J. League Jikkyou Winning Eleven '98-'99

J. League Jikkyou Winning Eleven '98-'99 for PlayStation is a Japan-exclusive association-football game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Sapporo and published by Konami. It arrived in Japan on December 3, 1998, continuing Konami’s J.League-focused Winning Eleven line with a roster set drawn from the 1998 season’s second stage.

The game represents all 18 clubs that took part in that J.League season. Each club is presented with a selected starting eleven and five substitutes, giving the team-selection screen a concentrated match-day lineup rather than a full squad database. The period setting also preserves the league’s late-1998 club landscape, including sides that would soon disappear or move into the reorganized top flight.

League play is the central long-form option, while exhibition matches provide a quick route to a single fixture for one or two local players. Special Match expands the selection process by letting players assemble preferred footballers at a chosen club. The game also includes Jomo Cup and Tarami All-Stars events, with lineups for those special fixtures drawn from the participating J.League clubs.

On the pitch, the PlayStation controller maps the familiar football actions directly to face buttons: X plays a short pass, Circle sends a long ball or cross, Square shoots, and Triangle attempts a through pass. R1 produces a burst of speed, L1 changes the controlled player, and Select shifts the team’s overall bias between defensive, normal, and attacking play. Defensive commands include pressing with X, sliding with Circle, and calling the goalkeeper out with Triangle.

Team management goes beyond picking a side. Players can choose automatic or manual cursor switching, alter defensive organization between flat, sweeper, and libero setups, and call preset tactics such as wing attacks, counterattacks, zone pressing, centre-back overlap, and an offside trap. Analog-controller support and vibration compatibility add another option for controlling the action.

As a late-1998 J.League edition of Winning Eleven, the game shares its place in the series’ early PlayStation era with World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3 and its variants, but its focus stays firmly on Japanese club football. Its period-specific teams, league campaign, all-star fixtures, editable special matches, and tactical controls make it a compact snapshot of the 1998 J.League season.