Powerful Major League 2 on 10/1 in the US, 10/4 in Japan

Come on, BigMan. As an inside man on the gaming industry as a whole, you are sorely mistaken about another crash in the gaming industry, and, even worse, basing it off of SPORTS GAMES, which are hardly industry-drivers. New ones come out every year, which makes the old ones obsolete.

Also, cut Konami some slack, this is their first attempt to bring a PawaPro game to the USA, and they have no clue if it's gonna be a success.

Another thing is in the Success Mode. People love making their own players here. Did you even play MLB 07: The Show on PS2 or PS3? That game had a "Road to the Show" feature where you get to create your own player and control him throughout his entire career. People loved it, it was so much more in-depth than a regular career mode, and I can see a lot of similarities between both that and the Success Mode in PawaPro, being a PawaPro veteran myself.

If you would like to debate further, then talk to me on AIM or MSN, I will not be clogging this board up with a back-and-forth argument.

I don't use any messenger programs. Don't worry about clogging up the board. Activity has been low, anyway.

I didn't base my opinion on sports games alone. That was assumption on your part. I'm basing it on sales, the increasing budgets of games, lack of motivation with programmers, attitudes of fans and their lack of expendable income, etc. Maybe I'm spoiled because I grew up in the Famicom, Super Famicom, and Playstation era.

As for cutting Konami some slack, I'm surprised at you. You say that you're a Pawapuro veteran, so are you exaggerating or just covering your eyes? Konami's decline in quality with Pawapuro and Winning Eleven is well documented. Winning Eleven hasn't changed in over three years, and Pawapuro has been getting substantially worse for the same amount of time. Is it a coincidence that Winning Eleven got worse once they became Pro Evolution Soccer and began selling MILLIONS around the world? Is it a coincidence that Pawapuro got worse once Akada and Toyohara were ousted and Tanibuchi and Toyama were brought in? Konami used to be my favorite game developer. They were making Bemani, Pawapuro, Winning Eleven, Metal Gear Solid, Gradius, Parodius, Suikoden, etc. They could do no wrong for a very long time. It's just sad to see them turn into the Electronic Arts of Japan. When you shell out 60-70 dollars for a product, I expect complete satisfaction. I am still VERY bitter about the fact that I spent so much on a PS3 specifically for PYS4, only to get a gimped online mode and framerate issues. I won't ever trust Konami again. Not only did they screw the people who bought PS3s, but they also screwed over the Xbox 360 owners who bought that system specifically for PYS3.

BTW, I did play MLB The Show for PS3. It had potential, but lazy programming ruined it. Some examples? Blue numbers for the Dodgers on the PS2 version. I got a hit with Johjima and it was counted as a strike out. I got a glitch in edit that made EVERY player in the game wear high socks and it couldn't be reversed. There is a glitch that turns a player into an alien face if you edit their call name. Their roster updates have a ton of glitches too. A catcher for the Pirates weighs 100 pounds. Although I liked some of the gameplay, I was so sickened by the lazy programming and lack of testing that I returned it to Gamefly in a couple days. Go to the official message boards for the Show and see just what kind of comments people are leaving. You shouldn't defend that. The game makers only want MONEY now. There's no pride in what they do.

I don't expect western game makers to take pride in their work, because I grew up renting pure crap from American game developers every week at the video store. Japan has pride in their work, at least they used to. It's a working culture. Only recently have I seen Japanese game developers getting very lazy on a large scale. There were always crappy Japanese games, and they're infamous on the internet. It's just a very new phenomenon in Japan to have such big money franchises get spit out like Madden every year. It's not even just sports games. Look at Final Fantasy.

In general I agree with what Bigman's saying here. It does seem like the gaming industry in general is not doing that good a job compared to the past. Obviously I am not in the industry, so I do not know the details, but from the games I've played, it just gets to a point where I am suddenly seeing myself digging up my SFC and playing with games there instead of buying new games.

Of course u can argue that sports is just a small part of the whole picture, but as bigman mentioned...Final Fantasy...for example, has gone way down in terms of their efforts. Sure it's still selling millions all over the world, and it's a success getting overseas into the US market. But u can definitely find a lot of people who used to adore FFs have stopped playing it at all because of the lack of effort it shows. As an ex-FF fan, I can say that the game could just throw in a movie mode and u wouldn't miss out on 80% of the story. It's sure appealing on the eyes, but other than that, the gameplay's nothing like the old ones.

