In the New Hero episode, the focus is on the new U16 World Cup. George Cardinal, founder of a global IT company, becomes a sponsor of a new tournament – the “Junior Youth World Challenge”, aimed at the United States, which also has its own under-16 team. That said, according to producer Katsuaki: “We still wanted player choices to be meaningful, which is why we implemented different branches that can slightly change the original story depending on the player’s actions.” Other teams such as Ismail Senghor’s Senegal and Brian Cruyfford’s Netherlands will also appear. According to the game analysis, victories and defeats will count when it comes to unlocking and influencing story events, which will allow for much more varied development than usual games based on anime licenses.
< In this mode, players can create an original character, which is the first year of Musashi, Furano, Toho, Otomo, Nankatsu or Hanawa. Each of the six available schools has its own fully voiced storyline as they play through the Junior Hero League to determine the members of the Japanese team playing in the tournament. After a half intra-squad scrimmage, the team plays six league games. The opponents of the first three games can be Minamiuwa, Meiwa Higashi, Hanawa, Otomo, Hirado and/or Azumaichi (or Musashi or Furano if on specific routes), while the last three opponents are two other available schools and then Nankatsu (when not playing with them – toho otherwise). In the World Junior Junior Youth Challenge, Japan then has matches against Germany (with only the second half playable) and then either England or Uruguay before group stage games against Italy, the Netherlands and Senegal, followed by quarter-final against Argentina, a semi-final against France and then the final against Germany (the regular route, which is the only one available on the first playthrough), Brazil or the United States.