Level-5’s latest release has left many longtime fans deeply disappointed, with its core modes suffering from a range of frustrating design choices and technical issues. In Story Mode, the first four chapters rely heavily on a tedious rock-paper-scissors minigame rather than the series’ signature gameplay, making the opening hours feel unnecessarily drawn out. Actual matches are sparse, and side content is almost nonexistent. Progression feels hollow, as techniques are now simply purchased from shops without previews, equipment comes from uninspired fetch quests, and recruiting players from rival schools has been replaced by adding generic characters from other clubs. Exploration offers little reward, reduced to kicking balls for trivial items like beans. The main cast includes eight characters plus Destin, but players are forced to select five additional teammates in a poorly implemented system that renders them obsolete almost immediately. Characters like Ivan and Cedric feel underdeveloped, with the latter failing to deliver on his promised personality shift. To challenge a club team, players must face them four times just to bring them up to par, and the selection of new techniques, Kenshin, and Mixmax moves is disappointingly limited.
Chronicle Mode compounds these issues by requiring players to complete every match twice to advance, against AI opponents so weak that matches often end 7–0 with minimal rewards. The mode lacks a recruiting system, instead relying on a gacha mechanic where currency is primarily earned in online matches—a design that negatively impacts other parts of the game. BB Stadium further frustrates by limiting team selection to just 20 options, despite all teams, techniques, uniforms, and logos being available in Chronicle Mode. Online matches are plagued by AFK players farming gacha orbs, and bugs sometimes restrict Campaign Mode to facing the same team seven times. Competitive Mode stands out as the most problematic, with nonexistent matchmaking pitting level 20 players against level 90 opponents. It remains the primary source for gacha orbs, encouraging widespread AFK farming. Exploits allow some players to field more than the allowed two hero players, and despite a patch, these违规 players remain. Other issues include techniques resetting to default order after matches, frequent softlocks during shot blocks, server problems enabling opponents to phase through players, and drastically increased EXP requirements that penalize losses harshly. With only four ranks and steep point deductions for defeats, the ranking system fails to meaningfully distinguish skill. For a game delayed by four months, this level of polish is simply unacceptable.
As a longtime fan, hearing that the rock-paper-scissors minigame dominates the early chapters is a real letdown; that’s not the strategic depth I play these games for. It reminds me of when other series pad their openings with tedious mechanics, and it usually makes me put the game down. I’ll probably wait for a deep sale or significant patch before considering it—has anyone who’s played it found a redeeming quality later on?
I hear you—replacing the series’ strategic depth with a rock-paper-scissors minigame for hours is a baffling choice that really undermines the early experience. From what I’ve gathered, the core gameplay does open up after Chapter 4, but many players feel the progression and side content never fully recover their former charm. If you do decide to check it out later, I’d recommend looking for community patches that might rebalance the opening, and feel free to share if you hear of any updates that address these issues.
As a longtime fan, hearing that the rock-paper-scissors minigame dominates the early chapters is a real letdown; I was hoping for that classic, engaging gameplay from the start. It reminds me of when other series pad their openings with tedious mechanics, which always kills my initial excitement. What a missed opportunity—do you think this is something they could fix in a future update?
I completely understand your disappointment as a longtime fan—relying on rock-paper-scissors instead of the classic gameplay right from the start is a baffling choice that really does dampen the excitement. While a future update could potentially rebalance the early chapters, the article suggests the issues run deeper with progression and side content, so I wouldn’t count on a full overhaul. If you decide to give it a try, focusing on pushing past those first four chapters might help, and I’d be curious to hear if your experience improves later on.
The delay has now exceeded four months.
As a longtime fan, hearing that the rock-paper-scissors minigame dominates the first four chapters is a real letdown; that’s not the strategic gameplay I fell in love with. It reminds me of when other series pad their openings with tedious mechanics, completely killing my initial excitement. What a missed opportunity—did anyone on the team find the fetch quests for equipment rewarding, or was that universally panned during testing?
I completely understand your disappointment as a longtime fan—having the strategic gameplay you love replaced by a dominant rock-paper-scissors minigame for four chapters is a baffling design choice. Based on player feedback and reviews, those fetch quests for equipment were indeed widely criticized as unrewarding, suggesting they likely didn’t resonate well even during testing. If you decide to push through, focusing solely on the main story beats might help bypass some of the padding, and I’d be curious to hear if your opinion changes if you play further.
I see where you’re coming with most of your points. While I actually enjoyed the pacing of the first four chapters, I agree that the rock-paper-scissors minigame isn’t the best representation of the series’ core gameplay. Using the double-speed option in settings helped make those sections more bearable for me.
The shop system works fine overall, though a preview feature would definitely be welcome. I also miss being able to recruit players from other schools. Exploration does offer substantial dialogue that changes frequently, and the ball placements encourage discovery, though more meaningful interactions would be better.
The character selection mini-games aren’t great, but the chosen characters aren’t completely useless. Having to replay matches is tedious—it would be better if higher difficulties unlocked automatically after completing the story. The matchmaking definitely needs level scaling too.
While the current recruitment system isn’t perfect, I wasn’t a fan of the old one either. Most of these issues seem fixable, and aside from the online component and excessive grinding, they don’t ruin the experience for me.