Back to the topic with Pawapuros. Pawapuro was once a treasure for all yakyu-fans. The gameplay was great, it was fun to play, the ball physics were real, success mode was fun, pennant mode had nice similations. Then all of a sudden, every pitchers starts to throw heavy stuffs like Chien Ming Wang, fastball looks like slowballs, success mode becomes boring and easy and depends more on luck than skills, and auto-pennant is totally unplayable. It went from a series that everyone loves to a game that everyone takes to a second hand shop to sell after a week.

With success mode and how American gamers love to play it more than a regular career mode. I admit I've never really played much MLB games. But from what I read and interpret...this "Road to the Show" mode lets u create a player and plays with him thruout his career. If I read that right, then u might actually want to refer mylife mode instead of success mode. Coz in success mode u do not play with a player thru his entire career, it's basically a 2-hr/game mode where u follow a story and make ur own character in it.

I dun even know if there will be a mylife mode in this one, as it was not in Pawamajor 1.

Another point I gotta agree with Bigman is that if this is the first game u want to bring over to the US, go take a look at those stats. Some of them are totally ridiculous. I still remember giving Scott Rolen 200 power in Pawamajor 1 and Jim Thome barely had a C. I lost count of how many times I laughed sarcastically when I was looking at the stats back then when I first played Pawamajor. It takes less than 10 seconds to realize the developers had absolutely no knowledge in MLB players.

If u're really going to bring this over to the States, and want it to be successful, please hire someone to take a look at the stats, or else that alone would tick off a lot of the gamers wanting to try the series.

Alright, seems to have written a lot already, I guess that's it for now.

Road To The Show is a very poor version of My Life Mode with no story or anything. My Life on Pawapuro 10-12 are still some of the best baseball gaming available out there, if you speak Japanese.

Don't forget about how Success Mode turned into some Akihabara otaku fantasy. There are female characters everywhere now, and all sorts of "moeeee" BS that the real fans can't stand. Toyama producer is responsible for that. He's a huge anime geek.

I gotta disagree with you on that last point, though. I think that's the exact problem PawaMajor had. They based the attributes on STATS alone. I bet So Taguchi batted really well with RISP that year, so they followed the numbers and gave him Chance 5. Thome was injured, so he didn't hit many homers, hence he got C power. They followed the stats for the year, but they had ZERO knowledge of the careers or skills these players had. It's like giving B.J. Ryan G control, F stamina, no breaking ball, and an 85 MPH fastball because he did poorly this year.

Ya, that's what I am talking about with the Pawamajor thing. They based it off just that season, and didn't take a look at their career numbers. They do it for Pawapuro too, but to certain extent still look at career numbers when someone gets injured and only puts up mediocre/bad numbers.

That's why I am saying they need to find someone who knows MLB and take a look at the stats to see which are totally off that needs fixing.

If u've played the older Pawapuros, and then played the new ones...u should have the feeling that it's become a lot worse than before. With that big a downgrade, I suppose most gamers won't mind having a Pawapuro 10 with updated rosters. At least it still feels like baseball.

I suppose there's a reason why Final Fantasy 7 is considered by many people outside Japan as one of the best RPG ever, along with it the popularity Cloud and Sephiroth are getting. There's been very few RPG imports into US before FF7. So to many of the younger gamers, this is what RPG is, and as always, nostalgia increases points when u talk about which game's better. It's like Japanese people going crazy over Dragon Quest, it's what most of them started playing (and admittedly until recently, it's still good, DQ7 and 8's beginning to be less fun)

Unless Squar-Enix decides to dish out some crap (not sure if this word's acceptable) for FF, magazines and other professional writers will still give it a high score. It just is that way even if u dun want to admit it.

I wont talk much about whether the gaming industy is facing some real problems or not...coz I am not as attached to it nowadays than before, so I am no longer that up-to-date with the news. But from playing the games, u can see there's less effort put into them. And there still will be some very good games coming out into the market. But overall, that's what I feel. I wont say the sales will drop drastically, bcoz gamers will still dish out money to buy games, but to me it's quite a bit harder now to find some very good games that I really value.

