It’s a shame to see their struggles with home console development now as I loved Fantasy Life and Professor Layton and it seems they can’t release or localise much of anything independently: this football game probably won’t ever see the light of day which is a shame with a meaty delay to 2023: such a talented developer. They pretty much hung their hat on the franchise and mass-produced as much merchandise and as manysequels as possible with an untested IP in the west and while you can respect their confidence, it was a risk that didn’t pay off in the end. Yet they were simultaneously smart enough to ditch the three version approach and combine the contents of the three Japanese versions into one package: baffling stuff. Then bringing over the third game without marketing it at all at the end of the system’s life with barely any physical copies produced at all and being a scalper’s paradise to the small base of fans who couldn’t get a hold of one was stupid all around.
#Inazuma eleven ares games series
They released Blasters in two versions when the main series was already unpopular and the 3DS was on its way out so localising a spin-off was a poor choice. They then released the sequel quickly after with two versions (which only Pokemon can get away with as they invented that release model and people are used to it) when the franchise wasn’t popular enough in the west to support it and launched a third version less than a year later in Europe which didn’t add nearly enough content to warrant a third release. So they obviously either produced far too many physical copies or it flopped tremendously. I completely get why they would localise the first game because it was a cultural phenomenon in Japan and they are pretty good RPGs with interesting character designs but I still see the first game on online game retailers for less than £5 and Argos has cleared most of their 3DS games including Mario Kart 7 and 3D Land and they can’t get rid of it now at the price of £0.99 (seriously go and check). I can’t understand how this great studio went so far with Yo-Kai Watch on 3DS in the west.
Then, of course, we have the waiting game to see if it gets a Western release. That said, this title has clearly had a difficult development process to date, as four years will have elapsed from its original target launch to the planned 2023 arrival. It's a meaty delay, though perhaps we should be appreciative of an honest appraisal in pushing it back so far. The video features some footage, though the game will no doubt change over the next couple of years.
#Inazuma eleven ares games update
In the video update he explains various plans (thanks, Gematsu) such as including a full solo experience as well as a significant online play component. Originally planned for 2019, then 2020, it was confirmed by company CEO Akihiro Hino late last week that it's now planned for a 2023 release in Japan. Which, sadly, brings us to the latest update on Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes (or Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road as it was previously known). It's clear, from the varied and consistent reports, that the company is facing challenging times, or at the very least may have significantly downsized. Talk of a staff exodus started in late 2018, and the company's output has included a number of delay announcements it seems localisation out of Japan will be heavily dependent on deals with partners, too, as Level-5 has reportedly reduced its America-based operations to a skeleton crew. Unfortunately there have been concerning indications of problems at Level-5 for some time, especially for its business outside of Japan. The publisher / developer's localisation teams also had strong moments, and the world got to enjoy the zany soccer antics of the Inazuma Eleven series. There was a time when Level-5 was pretty darn hot the Professor Layton series developed a devoted following, and there was a major sales breakthrough when Yo-kai Watch took off in Japan and was rolled out globally more recently the development side of the business earned praise for its Ni no Kuni titles, too. The team during happier times on 3DS (Image: Level-5)