Inazuma Eleven 3 Detailed at Tournament

Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino took some time out from Inazuma Eleven 2's "Football Frontier" tournament finals on Sunday to share the latest details on Inazuma Eleven 3.

As previously announced, Inazuma Eleven 3 retains the basics of past Inazuma Eleven games, providing a fusion of RPG-like charater building and map exploration with full soccer mechanics, controlled via the stylus. In part 3, you take control of Inazuma Japan and face off against teams from throughout the world on Riocot Island.

The event saw announcement of final release information for the game. Similar to Inazuma Eleven 2, Inazuma Eleven 3 will be split into two separate SKUs, respectively "Spark" and "Bomber." Both will arrive on July 1, priced at ¥4,980 each.

Bomber to the left and Spark to the right.

The two versions of the game differ in skills, characters and some areas of the story. They also put you against different rivals. Spark features the "Angels Apostles" team while Bomber features the "Demon World Army Z" team.

Exclusive enemy team captains -- Angels Apostles to the left and Demon World Army Z to the right.

At the press conference, Hino made note of the added volume for part 3. The cart size has jumped up to 4 gigabits, making this Level-5's second announced title following Ni no Kuni to use the high capacity. The added space is being used to give the game over 2,000 characters and 300 moves.

Hino also announced a couple of new gameplay feature for the game: Hissatsu Tactics and Perfect Zone Press. The latter feature has already appeared in the Inazuma Eleven anime and lets you surround a single enemy in a wall of fire.

Level-5 previously announced the 2->3 Super Link feature. This lets you bring over your ally characters from Inazuma Eleven 2.

New features for Inazuma Eleven 3.

Soccer great Hide Nakata will have a role in Inazuma Eleven 3. In Inazuma Eleven 2, Nakata appeared as a secret character. He'll once again appear in part 3 and will apparently play a major part in the story. He'll also be appearing in Inazuma Eleven 3's commercials and advertisements.

Nakata's work with Level-5 goes outside the game as well. Nakata chairs an NPO called Take Action Foundation. This organization will team with Level-5 for a project called 11 For Africa. For every copy of Inazuma Eleven 3 sold, Level-5 will donate ¥11 to give soccer balls to children in South Africa. The donations will be made through Unicef.

The Inazuma Eleven series has shipped 1.57 million units, Level-5 revealed at the event. This includes 410,000 for the first game and 1.16 million for the second.

The Inazuma Eleven 3 announcements were just one part of the Inazuma Eleven 2 Football Frontier tournament. For pictures from that event see Famitsu.com.