Review game Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions - Manga-chester United

Release date: August 27, 2020

Publisher:
Bandai Namco Entertainment-

Developer: Tamsoft

Genre:
Action Games, Sports Games

Platforms:
Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC

According to the latest announcements, on August 27, Bandai Namco announced the successful launch of the Switch version of the game Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions. As we all know, the story of Captain Tsubasa has been around for almost 40 years. Originally widely known as a manga series in the bestselling manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in April 1981. Over the years, Tsubasa has been adapted into manga, anime, and even live-action in the series. many years and of course not to mention the games associated with so many generations. 

However, there is almost no game about Tsubasa that can go beyond the borders of Japan, comparable to other names like FIFA or PES. Despite owning more than 20 games about Tsubasa on the Famicom platform, but in the West, these talented midfielder games don't seem to exist (among them, not to mention the 1988 game Captain Tsubasa has already been released. was adapted into the Tecmo Cup Soccer Game for the NES, but never once mentioned the player). All that changed with the title Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions, Bandai Namco's latest Captain Tsubasa game, which was widely released in Western countries. Right from the launch the game has received a lot of praise from gamers all over the world.

One of the main game modes is The Journey, the same name as one of FIFA's modes. The game features two different storylines for gamers to choose from: the first follows talented player Tsubasa leading the Nankatsu high school football team to their third consecutive national championship, while the second follows You will play as a free agent (this mode will be explained in more depth later).

The first plot helps gamers learn more about the character Captain Tsubasa, especially when not everyone is familiar with this character. Although the game was developed in Japan primarily for the Japanese audience, the publisher defaults to adding a lot of flashbacks that can be unlocked during gameplay to help gamers learn more about the history of the game. Tsubasa . In other words, you can fully enjoy this game even if you have never seen or read any Tsubasa works before.

However, the story of Tsubasa is quite short and it is likely that you will destroy the game in just a few hours. Knowing that, Bandai Namco added a second storyline to the game to make the game a bit longer while still keeping a lot of content for gamers to explore. Now you are free to create your own character, then choose one of three teams - Toho, Furano or Musashi. Your task is to try to win the Junior Hero League and then find the opportunity to represent Japan in the Junior Youth World Challenge.

While the first storyline is more or less linear, this second plot frequently gives gamers dialogue options so you can decide the future of the player you've created. Depending on each choice, the system will give you a score to upgrade your character's stats throughout the game. In addition, gamers also have the opportunity to meet other characters and make friends, through the friendship upgrade system in the game, you can even learn some of their special moves and skills. This element makes everything in the game much more engaging and with it comes the ultimate reward that gamers can get after completing the above storyline: you can now add your own characters - including include upgraded stats- into your online squad.

However, all of the above advantages will be completely meaningless if you do not really enjoy the game experience. Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a soccer game with role-playing elements. For gamers who see this as a normal football game experience, this can be a very frustrating experience. Instead of the game playing out like any other football game, you have to spend time answering questions, learning the plot and building character stats.

Functions such as passing, crossing, passing the ball and a few similar actions are present a lot in football games. On the other hand, dribbling is a very interesting function, which makes the game feel like a fighting game. That's when you're dribbling and coming face-to-face with an opposing player who is also preparing to stop you with nasty clearances, you need to hit the dodge button on the handlebars at the right moment to trigger the action. dribble. If you can successfully dribble past two people in a row, your fitness bar will fill up, giving you a better chance of sprinting to the goal to score a goal.

If you think dribbling is hard enough, the shooting part of the game is on another level entirely. You have to quickly accept the fact that, whether due to lag or bugs, your normal shots will absolutely never go into the net - the opposing goalkeeper always catches them. No matter how hard and fast you shoot, the game requires you to hold down the shot button to create super shots just like in Shaolin Soccer. However, in some cases that is still not enough for you to score. So, what should we do?

You see, every keeper has a stamina bar and parrying consecutive shots will reduce this fitness stat. Great shots cause it to drop more, as well as get as close to the keeper as possible before kicking. In the end, if you can lower the opponent's stamina bar to some extent and the next shot is strong enough to completely destroy the health bar, the ball will slip through their hand and into the net. . This is a very strange mechanism and can be a bit frustrating until you figure out how to get around it. As well as understanding that getting closer to the keeper will cause their stamina bar to lose a larger chunk.

The result of all this has created a game that is somewhat unlike a regular football game. Instead, the game is more about trying to dribble through the opponent's defense to get you as close to goal as possible, then do your best to destroy the keeper's health bar and repeat this for until you score. Pure football enthusiasts can see this as a bad experience for their favorite game series. On the other hand, if you think of it as some kind of classic fighting game that revolves around trying your best to lower your opponent's health bar (here's stamina bar), the game becomes strangely engaging. Once you are really hooked by this gameplay it is difficult to stop.

Not only stopping there, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions also offers an online mode. Gamers can completely choose to experience this mode after clearing both storylines in The Journey. After creating your own team name, logo, and customizations, you will be placed in the lowest ranked team and tasked with rising to the higher ranks by defeating other players. For the first few ranks, if you can't find a player online, the system will allocate CPU to fight you, so at least you don't have to worry about running out of opponents for a while. . However, one of the game's problems is also reflected in the ability to search for online matches. Once you have reached a certain rank, the game will only allow you to fight people.This can lead to the situation that sometimes gamers have to spend a lot of time waiting when searching for online matches.

There are still minor bugs found in the game. While the well-handled story mode makes things look sharp and smooth at best, the dialogue that comes out in the game is overwhelming and largely predictable. It seems impossible to count the exact number of times Tsubasa gets tired during or after a match. On the other hand, the camera angles in the game are sometimes a bit erratic. This often happens when you pass the ball, instead of the camera moving with the ball, it focuses on the player making the pass for a long period of time before immediately switching to the receiver.

However, in general, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions somewhat still brings a new experience to gamers. The game is absolutely not for fans of the traditional football game genre - those who love FIFA or PES. The game offers a completely different genre where your skills need to change to suit the gameplay of the game. In case you are willing to change the experience and evaluate seriously, you can feel surprised and interesting with what this game has to offer.

Conclude

In terms of being a traditional football game, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions probably only brings failure when standing next to other games of the same genre. However, not only kicking the ball, the game offers strangely attractive experiences such as providing each goalkeeper with an energy bar as if this is a kind of resistance integrated in the game framework. football (like 'Street Striker II'). To experience this game, gamers need to play with a more open mind, not feeling negative when a game tries something different. Once you get over those things, you will feel a lot more fun with this game. And if you've been a fan of the Captain Tsubasa anime series, you'll love it even more.

David Pac

Update 05 January 2022