Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters Review

Before getting my hands on Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters, I wasn’t particularly familiar with the Captain Tsubasa franchise. I hadn’t played the previous game, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, and I haven’t watched the anime either. I’m not exactly the biggest soccer fan in the world, so this probably isn’t the most obvious series for me to gravitate towards.

That said, the first trailer for World Fighters immediately caught my attention. When I got the opportunity to play a little of the game for a preview last month, I was surprised by just how much drama it managed to squeeze out of a soccer match. It has the intensity you’d expect from a sports anime, but also the ridiculous, over-the-top energy that makes anime games like this so much fun. Players aren’t simply kicking a ball around a pitch. They’re unleashing spectacular techniques, pushing themselves to their limits and turning every match into something that feels closer to a superhero showdown than a traditional soccer game.

After that preview, I was curious to see whether the full game could maintain that energy. Thankfully, it largely does.

Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters expands on the foundation of its predecessor by taking things onto a much larger international stage. There are more national teams, more playable characters, new moves and techniques, and more ways to customise how you approach your matches. This time around, one of the biggest additions is the ability to create and play as your own avatar, giving me the chance to build a player who could actually fit into the world of Captain Tsubasa.

The character creator is surprisingly detailed, too. I could name my player, choose from a wide range of faces, eyes, mouths, hairstyles and other facial features, while also tweaking their body build. What I particularly liked was how well the custom characters fit the visual style of the series. Character creators can sometimes produce creations that look completely out of place alongside the established cast, but that isn’t really an issue here. Even my questionable attempts at designing something crazy looked like they could belong in the anime.

More importantly, my custom player isn’t simply a cosmetic addition. I can progressively develop their abilities and playstyle as I work through the game, allowing me to create something that feels more personal over time. The ability to experiment with different approaches gives the customisation system more purpose than simply making a funny-looking character.

Another major addition is the ability to play as the goalkeeper for the first time. That might sound like a relatively small change, but it actually adds another dimension to the matches. Goalkeeping works differently from the attacking side of the game, and getting comfortable with when and how to block incoming shots can dramatically change how a match feels.

Shooting itself is also more involved than simply pointing towards the goal and pressing a button. Goalkeepers have a health bar that gradually gets whittled down as you land shots. How effectively they block those shots affects how much damage they take, meaning accuracy and pressure become important. A powerful attack can put a goalkeeper under serious pressure, and repeatedly testing them can eventually create an opening. That feeds nicely into the broader gameplay loop, because World Fighters is constantly encouraging me to think about how I build an attack rather than simply sprinting towards the goal.

Before getting too far into the game, I’d strongly recommend spending some time in Practice mode. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the first things you should do. There’s a lot going on in Captain Tsubasa 2, and I found that many of its mechanics interact with each other in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.

Practice mode gave me the opportunity to learn the controls, understand the core mechanics and figure out what I was actually supposed to be doing during a match. It’s especially useful because the game can initially feel quite different from a conventional soccer title. Once everything started clicking, however, the matches became much easier to understand.

That’s going to be particularly important for anyone planning to jump into online play. I haven’t tested the online component yet, but I can already tell that players who take the time to master the mechanics will have a significant advantage over someone who simply jumps in and starts mashing buttons. I’ll be testing my skills against other players once I get the chance, although I’m already fairly confident I’m going to have my ass handed to me. Still, getting destroyed spectacularly by someone who knows exactly what they’re doing should at least be entertaining.

Fortunately, World Fighters isn’t reliant on online multiplayer to justify its existence. There’s plenty of offline content here, including a full campaign that provides an introduction to the world and characters of Captain Tsubasa. It gives newcomers like me an opportunity to learn the story while facing off against different squads and international teams.

There are plenty of matches to work through, and the campaign provides a useful structure for learning the game while gradually becoming more familiar with its cast.

There’s also an offline Match mode where I can go up against the various national teams outside of the campaign. I primarily played against the CPU, but there’s also support for a second player, allowing you to challenge someone locally. Team composition can be adjusted as well, while CPU difficulty can be changed depending on how much of a challenge you want.

The matches themselves are where World Fighters really comes alive.

At its core, you’re still playing soccer. You move around the pitch, pass the ball, challenge opponents, build attacks and attempt to score. But Captain Tsubasa takes those familiar concepts and turns the volume all the way up.

