Review for Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 31/12/2020
After a very long and exhausting wait, worthy of the best actions seen on the giant soccer fields of the anime and manga, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is ready to make its debut. The approach path to the arrival on the market of the exquisitely arcade and incredibly spectacular football crackling Tamsoft, orchestrated ad hoc by Bandai Namco, has made the expectations around the game even more marked, both for gamers and for professionals. Moreover, ever since it was announced,Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions immediately scored goals in the door of everyone's hearts (like myself) who grew up with the myth of the Derrick twins (Tachibana in the original version and in the game) and their flips, a little apart from everything else.
Did you feel the need for such a variation on the theme of football and sport? Absolutely yes, and it is one of the reasons why, net of everything, the title out this week on PC, PlayStation 4 e Nintendo Switch represents a practically mandatory purchase not only for fans of Takahashi sensei's work, but also for all those who are eager to get their hands on a fun and bizarre product, but also surprisingly layered from the point of view of game mechanics.
After having gutted it for several days and with dark circles at biblical levels we are ready to tell you our on one of the most anticipated products of this year and we can give you a little spoiler: played in company may have no rivals in the hearts of the players, in the short and in the long term.
The double face of Career Mode
Since its announcement, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions has made a few things clear: the Career first of all, or almost. The fulcrum of the play experience is in fact represented by a full-bodied Mode or rather two, Career, which, very different from each other, allow the player to immerse themselves in different ways in the atmosphere of the famous spokon, one of the most famous in the panorama of Japanese manga.
The "classic" variant of the Career is represented byEpisode: Tsubasa which allows you to relive the most important moments of the first years of the career of the protagonist of the story, called to overcome an endless series of obstacles to fulfill his dream: to win the Japanese youth championship and then move to Brazil and try the path of professionalism. This mode is a sort of gigantic tutorial, the perfect way to become familiar with the controls and the game dynamics and, why not, retrace the most important stages of Ozora's school career and the salient moments of history at a narrative level. The two Careers are practically linked to each other (even if they do not physically depend on each other) since the big game of the production, that is the episode New Hero, starts narratively speaking precisely from the conclusion of the narrative arc already well known to fans of the anime and manga.
New hero: a new star is on the horizon
In Episode: New Hero we will play the role of a young talent, who can be created through a discreet editor that allows you to select your alter ego from a large number of models. Also the possibility of choice for the hair, the shape of the eyes, the mouth and so on is fairly vast, with the consequent possibility of giving life to an innovative and diversified face from player to player, always faithful to the classic style that the sensei Takahashi gave to his creature. Immediately after selecting the role, available between defender, attacker and midfielder, it is time to select your school of origin and thus begin the long climb to success.
After selecting your team (the choice at the beginning is limited to one between Toho, Furano and Musashi) it is immediately time to take the field: the youth tournament for national teams has been canceled and a new competition has been organized in its place. called Junior Youth League. To get as prepared as possible for the event, the high floors of the Japanese federation are organizing a new school tournament, useful for selecting the best players to form the iconic national football team of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Obviously, our alter ego also participates in this tournament, who will have to prove his worth not only to new teammates but also to opponents. Making a name for yourself is not easy, but it becomes a fundamental stage in your career, even on a practical level. To be able to climb the rankings and become champions, of course, you will not have to focus only on the field, but also off. Every good player builds himself even away from the playing fields, and Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions perfectly follows this important fundamental. Before and after each fight, the player can be equipped with useful items to make their statistics develop more quickly, which are essential not only for the growth of the athlete himself, but also to increase the bond with his teammates.
The Friendship factor is a very important dynamic in the New Hero career. By developing the bond with the players, selectable through a number of variants linked to a collectible card system, it is possible to increase the harmony not only with teammates but also with opponents, maybe crossed on the field and with which a healthy rivalry has been established. By proceeding in the bond it is possible to acquire the main skills of the players themselves, thus making sure to carefully select those most suitable for your role. For example, if you had created a defender you would do better to make friends with players in the same role, to unlock the most useful skills to be able to become stronger and stronger.
The Friendship factor isn't the only variable in New Hero mode. After each game, based on performance, the player receives experience points, useful for increasing the basic statistics, divided into five different categories: Attack, Defense, Power, Speed, Technique
Clearly we need to enhance the most useful statistics for the chosen role, without forgetting to check the Affinity Missions, real dynamic objectives to be completed in order to access new skills. If it wasn't clear enough, we want to reiterate it once again: even without being a prodigy in terms of innovation, the New Hero Career Mode of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions has fully convinced us, becoming in no uncertain terms the real flower to ' eyelet of production. Do you think that the surprises of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions ended here? Mistaken! Did you win the New Hero tournament? Do you think you have given everything? But no ... the national team is waiting for you and that's where you will have to prove that you are true champions.
