Soccer RPG Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road has been delayed once again. The project won't see the light of day until 2021 according to developer Level-5.
This news comes courtesy of Level-5's official blog. The post detailing the changes to Heroes' Great Road is entirely in Japanese, so we're using BlackKite's translation courtesy of the excellent JapaneseNintendo. Hino says he deeply regrets the numerous delays Heroes' Great Road has suffered, and that fan criticism combined with a lack of staff motivation led to the situation becoming "difficult". As a result, he and his team nearly gave up on making the game altogether.
Despite this demotivation, Hino became determined to continue. Eventually, he and his team hit on the idea of using the "development system and engine" of the Yo-Kai Watch series in order to kickstart (no pun intended) development on Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road. Hino then decided to expand the scope of development and detach the game from the Inazuma Eleven anime's airing schedule. As a result, the new game will be full of "existing content and new ideas"; it'll marry some of what's already been made with a raft of new content. The goal here is to create "a compilation of Inazuma Eleven" which brings together elements from all previous titles.
Hino's ambition with Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road is to create a beginner-friendly Inazuma Eleven game without narrative or gameplay baggage. According to BlackKite's translation, the Level-5 CEO wants to make the new Inazuma Eleven a "brand-new title with a new feeling". It's not quite clear exactly what that will mean yet. If you're an Inazuma Eleven fan, it looks like you'll need to wait until sometime next year to find out. Hino says the team intends to make the new game a "properly good thing", and that he wants to use the situation as a springboard for creating something significant.
We'll have to wait and see what Hino and his team make of the new, reborn Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road. By the time of its release, there will be an eleven-year gap between main series instalments. There's a lot riding on this for Inazuma Eleven fans. Stay tuned for more info.
What would you like to see Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road become? Let us know in the comments below!
