Pierre Tarno, Creative Director of Kick Off! REMATCH, explained why Sloclap shifted from action games like Sifu to 5v5 multiplayer soccer. The team wanted to continue creating third-person action titles emphasizing physical movement and responsive controls while further exploring multiplayer cooperation, leading them to choose soccer as the core theme from the project's early stages.
Tarno stated that although Sloclap's previous titles varied in theme, they all emphasized physical movement, precise and timely control feedback, as well as animation and input timing. Kick Off! REMATCH continues this approach, centering gameplay around each player controlling a single character. Players must independently judge positioning, anticipate the ball's trajectory, and coordinate with teammates to organize attacks.
The development team repeatedly envisioned scenarios where players coordinate in succession, keeping the ball airborne until completing a volley shot. To maintain the pace of offensive and defensive transitions, walls surround the pitch to minimize interruptions from out-of-bounds plays. After testing, the team also discarded the offside rule, which could have restricted positional flexibility. Players in possession face constant defensive pressure, making passing and teamwork even more crucial.
Characters in the game differ only in appearance, with no variations in speed, shooting power, or other stats. Positions and goalkeeper responsibilities can change dynamically during matches. Collaborative characters introduced in Season 5 from Blue Lock also feature only cosmetic changes without any statistical differences.
These design choices ensure that match outcomes depend more on player skill, split-second decisions, and collaboration rather than the statistical attributes of selected characters.