As a child, I used to watch cartoons for hours. It was an idol for me. Putting the nostalgia aside, let's examine how good Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions has been.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions years ago, "Hawk Strike!" It is the kind of game that will delight the players who fight over who will be Tsubasa and who will be Hyuga. The two different story modes in the game allow us to both experience the story of Tsubasa and create our own legend.
Pros
+ Opportunity to play Tsubasa's story
+ We can make and develop our own football player
+ Story mode with RPG elements
+ Fun gameplay
+ Musics
+ Animations
Cons
- PC version is full of bugs
- Gameplay is too simple
- Constant cuts in the story
- Football player selection in defense is a complete torment
- Doesn't have deep gameplay like old games
The first mod, Episode: Tsubasa, tells the story of Tsubasa Ozora, the captain of the Nankatsu Middle School football team. Nankatsu team became champion in national tournaments for 2 years in a row and competes for the third championship. As we follow the story of Tsubasa, who strives to go to Brazil, the heart of football, we know our rivals, with whom we will be friends after a while by fighting with the characters who have an important place in the series.
Episode: Tsubasa, which we can accept as the main story, takes an average of 12 hours. Episode: Tsubasa, which presents the story with cut scenes and special events that take place within the match, gives the opportunity to those who are strangers to the series to experience the whole story. We witness all the important events happening in the original story.
The storytelling isn't bad and follows the original story properly. But there are some points I am uncomfortable with. As you can imagine, there is a lot of conversation in this mode. The characters meet, challenges are made, the game gives you small tutorials about gameplay. But there is so much talk that after a while you come to the state of "Come on, let's get into the match now." The bad thing is that this situation does not end in the match.
There are some events planned to be in the match. In special situations such as the twins going on the air ball or the one-on-one fight between Tsubasa and the opponent, the game takes the intermediate stage. In fact, even if there are scenes that bring the actor to the gas, there are some situations that hit the gameplay with an ax. For example, the twins have a cutscene with certain goals. This intermediate scene, which takes place when the ball passes to someone for the first time, comes into play even if the ball comes in front of their own castles. The head shot that crosses the entire field and enters the goal is annoying.
All in all, Episode: Tsubasa is a fun, nice story mode to teach you how to play the game, but not everyone will get warm. Old fans will enjoy seeing familiar scenes, while newbies will witness a beautiful story if they manage to follow them without getting bored.
To Be Japan's Best
Episode: New Hero, the second story mode of the game, also offers us the interesting side of the game. New Hero, in which we created our own football player, allows us to choose between three different schools. The football player, whom we are free to create as we wish, becomes the protagonist of the story that differs according to the school he chooses.
While playing in New Hero mode, we get opportunities such as talking to other players and earning points according to the choices we make and making friends with them. Thanks to the experience points we gained in the matches and what we learned from our friends, we find the opportunity to improve ourselves and teach our character the special kicks of the players.
I can say that New Hero is the point where the gameplay really shines. There are cut scenes again, but this time we can concentrate more on the game. We are developing our character, striving for him to perform well in the matches and working on his post-match training. I can say that it is similar to the career mode found in other sports games.
Although the game initially suggests the story of Tsubasa, if you get tired of the interruptions there, I suggest you switch to New Hero mode instead of quitting the game. You will see that many points that annoy you are not in this mode.
Tiger Shot
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a soccer game. While Tsubasa games, which were previously released on NES and Playstation 2 consoles, have a turn-based, more RPG-like gameplay, we make real-time matches with the new game. Nevertheless, don't think of serious football games like FIFA or PES.
Although we play a game of soccer at its core, there is much more to it than football here. First of all, there is no such thing as a foul in the game. There are activities such as shooting that will be hospitalized if it comes to normal people, entering the player running with the ball with a flying kick, climbing the goal post and stopping the ball with the face coming from the air. The only rule I have seen properly applied is offside.
Team players have a certain power and we try to reach the opposing goal and score goals by using this power properly. With the ball with us, we try to move the ball between the players and get closer to the goal and make shots that will completely fill the power bar and pierce the goal. When the ball passes to the opposing team, we have to grab the ball back with the player that the game has given us at that time.
