For the first time since 2021, Konami has come back with a new entry into the Professional Baseball Spirits series. Not only this, but the release of Pro Yakyū (Japanese for baseball) Spirits 2024-2025 marks the first return to the PlayStation platform for the series since 2019. If you’ve seen any footage of the game or checked out our Tokyo Game Show 2024 video, you know what the game looks like visually. But, is it fun? More importantly, is it worth your money? Well, we picked up the PS5 version and are here to tell you all about it. Let’s get into it.
English Support…Kinda
To my surprise, Pro Spirits this year actually offers support for English, Chinese and Korean in addition to Japanese. This is absolutely awesome, BUT, you will need to temper your expectations with this news. The entire game has not been localized into your language of choice, but rather a handful of key elements. Mainly explanations about the gameplay, mode names and descriptions have been translated. Many of the more minute details are relegated to Japanese. While that is disappointing, I think that it’s great to see Konami responding to the wishes of fans who want to at least get the basics down to be able to play their awesome Japan only games.
Pro Spirts also includes a digital manual in the game that you can check out if you want to know some of the more nuanced elements of the gameplay. If this is your first time, or even if you’re a grizzled veteran of the series, they may be some things you missed out on.
If you want a more in depth translation of the game, I would suggest checking out ProSpiTranslation, which is a great resource if you want some additional support. Just to be clear, The Famicast is not affiliated with the team over there at all, but I just respect and appreciate what they do and have done for the community for years.
Two Year Release Cycle
While several of Konami’s baseball titles over the years have featured a two year release cycle, this is only the second time that this has been reflected in the game’s title. The other example is Power Pro Baseball 2024-2025 which released earlier in the summer of 2024. This is beneficial to both fans and the development team. Fans that pick the game up are able to enjoy two full seasons of guaranteed updates and general support from Konami. The development team can then be not under so much pressure to pump out a game every year because, let’s be honest, companies that do generally offer minimal improvements on the previous year’s efforts. This gives more time to come up with fresh ideas to make the next game even better and, theoretically at least, improves the series overall.
Gameplay
If you’re coming from a game like The Show or any other sim-stye baseball game, you’ll be able to pick up the controls in Pro Spirits in no time. For Batting, normal hits can be initiated with X, opposite field with O, bunts with Square and turn on and cycle through a power and regular swing with L1. Pitching is also a breeze. You first select your pitch with the joystick or d-pad directionally (you can use R1 to cycle through multiple pitches in the same area), select your location and then press X. From there, a shrinking cursor appears as the ball is being delivered. Your goal is to hit X at the right time to perform a perfect or good enough pitch. If you press the button too late, you’ll be rewarded with a wild throw. Fielding is also pretty simple, with bases being assigned to the face buttons, a dive with Square, a jump with Triangle and throws to the cutoff man to R1. Overall, it hasn’t changed much over the years, but I think the controls remain great.
Modes
There are quite a few modes on offer in Pro Spirits 2024-2025. Some of these are pretty self explanatory, such as Exhibition, Home Run Derby and Pennant (now dubbed “Season” in English, you can unlimited play as the team of your choosing). However, some of these might need a little bit more explanation. The only mode I didn’t dig into was online play via Live Championship. I currently don’t pay for PlayStation Plus so I can’t comment directly on that. The menu system here has been completely revamped, too, giving it a bit of a more modern feel. Outside of these main modes, you are also presented with a news feed highlighting the latest in the world of Nippon Professional Baseball. Also, a shop is available in the game for purchase picking up extra characters, in-game consumables and paid (with real money) DLC. This paid content includes the option to pick up official brass band themes for the teams.
At any rate, let’s move on to some of the other modes.
Live Scenario
“Fully linked to the NPB schedule. Scenarios will be available in as little as 1 hour after actual games. All games for all teams are scheduled to be available during the season.”
Back once again in Pro Spirits 2024-2025, Live Scenario puts players through real world games that happened throughout the season in Nippon Pro Baseball. These come in the form of short missions that came up at key points in games. Taking control of these allows players to replicate real world events or completely change the outcome entirely. I’ve always been a huge fan of this mode, and this holds the same in this year’s iteration of the game. While I do think it’s great, i can’t help but compare it to the the mode in Konami’s sister baseball title Power Pro Baseball 2024-2025. In that game, not only do you have the same options found here, but players also have the ability to create their own scenarios using current and classic teams. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity, especially considering Pro Spirits celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Spirits
“Train your own original players in this poker-like card game.The trained players can be placed on your original team and used in different modes.”
Spirits allows you to create a player through a game of chance with this poker-like card system. When you open up the mode, you will be introduced to two options - Card Challenge and Kakusei (Awakening) Chance. To be honest, these kind of things generally don’t interest me, but I went ahead and checked out Card Challenge. After choosing your team and player, you are thrown right into the card aspect.
The first part displays five cards on the screen each with different numbers and attributes. You’re essentially trying to match numbers, similar to poker, to find the best way to boost your player. You’ll occasionally have a chance to “double up” your points via a simple guessing game. Two cards are presented on the screen, with one being visible and the other face down. You have to guess if the visible card is going to be lower or higher. If you get it right, you’ll get a point increase. After several round of this, you’ll be taken to a card matching memorization game. Once all of this is complete, you take your earned points from the games to create your player.
I’ll be honest, this mode was a little bit boring to me, but some fans might find it an interesting way to create players.
Grand Prix
“Gather your favorite players through scouting to build a team and win various tournaments as a manager. Compete in tournaments to earn special rewards and improve your team by strengthening your manager and players.”
