Beginner Guide: Controls, Super Moves, the Chain and the Keeper Duel

Positions have jobs now

Bandai Namco’s own summary of the intended flow is three sentences: a defender with a strong tackle wins the ball; a midfielder with a strong dribble beats players and raises the chain level; a forward with a strong shot fires a Shot Move in front of goal. Forwards, midfielders and defenders have distinct roles in this game, and the 150-plus new special actions are spread across all of them, including goalkeepers.

Shooting: charge, Normal Shot, Shot Move

Shooting is a hold. The longer you charge, the harder the shot; once the gauge passes its line you get a Normal Shot, and a full charge fires the player’s own Shot Move — the signature strike with the animation. Aerial shots come off crosses and, once you have the gauge, become Super Aerial Shots that a Super Block cannot stop.

Dribble and tackle duels: stamina and timing

On the ball you press for a Dribble Move; off it, the same input is a Tackle Move. Both spend the stamina gauge, and both are judged Good or Perfect by how close the opponent is when you press — Bandai Namco’s advice is to draw them in to the last moment. Charging a tackle raises its speed and power.

The collision rule decides who wins: if the dribbler still has stamina when the contact lands, he goes past; if his stamina has hit zero, the ball is taken.

Max Actions: slower, stronger, and last press wins

A Max Action — a full-power dribble or full-power tackle — has a longer wind-up but beats any normal dribble or tackle. Bandai Namco calls it high risk, high reward. The counter rule is the part new players miss: when a Max Dribble and a Max Tackle collide, the one activated later wins. Baiting the opponent into committing first is the whole mind game. Chaining dribbles and dashes fills the Max Action gauge faster.

Super Moves: one gauge, six kinds

Dribbles, tackles and other actions fill the Super Move gauge. At maximum you can spend it on whichever super move your player carries:

Super move	What it does
Super Shot	A one-button special shot; some have trajectories the keeper cannot read
Super Aerial Shot	Fired straight from a cross or a Super Pass; cannot be stopped by a Super Block
Super Pass	A shockwave erupts around the receiver and blows nearby opponents away
Super Dribble	Invincible while active and stuns the players you pass; limited uses and a cooldown
Super Tackle	Distance, speed and knock-down time vary by character; a Perfect dribble can evade it
Super Block	When a shot enters your range the game slows; press within the window to block

The chain: ten levels, and you lose them all

Successful dribbles, passes and special actions raise the chain level, up to 10. A higher chain means more shot power and faster charging. Lose the ball and the chain goes to the opponent along with it — which is why a safe pass right after winning possession is worth more than an ambitious one.

The keeper duel: six directions and BREAK

Every shot at goal becomes a duel. The shooter and the keeper each choose one of six directions; whether they match, and by how much they miss, decides how much of the keeper’s stamina the shot takes. A shot whose power exceeds what the keeper has left causes a BREAK, which permanently lowers that keeper’s maximum stamina for the rest of the match. Keepers also have perfect and bad saves, so the same direction call is not always the same result.

Miracle Actions: the comebacks you cannot plan

Two things happen by chance once their conditions are met. A Miracle Save stops a shot even when the keeper has no stamina left, and a Miracle Team Move is a whole-team super move that can flip a match. 4Gamer’s hands-on reported Wakabayashi’s Miracle Save triggering on shots from outside the penalty area.

Controls

Bandai Namco’s producer described the scheme as eliminating simultaneous button presses so every action is one button. There is no official button chart online, so the mapping below is Communityas documented by reviewers and players on PlayStation; the in-game prompt in the top-right corner is the final word on your platform.

Action	PlayStation	Notes
Shoot	Hold □	Release for a Normal Shot; full charge for the Shot Move
Dribble Move / Tackle Move	○	Same button on and off the ball
Max Action	△	Full-power dribble or tackle
Sprint	R1
Super Move	R2	Needs a full super gauge
Super Dribble	R2 twice
Super Block	R2 while the block icon shows
Keeper direction	Stick	Pick one of six directions

On Switch, players report Y for shoot, A for the dribble move, X for the Max Action and L to switch player.

Modes

Story Mode has four strands. The New Stars Route is the main story from Brazil to the World Youth Championship, played with a custom player you create and drop into Japan Youth. The Legendary/Advanced route is an original storyline where the familiar powerhouses and new rivals — Bandai Namco teases a reborn Schneider — take centre stage. Rivals Episode tells side stories about rivals from around the world, and Side Stories and Link Scenarios show the events behind the main story; building bonds with characters in them teaches your player their moves.

Versus is three things. Regular Match is online against the world, with a one-button toggle between ranked and free matches. Offline Match is local against a friend or the CPU, one controller per person. Private Match is an online room for friends. You can put your custom player into any team for a match, but you cannot build a squad from players across teams.

Practice covers free practice and situation drills, and Team Edit handles kits and your player’s move loadout.

Your custom player

Creation covers appearance, physique, voice, celebrations and signature moves. The player can be switched to goalkeeper, and changing the equipped moves changes the position. Moves are earned by playing and by strengthening bonds with manga characters in Link Scenarios; the unlock guide has the detail.

Online: what you need

Two players per match. PS Plus, Nintendo Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass Essential or above are required on consoles; Steam needs no subscription. The PC version runs kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat, which is why Steam Deck and Linux players cannot run it at launch. Bandai Namco recommends a wired connection, setting the matching range to “Near”, and warns that a strict NAT type can block matchmaking; the antenna icon after matching shows the connection quality, and fewer than three bars means an unstable game.

Six things to do in your first hour

1. Play the tutorial. It covers most of what is above, and the game’s mechanics are its difficulty curve.
2. Pass safely right after you win the ball. The chain is the opponent’s until you keep it.
3. Let dribblers come to you before tackling. Perfect timing beats an early press every time.
4. Do not press your Max Action first. Wait for theirs.
5. Vary your keeper direction. The duel is a guessing game, and a pattern is a free goal.
6. Shoot early against a keeper with a BREAK. His ceiling is lower for the rest of the match.

PC: the red screen and the post-logo crash

Bandai Namco’s own fixes from the launch-day crash thread:

• Red screen: in Windows’ graphics settings for the game, change the display quality from “Automatically select on Windows” to “High performance”.
• Crash or missing sound after the company logo on a multi-monitor setup: do not move the window off the secondary monitor until the title screen appears.

The publisher is collecting Windows versions, graphics-quality settings and specs in that thread while it works on a patch. The release page has the PC requirements, including the Windows 11 baseline.

Beginner FAQ

Is there co-op — two people on one team online?

No. Online matches are one player against one player.

Does the story difficulty change the AI?

Difficulty is adjustable, and higher settings make matches harder; the systems above do not change.

Can I use my custom player online?

Yes. Custom players can be put into a team for Regular and Private Matches.

Which teams can I use online?

Any team you have unlocked, as a whole team. Cross-team squads are not a feature — see the teams page.