Title: Inazuma Eleven 3 Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark/Bomber/THE Ogre イナズマイレブン3 世界への挑戦！！ スパーク／ボンバー／THE 王牙
Console: NDS
Genre: RPG, Sports
Language: Japanese
Company: Level-5
Summary: I beat Ogre in 15 hours with some slacking off XD; True ending included. But with the faster leveling on Ogre, it has my characters with G5 moves now. On Bomber, I’ve got Kidou and Fudou with G4 moves and working towards G5! \o/ Trying to prepare different movesets and characters on Ogre, and I’ll finish off Spark some… day (just finished Italy match on that version).
Story: 10. These scores are going to be all totally biased because of my obsession with the series anyway, but yeah. This is one of the best parts of it.
Characters: 10. Over 2500 playable characters? It’s just how awesome Level-5 is :D My only complaint is that 100 recruited people ISN’T ENOUGH!
Graphics: 10. The mix of 2-d and 3-d gaming is just great oodles of fun.
Sound: 10. Almost all of the game 1 and 2 music is in this game, as well as many new awesome compositions from Mitsuda Yasunori. Some tracks have been revamped to fit the mood of the rest of the game (ex: Raimon school grounds). Win.
Gameplay: See below
Replay Value: See below
Overall:

Changes from game 2 to game 3:
-They’ve added momentum to walking. XD
-You can change the line leader. OMG FINALLY
-Aside from main story matches (need to confirm exactly when), you can WEAR OTHER UNIFORMS in extra battles! In the previous games, you could only wear them during wifi battles, which was a bummer. YEAH USA UNIFORM
-They’ve DEFINITELY made the AI dumber in the 3rd game, mostly on your own team. But thinking more deeply on it, it could be seen as being more realistic of a soccer game, because opponents do just sometimes run past each other when they don’t intend to. Or am I just shitting myself? ._.;
-GP depletion (GP – commonly known as HP in other games) actually adds CHALLENGE to the game this time. In game 2, GP depletion rarely became a problem after the early part of the game. The first few games are a real struggle since just about everybody loses all their GP, so they start sweating buckets on the field and moving like snails.
-It’s harder to raise GP and TP in general in this game. Since most of the moves you’ll be using are more than 30TP, that just makes things more challenging. I ended up switching players way more often in this game.
-Opponents actually SWITCH their players when they run low on stats. In the previous games, there’d practically be no point to people on the benches, because they’d never come to play. They do now! That also means GKs get switched out, which adds to the pressure of using tougher hissatsu shoots to break past THEIR hissatsu, because running them low on TP is less of an option. It’s certainly possible to run them out of TP anyway though. I ended up doing that a lot~
-Despite challenges like dumber AI and opponents actually using their bench people, the general flow of the game was a lot EASIER than game 2. XD; I was able to finish the game in 22 hours and I had done less than 10 of the extra matches, and I only used the training center for that one mandatory time. In game 2, I used that training center about a good 7 or so times before the last game o.O;
-Part of the easier flow of the game in game 3 is that defenders crowd closer to the goalkeeper, whereas the previous games they would often leave a huge gap. Although this new system gives the opposing team more chances to block your shoots, it also helps you from losing the ball after getting an offside. After going back and playing game 2 after finishing 3, it’s rather annoying how often I end up getting offside just because I hadn’t noticed the defenders had all gone up.
-They FINALLY allow item usage during matches. They allowed them in game 1, but didn’t allow ANY during matches in game 2 which was irritating. They allow 3 per match in game 3. Reasonable. And the opponents never use items. Now you can enjoy eating oden in the middle of your matches.
-Recruiting players in general is MUCH EASIER. With the vending machine system, you can recruit a good range of people without ever having to take a single step or battle to find them. The usual scout and team recruit systems are still available too.
-TEAM RECRUITING IS FASTER AND EASIER. You don’t have to run around waiting for a phone call anymore. I wish I had figured this out earlier and actually read what the machine told me, because I thought I had to wait for a phone call and then I didn’t even see that the machine had given me the location.
-There’s a records listing in the menu, at last! I’ve always wanted one of these. It states how many battles you’ve been through (I was at around 150 by the time I finished the game). It also lists the top 10 players who have made the most goals and how many, as well as the top 10 most-used players. Of course, it’s going to be Endou at the top of that latter list.
-After fighting matches in the extra routes, your team’s GP/TP are fully recovered. This is a GREAT thing since it saves you money and time from having to run back and forth to recovery spots.
-However, instead of running to recovery spots, now you have to run around maps to find the teams in order to play them for certain tournament routes.
–Hissatsu tactics. More on the changes list below this one.
–Shoot chains: These are actually rare to pull off, one– if someone with a block move is also in range, and they decide to use a block, they get priority and no chain happens (need to confirm this). Two– if the next person in the chain is offside, it kills the chain and the ball goes to the other team. Ugh. :| The first problem is the most bothersome one to deal with, and the other has happened to me too, although it can be avoided if you pay attention and don’t use a chain instead. Also, the move has to have a C (Chain) marked on it, or it can’t be used as a chain.
–End game extras: I thought the extra galleries (Game 1 in Spark, Game 2 in Bomber) were supposed to be all of the cutscenes, but I was wrong. It’s a bunch of conceptual art. Beautiful pictures of the architecture, character designs and hissatsu technique concepts. :D Pretty darn nice, I just don’t approve of the DS screen quality :| Some companies (like Atlus and Luminous Arc) would release a separate artbook and/or even offer it as a preorder bonus, which I think would’ve been great for this series. We’ll see for the future~ In the meantime, I’ve made screenshots for Bomber’s bonuses available here.

