Much like what we experienced in 2024, with the likes of Astro Bot, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and Final Fantasy 7:Rebirth all releasing, 2025 has also been a banner year for video games. Featuring the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Donkey Kong Bananza, Silent Hill f and Hollow Knight: Silksong, it’s been banger after banger for gamers.
That said, there might be a silent underdog that out beats every other game, at least when it comes to Steam user reviews, and its name is Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. The hybrid sports and RPG title from Level5 currently sits at the elusive “Overwhelmingly Positive” status on Steam, with a whopping 96 percent of the available 774 reviews being “Positive.”
Here’s a sampling of one of the reviews based on someone who has over 30 hours on record.
I don’t like football and still, this game is absolutely amazing. It’s like playing a really good rpg, watching a really good anime, following a really interesting story, and competing in a really cool online match system with really deep and unique team building mechanics.
This game literally has everything and does it all really well. It even has a freaking gacha system that is completely free. Of course, it better be looking at the price of the game, but still… it is totally worth it.
No need to have played Inazuma Eleven before, no need to even like this sport. This is a perfect game anyway.
The rest of the reviews echo similar sentiments, making Victory Road one of 2025’s highest-rated titles despite being centered on a franchise that hasn’t had a true new entry since at least 2013 and an anime series that is going on nearly a decade without new content.
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Was Years In The Making
Fans of Inazuma Eleven have been going on nearly a decade since the game was first announced, making this as long-awaited a title as something like Silksong, believe it or not. It was originally revealed back in 2016 during an event, and, at the time, was announced as Inazuma Eleven Ares, with the game coinciding with the anime of the same name. It was supposed to release in 2018. Keyword: Supposed.
It got delayed to 2019, before being renamed completely to Inazuma Eleven: Heroes’ Great Road and given a 2020 release date. That obviously didn’t happen and things were delayed again to 2021 before finally being given a 2023 release, seven years after it was announced.
The story doesn’t end here, as it was given a final rebrand to Victory Road, then next-gen console support was added before we finally ended up at a 2025 release, and even then, things were pushed back one final time before the game launched on November 13. And now here we are, with a game that has some extremely positive fanfare all these years later.
- Released
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November 13, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence
- Developer(s)
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Level 5
- Publisher(s)
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Level 5