At least we'll always have the classics, right? If speedruns on YouTube show me anything, it's that we can always find entertainment in the old games by trying to master them, rather than just beat them. Anyway, I think the Nintendo DS is our savior. They have clever stuff like Gyakuten Saiban, all those RPGs, and Taito just announced there's going to be a remake for the Legend of Kage. Looks like the console for guys my age.

You know, I think the big console industry just bit off way more than it could chew with the new hardware. DS games are fun and pretty much glitch free, probably because it's so nice to program for. PS3 games all seem to come out half done. Look at the reviews for Lair. I think in order for the game industry the thrive, these programmers are either going to have to learn how to program for these systems and kick it into high gear or be forced to endure lack of sales, because nobody wants to buy glitchy and unfinished games. As great as Warhawk is, it's only multiplayer because the programmers were so behind on their schedule. This is why I foresee the crash, because things just can't keep going on like this. I think Nintendo did a great thing with the DS and Wii. I think they saw this coming from a mile away. They probably initially tried to make a jacked up next generation console and saw just how daunting the task was. Now they're swimming in money again.

Not sure how old you are BigManZam, but I'm 27 and allot of the games for the PS3 and Xbox 360 just don't interest me. (Mainly FPS's) At first I thought buy a PS3 because I enjoy Gran Turismo and Metal Gear, but $820 to play two games is crazy, so I bought a DS for the RPGs. The pice point might come down some on the PS3 but the games are still $60.

By the way Namco is making a new R.B.I. Baseball for the DS. It comes out in Japan Sep. 27. the web site is http://famista.jp/

I'm 24. I have a ton of money and rarely spend on myself, so I can splurge on some big tech stuff once or twice a year. As for the price tag, next gen consoles are pretty much competing with high end gaming PCs now, so it's pretty reasonable when you consider gaming PCs are at least 5000 bucks. Gaming is definitely more expensive now than it ever was in the past, unless you were a Neo Geo gamer.

There are some PS3 games I like. I use GameFly, so I don't buy them, but I like to try whatever seems decent. I only buy imports, and since PS3 imports look terrible, I haven't had to spend much. I may get Minna No Golf, but it's kinda pointless when I already play Pangya Golf on the PC. Right now I'm playing Warhawk, GRAW2, I think Rainbow Six Vegas is in my mailbox, and I kinda want to play Stranglehold now after playing the demo. Chow Yun Fat is the man. All games involve shooting people, which is weird, because I can't stand FPS games and have very anti-war personal beliefs. Luckily, they're all third person over the shoulder style shooters. Think Resident Evil 4.

I knew about the DS Famista game. I played the online PC version, which is free and identical to the DS version. Not a big fan, since I suck at it and it's very dated gameplay. Might as well play Pong.

Wake up, BigMan. Complete satisfaction is very rare nowadays in gaming. People are so finicky and nitpicky that they'll find anything to detract from a game, and that seems to be what you're doing. There is no such thing as a perfect game anymore, and there never was, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm also surprised that you shelled out $600 for a PlayStation 3, a system that has a grand total of 7 exclusives this side of the Pacific, and is running with its tail between its legs in sheer terror of the juggernaut that is Halo 3. But I digress.

Unless you want complete and total satisfaction like you said, then wait about 5 years for the next big-time Super Mario or Legend of Zelda game.

Also, you can't expect games to be perfect every year, because what has to happen every year? You guessed it, change has to happen, otherwise the game starts getting the accusations that Madden sees every year, and that is that the game is just a roster update. Would you rather have had PawaPro 10 with infinite roster updates, or would you like to have something completely new every once in a while?

My assumption was (and still is) based on your arguments, which are STILL based off of sports games. Sports games are classic examples of people milking the franchise for all its worth.

Also, calling out Final Fantasy? Give me a break, Final Fantasy XII was great, and even the questionable "professional" critics liked it. If you think that Square-Enix is going down the tubes just because Sakaguchi, Uematsu, and Amano have defected to Mistwalker, then that is the weakest argument I have ever heard.

I'm very awake.