Changes from game to anime:
*MAJOR SPOILERS…
-Game: First PV provides the video for many of the earlier cutscenes, much of what doesn’t appear in the anime at all. Mostly kirei na Akio~ But also that since you meet them on the field already, the players come in their actual team uniforms, such as Fudou in True Teikoku and Fubuki in Hakuren. The 3rd PV in HD is also worth looking at!
-Game: There’s an explanation for why Hiroto changes from calling the captain “Mamoru” to “Endou-kun” XD Basically, he wants to start from bottom up to “develop their relationship” properly this time. wwww
-Game: The Furukabu triplets from game 2 are back.
-Game: Before the selection match for the Japan reps, you get to pick whether you play as Endou’s team or Kidou’s. The subevents are different but the storyline remains the same.
-Game/Asia prelims: Not all that significant imo, but the gang as a whole goes to search for info on Coach Kudou instead of just Haruna and Megane. At the Jr. High Soccer Association, the security guards still catch you, but they give you the info anyway because they had a grudge against Kudou and they personally wanted the players to know that their coach was “cursed”. Also like game 2, the coach comes off as more of a victim than an antagonist to the team.
-Game Chapter 1/Big Waves match: Before the match, Dolphin comes to visit Raimon. Apparently he’s already popular among the girls. He calls Tsunami “Mister Tsunami” and provokes him by belittling Japan’s seas. Tachimukai holds him back XD~ But it’s what leads Tsunami to run out of the lodge later when Coach Kudou prohibits the team from practicing outside.
-Game Chapter 4/Neo Japan: Saginuma wears a tuxedo when he approaches Hitomiko o_O
-Game Chapter 4/Neo Japan: Fudou makes a bunch of remarks at Midorikawa that provoke Midorikawa into pushing himself during practice. One time, Fudou calls him “second-rank” (omae ga iunna yo)…
-Game Chapter 4/Neo Japan: Karasu spies Endou and Tobitaka practicing and boils with… envy or something. xD;
-Game Chapter 4/Neo Japan: Saginuma gives Inazuma Japan two incomplete hissatsu which end up being Thunder Beast and Tatsumaki Otoshi.
-Game Chapter 4/Post Neo Japan: Instead of a whole dating ep with Fuyuka, Fuyuka just worries over Endou after what Kudou tells him, but Kudou tells Fuyuka it’s not something for her to worry about. Endou heads over to the Steel Tower Plaza and finds Gouenji up at his happy spot. XD He tells Gouenji what Kudou told him, and Gouenji goes to help him come up with a new hissatsu. During their practice, Gouenji kicks the ball over to the lake and Endou catches it and gets soaked.
-Game/Asia prelims: Fire Dragon comes to spy before you play them, the 3-top shows up in red hoods and they ride a white limousine… wut. XD;
-Game/Before Korea match: When Fuyuka faints, the gang takes her to the hospital. While visiting the hospital, Gouenji’s dad passes by and sees Gouenji in his jersey, and he says “you’re still going around playing ball games?” before moving on. Toramaru asks if Gouenji’s dad has something against soccer, and Gouenji’s all “you’ve got nothing to do with it.” Toramaru responds with “Yes I do! You’ve been acting weird lately because of it.” Gouenji pauses, then decides to talk it out with Endou alone. Poor Toramaru… XD; After Gouenji tells Endou the situation right outside the hospital, Fuku-san comes in to tell Endou the rest of the background story. Fuyuka comes down the stairs to leave the hospital and sees Endou talking to Gouenji’s dad, trying to convince him to let Gouenji continue playing soccer.
-Game: As I had expected, but hissatsu tactics aren’t nearly as drastically game-controlling as they are in the anime. AI opponents will almost never use them after mandatory storyline appearances. And teams are generally limited to using only two per match anyway (The limit goes up slowly as the team level increases).
-Game/Asia prelims: Their lodge in Raimon is the building between the center and left screens at the school area, which Furukabu says used to be the school building for the first years until they decided to revamp it into a lodge. So I suppose all of the students are in the big building now?
