Spoiler level: the main review contains no significant spoilers. At the end, you will find a section about the story with spoilers, hidden by default.
Before I started
I played and finished the first Captain Tsubasa on PS4 back when it came out. I assume most people of a certain generation in Spain grew up with Oliver y Benji, the Spanish dub of the anime, but far fewer watched it all the way through and got to see Tsubasa playing for Barcelona against “Roul” from Madrid. I suppose I am not a larper.
Did it need a sequel?
No, but I am not the sort of person who turns their nose up at a game for that reason. I will admit that, when the project was announced, I added it to my list of games to buy straight away, but I have not followed the development closely or looked into the studio behind it at all.
My playthrough
I finished the story mode, which is the reason the game interests me. Not just up to the credits, but the full version, which is a good few hours more.
The plot is what you would expect: playing through a national teams tournament and interweaving dialogue between team-mates and rivals as you progress through the stages. All of it seasoned with well-animated recreations of the best moves, which tap into pure nostalgia. Without a doubt, that is the strongest part of the game.
As for the difficulty… the worst of it comes in your first few matches, while you get the timings down. Once you have the basics, it is extremely easy for my taste. The game knows it, too, and fills every match with challenges, which are not difficult either — tedious at times, if anything. But there is one point of “difficulty” in trying to clear every challenge in a single match: that really is hard most of the time.
And I have saved the worst for last
There is one thing that came close to making me quit on several occasions. The game makes a technical design decision that is an absolute disaster: during matches, predetermined events trigger — sometimes right from kick-off, other times when certain conditions are met, such as going behind, or a particular player being on the pitch…
Is that a bad idea? No. The mechanic would only add to the experience if it were properly implemented, and it is not. Every time an event fires, you get a loading screen going in and another coming back, a load that is extremely long for the current generation and that sometimes overlaps with other scenes. You spend more time loading than watching cutscenes.
The memory
This is not a game you will remember at all. In fact, the first entry is simply a few days’ distraction in my mind: the typical throwaway game.
The verdict
A run-of-the-mill game, predictable and only worth it for fans of the series. One that could be good fun if it did not have that enormous problem with loading times in every single match.
I recommend it if…
- You are a fan of the series.
- You come to it with very good intentions.
It might not be for you if…
- You are not a fan of the series.
After the credits: spoilers
Show my spoiler-filled thoughts on Captain Tsubasa II: World Fighters
The final cutscene, the one for Tsubasa’s future wedding, is pretty WTF if you factor in the storyline about him being in a hardcore long-distance relationship xD.
The Collector’s Edition, the version I bought from the Bandai Namco Store.
My playthrough details
Show my playthrough details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Game | Captain Tsubasa II: World Fighters |
| Developer | Tamsoft Corporation |
| Publisher | Bandai Namco |
| Completion | Platinum trophy earned |
| Date finished | Thursday, 10 September 2026 |
| Time played | 33 hours |
| Story | 100% completed |
| Platform | PlayStation 5 Pro |
| Format | Physical |
| Edition | Captain Tsubasa II: World Fighters – Collector’s Edition |
| Purchase | Bandai Namco Store · €111.99 |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Voice language | Japanese |
| Text language | Spanish |