I have money, moderate a forum on yakyu games, and the game looked great at the time. Why be surprised I bought a PS3? I hardly think Sony is running scared because of Halo 3. Halo is only a big name with anti-social American youth. Harsh? Probably, but it seems to be the truth. That's not the PS3 demographic. Also why be scared of a console that breaks down more often than not? I may have spent a bit more on a PS3, but at least I'm not afraid of it overheating and breaking down on me. PS3 is a lot of things, but unstable is something it definitely is not. I'd actually buy a 360 if I didn't hear about everyone being on their third or fourth console already. Microsoft keeps sending them refurbished units that automatically break in a month or so. It's garbage.

As for games not being perfect, Pawapuro was darn near perfect for a period of time. All they needed to do was update animations, rosters, and graphics. The physics and AI were spot on. That is what they completely screwed up on. That's not even taking into account how they completely butchered My Life and Success. That said, I'd much rather prefer Pawapuro 10 with roster updates than the trash they're releasing now.

Don't tell me what my arguments are based on when I told you specifically that I wasn't talking only about sports games. You assumed, I corrected you, and now you dictate what my thoughts are? Just leave it alone. It wasn't a point of discussion.

You loved FF12? What about FF11? FFX2? How about Dirge of Cerberus? Or how about FF1 and FF2 for PSP? Chocobo Tales? Revenant Wings? I'm sure you're going to love FF Versus 13. Bottom line is that Final Fantasy went from a clever and smart series into a romantic drama full of spiked hair idols and meaningless gibberish names. They've been slowly making the descent to hell ever since FF7, which is coincidentally the title that gave them more money than God.

So how do you play this on the WII Console?
Can you use the gamecube controller?

You can use Gamecube, retro controller, and wiimote+nunchaku.

Gamespot has some gameplay clips up.

Just watched all of these. Pitch speed looks good. Ball physics look good when there's a hit. You can tell that they also took some inspiration from American games with the presentation style.

I'm worried about a couple things, though. First, the commentary is god awful as usual. I mean, "It's a hit by pitch!" Who says that? Just stinks of a team of Japanese translators who don't understand American baseball terms and a voice actor who has no interest in the sport. There are also going to be a ton of mispronunciations, but 2K7 pronounced Johjima's name as "Yoyeema". This can be taken by American fans in one of two ways. They will either be totally amused by the cheesy Japanese Engrish or bash it as being poorly done. I tend to lean with the first one, because most people playing this in the states aren't going to be taking it too seriously anyway.

The other thing I'm bothered by is Dave Roberts' face. Namely his eyes, which are shaped like a stereotypical Chinese cartoon character, Japanese cartoon cat, or shiba inu. Of course Japanese people made the game, and Dave Roberts is half Japanese, but it could be seen as racist in politically correct America.

All that said, I'm looking forward to the game. PawaMajor team had a lot of time to improve on last year's game, so it's really the last hope I have for a decent Pawapuro game this year. I could see this getting a decent following among open-minded old school sports gamers. The kind of guys who loved Tecmo Bowl while growing up.

Official site is now up. Link is at the top of the thread. No new information, but there are a few small pics to look at.

I'm following the 2ch thread right now. One thing they're talking about is the fact that the American version is going to sell for 29.99 and the Japanese one will sell for around 65 dollars. As someone living in the US with an American PS2, this is great news to me. Japanese fans feel a bit ripped off, though. They feel that the American version is half priced, has facial graphics, possibly it's own presentation style, and possibly an edit mode. Needless to say, they think Konami is taking their home base for granted. I've been saying this for the past couple years.

Interesting response from 2ch, let us know if any interesting info pops up from over there.

The bad stats continue as a 2ch poster claims to have seen the game running at a Shibuya store that sells MLB merchandise. He says that Dustin Pedroia had E meet and Matsuzaka was way too strong. Anyone who wants to see if he's right, he says the store is between the commute from Shibuya station to the NHK building.

Doh...

Any chance that the stats would be fixed for the US version at least? With 2K publishing it, you'd think it'd have to get past their QA department and all, so they'd catch things like that.

Official opening movie is up...

http://2ksports.com/games/mlbpp/videos/2662

Very Americanized. They've definitely made Matsuzaka the singled-out star.

Looks like Konami posted a PR due to TGS going on right now.

Wii screenshots
PS2 screenshots, though some of them are the same from the Wii.

You can see Roger Clemens in one of these shots!



Also, apparently the PR from Konami stated that the roster and abilities are set to end of June. This supposedly caused a backlash among some Japanese fans immediately because Hideki Matsui had a huge July.