Anyway, THEIR LODGING ROOMS. Especially the ones in Raimon, they’re SO ADORABLE. Endou has a mess pile of his clothes on the ground and more of his self-esteem posters like “EFFORT” pasted on his walls, and his bed is completely unmade. Kidou has a TV in his room, his blanket’s kind of unstraight and one of his bookshelves isn’t completely lined up against the wall for some reason. Tsunami has his surfboard and a kotatsu (wwwww). Fudou’s is sadly quite ordinary. Hiroto has a telescope for stargazing. Kabeyama uses two beds. And for some reason those are the only rooms you get to see orz XD~~~~ Still I had so much fun going up and down that hallway and being a dork.
Their lodge in the world tournament islands aren’t as decorated, but their rooms are doubles and make me want to know who’s rooming with whoooooooo xD;
-Game/Post Korea match: Gouenji speaks with his dad privately after the match, outside the stadium. Endou comes across them and hides behind a tree. XD; Also, Fubuki’s injury involves bones and Coach Kudou tells them it’ll take two months to heal. I assume he got through rehab even faster than that. XD
-Game/Arrival at Liocott Island: Encounter with Fidio and -mysterious old man- is quite different. Kabeyama’s wallet gets stolen while the gang is at Central Park, and Fidio stops the thief with a soccer ball. Endou magically gets a tire from some other place to use for practice.
-Game/Arrival at Liocott Island: Mark/Dylan come across Inazuma Japan by coincidence, although they don’t talk to each at that point. Mark and Gouenji exchange glares though 8D;;;
-Game/Arrival at Liocott Island: Someoka and Toramaru do a little rivalry exchange for Gouenji’s ace striker position, haha.
Toramaru: What’s with that scary face?
Someoka: Hey, I was born with this face!
-Game/Anime early 90’s arc: The game version of this arc makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE in most areas. For one, in the game, Toramaru is the only one who sees Fudou with Mr. K. Later on, Detective Onigawara shows the group a pic of Mr. K and Toramaru recognizes him as the guy who he saw with Fudou. That’s when Kidou starts accusing Fudou of planning things with Kageyama again. Coach Kudou gives Kidou permission to go out to investigate the situation as long as he came back at the end of the day, since they had the Argentina match coming up.
Then when Kidou first encounters Italy’s team, they accuse him of being the culprit and taking away their previous coach (Paolo) and replacing him with Mr. K and his team. They’re mistaking him for D. Fudou takes the timing and accuses Kidou right back about turning back to Kageyama. Otagaisama~
But Fidio steps in and goes “Inazuma Japan wouldn’t do something like that, you can tell from their plays.” Fidio tells Endou’s gang that they already investigated Mr. K and found out that his real name was Kageyama.
Anyway, there’s less Kidou-accusing in the anime and more Kageyama stalking and Kidou being a jealous boyfriend in front of Fudou instead, ohohoho. Also, there is no “transformation” scene for D in the game.
-Game/Anime early 90’s arc: Spoilers on Italy side: Kageyama attempted to bribe Coach Paolo with money to resign his position as Italy’s coach, and also threatened the lives of the players if he didn’t accept. Paolo didn’t take the money, but was still forced to quit for the safety of the players, and he’s no longer on Liocott Island.
-Game/Anime ep 96: Kurimatsu doesn’t get injured in the game. Kudou just gives him the boot, kitsui wa. XD;
-Game/Anime ep 97 America arc: When they meet up, Ichinose tells Aki that he knows she likes Endou, but he still asks her to come to America. I’m somewhat surprised they didn’t put this in the anime, yet at the same time I was kind of suspecting they would take it out. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm~~ D:
-Game/Anime Fuyuka’s past: Natsumi does not make any visits during this period. Fuyuka ends up remembering everything on her own without Onigawara explaining any of it. Kudou doesn’t tell Endou about Fuyuka’s memory loss until the last moment. Timeline events – Kudou became an elementary school teacher 7 years ago, and half a year after that, the accident with Fuyuka’s parents occurred, so Fuyuka was around 7 years old when it happened. There’s additional backstory in the game for Fuyuka’s first meeting with Endou. New in the area, she had been bullied a lot, but Endou chased away the bullies and thus began their friendship. And he had taken her to his favorite place back then as well (assuming the steel plaza tower). So cute~~~