Entertainment for all tastes!
In addition to the mode Career, centerpiece of single player gameplay, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions offers the player many additional modes, which expand the playful offer of the production. Above all, a rich online component stands out (the Versus Online), which allows players to indulge themselves with the creation of a team, a logo and so on, all very customizable, to then be able to engage in online matches that guarantee players rewards or in any case to advance a level, based on the results obtained during matches.
After creating your team, you can start playing quick games to be able to level up and climb the rankings. In addition to the online component, which by right is one of the most anticipated of Captain Tsubasa's offer, we find a rich offline component, in which once again the title of Bandai Namco and Tamsoft gives its best: playing Captain locally. Tsubasa: Rise of New Champion, we can guarantee you, it turns out to be an unforgettable experience, both for fans of the anime / manga, both for football lovers, and in general for all players eager to test themselves with a friend . Be careful though as you may lose many friendships due to very competitive and no holds barred gameplay.
In the modalities Versus Offline you can challenge your friends by impersonating one of the many heroes of the anime and manga, through a roster that goes from the teams of the school tournament to the national teams (not all available immediately). From Tsubasa's Nankatsu to Hyuga's Toho, passing through Furano's, the Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions roster has left nothing to chance, to the delight of Takahashi's work purists. Among the most interesting or rather important methods, there is undoubtedly the Practice, very useful to refine your techniques, both with specific workouts and with free training.
The options close the circle of the game menu Definitive Creation, where you can change the player, your team online or in general the available teams, and the Collection. Here you can consult the list of unlocked friendship cards, review the most exciting movies, listen to the soundtrack or consult the Challenges that the game offers, useful for unlocking points with which to buy new packages, which contain equipable items and, of course, new friendship cards.
The best offense is defense!
Let's face it: the success of such a project inevitably passes through the gameplay, the real hub of the entire production. The doubts, but also the (enormous) expectations on the game machine that moves the title of Tamsoft have done nothing but chase each other and alternate with insistence since the announcement, ending up playing a game in the game on which, however, honestly, to seem in the advantage has always resulted from the general optimism of the public and professionals. Also complicit in the numerous videos dedicated to gameplay released by the developers, once again our hype bar was really skyrocketing and we couldn't wait to try what we have seen and read over the last few weeks. For this reason, we immediately jumped into a match friendly, to test precisely the peculiar traits of a potentially intoxicating gameplay, confirming most of the good impressions but also finding several - inevitable - defects. We immediately want to remove our tooth, the most painful one, so to speak, and thus start from the aspects that made us turn up our noses. Above all, the management of defense and goalkeepers stands out, a real weak point of an overall satisfying and damn fun mechanism.
Accomplice (perhaps) also the fear of finding a product too unbalanced in the backward phase by the hand, the developers have put on a system that makes the opposing rear guard (but also ours, it is clear) almost independent from the selected team, a stumbling block at times insuperable . However, let's analyze everything with due calm. To defend, the player has both the "basic" keys, that is the simple slide (with O with R2), and more complex mechanics, such as defense from Dribbling, guessing the combination chosen by the attacker (R1 or R2), or more choral and automated maneuvers, such as pressing. Well, precisely the pressing, usable with the simultaneous pressing of the R1 + X keys has officially become our nightmare, but also our most important ace in the hole.
By using pressing, in fact, the opponent's attack is totally canceled, or almost, and we have been able to see, unfortunately, how effective this dynamic is also online, that is, facing a “human” opponent. Stealing the ball from the Tsubasa or Tachibana on duty is certainly more difficult, but not that much, because the effectiveness of the defensive phase transcends in too many situations any kind of truth that we have always known about the universe of Captain Tsubasa (for friends Holly & Benji) making us pull a few hairs once too many. The speech is also linked to the role of goalkeepers, iconically (except for a few rare cases) the weak links of almost all teams. In Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions the extreme defenders have proved far more effective than we could have imagined, managing in most cases to keep up with the racing cars of the various champions with saves sometimes bordering on the impossible.
Let me be clear, considering the understandable fears of the eve in question we also felt relieved after all, but we cannot help but point out how, in many cases, the extreme defenders were excessively effective and not only in rejecting the "super shots" , but also in ordinary parades. Everything is strongly linked to what is probably the most important factor to keep under control during the games: the bar Spirit. As we had already had the opportunity to ascertain during our preview, better managing the resistance of your players is a fundamental factor, and can represent a fundamental watershed in the economy of every single action and every game. Shooting, but also dribbling and even defending, is linked to the use of this bar: a more tired player will have less chance (almost reduced to zero) to intervene successfully in tackle or to discard his opponent, as well as goalkeepers, which, in case of reduction of the spirit bar they become more vulnerable to any shot, especially those charged or those executed during a combo or perhaps those coming from the aerial tackles won by the attacker.
