Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
A soccer RPG with two narratives and a long development history.
Level-5's Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, a 2025 sports RPG, is the seventh main series entry. It launched on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. By January 2026, sales exceeded 800,000 copies. A manga adaptation began in CoroCoro Comic's December 2025 issue and continues in Weekly CoroCoro.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Level-5
- Composer
- Kenichiro Saigo
- Series
- Inazuma Eleven
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch
- Nintendo Switch 2
- PlayStation 4
- PlayStation 5
- Windows
- Xbox Series X/S
- Released
- November 13, 2025
- Genre
- Role-playing, sports
- Modes
- Single-player, multi-player
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road contains two separate narratives: Story Mode and Chronicle Mode. Story Mode is set 25 years after the original Inazuma Eleven, in Nagumohara Junior High School in Nagasaki, Kyuushuu. The story focuses on Unmei Sasanami, a boy who no longer plays soccer due to a congenital heart disease that limits his physical abilities. After initially researching ways to continue playing, he becomes disheartened and chooses to avoid soccer entirely, attending Nagumohara Junior High School, which disbanded its soccer club years prior. When the baseball team captain uses soccer as a bullying tactic, Unmei challenges him to a 5-v-5 soccer battle to allow the newly-formed soccer club use of the field. Unmei recruits fellow students, first to fulfill this challenge, then to build a team for the Football Frontier inter-school competition. Nagumohara progresses through regional and national tournaments thanks to Unmei's expert tactical analysis, eventually reaching the final. Unmei forms a bond with Endou Haru, a first-year striker at Raimon Junior High and son of original protagonist Endou Mamoru. Haru is a talented but bored player who finds the game uninteresting until a chance meeting with Unmei during a match piques his interest. After suffering an injury that prevents him from playing again (later revealed to be deliberately exaggerated), Haru leaves the club to travel and learn why people enjoy soccer, eventually spending time in Nagasaki with Unmei, which renews his desire to overcome the injury and return to the game.
Development
Originally announced in 2016 as Inazuma Eleven Ares, the game was planned for a 2018 launch on PlayStation 4, Switch, Android, and iOS. It was pushed back to after May 2019 in December 2018, then rebranded as Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes and delayed to 2020 in September 2019. Further delays followed: to 2021 in April 2020, to 2023 in April 2021, and in July 2022 it was retitled Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. Another delay to 2024 came in November 2023, alongside the announcement of a PlayStation 5 version and a global beta for March 2024. A PC version was revealed in December 2023. In September 2024, a target release of June 2025 was stated, and in April 2025 a specific date of August 21 (August 22 in Japan) was set, with versions for Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S, though the iOS and Android editions were scrapped; the launch is digital-only. In July 2025, the game was postponed again to November 13. The project was originally intended to connect with the 2018 anime Inazuma Eleven: Ares. Level-5 issued a playable beta, the Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Worldwide Beta Test Demo, on Nintendo Switch on March 18, 2024, and later on PlayStation 4, 5, and Steam on July 18, 2024. This demo featured a simple story mode, online competition, a VS Computer mode, and a Gallery for concept art. Online play on Switch and PlayStation required a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online or PlayStation Plus. Level-5 also ran a survey for bug reports. By February 2025, the demo was no longer downloadable on the Nintendo eShop and online play had ended, but offline modes stayed accessible. On other platforms, the demo was delisted on April 11, 2025, after which all offline modes became unavailable, including on Switch.
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