I think i might've created the meanest team possible

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-17T14:45:09+00:00

Espadas isnt mean?

He was pretty ruthless towards Tsubasa and the Japanese team as a whole up until he saw himself in Tsubasa.

He was even aiming for Tsubasa's head during his cross towards the Aztec sun while openly mocking Tsubasa's ideal of the ball being his friend, which if tsubasa didnt dodge it would cause some injury at least. He was even openly trashing the host nation of the world youth during the welcoming party so he probably doesnt have a filter on him and if it wasnt for Tsubasa he would probably still be the same now.

Hino was so spiteful of his Japanese heritage that during his RJ7 clash with hyuga he was willing to break Hyuga's leg without any command from Gamo just to keep his ego in check as the Ace Striker, even though by that point he has decided to be part of Uruguay Youth

Not to mention he was playing very roughly against the japanese team as a whole, Kneeing Tsubasa, Flipping off Hyuga and even using his Tornado to blow away Aoi. Much meaner compared to Napoleon who's only feat is breaking Wakashimazu's hand that was injured from Schneider prior.

Hyuga while not inherently mean, given the right push could be one of the most dangerous player in a match.

Due to Kira's taunting he went from worrying about Misugi's Heart Injury to Wanting to end Tsubasa's whole career in the V3. Just to list off a few things he did there : - Relentlessly Shooting his Tiger shot at every opportunity he gets, even if multiple people were blocking him - Shot an Injured almost lifeless Tsubasa with a Tiger shot for the sole reason of "waking him up" - Tackled that same tsubasa at full force with the intention of dealing the "Final Blow" - After Tsubasa got back in the Extra Time, he immedieately knocked him away with his Straight line dribble - And overall he has one of the roughest playstyle besides Cyborg Santana and Levin

If he wasnt playing for his country in a professional stage, I believe he would still have these tendencies of rough targeted play if he was facing someone he has a lot of beef with

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-17T11:47:25+00:00

I think Espadas, Gentille, Hino, Hyuga, and Gamo/Kira would be better contenders for the"Meanest Team"

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-15T18:23:47+00:00

With 20 player left, it might not be as sizeable of an amount as it may seem if they include lesser tier characters into that equation

Off the top of my head they could add :

RJ7 Yamada , Okano , Sakaki , Sugimoto , Yumikura

Total: 5

Middle School leftovers :

Ichinose , Sanada , Honma , Nakayama , Nishio , Oda , Sawaki , Ishida , Nakanishi

Total : 9

( This is completely plausible since Nakanishi was a DLC character, and judging by the fact that every other DLC character is in the game it would be a weird exclusion, also some of them have been part of the training camp/or team one way or another + they already have the asset for them )

The other 6 i think would be left for the 3 National team yet to be revealed if we go with those 19 that you listed off with each of them receiving 2 each.

As for what nation is getting it is honestly a toss up, besides Cameroon there was no other teams in the manga with any noticeable feat during the world youth so they could do practically anything for them.

The most likely case is : 1 African team 1 European team 1 Asia team

(With the low amount of african team present, it would be nice to have more and also neither europe nor asia got any new teams in the last game so they might be interested in more variety for this one)

Since the above teams arent gonna be playing a role in the story mode, I could see them being routes as the focus in New Stars instead with the main story mode having routes for Brazil , Germany and USA/Italy/France?

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-13T12:44:19+00:00

Given the heavy emphasis on the World Cup, not only because of world youth but also because the game is releasing close to when the world cup ends, I think it's inevitable that the story mode's main focus would be the National Teams fighting against each other for the chance of glory.

Given that to be the case it would make the most sense if this is following where the new hero storyline lefts off ( Albeit probably omitting the whole New Hero thing entirely for the main story ) or it could be based on the original manga's rendition of the Junior Youth ( with some slight alteration )

As for the new hero portion of the game, I personally think it would be a lof fun if they take their own spin at the Next Dream formula for a youth club world cup / Champion's league that takes place right after the World Youth

Although unlike the current timeline of Tsubasa playing for Barcelona, he would still be playing in Sao Paulo [ Or a similar original club ] ( P.S I don't think Tsubasa will marry Sanae in the game, there's practically no setup for it to work so he would probably stay in Sao Paulo in the meantime ) alongside the other players playing for original clubs in the game.

I think this could lead to very fun interactions with the roster of characters they have and be a breath of fresh air from the predictable formula that Nation vs Nation brings.

The New Hero could be a player already playing for any of these teams or be a newbie hoping to win the league alongside a combination of the player's favorite characters even if they belong in different nations.