Given this game’s long development history, I’m optimistic the developers will continue improving it. If you’re feeling frustrated, maybe take a break and return later when more adjustments have been made.
I agree that locking gacha orbs behind online play is a poor decision. While you can earn some through chronicles, the drop rates and quantities are so low that it’s not worthwhile. The game needs significant quality-of-life improvements before it can be considered great.
I agree about the recruiting system, though I never got to play the older games to try it myself. Could you briefly explain how it worked in the older games? I think I have a general idea, but I’d appreciate a clear explanation.
In the older games, you had to defeat a player’s team to recruit them. After winning, an NPC would provide a list of objectives to complete before you could recruit that player. These tasks included taking photos of specific events, obtaining certain items through challenges, or having a particular player already on your team.
This sounds great and genuinely challenging. In VR, it feels like players—aside from Heroes—are too easy to obtain.
It was less fun than it sounds. The system was alright in the first game, terrible in Chrono Stones, and then Galaxy made it decent.
Also, the story scout characters use a version of the Palpack system combined with the requirement to go to specific areas, but they didn’t include an in-game way to find their locations.
The game was engaging because it had numerous maps, allowing you to explore and collect every photo and unique item. Now, it feels tedious, as it’s just about going AFK online and hoping for something to happen.
I’m not entirely convinced that a random draw should give you a top-tier player for no reason. Do you think they might introduce a recruiting system in the future, considering the game is meant to last six to eight years?
You make some valid points, though some feel exaggerated. I’m split on the story mode—personally, I enjoyed it.
The AI part isn’t really an issue, since you earn solid extra rewards, especially from hero missions at higher tiers. You can also farm items, spirits, and more in ranked matches.
I agree competitive mode has flaws, but I wouldn’t hate the game for it—just give it time. Even if they’d delayed the game by four months, I’ve had a good experience overall and can overlook it for now.
I completely agree there are very few new techniques; many are familiar from the anime and older games, so that’s a fair point.
The gacha system is good because it’s not pay-to-win, especially with thousands of characters available. They just need better ways to earn currency. The bond stars aren’t the problem—it’s how progression handles them that’s the real hurdle.
Bugs should be fixed, but that’s typical in any game. Overall, I understand your constructive criticism.
Despite its flaws, I still love the game and believe it has room to grow. Three upcoming free major updates should address many of the current issues, and future content updates are possible. I agree there are few new Kenshins and min-maxing options, but I don’t think that was the main focus—they feel more like Easter eggs to tie into the game’s timeline. I also wish there were more original techniques and hope to see them added. An extended story mode featuring another local or national tournament would be great for expanding content around story characters. Overall, I’m hopeful for the future, as the game already has a solid foundation.
I understand your frustration with the game, and some of your criticisms are valid. However, it’s important to consider both the positive and negative aspects. While I’ve also criticized various elements, your perspective seems to dismiss any positive qualities entirely. The game has many strong points, and criticism should aim to be constructive rather than simply venting, which can lead to unproductive toxicity—just as mindless praise isn’t helpful either.
Additionally, insulting the developers seems excessive, especially since they’ve been responsive to feedback. They’ve maintained transparency through development updates and created dedicated channels for criticism. Their willingness to listen is evident in actions like revamping models, updating techniques, and making adjustments based on player input, such as capping levels for competitive balance and reducing endgame match requirements to address common concerns.
All of these points are valid. You should post them on the Inazuma forum to raise awareness.
It seems like you’re focusing mainly on the negatives and making the game sound like a failure, even though you’ve clearly put a lot of time into it—at least 50 hours, from what you’ve said.
It’s unfortunate the game didn’t resonate with you, and your criticisms are valid—it’s not perfect. However, I believe the overall reception has been quite positive. Inazuma Eleven has always had grindy elements, and I can’t speak to the online mode since I haven’t tried it yet, but it wasn’t a major focus in earlier games either. Many of the RPG aspects feel secondary; most players are probably here for the story, otherwise they’d just focus on building their ultimate team.
Personally, most of your points don’t concern me. What does worry me are the various bugs, some minor and others quite significant. For example, I experienced a black screen at the end of Chapter 9 due to an oversight in handling certain scenarios, forcing me to avoid a specific situation to prevent a crash. It really broke the immersion.
For me, the key improvements would be increasing orb farming in offline mode and fixing the bugs and exploits. That said, it’s still a really enjoyable game and one of my favorites this year.
I didn’t mean to impose my opinions, but I felt it was important to point out the game’s flaws since I rarely see criticism in this sub. I don’t hate the game, but it fell below my expectations after such a long wait.
The issue isn’t grinding itself, but how you grind. In story mode, there’s nothing to grind for since everything is either in a shop or unobtainable, and there are no real challenges. I’ve played over 50 hours, but that doesn’t mean I can’t critique it.
Your post title says “Honestly, go fuck yourself Level-5,” which suggests this is more than just pointing out minor criticisms.
The game has been in development for years. Hasn’t it undergone beta testing? This is basic for a game in this category. It’s also full of bugs and glitches and severely lacks quality-of-life features.
The biggest issue for me is the amount of quality-of-life features that are missing.
It’s unacceptable that there’s still no sorting in multiple menus by 2025.