I’m not a huge fan of these kind of modes, but it seems that nearly every sports game has something like this, so there are definitely people out there that play them. Just as the description says, Grand Prix tasks players with scouting and building a team of their dreams. As a manager and outside of scouting, you will be able to take on other CPU controlled teams in an effort to enhance your players’ and team’s abilities. During games, you don’t have direct control over players, but rather can tell them what you want them to do in specific situations throughout games. For example, if you have a man on second and your power hitter is at bat, you can instruct him to swing for the fences.
Hakkyu no Kiseki
“Train high school players, aim for Koshien, and become the national champions. Play in a variety of styles, including strategy and action games. Experience all the excitement and drama of high school baseball as a manager or player!”
Hakkyu no Kiseki, or “White Ball Miracle,” puts players into the role of a high school manager in Japan. As manager, it is your goal to develop and inspire players with the goal of winning games and ultimately going to the Koshien tournament to prove your teams worth in the country. The mode is very text heavy and has you going through a variety of menus to try to build up your team. This is mainly done by putting your team through numerous training exercises. The playable games give you multiple ways to play, including controlling everything, watching, taking control of just one player or skipping the game.
The mode gives you complete control over selecting your school’s location, the name of the school, uniforms and more. You can also arrange the look of your coach. All in all, there’s a lot to like in this mode and I think it gives players a good look at what high school baseball life is like.
Star Player
“Play games as a professional baseball player and complete daily activities. Become a star of the baseball world on and off the field by performing in games, owning your dream home and more."
Star Player lets fans live the life of a professional baseball player in Japan both on and off the field. You can create a new player, use an existing original player or choose a player on an existing NPB team. Just to try out the mode, I opted to choose an existing player - my favorite player from the Saitama Seibu Lions, second baseman, Shuta Tonosaki. The mode will have you chatting with your agent, playing baseball games (obviously), building relationships with teammates and building up skills. The actual games of baseball are presented in mission-like forms, and have you play on offense and defense at varying points throughout the games. These can usually be finished somewhere between five to ten minutes each. Outside of playing baseball, I was presented with an opportunity to hang out with one of my teammates. I chose all-star shortstop Sosuke Genda and went out for a very expensive session of karaoke.
There is quite a bit of text, so be sure to brush up on your Japanese skills or have Google Translate ready. If you’ve played the series in the past, there’s really not too much different here. Even with that said, the mode is still fun and offers quite a bit in terms of content.
myBallpark
“Use your managerial skills to build the ultimate team and take on your league rivals. Develop your ballpark to earn revenue and improve team growth. Assemble all the necessary components to build a powerhouse team!”
The idea of this mode is simple. Players take control of one of the twelve teams in NPB, build a competitive product, market your brand and try to become the top team in the league. Teams are built with players of your choosing, represented by player cards. myBallpark allows players to compete with other players from across the country (or wherever they have the game) in leagues and events. I messed around a little bit with the “season” aspect here. Like some of the other modes, this is pretty text heavy, but it will take you through a variety of aspects of the offseason before starting things off properly to play ball. You’ll have control over spending the budget on things like sponsorships appearing in the ballparks, player merch sponsorships, events for fans, food and more. Doing these will bring you more revenue and fans. You’re also in control over what kind of practices your players will take do in an effort to strengthen the team. Once the season starts, you’re also able to check out the games as a spectator.
While I didn’t get super deep into this mode, I can definitely see the appeal. There are a lot of elements to work through and decide for your team in this season section. I think it’s pretty interesting, but was a little bit disappointed. I personally just wanted to take over one of the existing teams, with the real world roster in tact and build on things from there. Unless I missed something, that doesn’t seem to be the focus here.
Visuals, Audio & Presentation
Konami has really stepped things up in terms of graphics in Spirits 2024-25. Using Unreal Engine and their own custom “eBaseball Engine,” things look more realistic than ever. Players are incredibly detailed, in particularly their faces. The stadiums are also full of life, revamped and full of bustling fans and even beer girls. The rain effects look particularly nice with rain beading up on helmets and puddles forming on the grounds (or perhaps just appearing that way when the rain is turned on). I can’t be completely sure, but the rain also seems to have an effect on the ball on the soggy field, as it seems to react a little bit differently than normal. Tracking data for hits, runners, throws and more are also on offer, really bringing the presentation to another level. Some of the animations in the game may look a bit familiar if you’ve played the series before, but I didn’t see this as a big deal. Simply put, things here are great when it comes to visuals and presentation.
Pro Spirits runs at 1080p and targets 60 frames per second on base PS5 units. I know this will be a bit disappointing to some of you guys out there. I know that it was to me. As of right now, the game will be PS5 Pro enhanced, but the details behind that remain a bit scarce. Seeing as I just bought my PS5 in August 2024 before the price increase, I am definitely not in the market to get a Pro. I can’t comment on the PC version of the game, but it does run smoothly on on the non-Pro PlayStation 5.
Pro Spirits 2024-2025 also sounds great. The commentary is dynamic, and believable. The general sound effects are top notch, and sounds based on the kind of stadium you’re playing in (domes versus outside, etc.) are amazing. Not only this, but Konami has also introduced a special voice synthesizing AI system that enables player creations to be correctly and smoothly spoken (in Japanese). I’ve hardly touched this, but the idea alone is pretty cool.
Conclusion
Pro Yakyū Spirits 2024-2025 is a fantastic game that should be on your radar if you’re a baseball fan. It plays well, looks amazing and is full of fun modes. I may not be a fan of all of them personally, but I truly think that there is something for everyone here. Although the game isn’t fully translated into English, there are brief English descriptions and an instruction manual that can help you at least get started with the game. If you’re willing to work through some Japanese, you should really give this one a try.
But let’s turn things over to you. Did you pick up Pro Spirits 2024-25? Have you played any games in the series prior to this release? Who is your favorite Japanese player, current or retired, of all time? Sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
originally posted on Monday, October 28, 2024, 11:36 p.m.
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