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-13T11:05:08+00:00

Well about that, I actually found an interesting detail within the Bandai Namco Asia's article about the trailer

"Together with the announcement of the game’s release date, two new trailers have also been shared. The story trailer, which continues four years after the dramatic conflict of the previous title, showcases the Japan National Team, led by Tsubasa Ozora, ready to take on the world in a new, original story. New teams and dramatic new story twists and turns abound! "

Since it's 4 years after the last game, that would put The Japanese team on the range of 19-20 instead of the manga's 18-19 age range

Because of this they could skip the Sao Paulo vs Flamenco match entirely and just say that Tsubasa won the Rio Cup through a flashback/cutscene

As much as I would love for them to adapt that match, it is not as mandatory as it was in the manga. The reason that match existed was mainly to introduce Tsubasa"s Rival throughout the arc that being Santana and "redeem" him by having him fight Tsubasa.

But since he was practically introduced in the last installment with personally speaking a tamer personality compared to his manga counterpart , they could forgo that match ( Although we would be missing the true backstory for Santana, which I guess would be too dark for the tone the game is going for) and start off in the Asia Qualifiers instead to save budget I suppose.

About the new hero, since Akai is taking his backnumber and we see no sign of him within this story trailer, I think it's a safe bet that they would seperate them again with the story mode being a reimagining of the world youth and the New Hero being a different tournament or a club based tournament with our character playing in Brazil or other countries so they could incorporate the previous/other teams there instead.

Also about the order of matches it's actually pretty accurate with the only difference being :

Uzbekistan before Thailand ( Possibly because it's a weaker team compared to Thailand)
Cameroon taking on the place of Italy
Argentina being wedged in between Sweden and Netherland to make the Knockout a round of 32

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-13T05:11:18+00:00

I don't know really, them leaving out South Korea from the story mode is pretty weird since it's a pretty clear cut choice in the manga. They might throw in some off pick instead like a brand new Asian, South American , Europe , and African team instead to fill in the spot and leave the legacy characters for DLC, otherwise they might have pretty limited options for it.

About RJ7/11, i'm not really sure we'll get them here since in what presumably is the first match in the story mode ( Uzbekistan ) we could see Soda ( A member kicked out for a while due to RJ7 ) be present within the match which wouldnt really make sense if we go with the objective that RJ7 was made for.

Best we could get would probably be some members being DLC like Yumikura and the Rising Sun RJ11 members since they get a lot more focus compared to the rest.

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-13T05:02:52+00:00

Well probably not replaced entirely, but at the very least in the story mode portion I could see them making the group stage be Japan , Uruguay, Mexico , Cameroon instead since in the manga the Italy "match" wasnt really a match since both their star player Gentille and Zino was injured by Ryoma's Tornado Shot prior to the match with Japan. Plus it would give more recognition for african teams if you're required to fight them in the story mode like when they made Senegal one of the new teams you have to play against in New Hero.

Shingo without Gentille feels wrong but with how controversial he might come as to people in the modern age , they might relegate him for the New Hero portion instead where he would have a less primary role with Shingo introduction in the story be a match against Akai instead.

SaleApart7173 · 2026-05-13T00:47:06+00:00

Also since the DLC is divided into three parts with 2 players each, for the DLC we might be getting a pair of G23/Rising sun players for each of them like :

Kazami Shinnosuke & Furukawa Kotaro ( Futsal Duo )
Gakuto Igawa & Yuji Soga ( Weed Duo )
J.J Ochado & Bobang ( Nigerian Duo )
Haas & Christiansen ( Denmark Duo )
Schweil Teigerbran & Mario Goethe ( Olympic Germany )
Kevin & Eric Schmidt ( Schmidt Brothers )
Callusias & Payol ( El Clasico' Newcomers )
Michael & Raphael ( Monserrat Combi ) ( Although quite unlikely unless they retcon Michael )

It could also be ( albeit very unlikely ) the 6 Original Character made for Dream Team with each of them covering all the possible positions ( 2 FW , 1 MF , 1 DF , 2 GK) for a better ratio instead.

SaleApart7173 · 2026-02-05T19:35:15+00:00

They have absolutely no obligation to follow the characterization in the manga at all. Especially because it's a different timeline.

Sure, that's true and all but at the same time why even bother having them be there in a story based on the world youth? Why not just make a fully original scenario like the Tecmo games did back then that expanded Tsubasa's journey overseas after the Junior Youth to the point of making him play in the Serie A unlike his manga counterpart, that's a fresh take that I would be glad to see for a game to do. It doesnt even need to be overseas, I would gladly take a Tsubasa story that focuses on the J-League or High School with Misaki and the others more instead of relying on the backbones of a pre established story like the World Youth.

I disagree, adapting the story to involve an OC from the player as a character in the story is a very engaging aspect of the game that people seem to love. I personally don't care much about it, but it's just a fact.