Saw that Gamespot put up the official trailer. Myself and the 2ch guys are worried about the updating of the official site. It seems that ever since the games have become crap, updating has been very late and rare. MLB Power Pros isn't even available for ordering on 2ksports.com, which is kind of sad.

http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/jikkyoupowerfulmajorleague2wii/media.html?sid=6179231&autoplay=6179231

How's everyone doing? I haven't been here in a while.

I just heard Pawapuro is coming to the U.S. Oh man, I'm excited.

I can't wait......though the commentary scares the hell out of me, It sounds awful in english.

Oh, Bigman, you heard they're also bringing fire pro wrestling return to the U.S. also?

It comes out in november or december on the PS2.

Long time no see. I just found out about Fire Pro last week or so. Crazy, right? Spike must really need the money. You know, if they just did their best job with FPZ, they wouldn't have had to whore out the series like they did. I think their profits would still go down a lot, since the popularity of wrestling in Japan went down a ton, but there would've still been that loyal niche audience. Kinda like the audience 2D fighters and side scrolling shooters get.

Also, as an update to this thread, I'd like to report on Japanese fans' views. The general opinion of the fans on the 2ch PawaMajor thread is that the game is going to be crap. Their reasoning is a lot like mine. The official site was opened on 9/11/07 and there have been no updates since then. The game releases in a week. They believe that Pawapuro has been really poor ever since site updates have become rare and they believe the team behind this series no longer believe in it or have any motivation to improve it or sell it.

Compare that to the Pro Yakyu Spirits series, which has had weekly site updates before the release date featuring videos, pictures, and staff explanations of gameplay improvements.

Also, Famitsu scores are in. Both Wii and PS2 versions got a score of 8/8/7/7, which is very mediocre. Maybe Konami ran out of money to pay off the reviewers this time. 7 is VERY rare for the series, so maybe the reviewers are getting sick of the same thing. PawaMajor 2 doesn't look like much of a change from the first, other than the roster update. That could explain the low scores. Regardless, even if the game is relatively unchanged from the original, western fans experiencing it for the first time should get a new game experience.

Official site has been updated with AL East team info and MLB term glossary. Pretty weak update. Rosters are VERY old(JC Romero is on BoSox) and they don't even have a pic for Kei Igawa. Sometimes I wonder if I should even keep reporting on the crap Pawapuro Team is releasing. It's amazing how such a once hard working development team(see how many player names are available in commentary) has turned into this group that would probably even be considered mediocre by western development standards. I hope Winning Eleven is going to be decent.

Jikkyou and winning eleven are like the Japanese Madden and NBA live. either they improve less and less each year or even worse, they go the other way and head for self-destruction

Well, all four games are made by the same two companies, EA and Konami. Both are monster companies in their markets and both have gotten really lazy for the past few years. Konami still has a long way to go before they reach EA's level of pathetic releases, though. People are hard on Konami because they used to be so ridiculously good. Guess there's only one way to go when you're that good.

Dengeki PS2 published pics of player stats. Here they are...

Matsuzaka
155 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - A(Give me a break!)
Fast slider - 5
Curve - 2
Circle change - 4
Cutter
Splitter
Doctor K(New ability? New name for strike out ability?)

Saitoh
152 km/h
Stamina - C
Control - B
Slider - 5
Curve - 4
Splitter - 5
Nobi 2
Kire 4
Light ball(New attribute. Opposite of heavy, I guess.)
Kaifuku 4
Vs. Lefty 2

Iwamura
Meet - C
Power - B(Come on!!!)
Arch - 3
Speed - C
Arm - C
Defense - D(COME ON!!!!)
Error - D

Ichiro
Meet- C(Wow...I almost want to stop reporting...)
Power - C
Arch - 2
Speed - B
Arm - A
Defense - A
Error - C
Clutch hit - 1
Average Hitter
Chance Maker
Infield Hit
Slap Hitter

Johan Santana
156 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - A
Slurve - 5
Circle change - 5
Kire 4
Doctor K

Pujols
Meet - B
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - D
Arm - C
Defense - B
Error - B
Clutch Hit 5
Average Hitter
Power Hitter
Intimidation
Game Ender
Pull Hitter

