]’s entire existence is grind, as is **Megaton Musashi W - Wired**. **Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road**’s grind is *Chronicle Mode*. It is just football match after football match, a gauntlet for the most devoted fans. But what sets this mode apart from other grinds by this development team is its plot. Like I mentioned above, Chronicle Mode lets you play through every previous **IE** game. It’s not at the same scope as **Victory Road**’s story mode, of course — each match is started and ended with some basic VN-style cutscenes — but it’s still a monumental amount of content. I like me a grind, but unless you’re a **Nioh**-level wonder, I usually don’t dip into post-games very much. **Victory Road** bucks that trend for me because of how this very grindy mode is intertwined with the plots of the older **IE** games. It lets me remember hype moments from the few I’ve played, and catch up on new ones from the ones I didn’t (which is most of them). So the process remains engaging, one game at a time. That process? Building the ultimate football team, of course. You have access to every character that’s ever participated in an **Inazuma Eleven** game, regardless of their team or affiliation (or age, lmao). You get these characters as “Spirits” during focus battles in matches, and as rewards at the end of matches. Each match has four tiers. The first tier is just a replication of the match as it was played in its respective game. Every tier after gives more and more rewards, with the final one, “Hero Match,” being unreachable to me for the most part. At my current progress, I need a Level 63 team to stand a chance, and my best players are only Level 53. Hero Players also seem to have much better AI, making me sweat as much as the final match of Story Mode did. Player Spirits are randomized, ranked gacha-esque drops, but you can get buckets of them. And even if you get a player you want, but not the rank you’d like, you can feed them the spirits of other players[^2] to get them to that rank yourself. I’m not sure what the “meta” is, so I’ve just been building a team around characters and designs I like — for the most part. During the higher difficulty matches I mentioned, I’ve had to actually adjust my team loadout, looking more closely at things like elemental affinity and formations to clutch out Ws. With that said, there’s a huge amount of flexibility as far as customizing characters’ stats and moves, so I can’t imagine any player being unviable outside of the most difficult PvP or endgame content, but we’ll see. Some characters do have real advantages though — specifically, built-in special moves like Keshin (basically Jojo Stands) and installs. You can get those abilities to other characters eventually, but that’s even more of a grind. And there’s that word again. When it comes down to it, your enjoyment of Chronicle Mode will probably rely heavily on how much you enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay of **Victory Road**. I’m obsessed, so I’ve played a few matches every day for weeks now. But even if you don’t, you can just play through the Chronicle and Route matches to experience the story of the 6 other **IE** games that have been bundled in and call it a day. The wildest part is that apparently there’s *more* coming to Chronicle Mode. This is unreal to me. I can’t imagine what else they can add to this already gargantuan game, but I’ll be there no matter what. **Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road** just might be my game of the year. [^1]: We call it football here, alright? I know Japan is ironically the only other place besides America that calls it Soccer. I don’t care. It’s football, and the English dub localizes it as such. I am not accepting comments on this matter. [^2]: Yes I know how morbid this sounds. I love it.