Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters, Winning the World Cup is Not a Dream - Review

Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters has been awaited for a good 6 years, not a short time to continue the amazing exploits of that Japanese U20 team whose members promise a respectable professional career. Tsubasa Ozora is a symbol of growth, a young talent so gifted that he attracts the attention of the former Brazilian national team striker, Roberto Hongo (known to us as Roberto Sedinho).

Indeed, despite the 2018 remake of the series, in our beautiful country Captain Tsubasa is known as Holly e Benji - Due fuoriclasse (Holly and Benji - Two Champions) and it's hard to shake off such a nostalgic label, even though it's almost impossible for two future stars to debut in the Japanese national team with purely English names. Overlooking the naming issue, we can say that Tamsoft's product remains faithful to the first chapter (of which you can read more here) and accurately carries forward the events that made Tsubasa and his companions true examples of Japanese football.

Yōichi Takahashi's work makes us understand the importance of sport, healthy rivalry, and above all, friendship in a sporting context that unites every athlete in the world: in short, a spokon (sports manga) par excellence. And that's what we relive with Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters which, thanks to many small touches, will bring us back to the playing field from the moments when the protagonist moves to Brazil and faces one of his strongest rivals, Carlos Santana.

Before starting, let's make a small clarification: since World Fighters is the direct sequel to Rise of New Champions, it would be ideal not to start directly with the second chapter. The product is strongly fan service and you would lose the main thread. However, if you have already read all the manga, then don't worry at all. 

From Brazil to the Dream of the World Cup

Reaching professional levels was not easy (at least in the 80s) for a Japanese footballer, a country that certainly did not shine in the noble sport of football. For this reason, the dream was more deeply felt, and Tsubasa simply wanted to go to his mentor's country, Brazil, to become the champion capable of lifting the fateful World Cup. And it is from here that the events of Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters will take root, but from a different perspective, that of our alter-ego. 

As in Rise of the New Champions, our first task is to create a footballer capable of competing with the greatest, starting with the aspect that most appeals to us (but this is not absolutely essential to be good, just cooler). We can therefore customize facial features, voice, celebrations (there's even Cristiano Ronaldo's), and choose the techniques to perform on the field (unlockable during the first part of the story mode, but we'll get back to that). 

Once ready, we will obviously meet a boy, a prodigy who befriended his ball, who met many friends and rivals, and with whom he forged strong bonds through arduous and exciting clashes. So, we will be one of them and we will transfer to his team, São Paulo. And everything will be narrated interactively, responding dynamically to almost every conversation and leading us to get to know the characters of the various national teams (and beyond) present in the game. 

The story itself is told in detail, with tons of dialogues faithful to the animated counterpart, which will immerse us completely in the events. A decidedly appreciable aspect, especially since in other anime video games this feature is reduced to the bone or simply addressed very marginally. However, even "too much spoils": in fact, the events are sometimes too verbose, with endless dialogues and extremely diluted moments.

Mind you, being precise in telling a story is a factor we appreciate, but we must always remember that we are dealing with a video game and the player must feel like "the life of the football party". At least the gameplay is satisfying in its own way, even if you should put aside the strict football rules: there are no fouls, no free kicks, and you will count throw-ins on one hand. The gameplay of Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters shines in the spectacularity of the actions, as if we were facing a fighting game with a ball at our feet, where we will make holes in the net during a goal (also destroying some scenarios) and perform such demanding overhead kicks that we will wake up with bone aches the next day (fortunately our champions don't feel tired).

Before each story mode match, we will go to the locker room. Here we can view opponent information and customize the team, including deciding the formation and position of the various players. Each episode will also ask us to complete some secondary objectives that will unlock new dialogue possibilities and special techniques to assign to our personal avatar. This last aspect is very important because it will allow us to be more incisive, even if we will be limited in the use of the strongest abilities and will have to understand well which aspects to develop our champion.

However, forget about dynamic progression; everything will happen very mechanically, and we will not be able to perform personalized training or improve various statistics simply by performing certain activities. And it's a shame, because the story mode of Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters is enriched with secondary scenarios that tell us about events outside the main episodes and connecting stories to forge even deeper relationships. But these events will simply be narrated: we will be left with the "bitter" task of watching them, without the possibility of playing them... a real shame!

Punching Through the Net, Literally!

Being Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters a video game based on football, the rules remain almost unchanged (apart from the nasty fouls that the referee won't even whistle for fun). As it should be, you run, you sprint, and you get past various rivals with dribbles, then you get to the goal and take one of those shots that will leave you speechless. As we anticipated, forget the strategies of other football games, through passes and one-twos: Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters is mainly based on timing, on the right moment to press the corresponding button to bypass the defense and overwhelm the goalkeeper.

And this aspect is important not only in the offensive phase but also in the defensive one: in fact, we can charge a special indicator and slide tackle to steal the ball, unless the opponent manages to activate a counter-offensive in turn. But let's not dwell, the shooting phase will be the one that will make your mouth water, that moment when Tsubasa Ozora performs a Drive Shot and lowers the opponent's goalkeeper's HP. 

And the phases with the goalkeeper, which we can play in first person, are extremely fun. After each opponent's shot, you will have to pay attention to the ball's trajectory and rotate the controller stick to choose the direction to save. If we perfectly predict the shot, we will lose very few HP regardless of the shot's power: and we had a lot of fun failing miserably (not always, mind you).

Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters slightly modifies the combat system, erm excuse us, the game system, and eliminating (in a certain sense) the V-Zone bar, a team power-up in Rise of New Champions activatable after a series of successful dribbles and tackles. In its place are the Super Moves, powerful final techniques specially designed for each player: when we see them shine it means they have reached 100% and are ready to activate a special technique, such as a Super Shot for attackers or Super Dribbles for midfielders. 

In short, the gameplay is quite fun, but at times we found it too confusing, especially when players continuously activate super moves which, if we are particularly good at timing, we can counter and render inefficient. To be honest, we would have liked the title to become more technical in its arcade nature and to feel more like actual football: but what it does, it does well, and probably fans of the first chapter will not be disappointed. 

What's Beyond Story Mode?

After completing the first itinerary with all the final celebrations (we all pretty much know it by now), we will unlock two different modes in which to face battles in "what if?" scenarios, meaning what would have happened if instead of "those matches" Japan had played others. It is therefore an alternative path that follows the scheme of the previous one, without introducing anything different in its formula, apart from unpublished stories not present in the manga (with the supervision of the author Yōichi Takahashi). Rounding out the experience is Episode Rivals, which are friendly matches narratively placed within the main events. To unlock them, you will need to meet certain requirements in the various episodes we previously faced. 

Leaving the story mode, unfortunately, there isn't much left to play in single player, and we will be limited to playing single matches against the CPU or with a friend on the couch. We would certainly have appreciated a tournament mode or a "survival" mode in which to sequentially play various matches with the more than 20 teams, including clubs and national teams.

The multiplayer could make everything more appealing, which, alas, we did not have the opportunity to try during the review phase. The online should guarantee a good dose of challenge thanks to the possibility of clashing with increasingly fierce opponents and winning various trophies. Here too, it will be necessary to see how much this component will be supported, especially given the absence of noteworthy single-player modes (apart from a decent, albeit not short, story mode).

Technically, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters never showed any weaknesses and guaranteed us a rock-solid experience at 60 fps on PlayStation 5. Graphically, it's not always excellent, with player textures sometimes a bit pixelated that reminded us of the resolution of a past generation. Nothing can be said about the cutscenes, which are truly incredible and in line with the original anime.