
Inazuma 11 is a soccer game, but it’s pretty different from FIFA
When I was in Japan, I was pleased to see more portable gaming devices being played everywhere, especially on the subway. I hate to admit it, but whenever people were playing on the subway, sometimes I’d try to sneak a peak at what they were playing. It’s like DS stalking. On one particular subway ride, I managed to catch a peek of a kid playing some game that looked like a RPG, but there was something different about it – the protagonist was kicking around a soccer ball. Intriguing… Turns out the kid was playing the third installment of the Inazuma 11 series, a wildly popular soccer RPG series in Japan (and a very popular kids anime). I decided to pick up the first game in the series (in Japanese of course) and ended up playing that for the rest of my trip. What is a soccer RPG? Is the game only for kids? Is it weird to stalk people’s portable gaming choices? (Probably). Hit the jump for answers to all these questions and more!





