Integrity Notice: This article was initially written on Wednesday 15th November 2023, and updated on 26th November 2023, 6:31PM. The post was republished to this site as we continue to finish the migration from our old platform, Google Sites, to Substack. A full transparency notice can be read below.
New York, NY -- Inazuma Eleven, a multimedia franchise consisting of video games, anime, trading cards and manga is a series that maintains a nearly-cult like following in Japan and around the world.
Today, over 30,000 videos exist about the topic on YouTube, with over 3K channels posting videos using the hashtag "#inazumaeleven". These videos range in content, from tierlists to reviews and unboxings. However, a scene that's becoming increasingly more documented is the modding scene.
What is the modding scene?
Fan games, mods or "ROM hacks" are a series of terms that refer to the modification of a video games' assets or code to achieve an ideal result. Examples of rom-hacks have existed since the late-90s, starting with game modification hardware like the Game Genie. Today though, mods are often used to "enhance" the gaming experience by making a game more difficult, adding higher quality textures to allow for better scaling on bigger monitors, or by changing the game's story entirely.
Inazuma Eleven mods have existed since the early-2010s, with many projects focusing on translating the game into English, or "undubbing" the game to remove the English names and audio to only keep the dialogue and menus in English. Today, mods have widely expanded in scope in content. A popular mod is the Inazuma Eleven Great Road of Heroes mod, which gained a large following in 2022, due in-part to coverage by members in the 'InaTuber' (portmanteau of 'Inazuma' and 'YouTuber') community, including popular british InaTuber, TXM-Tom Spoors. Now, the project maintains an account on "X" with 1.8K followers and a Discord server with over 9,000 members.
WTN News' technology correspondent Edvardi Jackson spoke with two members from the team about their work in the scene, not specifically relating to the Great Road of Heroes Mod, but relating to the work that goes into it entirely.
Interview #1 - Basem / The Brasem
Basem is a content creator and InaTuber, who works on the Great Road of Heroes mod as a graphics designer, among other responsibilities. Edvardi interviewed Basem in July. He asked him about the behind-the-scenes process for the Great Road of Heroes mod, a fan-made expansion for the game Inazuma Eleven. Edvardi also wanted to know his expectations for the collaboration with AdriSylver, a Spanish InaTuber. AdriSylver is working on 'Inazuma Eleven Origins', a project that tells the story of the events that took place before the first game.
In response, Basem called the workflow a "collaborative effort in every sense of the word". When working on the project, members have discussions on many aspects of the project, such as movesets and names for custom moves. He mentioned that while Prince is the leader who plans and decides most of the content, he also listens to everyone’s input. As a result, everyone contributes to the final outcome.
In regards to the collaboration with AdriSylver, he said "As for the second point, the process hasn't changed and we don't expect it to, really.". He noted that the collaboration will include both projects exchanging both new and already existing content, and that they are currently listening to player feedback as they consider new additions to both games. "The Spanish Inazuma Eleven community is incredibly passionate about the series and its games, so to be able to connect with that part of the fanbase is wonderful.", he added.
I asked Basem about what went into producing such a mod, and he replied saying
"There's honestly not a lot of "traditional" programming as part of our roles - most of what we do includes using pre-existing tools (like Photoshop and Blender) and bringing those finished assets into the game using tools like Tinke that allow us to view and edit the files in Nintendo DS games. Hex editing is a big part of Inazuma Eleven modding, as without it you cannot do things like adjusting and changing player's physical attributes, stats and movesets, creating teams, editing special moves etc, all things that are at the core of our project, really.
A lot of the members on our team know how to do hex edit, but it's definitely not a necessity to get into modding Inazuma Eleven games. A lot of our roles don't require it, such as the roles that concern themselves with modelling and graphics. There's simply not one single way to go about the development and modding in general really, and that's the beauty of it in my opinion."
Interview #2 - Sxnc
Sxnc is widely regarded as the most influential modder in the community, offering a hand in many projects, including the aforementioned Great Road of Heroes mod. Edvardi interviewed him in March.
Sxnc got his start modding Pokémon, before stumbling upon playing 'Inazuma Eleven Strikers'. He had been a fan of Inazuma Eleven for a long time up to that point, but hadn't played Strikers. It was then when he noticed that the franchise had very few mods -- a contrast from the library of mods created in the Pokémon community. He added, "by dumping textures from the Dolphin emulator, I started creating custom mods for Strikers which got many people's attention". He partially attributed the success of his Strikers mods to his success in the community.
Our reporter then asked how he managed to split time between each of the projects he's apart of. He explained that "most projects are easy to maintain and lead because they don't require constant attention.". He characterized himself as a quick worker, focusing on clearing through a task before taking a break and doing something else. He added, "About the graphics, I love to design stuff so I don't really get burned out doing it which is why I can do many of them at once.".
Edvardi then asked Sxnc about his plans. He replied, "I have many different ideas for future projects but nothing that has started yet.". Edvardi followed up by asking about the Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy Fan-translation, which he spearheaded. In his interview with Sxnc, Edvardi referred to a 2021 interview he conducted with british InaTuber, TaleOfTheToaster who was also involved in the mod's development. In that interview, Tale mentioned that there would be a patch that added English voices to the game in the works. Sxnc replied, saying that the update was scrapped because it wasn't "worthy to spend extra time on".
Finally, Edvardi asked about Nintendo's stance on fan-games and mods, and what it possibly could mean for the scene. Sxnc replied, simply saying:
"Honestly, I don't care what Nintendo does."
TRANSPARENCY NOTICE:
This segment was edited on November 26th 2023 at 6:31 to remove references of a controversial figure in the article. The original copy of the article has been archived. In line with our commitment to transparency in our reporting, the archival copy can be made available through our press-transparency program by contacting management. Do note that we evaluate these inquiries on a case-by-case basis and reserve the right to deny any requests.
Full Statement from Edvardi: I would like to apologize to our readers for the story we ran on 12/15. In the segment we ran an interview with a creator who made some deeply troubling remarks online. I was informed of it prior to publishing but decided to keep the interview anyway because I believed the replies he provided were very informative, and would enhance the article’s informative value. I made this decision under the condition that we place a disclaimer to inform readers that the interview was conducted before we were aware of any controversy. However, it has come to my attention that this decision was lacking and caused some concern to readers. As Director of this organization and the writer of this article, the responsibility is mine to take necessary precautions against that, but my response was pretty lacking and misguided. So, to those who’re affected: I’m really sorry, and I’m eager to work and earn back your trust. Needless to say, The World Telegram News doesn’t under any circumstances endorse statements or viewpoints of any person we interview, regardless of their expertise in the topic of interest. After talking through it with our team, we’ve decided to edit the article to remove the interview with said individual in its entirety. -- Edvardi, 26th November 2023, 5:20PM
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