Soccer Story
by Aethyna
Dec 2, 2022 |
1
Votes |
56
Played |
0
Reviews
9
rate
Genres:
Simulation , SportsGraphics:
2DLabels:
Adventure , Life Sim , FootballPlatforms:
Publishers:
No More Robots Soccer Story is a soccer-infused adventure RPG that sees you playing as Kai, a young soccer fan from a quaint little town called Soccertown who was chosen by a magical soccer ball to take on Soccer Inc, the soccer association that banned soccer due to The Calamity. Will you be able to bring soccer back to the masses again? Play Now Similar Games Played
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Summary
Soccer Story is a soccer-infused adventure RPG that sees you playing as Kai, a young soccer fan from a quaint little town called Soccertown who was chosen by a magical soccer ball to take on Soccer Inc, the soccer association that banned soccer due to The Calamity. Find and assemble your team, train them up by taking on various FCs in secretive, non-Soccer Inc-sanctioned matches, and eventually, take the fight to Soccer Inc so you can defeat them at their own game! Will you be able to bring soccer back to the masses again?
Plotline
A year ago, during the finals of the coveted Apple Cup where the best soccer team will be crowned as the winners, a fateful goal purportedly unleashed The Calamity which truly defied all laws of physics, even fictional ones, and explanation!
The entire stadium, the heart of soccer, was ripped from the ground and levitated into the air. On it, lies the HQ of Soccer Inc, the very soccer association that seized the opportunity to blame the use of “unauthorized soccer” that has caused the calamity. They impose a strict “no soccer” rule on everyone, except a select few who play soccer – using their “safe” soccer, of course – under Soccer Inc’s banner. Essentially, the association now has full control over this popular pastime.
Fast forward to today, a young Kai was visited by a magical soccer in his/her (depending on which of the twins you choose to play as) room. The ball chose Kai to bring soccer back to the people, but to do so, he/she will need a team. It’s up to you to find, recruit and train Kai’s soccer team, so they are good enough to finally take on Soccer Inc and beat them at their own game!
Gameplay
At its core, Soccer Story is an adventure game that has a fairly similar tone to Pokemon. As you run around the many locations in the game, you’ll see various characters standing at specific locations or going through a predetermined path, simply waiting for you to interact with them. It’s not at all realistic since most normal people have other stuff to do other than just standing around and waiting for the protagonist, but it works well in this game.
Similar to some RPGs as well, there are quest givers who will ask something of you, whether it is to gather acorns by knocking them off trees with your ball or finding a can of energy drink. Most of the quests are fetch or collection quests, be it old medals or ticket stubs, since there’s no killing stuff here. Some quests come with a mini-game too, such as the one where you’re asked to dig up bones. The digging process consists of a reflex-based mini-game where you need to get the rapidly-moving indicator to land on the highlighted area. There are even fun little activities you can do around the place besides soccer, such as fishing, along with simple puzzles like standing on buttons based on the clue you’re given.
In addition to quests, the game also has plenty of “challengers” who will give you soccer-related challenges that you can complete using the soccer skills you’ve learned. You’ll start off with a simple slide tackle that, funnily enough, can be used to “harvest” carrots, clear patches of grass, and destroy cardboard boxes. However, once you’ve obtained the magical soccer, which you can summon at will, you can then kick or dribble it, unlocking various soccer challenges like the Dribble challenge.
As indicated by its name, in the Dribble challenge, you’ll need to dribble the ball to the “finish cone” (instead of a “finish line”) provided that you can find it. The trick to mastering this involves paying attention to the title of the Dribble Challenge, which would usually clue you in as to where the “finish cone” would be, and making full use of your dribble boost that’ll give you a significant albeit temporary speed boost when you’re dribbling the ball.
There is also the Goal Challenge, where the main goal (pun intended) is to score a goal in the many goalposts placed around the place. The challenge starts off pretty easy, but as you progress, more conditions will be imposed, forcing you to find creative ways to fulfill said conditions while scoring a goal. Once you’ve taken on the challenge from a member of the Target Appreciation Society, there will be various targets around the place that you’ll need to find and hit with a ball. Some of these targets may even come with a time limit.
Besides these targets, each location even comes with several yellow targets – what I’d call “unassociated targets” - that you can kick a ball at to earn a coin. You can also earn coins by checking various interactive objects in this game, looking in a variety of hidden places, especially among trees or shiny grass patches, or even by completing certain quests.
These coins, when accumulated, can then be used to purchase upgrade tokens at designated and activated Medal Upgrade Machines. Note that each machine only sells one kind of upgrade token and that there’s one kind of token per stat, namely Speed, Shooting, Energy, and Strength. Naturally, the higher the rank of a stat, the better it is. Upgrades don’t only apply to your character, a.k.a. the main character, but also to each member of your team, so make sure to upgrade them as well.
Besides upgrade tokens, Kai can also unlock new soccer skills by collecting special “shoes” which would grant new abilities like controlled kicks which make aiming a ball at a target or a goal a lot easier, thanks to the dotted trajectory displayed. However, these abilities are only useable in the world and not during matches. There are also other kinds of shoes that would allow you access to certain locations around the place, such as the beach.
Soccer Story is set in a world consisting of multiple regions. Starting in your hometown of Soccertown, you’ll eventually be able to access all of them, including the floating chunk of land that Soccer Inc controls, as you progress.
Saving the best for last, the highlight of the game is definitely its soccer matches. The matches here are quite arcade-y and unlike a real soccer match, it only involves 5 people per team, including the goalie. The controls here are fairly intuitive. It took me a few attempts to really get a feel for it on my keyboard. Unlike other similar controller-focused games, which completely ignore the use of the mouse, you can even use the mouse to perform a quick shot at the goal.
Now, I should also point out that at “Medium” difficulty, these matches prove to be a bit too much for a casual player like me. It took a lot of attempts just to win the first two matches against the supposedly weakest of opponents… Toddlers FC. Due to this, if you’re in the same boat as I was and wanted to lower the difficulty – there are three difficulties, with “Medium” being… well, in the middle - for a better gameplay experience, you can do so via Options on the menu.
As fun as Soccer Story is, I do have one bone to pick with the game. The game made it so tedious for me to restart a match to try again. Oftentimes, you’ll have to skip through tons of dialogue and in some cases, run all the way to the pitch yet again. A simple and convenient Restart Match button would have solved this pretty quickly, however. Hope this is something the developers would consider adding to the game. The waiting time between a scored goal and the next kick-off is also a bit too lengthy. It’d be nice to shorten that a bit.
Community
The stuff mentioned in the gameplay is all part of the game’s Story Mode. There’s actually another game mode called Quick Match that allows you to play fast soccer matches with up to three other players via split-screen or remote play together. This is a great way to further extend the game’s lifespan while letting you test your mettle against your friends.
Graphics/ Sound
The game features gorgeous pixel art with vibrant colors that really bring the fictional world of Soccer Story to life! The attention to detail here is simply impressive. In terms of sound, the game comes with a relaxing tune that matches the town’s layback atmosphere. However, during matches, the atmosphere becomes more electrified, featuring cheers from the crowd, along with various sound effects like the sounds of the whistle when a goal is scored and the ball being kicked from player to player.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Soccer Story is simply the perfect adventure RPG to play for players who love soccer but aren’t all too into realistic, professional soccer, and instead opting for a more arcade-y and casual experience. Plus, considering the replayability, thanks to its Quick Match mode, the game is definitely worth its asking price!
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