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Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes (previusly IE: Ares) has been delayed to +2021. Will get rebooted (again). No ties to the anime anymore.

Xadra

Xadra

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Oct 26, 2018
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Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino just announced that Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes (previusly IE: Ares) has been delayed to 2021 and will get rebooted (again) as well; no ties to the anime anymore.

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Source (Japanese): https://www.level5.co.jp/blog/

  • Due to game development issues, production was difficult and the schedule was significantly delayed. The critical user feedback online led to a decline in staff motivation, putting the game in a difficult situation.
  • While Level-5 once considered stopping the game's development, there were fans who sincerely supported them, so they decided to try and resume development somehow.
  • Resuming development led to the idea that, by evolving the engine and development systems created in the development of the Yo-kai Watch series, an Inazuma Eleven game could be completed with high quality. By going in this direction, there was the hope that Inazuma Eleven could do something it had never done before.
  • Normally, the release timing of a cross-media project is important in order to maximize synergy with corresponding media, but this time Level-5 wants to concentrate on carefully creating a game without being tied to the anime broadcast schedule.
  • It will take more time, but Level-5 wants to make Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road a culmination of Inazuma Eleven with a high level of freedom.
  • Unmei Sasanami is the new protagonist in the game. He loves soccer, but is unable to play due to a certain trauma he experienced, so he decides to play a role in supporting talented soccer players.
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Inazuma-Eleven_04-01-20_Unmei-Sasanami.png

"development on Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road will proceed with the intention of being a "completely new title" with a new feel content-wise."
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  • Until now it was common to follow the story of the anime written by Hino in the games, but in order to bounce back from development hardships, this time Level-5 is trying a new strategy. Rather than show a single story, the player will instead diverge with each character's side of the story. So it's actually a completely original story just for the game.
  • The story will depict the united front of three protagonists—Mamoru Endou, Unmei Sasanami, and Asuto Inamori—without any time slips. (Though, "united front" may not be an entirely accurate term.) It is up to the player to become freinds or rivals in order to have these three characters exist on the same time axis.
  • The game will focus on "depth" rather than volume, and thoughtfully depict the characters and situations that appear in the First Football Frontier. While it will ultimately depend on the player, depending on how you play, you can come to have a deeper understanding of all the characters.
  • Rather than constructing a single long main story, Level-5 is emphasizing level of freedom.
  • While verifying that the system of the original Inazuma Eleven for DS where you drew lines on the screen to indicate where the players run cannot be done again, development on Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road will proceed with the intention of being a "completely new title" with a new feel content-wise.
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Updated with translated statement, thanks Gematsu.com

www.gematsu.com

Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes delayed to 2021 in Japan, new details

Level-5 has delayed Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes from its previously planned spring 2020 release in Japan to “likely” 2021, as well as shared a development update and new inform…
www.gematsu.com www.gematsu.com
 
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Deleted member 2791

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Well in a sense it's kind of misleading to talk about delays. This isn't the same game anymore. It's more like IE Ares has been cancelled and this is a new game made on its ashes.

Like Titans -> Overwatch for Blizzard.
 
Dany1899

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Dec 23, 2017
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Between the Layton and Inazuma Eleven series, I played a lot of great games on DS and 3DS.
It is a pity that Level-5 is in this situation now.
 
Sabin

Sabin

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Oct 25, 2017
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Level 5 is such a clown fiesta company it's not even funny anymore just sad at this point.
 
Bonejack

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This is both, one horrible, and comically insane mishandling of a games development.
 

Deleted member 64860

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Someone before said that L-5 isn't that great of a company and I didn't believe them , but with their current output and moves, I'm starting to believe that statement was pretty much correct.
 
808s & Villainy

808s & Villainy

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Oct 27, 2017
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Stop 👏🏽with 👏🏽the 👏🏽anime👏🏽tie-ins
Get your video game shit together before going all in. Stop chasing that YW dream from years ago when you can't even get your games to sell well anymore
 

FormatCompatible

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Oof. Good luck to them I guess but this is just some sad stuff.

This ''praying that your thing becomes a fad and move on to next thing''-strategy of Hino is truly showing it's cracks nowadays.
 
Blade24070

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Oct 26, 2017
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Level-5 can't be doing well financially right? Their games have been flop after flop and now Ares is canceled/retooled but still a year+ away. If this game doesn't sell well, it has to be curtains, no?
 