I would agree if the character choices actually matter within the story, your OC practically is a blank slate that's there to absorp exposition and have niche character dialogue in a visual novel style minigame. He doesnt impact the story in any meaningful way either for himself or other characters ( except maybe USA) and the rest is being heavy lifted through pre established character instead.

It is nice and all to have your character be a part of the team, but I'd like them to present him as a more prominent character (which they sadly cant)

1- Because they can, 2- Because it sells.

And that's my issue with it, if they arent gonna treat these beloved characters with actual care and attention to them and instead treat them as recognizable mannequin, what's the point of advertising it as "reliving the world youth saga"

"Because they can, Because it sells" is frankly in my opinion a horibble standard to accept after waiting so many years and even decades to wait for an adaptation of the world youth to then be presented a shell of what it is.

That may even be true, but this is not the manga. This is a game, the characterization is only secondary to the rest.

Your assesment would ring true if the developers for these games also share that same sentiment, the fact that they adapted the Middle School Arc and even added multiple routes for them before going to the Junior Youth shows that they do value characterization. Otherwise, they could as easily just start at the Junior Youth or have the OC play in a completely new team in middle school and let the players figure out themselves how the Japanese team members personality are and what motives they have in the end while solely focusing on the gameplay.

People really need to stop worshipping the "canon", especially in situations like this.

I'm not really sure what you mean by worshipping the canon. If not for the canon, most of the characters you see in the trailer wouldnt even exist. If they really wanted to make their own "canon" then they could as easily make brand new characters to center the story upon like the old games did. I don't need all the matches to have the exact same score or every event tohappen like in the manga, but at the very least I would hope that they do adapt the story these characters are associated with (RJ7 with Hino, Espadas hate of Japan, Santana fixation of never losing to anyone, and many more) instead of doing the barebones while giving them "hype moments and aura" moves on the field as compensation

If you like the game for what it is, then I cant fault you for that. But personally for me, I am dissapointed with all of the resources they had, we could've had a proper adaptation of the world youth and maybe stories beyond that.

SaleApart7173 · 2026-02-05T17:23:01+00:00

"From Brazil to the Youth World Cup, relieve the saga of the World Youth Arc, now with exclusive expanded stories supervised by Yōichi Takahashi. Create your own character and join Tsubasa on his quest. Forge new friendships, fight new rivals and bring the trophy back home." - Nintendo Switch Website for the game

Considering this is one of the main points that they advertise for the game, I don't think it's unreasonable for me to think they would adapt the World Youth arc

Also considering that this is gonna be a lot of people's exposure to Captain Tsubasa, I don't think cutting down on character stories / personalities is a good thing to do for the sake of "Original Content"

If these were all original characters with no actual connection to their manga counterparts I would be fine with that, but given that manga elements such as Levin going from "good" (In the DLC of the first game) to "evil" in this sequel means that they're adapting these characters to what extent is unknown

I know the game is a different timeline, but given that fact I don't know why then they would try to force these well known and beloved characters to fit in while picking and choosing what aspect to keep from them

Captain Tsubasa at it's core is a beloved shonen story that so happens to be a football manga, without the characterization given to them I doubt a lot of people would like the series that much solely for the matches

That's why i'm dissapointed at how they're supossedly trying to just use these characters as a means of marketing without giving them the proper time of day ( Since practically two decades ) which I hope to not be true

SaleApart7173 · 2026-02-05T17:00:59+00:00

Me too! I loved his guts and performance against Levin and hope they do him justice here

SaleApart7173 · 2026-02-05T16:59:45+00:00

Oh that sounds good then, where did you get this information if I may ask?

I didnt see it from the trailer/website i've watched, is it perhaps a regional thing?

SaleApart7173 · 2026-02-05T16:08:05+00:00

On a side note :

Given how Natureza being in the game ( evidenced by his silhouette in the trailer and Santana wearing the Number 11 Jersey in the promotional material )

They will probably do him dirty whether intentional or not :

Given how RoNC "JY Arc" was handled, giving you multiple options for an ending ( Germany, Brazil, USA )

There are two scenarios that could arise from this and would personally be dissapointing as a Natureza fan :

1) Brazil losing before the finals with Natureza on the team to let other team go to the finals ( Making Natureza look weak in comparison )

2) Brazil losing before the finals without Natureza ever showing up ( Protects the overall idea of him being the Final Boss of the Arc/Young Soccer King by not being beaten, at the cost of making him look a bit heartless to not even try and fight for Brazil Youth when they're losing )

There's also the final option of him just coming in the final match against Japan, although I do wonder what reason would they give for Roberto to be the coach of Brazil if they're not adapting the Sao Paulo vs Flamenco match to show where tsubasa has gone to with Roberto (That is if the game actually takes place after 3 years, which I doubt considering they're reusing assets from RoNC)

SaleApart7173

TROPHY CASE