Dear Reader:
Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road delayed until 2021
Just a few weeks ago, Level 5's CEO Akihiro Hino said he hoped to provide an update on Inazuma Eleven: Heroes' Great Road sometime in April. Just as the month kicks off, we've already gotten official word on development of the title. Originally planned for release in Spring 2020, we'll sadly have to wait until 2021 to get our hands on the long awaited game. The Japanese Level-5 blog post also announces it will be rebooted yet again, and that the title will now lack connection to the anime series. Check out the full statement below, translated by BlackKite courtesy of JapaneseNintendo!
Dear everyone, first of all I deeply apologise for the late report. Inazuma Eleven: The Heroes’ Great Road, which has been long-awaited, has a major delay and the production is in a difficult course due to problems on the game development. There have been more voices of criticism on the net, and staff motivation also felt like going down, so the situation has become rather difficult.
Under a situation like this, I thought for a moment that there may be no other way than to stop the development. However, there are also people that supported with straight feelings, and personally my feeling to never give up also grows bigger, so we somehow managed to try restarting the development.
As a result, we have a conclusion that there may be a few methods available. By evolving the development system and engine made to develop the Yo-kai series, the direction has a possibility to complete Inazuma Eleven with a high quality. So in that case, I thought we should even do things we couldn’t before.
Cross-media is originally supposed to have an emphasis on timing, but this time we have a conception to focus on creating this title thoroughly without being bound to the anime’s airing schedule. It will take even more time, but we’re aiming for a title with a high degree of freedom like a compilation of Inazuma Eleven.
From here on, there will be notes that serve as new guidelines filled with existing contents and new ideas. There may be some users who have become angry for waiting too long, but I’d be glad if you can watch over our decision.
I may have written a lot of things like talking incessantly, but there are no good excuses for the development delay, so I apologise very deeply. From here on, there is nothing other than to wait in anticipation. I think it may end up getting released in 2021, and we intend to make a properly good thing. I’d like a situation like this to become a spring to reconstruct and develop ‘something that has significance when completed’.
I think nowadays there are many people who never played the first Inazuma Eleven that was out on DS. That’s why while we’re also verifying the system on whether we can express Part 1’s system of drawing trails with a finger once again, content-wise we intend to proceed through the development as a ‘brand-new title’ with a new feeling. It will still need even more time, but we intend to deliver something that won’t sully the reputation of being the newest title of Inazuma Eleven, so please wait a bit more.
I hope for your continued support from here on as well.