OP
OP
Xadra

Xadra

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Passing Assassin said:
Well in a sense it's kind of misleading to talk about delays. This isn't the same game anymore. It's more like IE Ares has been cancelled and this is a new game made on its ashes.

Like Titans -> Overwatch for Blizzard.
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That's a great analogy. And I think you're right.

But it's a little confusing, and it doesn't help, if they keep the same name.
 
Oregano

Oregano

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Get your shit together Hino!

Blade24070 said:
Level-5 can't be doing well financially right? Their games have been flop after flop and now Ares is canceled/retooled but still a year+ away. If this game doesn't sell well, it has to be curtains, no?
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Not quite that bad, Yokai Watch 4 still sold a couple hundred thousand copies on Switch.
 
Nightbird

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Oct 27, 2017
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Well, since it's not going to compete with Captain Tsubasa this year anymore, I am now more likely to pick it up.


But good lord, the development of this game is a pure mess
 
Strings

Strings

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Blade24070 said:
Level-5 can't be doing well financially right? Their games have been flop after flop and now Ares is canceled/retooled but still a year+ away. If this game doesn't sell well, it has to be curtains, no?
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Ni No Kuni 2 sold super well (1m+), and while Yo-Kai Watch 4 was down a tremendous amount, it still kind of sold well comparatively to the rest of the Japanese market I guess.

They've definitely got to be hurting though, since they've been launching mobile games into the void, etc. Their war chest from when they had the Midas touch can't take much more of this, especially all the time they've spent on Megaton Musashi and Inazuma.
Thera said:
Poor dev team...
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Apparently the dev team that was doing it before it was completely in-house made a bunch of promises they couldn't keep, which is why it was delayed in the first place.

It's crazy to think this was intended to release July 2018 at one point...
 
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Delaney

Delaney

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Oct 25, 2017
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I don't believe you. Let me pray Hino is tongue-in-cheek about his own clownery and this is a selfconscious joke about them rebooting the game every two months.

"Likely not out until 2011 at least" like... wow.
 
Delaney

Delaney

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Oct 25, 2017
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They've scrapped the entire Ares arc too after announcing they were going to adapt Orion! And they are somehow retelling the first game while adding characters from the sequel trilogy... and the Ares alternative universe.

This is truly a mess.
 
EdgeWilder

EdgeWilder

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Dang it level 5 what is going on over there? Was looking forward to some over the top soccer game I can play on switch this summer.
 
Strings

Strings

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Oregano said:
He practically begged Horii on the anniversary stream.
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Yeah, I half expect it's already happening. Especially since the 'dream game' Hino described a while ago just sounded like DQIX.
Ridley327 said:
The question there being if Squenix is on the other end if they press it, especially with Horii being happy with the current developers of the series.
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I dunno, they seem to respect the work Level-5 did on the series. It shaped a lot of how they've gone forward.
 
Jencks

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Level-5 continues to be a mess. Have to wonder how long they can keep taking these hits.
 
LunaSerena

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Level 5 is a case study at mismanagement at this point. Going from their fortunes in the DS/3DS era to this... pretty sad, if you ask me.
 
Ridley327

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Strings said:
Yeah, I half expect it's already happening. Especially since the 'dream game' Hino described a while ago just sounded like DQIX.

I dunno, they seem to respect the work Level-5 did on the series. It shaped a lot of how they've gone forward.
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Seeing as the 3DS version of DQ8 didn't involve them, I'm not sure that Squenix has them on speed dial.

Do I think that Level 5 would drop everything right now if Squenix offered them the job? Yes.

Do I think Squenix would have no issues bringing them on board? Absolutely.

Do I think they're the first choice? That's where things get real murky, and Level 5 hasn't been making a great argument in favor for them with how public their development woes have been. Perhaps Horii has the secret sauce from a managerial perspective to curb their worst tendencies, but you gotta wonder why you wouldn't go with a more efficient studio for a project that would almost certainly be a top-down reimagining of the game in the first place.
 
ILikeFeet

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if this game is off the Ninokuni 2 engine, what does that mean for Megaton Musashi? still on it or nah?
 
Wise

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I have such little care for this game anymore. A shame. Inazuma eleven 2 was goat
 
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