Random extras:
-Chapter 1: Tsunami’s coach back at Oumihara forgot to tell Tsunami about the gathering at Raimon, so he missed the ship (from Okinawa to Kantou). So apparently Tsunami just… swam the whole way through. Lol super-dimensional game.
-Fudou seems more than content putting his hand around Tachimukai’s back for the first group Inazuma Japan picture, yet later he’s all hesitant when they go for a second shot before their first game. XD
-The sound effect when Tsunami smashes against Toramaru after the Qatar match… lololol
-Gouenji’s mother had wanted him to be a doctor. Oookay.
-Toramaru does confirm that he’ll be joining Raimon the next year. There’s a guy outside Toranoya who says he attends Raimon even though he has to walk a good distance to get to it, being in the south part of Tokyo while Raimon is in the north.
-In the past, Kageyama took Kidou out to England to learn a few things.
-The locker room at the big FFI stadium says “Rocker Room” … orz
-The old red cap man brings alcohol to the England vs Japan game, lol. Rococo’s like “she‘d get angry at you if she were here D8″

General Vague Impressions:
-The goggles. LOLOLOL. Biggest one I’ve had in a while.
-America. OMG ICHINOSE. That was quite a fun development indeed.
-Kurimatsu…… lol it was almost as if the fans willed it. :x
-Hiroto asking Toramaru to make him beef stroganoff, wut. Also, his comments about Toramaru’s cuteness. lawl
-TachimukaiのドM
–THE TRUE ENDING: Oh my god, anyone who knows me should know where I started crying. Because of that I kind of missed Fire Dragon’s part. And at least the end bit with the FFI people gave me a good laugh. Amazing game.
-#11 Inazuma kid at the end was kind of a weird cutscene. XD But great nonetheless.
-SOCCER YAROU ZE

Ogre changes:
In the Japanese wiki, they’re listed up here, this list is just what I’ve been personally finding.

Game mechanics:
-New animated scenes for the Ogre storyline.
-New BGM pieces
-Shows you when you’ve met new people in encounters
-Slight cosmetic changes on graphics. GOAL!! Runs across the screen in gradient color after scoring, uniform numbers show up in green on the top half of the screen.
-You can skip through the airplane and boat-riding sequences going between islands and japan, etc. Yay XD
-You can save up to four teams (three for wi-fi) instead of just two! Definitely a welcome improvement.
-Addition of non-stop tournaments. You get prizes for getting the championship. You can save up to 4 of the ones that you like (usually for the prize) and they’ll be easier to replay that way and get duplicates of the prize item, and you can swap around tournament lineups through other people on wi-fi.
-2x experience in matches where you can get S scores (extra tournaments, etc).
-More extra tournaments (ex: Rushe in the locker room at Titanic Stadium)
-You can change your lineups at any point of the game through the main menu (for me, this happened after beating a certain amount of the extra tournaments). Super awesome.
-Transfer hissatsu from player to player in the Inazuma Caravan, so you don’t have to wait until you can talk to the Hakuren coach in Hokkaido.
-Ogre premium scout added for those linking up with Spark/Bomber.
-There’s no limit to how many players you can recruit from a team. YES.
-Kanon, Midorikawa and Kurimatsu turn into “key” characters, meaning if you recruit them, you won’t be able to take them off the team.
-A small new map area is added before Toranoya front in South Tokyo Area.
-Extras released after finishing main storyline: Game 3 Gallery, Game 4 prologue, Sound test (YES), other extras generally the same as Bomber/Spark

Spoilers:
-New scenes added in, such as Coach Hibiki going around to meet up with the kids around Japan to personally invite them to the representative selection. What happened to phone calls XD; No wonder the old man has heart problems.
-Instead of Fidio scenes with Spark and Rococo scenes with Bomber, there are scenes of England, Argentina, Brazil, America, Italy, Cotarl, during the prelims.
-More of a lead-in to Neo Japan. Hibiki appears in front of Midorikawa, Hiroto and Saginuma and invites the first two. The latter is left to tremble in shame Xd;
-During Korea match, Korea trio “clones” appear in front of the trio and attempt to lure them to the dark side, but it doesn’t work. XD
-1 month between prelims and Inazuma Japan’s departure to Liocott. Fubuki’s rehab was “supposed” to take 2 months at minimum but he undoubtedly took less time than that.
-First main fight against the Ogre team is before the match against Italy, in the new area of north Tokyo where you meet up with Touko and Rika.
-Future guys try to take advantage of some other people like Rococo, but none of it works in the end.

Links:
Inazuma Eleven DS 3 joy (take 1) / (take 2) / (take 3)
Wikis:
pokowiki
enjoi
mmo station (scout locations)
kouryaku (hikinuki)

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