The best way I can describe it is that a match can start out relatively normally before suddenly becoming completely ridiculous. As the pressure builds, special moves start flying around the pitch and the momentum of the match can shift dramatically. One moment I’m trying to work the ball forward, and the next I’m watching a spectacular technique play out as two players essentially turn a simple shot into an anime super attack.

Super Moves and Miracle Moves are a big part of that spectacle. These techniques give matches their distinctive Captain Tsubasa flavour and create those moments where everything seems to stop for a second as a player unleashes something absurdly powerful.

I really enjoyed that side of the game. There’s something inherently entertaining about how bombastic everything becomes once the special techniques start flowing. The presentation sells these moments well, too, making the matches feel like dramatic set pieces rather than ordinary sporting events.

It also creates an interesting balance between managing the actual flow of the match and knowing when to unleash your strongest abilities. You can’t just rely on spectacular moves constantly and expect everything to work perfectly. Learning how the different mechanics fit together becomes increasingly important, particularly as the opposition gets tougher.

That’s also where the depth of the game starts to reveal itself. World Fighters gives players plenty of opportunities to dig deeper, whether that means building the perfect team, developing a custom player around a specific playstyle or experimenting with different players and techniques.

I especially appreciated how much freedom there is to edit team compositions. Being able to adjust who makes up your squad gives the game a more strategic layer, particularly for players who want to spend time figuring out the strongest combinations. For someone like me who isn’t deeply familiar with the franchise’s roster, it also provides a fun excuse to experiment with the characters and see what works.

The ability to approach the game as a goalkeeper is another example of that depth. It changes the feel of the matches enough that it doesn’t simply seem like a minor alternative control scheme. I enjoyed being able to experience the defensive side of things and see how different the flow of a match becomes when I’m the one trying to stop those outrageous shots.

Visually, I think the character models are one of the game’s strongest elements. The developers have done a good job of translating the distinctive art style of the manga and anime into the game. The established characters look suitably exaggerated and expressive, while custom-created characters don’t stick out like they were imported from an entirely different game.

That said, I do think there are areas where World Fighters could have been stronger. The sheer number of mechanics can make the learning curve feel steeper than it probably needs to be, especially for newcomers who don’t already understand how Captain Tsubasa works. Practice mode helps considerably, but I still think the game could do a better job of gradually introducing some of its more complicated systems.

I also think the spectacle can occasionally overshadow the underlying soccer. The exaggerated moves are absolutely part of the appeal, but there were moments when I wanted a little more consistency between the conventional football mechanics and the anime-style action. That balance is difficult to get right, particularly when the entire point of Captain Tsubasa is to make soccer completely over the top.

I also would have loved to have seen the story and characters receive an English voice track. There is match commentary that is announced in English, yet the actual story components are missing it. Not a huge deal, but always something I love to see anime games get these days.

For me, though, those issues didn’t outweigh what I enjoyed.

As someone coming into Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters with relatively little knowledge of the franchise and not much enthusiasm for soccer games generally, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I became invested in its matches. The combination of traditional soccer mechanics, character development, team customisation and spectacular anime-style techniques gives it an identity that sets it apart from more conventional football games.

I also appreciate that there’s something here for different types of players. I can work through the campaign and learn about the characters, play offline matches, experiment with team compositions, develop my own avatar or eventually take that knowledge online and see how I compare with other players.

I still have plenty to learn, and I suspect the online competition is going to expose just how much I haven’t mastered yet. But that’s part of the appeal. Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters gives me plenty of reasons to keep playing, whether I’m trying to improve my understanding of the mechanics, build a better team or simply chase those ridiculous moments where a soccer match suddenly transforms into an anime spectacle.

I went into World Fighters as something of a newcomer to the franchise, and I came away much more interested in seeing what Captain Tsubasa is all about. It’s dramatic, flashy, surprisingly deep and, above all else, knows exactly how ridiculous it wants its soccer to be.

For fans of the series, there’s clearly a lot here to sink their teeth into. For newcomers like me, it’s a much easier recommendation than I expected. Just be prepared to spend some time in Practice mode before taking on the world, because once those special moves start flying, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re doing.

A PS5 review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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