Wang
156 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - B
Sinking fastball - 1
Change up - 3
Fast slider - 3
Splitter - 3
Nobi 4
Bullpen blows lead

Halladay
154 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - B
Sinking fastball - 2
Change - 4
Curve - 5
Cutter - 4
Nobi 4
Kire 4
Quick 2

Sabathia
157 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - C
Slurve - 5
Change - 3
Nobi 4
Kire 4
Escape pitch
Doctor K

Haren
154 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - C
Change - 3
Splitter - 3
Curve - 4
Cutter - 2
Nobi 4
Mistake pitch

Glavine
143 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - C
Cutter - 2
Curve - 2
Change - 2
Circle change - 4
Clutch pitch 4
Vs. Lefty 4
Nobi 4
Escape pitch
Comebacker reflexes

Oswalt
156 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - B
Slider - 4
Curve -3
Splitter - 3
Change - 3
Poker face
Release

Peavy
154 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - B
Slider - 5
Curve - 3
Change - 4
Nobi 2
Kire 4
Doctor K
Comebacker reflexes

Randy Johnson
156 km/h
Stamina - A
Control - C
Slider - 4
Splitter - 3
Two seam - 1
Clutch pitch 2
Vs. Lefty 4
Nobi 4
Kire 4
Light pitch
Escape pitch
Winning pitcher
Hot head
Intimidator

Miguel Tejada
Meet - B
Power - B
Arch - 3
Speed - E
Arm - C
Defense - B
Error - C
Clutch hit 2
Average Hitter
Infield hit

Pudge Rodriguez
Meet - C
Power - B
Arch - 2
Speed - D
Arm - A
Defense - A
Error - C
Clutch hit 2
Chance maker
Infield hit
Three hit batter

Dye
Meet - C
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - E
Arm - C
Defense - C
Error - B
Patient batter
Chance maker
Free swinger
Pull hitter

DeJesus
Meet - C
Power - B
Arch - 2
Speed - B
Arm - C
Defense - B
Error - C
Three hit batter

Vlad Guerrero
Meet - B
Power - A
Arch - 3
Speed - D
Arm - A
Defense - C
Error - D
Vs. Lefty 4
Average Hitter
Infield hit
Intimidator
Pull hitter

Michael Young
Meet - C
Power - B
Arch - 2
Speed - B
Arm - D
Defense - C
Error - B
Clutch hit 5
Average Hitter
Patient batter
Infield hit
Grand slam hitter

Beltran
Meet - D
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - B
Arm - A
Defense - B
Error - B
Vs. Lefty 2
Power Hitter
Patient batter
Grand slam hitter

Howard
Meet - C
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - F
Arm - B
Defense - D
Error - C
Clutch hit 2
Power Hitter
Chance maker
Free swinger
Pull hitter

Chipper Jones
Meet - C
Power - A
Arch - 3
Speed - D
Arm - B
Defense - B
Error - C
Gold glover
Bare hand catch

Miguel Cabrera
Meet - B
Power - A
Arch - 3
Speed - E
Arm - D
Defense - C
Error - C
Clutch hit 4
Average Hitter

Zimmerman
Meet - D
Power - B
Arch - 3
Speed - D
Arm - B
Defense - C
Error - B
Bunt master(Huh?)
Infield hit
Game ender
Pull hitter

Griffey
Meet - E
Power - B
Arch - 4
Speed - F
Arm - C
Defense - C
Error - D
Clutch hit 2
Pull hitter

Fielder
Meet - D
Power - B(Ouch)
Arch - 3(Ouch again)
Speed - F
Arm - B
Defense - D
Error - C
Vs. lefty 4
Free swinger
Pull hitter

Freddy Sanchez
Meet - B
Power - B
Arch - 2
Speed - C
Arm - E
Defense - B
Error - C
Vs. lefty 4
Average Hitter
Opposite field power
Grand slam hitter

Alfonso Soriano
Meet - D
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - B
Arm - B
Defense - C
Error - C
Clutch hit 2
Chance maker
Free swinger
Pull hitter

Giant Gonzales(Barry Bonds)
Meet - D
Power - A
Arch - 4
Speed - F
Arm - C
Defense - C
Error - B
Clutch hit 5
Intimidator
Pull hitter

Holliday
Meet - B
Power - A
Arch - 3
Speed - B
Arm - D
Defense - D
Error - C
Clutch hit 2
Average Hitter
Opposite field power
Slap hitter
Patient batter

I haven't posted anything in this thread as I've gone to a point I dun even quite want to talk about it...

