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LiberoGrande

Moby ID: 9162

Description official description

LiberoGrande is a football (soccer) game. The user designs his/her own character and can alter his attributes and skills, and control this one player during the match. The user can adjust strategies for the team, but plays each game as their own character.

The game features details stadia, with interactive crowd, and a selection of 32 national teams. It also supports two-player mode, via a unique split-screen mode not often seen in soccer games.

Spellings

  • リベログランデ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Arcade version)

66 People (56 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Game Design
Program
Visual Design
Sound Compose
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 64% (based on 14 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 1 reviews)

Good one, but where's the Libero?

The Good
It's an easy one to start talking about: the concept is very interesting, and for most time, well executed.Hard to believe that the idea of playing as only one player is still practically untouched, given most modern games can present a fairly decent AI. Kudos for Namco for this attempt. Gameplay is what can be expected from arcade games: quick to pickup, but hard to master. From some initial shameful defeats in easy to epic midfield battles in hard, the constant unlocking of star players are good incentives to keep practicing. And speaking of practice, there are a few training drill minigames to be played and high scores to be beaten. The reward? More players, of course. The training drills, while aren't as crucial as proper match experience, provide some help with dribbling and shooting.

Going back to gameplay, playing with just one player allows some interesting plays. You can try, for instance, to run up the wing, pass the ball to a forward and then dodge a defender and ask the ball for a clear shot on goal. Of course, the harder the difficulty setting, the harder combinations are to pull.

Graphics and sound are in par with the regular PSOne games, so nothing to argue here. Stadium design might be a little over the top for players used to more conventional games, but in the end, it doesn't detract from the experience.

The Bad
Considering in most games the player is always in control of the most important player in action (and for a few time, EA forced the player to control a second one for some plays), for a game where the player is in control of just one element the AI has to be on its best, which is far from the truth. Defensively, your team-mates are unable to do anything than let attackers pass and shoot without opposition, and with the ball will rarely create any goal-scoring opportunity. Of course, you can shout them to pass the ball or tackle the ball-carrier, but that isn't properly AI, is it?

A second problem is the lack of playable positions - only two (attacking midfielder or right winger). I've purchased the game with the prospect of making glorious advances from box to box, but it only happens when the defenders are too thick to recover the ball, forcing the "star" to run a few yards away from midfield, and then run forwards with the ball with some quick passes to get unmarked. The ability to play as a wingback, striker or the play the title role (as defined by Franz Beckenbauer) would improve the game greatly, even for longevity issues.

The Bottom Line
Well, you might end up not liking it, but the unique approach to the beautiful game warrants at least a quick peek at the game. While the first minutes can be a lot frustrating, as soon as the player notices that it's better to cover all of the field than to rely on the computer, games become more and more fun, and depending on the tolerance to the complacent AI it might become a strong contender for a few gaming sessions. Anyone looking for a deep simulation should try a different game - being based on an arcade game, Libero Grande lacks any modes that drag four hours and hours.

All and all, a rather good coin-up conversion with a very strong selling point, but offers little beyond that.

PlayStation · by Luis Silva (13443) · 2006

Trivia

Athletes

While none of the available stars are licensed, they are all based on real players in appearance and name: Zenon Zadkine is Zinedine Zidane, Jordan Krüger is Jürgen Klinsmann and Raimundo is Ronaldo, for instance.

Title

The title refers to the Libero position in football, an Italian concept whereby a player stays at the back ahead of the goalkeeper, covering in case of mistakes by other defenders and marshalling his troops, often launching attacks with a well-placed pass. In English football parlance he is often known as the 'sweeper'.

Information also contributed by Luis Silva

Analytics

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 9162
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by //dbz:.

Arcade added by Rik Hideto.

Additional contributors: Martin Smith, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto.

Game added May 10, 2003. Last modified February 22, 2023.