Special strokes have visuals that are just like the anime series.
The gameplay is actually enjoyable, especially when you get close to the goal and shoot full power, "LET'S GO!" Waiting excitedly causes us to be excited. But there are some problems. For example, you fill a bar while shooting or passing and its distance and power are determined according to how full it is. Although there is not much problem in passing, there is a big problem in shooting. The normal shots we shoot get stuck with his head. I aim and swing the castle, the ball flies straight to the right of the castle. Shots that manage to reach the goal fail to reduce the goalkeeper's energy. Usually, you play all the matches with a goal-scoring tactic by delivering the ball to special players such as Tsubasa, Hyuga or Misaki.
When the ball crosses the other side, the real struggle begins. Worst of all, this fight is not against the opponent, but against your own team. The game stubbornly gives you the closest player, you change players by pressing the change button, but the hoop is still a completely different player. The ball rolls idle, there is a player closer and faster but the game gives you the player behind it. You are trying to change it, your other player passes by the ball but does not take it, the opponent comes and grabs the ball while you are running to get it. There are simple mechanics, why can't we control them?
As a result, although the gameplay is very fun, after a while you will be tactically depleted and start repeating. The challenges are visually satisfying but at their core a simple arcade soccer game. In this respect, I want to say that the RPG atmosphere of the old games is deeper and more fun.
Game Breaking Shots
Let's come to the technical parts of the game. I have the PC version of Rise of New Champions and normally planned to finish this review sooner. However, the time I played got longer when I had to play some story matches 4 or 5 times due to existing bugs.
Developed by Tamsoft Corporation (Gintama Rumble, Onechanbara Z2, Senran Kagura), who previously worked on anime games, the PC version of the game performs very interesting. You realize that even while the game is opening, you are stubbornly staying in the window mode and you have to struggle to switch to full screen.
Some bugs come across in the harmless but annoying category. For example, there are errors such as the announcer starting the second sentence without waiting to finish his own word while entering the match, the characters speaking at light speed when you take it full screen, the intermediate videos playing 10x. They are uncomfortable but can be accepted as they do not have a direct effect on gameplay. Exiting full screen and re-entering may be the solution, but not always.
Errors in the second category are of the kind that can be considered more difficult. I mentioned some of the events that took place in the story part. There are a couple of intermediate scenes where we meet Nitta, the captain of the opponent team, in the first match. In order for these scenes to take effect, Tsubasa and Nitta must meet on the field. These kinds of encounters that should trigger the scene cause the game to crash from time to time. Later in the story, I had similar difficulties, so it's not a one-off situation and it happens completely randomly. Sometimes I cannot express your disappointment when the game freezes on the victory screen of a match you barely won.
I also wanted to try the online mode of the game, but I haven't had a chance to find a decent match so far. As far as I understand, there is a problem with their online servers and therefore we cannot find players. So I played against a friend with Steam Remote Play and we enjoyed it. I think we can make very enjoyable matches if the servers improve.
My Personal Analysis as a Conclusion
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a game that the audience who watched the anime on TV, followed the manga, even learned Japanese characters in the ataris (we all thought in Arabic) and played the NES game during Rise of New Champions. It has technical problems, the gameplay mechanics are problematic, but it is a fun Tsubasa game. There is also the opportunity to make our own character and fight against other youth teams in the world with Tsubasa and others. I would also recommend it to players who do not have a special connection with Tsubasa but are curious, who want to play a not very serious football game. I can recommend it if you want a game that is not too serious.
As a result, the game is very enjoyable and has a gameplay that almost every player can enjoy. I can say that it is easy to learn, but intermediate to master. I have to admit that I missed the old, turn-based system a bit while playing. It could have been a much deeper and more fun gameplay. Still, it was a nice game. Considering the problems affecting the gameplay, I do not recommend that you hurry and buy it immediately. At the very least, you can expect updates to fix their crash issues.
Nice article about the football game .