And ouch...some of these stats just hurts my eyes....I dun even need to mention the ones that are debatable...looking at Ichiro's stats makes me wonder if the Pawapuro team hates him or not...2nd in BA and he gets a C...batting .398 RISP and he gets clutch-1??? (I suppose this is the same as 'chance' from other Pawapuros.)

Prince Fielder getting a B power...3 arch and NO PH attribute when he is second in HRs in the whole league??

Matsuzaka deserves at best a C in control...and the attribute 'wild' that they love to slap on Darvish is a very fitting attribute for Daisuke.

Chien Ming Wang doesn't get a heavy ball attribute is also out of anything I can think of.

Anyways...I might go on and on with the rants...let's just stop here...I suppose I wont play this game.

Finally went to test-play Pawapuro 14's success mode the other day...and I turned it off right after I finished with my first character. I guess I will see how much crappy 15 is...and it could be the end for me. (Off topic...but I dun think it deserves a rant topic for its own)

You know, I wonder if the reason America is all of a sudden seeing a Pawapuro title is because the Konami suits think like this...

Exec 1: "Guys, our sales have been dropping slowly for the past few years and we need to figure out a way to get sales back up."

Exec 2: "We could work harder on beta testing and find out what the fans want in next year's game."

Exec 1: "That sounds like a lot of work. How about we release something in the states and hope sales are decent enough to make up for the Japanese fans we lost."

Exec 2: "I like the way you think."

You know, with as old as the rosters are, you'd think a team of just one person could even do what they did on PawaMajor 2. Even I could've updated rosters and stats all on my own. You have to wonder what they've been paid to do for an entire year. There's not even a My Life mode. I could understand the original PawaMajor being a little bad because they had to make all the stadiums and everything from scratch, but what did they do all year between the first game and this one? The same thing happened with Netsu Sta and Netsu Sta 2007. It was nothing but a really poor roster and stat update. Are the guys in Pawapuro Team even baseball fans anymore?

Official site is updated with some pics, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. Also, here's picture proof for you of the messed up stats.

http://japan.gamespot.com/ps2/screenshots/common/pictures/0,3800075610,10286037p-3,00.htm

That is of course Daisuke. If I were making him, I'd give him a few attributes. First off, I'd bring his control to D level at least. I'd probably give him mistake pitch ability and an ability that drops his control and pitch break in the 4th inning. I'd also drop his fastball speed, since he rarely goes over 94 MPH on a real radar gun. Probably give him the ability that makes him better winding up than out of the stretch.

Now I'll report on what the Japanese fans are saying. First off, as soon as the stats were posted, they all acknowledged that their hype for the game totally died. A few expressed gratitude for not preordering the game. A couple said what I said a while back and asked if Konami had anyone in their company who knew anything about the majors. Konami, I'd work for relatively cheap. Just say the word. It'd probably increase sales by 100,000 at least. Hehe.

Ok, lots of people knocking lack of edit. One comment says it all...

"I can't believe that there's a modern era sports game without a full edit mode."

Basically saying what people have been saying about Madden for a while now, but made even worse without an edit mode. I think it's obvious what they're doing with the console Pawapuro titles now. They're not catering to the fanbase who grew up with it and are trying to cater to little kids who don't know any better. My suggestion for people getting frustrated with the series is to go elsewhere. It's just not the same game anymore, and since it's been SOOOOO long(and I'm sure they've been flooded with complaints), nothing will change. It'll probably stay like this until it becomes unprofitable. I suggest trying out Pawapoke 10 on the DS, since there is a completely different team there and hopefully Pro Yakyu Spirits 5 will improve the framerate issues and keep progressing.

The Pawapoke team is headed by producer Kenji Fujioka, who has been in charge of the series since Pawapoke 4. He has been with Pawapuro from the start and actually designed the now famous characters. Programmer is Naoki Nishikawa, who has also been with Pawapro since the start. Hideto Inoue is in charge of sound, and he's also been with Pawapuro since the beginning.