The aerial contrasts are another of the most exuberant mechanics of the game, but also one of the most chaotic. If two players throw themselves on the same loose ball, a a kind of mini game, complete with a colored bar that indicates who is ahead of the ball. To win the contest you have to press the keys that appear on the screen but it is not always easy (almost never) to be able to understand which keys to press and in what order.
The areo game is a mechanic to which Tamsoft dedicated a fairly significant space. By pressing the key O it is possible to throw a strong ball in the center to be combined with the pressing of the Square button in order to convert the assist into a spectacular overhead kick or perhaps into a powerful header, to put the opponent's extreme defender in serious difficulty. Obviously, in the case of some players, this mechanic can take on unexpected implications that, however, we do not want to anticipate, thus leaving you the pleasure of discovery.
Even on the ground, however, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions allows players to create spectacular combinations that, once again, amplify their effectiveness in certain circumstances. By pressing L1 + X it is possible to call a fast triangulation, with one of the two players starting in speed to serve by pressing the Triangle button at the right time.
Speaking of gameplay, one cannot fail to mention the V-Zone, another important factor that we appreciated on the pitch with some reservations. The V-Zone, so to speak, gives the players of the department in which bonuses are activated, such as the speed of reloading special shots for attackers or the minimum reduction of the spirit bar but, thanks to the rocky defenses, we do not have I hardly ever had the feeling that it could somehow change the outcome of a fight.
Different speech, however, if the V-Zone activates the goalkeeper. By pressing the button at the right moment L2 a goalkeeper can create a desperate save thanks to the V-Zone, able to truly save the result like few other things. For this reason, at least personally, we have almost always decided to keep this dynamic "warm" for the goalkeeper, using it very little in all frankness in the other areas of the pitch.
In general, however, the action on the pitch is always dynamic and frenetic, and the fun, also thanks to the total absence of the referees, is really around the corner. However, this aspect has a double face: undoubtedly, the game mechanics tend to become repetitive, especially in the defensive phase, and the total absence of referees makes everything even more chaotic. Let's be clear, we did not expect a miracle from this point of view, but we are still "forced" to admit that, once too many, we got a little bored in repeating the same things over and over again, also thanks to a level of challenge in the Career at times really set frighteningly downwards.
Everyone on the pitch!
On the plane aesthetic and technical, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a real tribute to the work that inspired it. Thanks to a clever use of cell shading, Tamsoft is able to best replicate the anime style even in game, offering the most attentive players a riot of details impossible to forget. From the raised sleeves of Kojiro (Mark) up to the crazy hair of Taki (Ted), without forgetting the particular teeth of Nitta (Patrick), every detail makes the glance a real sensory triumph, embellished with a very solid graphic rendering without ever letting the technical and visual miracle cry out.
The excellent artistic sector of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions fits perfectly with a more than valid general solidity. In game, in fact, the game is very stable, with a very clean and above all stable image. Up PlayStation 4 Pro the frame rate is granite, which does full justice to the sparkling and very fast actions, made of quick exchanges, incredible recoveries and formidable shots. Even the aesthetic style of the super shots is incredibly spectacular and above all very faithful to the source material: the animated sequences that give life to the spectacular conclusions, but also to the saves and combinations between players, are a real panacea and further increase the immersion factor. , one of the main strengths of Tamsoft and Bandai Namco production.
The real the Achilles heel of the technical sector is represented by the camera: in some cases it makes some actions unmanageable and illegible, thus compromising the general fluidity of the actions.
Finally, nothing to say about the sound sector. The Japanese dubbing is in line with the anime, and many voice actors are the same ones who lent their voices to the “original” protagonists, with obvious positive results in the overall economy of the project. The soundtrack is also very pleasant, although some songs are a little redundant when they are left for too long in the background in the game menus.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is exactly what we wanted. Under the guise of an incredibly fun and immediate game there is an important strategic component, represented by a thrifty management of the means of each player on the pitch. To balance everything, the developers have perhaps sinned excessively in the management of the defensive phase, often excessively effective against even the most fearsome opponents, but overall they have packaged a satisfying and at the same time fun and competitive product, albeit repetitive in the long run its dynamics. Thanks to a long-lived and exciting Career mode and to the many game modes, on which the Versus matches in Local and Online stand out, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is rightfully placed in the list of the funniest titles even in company, keeping well in mind what its distinctive features are. In any case, it remains a practically mandatory purchase for all fans of Takahashi's work and in general a good product even for those looking for a fun and competitive title, which does not aspire to become a masterpiece but fully satisfies the expectations of the eve, albeit with some reservations.
► Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a Sport-type game developed and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 31/12/2020
