Digital Sportspage Blog

The first information about Pro Yakyu Spirits 5 is out. Thanks to the Japanese Baseball forums, we have a link to a Japanese magazine article with screenshots and information. The game is slated for an April 1st release date for the PS2 and PS3 (no XBox 360). Some excerpts from the Japanese Baseball post:

The beginning paragraph talks about the usual stuff like roster updates and junk. It says that the game will cater to hardcore baseball fans with it’s realism and still be accessible to beginners. This may seem small, but recent Konami baseball games haven’t really acknowledged the hardcore gamers much, so this is a nice change. Pawapuro is for the kids and PYS is for the older guys and it seems like that’s the way it’s going to stay.

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LOAD TIMES HAVE BEEN FIXED! The article specifically talks about how load times would stress you out before. That’s been fixed. I think we’re all very happy about that.

You can notice that players aren’t shiny like they were in PYS4. There is also a little bar at the top of the screen that shows you which players are up to bat next. Konami is trying to recreate the television presentation that NTV has with this. I’m sure there’s also an option to turn it off for anyone who feels the screen is crowded. The score at the top left of the screen is also very similar to NTV presentation.

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New animations are abundant on defense as well as base running, which is a pleasant surprise. As you can see in the scan, slap hitting now gets a brand new animation. In a move I’m very happy about, catchers will now move around behind the plate. It was so lame with the catchers always staying still and putting the mit right down the middle of the strike zone. Good to see Konami taking some improvements from American games.

MVP Mode has been renamed Stardom Mode. This mode goes a max of 20 years, so it’s a full-fledged career mode. I don’t think it’ll quite be like My Life Mode in Pawapuro, but it’s comparable to Road To The Show in the Sony games. You’ll earn points and items while you play out your career. You can already see a new presentation where a Softbank player hits a homer. He earned 250 points for hitting a solo homer. I wish I could see what the writing says in the screenshots, but I guess we’ll have to wait for high res pics.

Looks like there is a new bullpen camera, and that definitely shows a western influence. This is the first yakyu game to ever have use of the actual bullpen in the middle of a game. I like it.

In some more big news, it’s written that lag has been improved from PYS4. Hopefully, it’s an actually enjoyable online experience. I’ve seen guys in Japan with ridiculously fast connections get the same kind of lag I get in the US. There’s no excuse for that in 2008. Presentation is pretty much unchanged from PYS4. There are little avatars now, but it’s pretty much the same. Looks like you can use original players that you make in Spirits Mode. There is a category in the lobby that shows whether someone is using original or default players.

There’s a tiny piece by yakyu game genius and director of PYS5, Koji Toyohara, on the bottom right section in blue. Toyohara was one of the masterminds behind Pawapuro in the 90s and almost single-handedly turned PYS from an unrealistic arcade game into what it is now when he took over in 2004. Toyohara says that you’ll notice a lot of varied follow throughs when batting. He adds that they completely overhauled the catcher’s motions. Lastly, he says that it’s not just the PS3 they put the effort into, but also the PS2 version. I’ll be checking out both, but I think that the PS2 has reached it’s full potential.

In a move I didn’t expect out of Konami, the PS3 version will be 1000 yen(9 dollars) more than the PS2 version. This is probably because they know the PS3 version will sell considerably less than the PS2 version due to a smaller install base. At least they’re not like Square Enix and just overpricing every single title they release.

Go to the Japanese Baseball video game forum for more information on this title.