Legendary mode is developers' complete failure

Hi KHULD_A_A77​ 

I fully agree with this — very well put.

“The AI seems to anticipate my actions before I even complete them.”

From a player perspective, this doesn’t feel like traditional AI behaviour, but rather how the system processes inputs. It often gives the impression that the programming reads controller inputs as they are initiated, rather than after they are fully executed — which is why it can feel like you’re playing against a mirror version of yourself.

“The AI effectively performs multiple actions simultaneously…”

Again, very well spotted. It genuinely feels as though you are playing against multiple coordinated entities, similar to “Clubs,” expiriance, except here it is a single AI system operating without the limitations of human input. While a human player must execute actions sequentially, the AI appears able to react and adjust instantly across multiple layers at once.

“The speed of the game exceeds human capability…”

This is a key point. The overall pace of gameplay, combined with reaction speed and execution, often exceeds what is realistically manageable through a controller. It creates a gap between what a player intends to do and what can actually be performed in time.

“The AI makes extremely sharp, unnatural passes under pressure…”

This also ties into consistency. The AI can execute precise actions under heavy pressure, at angles and speeds that do not reflect typical gameplay limitations.  We are playing against very different set of rules compering to AI, making the gameplay unplayable.

Another major issue is how the AI interacts with loose balls and positioning. As you mentioned, it consistently takes the most optimal path instantly, with no visible hesitation or error margin — something that is not realistically achievable for a human player using manual input.

Overall, this doesn’t feel like a question of difficulty, but of design philosophy. It raises the same question you asked:

“Are these difficulty levels designed for human players — or for machine-level execution?”

At the moment, it feels much closer to the latter. 

This is not about making the game easier, but about ensuring that gameplay remains within the limits of human input, reaction time, and control. 

Thanks for the elaboration this is exactly what i wanted to message the developers with 

The AI-controlled players are designed with precise sensitivity to the ball. Wherever the ball is, the AI player positions itself accurately to receive it, unlike human‑controlled players who naturally have a margin of error.
The AI also reads the active‑player indicator, allowing it to avoid the user’s currently selected player. If you rapidly switch between players, the AI momentarily freezes because it keeps trying to identify the new active player. The AI can instantly detect the indicator’s position, but the human player cannot see which AI player is currently active, since AI players have no visible indicators.

😎

Any ball that hits the crossbar seems to fall straight to an AI player, who reacts so quickly that they often score before you can even understand what happened.

Playing against the AI with a normal controller feels impossible. At times, it feels as if you would need three controllers just to match the number of actions the AI performs simultaneously.

In the blink of an eye, the AI can complete three passes while appearing to use every available command at once. All of its players are active all the time, without needing to switch control between them as human players do.

The only option often left to the player is to keep running, but even then another AI player somehow appears from nowhere to make a challenge. If you try to shield the ball, a second AI player arrives from the opposite side, and both attackers are instantly active and coordinated. How is that possible when a human player can only directly control one player at a time?

Every through ball seems to be intercepted. Every pass appears to be cut out. Even when the AI defender looks two meters away from the ball, it somehow manages to reach and intercept it.

Long passes are equally frustrating. My player may be in front and perfectly positioned to receive the ball, yet the AI defender who was behind him suddenly gets in front and wins possession as if distance and momentum do not matter.

Corners feel predetermined. No matter what I do, the ball almost always finds an AI player's head, while my players struggle even to make contact.

It often feels as though the AI scores whenever it decides to score. Winning a match seems to depend more on whether the AI allows it than on how well the player performs.

What frustrates me most is the AI's passing. AI players can deliver accurate passes in almost any direction without adjusting their body position. A player can be facing directly toward me and still instantly play a perfect pass to a teammate behind him, to the side, or at an unnatural angle. In real football, body orientation affects passing options and accuracy. Here, it feels as though these unrealistic passes exist solely to ensure the AI never loses possession.

Combined with the AI's instant reactions, perfect anticipation, and constant pressure, Legendary difficulty does not feel challenging in a realistic way. Instead, it feels as if the AI is operating under different rules from the human player, which makes the experience frustrating rather than rewarding.