The Pro Yakyu Spirits team is headed by Tomoharu Okutani, who also produced The Baseball 2003, which was what Pro Yakyu Spirits used to be called. The other producer is Kazuhiro Nanba, who produced the online PC version of Pawapuro a few years back. Programmer is Koji Toyohara, who was programmer for Pawapuro back in their glory days with Akada producer.

Who knows why the PS3 version of PYS was so incomplete? From the framerate to the very strange online mode, it was obviously rushed out in order to give PS3 an early Japanese title. All I know is that, despite being thoroughly disappointed by the rushed effort, it's the lesser of two evils. Pro Yakyu Spirits sucked royally when it was first released in 2004, but they've made big leaps with each year on the PS2. That's more than I can say about Pawapuro.

Now, let's take a look at the heads of Pawapuro's development team. This should give you a good insight as to why they suck now. Head producer is Hiroshi Tanibuchi. He took over for Isao Akada after Pawapuro 8. His mistakes aren't as obvious as the last guy I'll write about, but the series has been slipping each year since he stepped in. When you have threads on the internet dedicated to telling you to die, I don't really think you've done your job. Director is Fujinori Narita, and he's been director from Pawapuro 12-14. There's not much info on him and he's not hated as much as the producers, but since 12-14 all suck, we can assume he's not too great. Akira Toyama is a former director, designer, and produced Pawapuro 12, which was basically the bridge from the decent Pawapuro 11 to the unbearable 13. He's an anime otaku who was responsible for adding the anime openings to the series as well as the female characters and overall otaku style to Success Mode. He's just a bit less hated than Tanibuchi, but still very hated for being an anime otaku and turning the series into what it is now.

So yeah, all you have to do is analyze the development teams and you'll know who'll be able to come out with quality software each year. Pawapuro has all the newbies who ruined the series while Pawapoke and PYS have the old guard. Bet on Pawapoke 10 this December and PYS5 around March to be worthy purchases.

BigManZam, thanks for all the information. I've been watching this forum for a while now since it's one of the only English speaking sites to really have much news about it.

I agree entirely about Daisuke. It seems like they've rated him based on his reputation in Japan instead of anything he's brought to the field in the US. I live just outside Boston and being a Sox fan I've watched most of his starts this year.

His fastball has been consistently in the low-mid 90s with very suspect control (though he has been squeezed a lot IMO) and really he's only had a decent fastball, slider, and curve this year. His fastball is odd too in that he likes to throw it letter high rather than down in the zone. I'm guessing that is something that he was able to do in Japan but MLB lineups are deeper and better and ever weak players can deal with 92 mph fastballs above the waist. Especially since I'm sure he's been scouted more than any rookie coming into the league this year so opposing batters know that tendency.

His change never materialized and he actually gave up on throwing his splitter toward the end of the summer. He's been around what most realistic projects had him doing this year but relative to the rest of the majors he's nowhere near having shown elite skills. I'd call him a solid #2 or #3 on a decent pitching staff. It's not really that he falls apart in the 4th inning though, there have been a couple times he's done so, but it's most that once a game he seems to lose his mechanics for a stretch of 20-25 pitches and then regain it after some solid damage is done. He's looked downright fatigued recently too.

As for the game itself. I realize that you've been playing this series for years and being a former Madden lover I can understand the frustration with a series essentially declining over time. We've never had it here though and with so few Wii titles I'm really looking forward to this coming out this week. I'm prepared for the awful rosters and the lack of an edit mode, so long as I get good game play I think I'll be happy with the product. It's something different. I'm kind of looking at it like a quick player return to NES feeling baseball instead of the boring play that this year's MLB 2k7 brought to the table.

I guess my big question is do you feel like the game play itself is still good or is your frustration with the way that the details like roster have been muddled up in more recent editions? Basically, does it play a good game of baseball when on the field? A much smaller question is how much do those player abilities affect what is happening on the field? Do they make guys with them play very different than each other or is it a subtle difference?

Anyway, you guys have a pretty neat forum here. The info has been great.

Welcome to the forum. Always good to have a another decent contributor and not a selfish jerk who just asks for translations or whatever. I'd rather have an empty forum than have to answer the same questions over and over. If I were being paid to do this, that'd be another story.

All the American gamers will be just fine. What's super craptastic to us longtime fans will be almost nonexistent for the average gamer. We're just very picky, since we're die hard yakyu fans and there are only so many games being made per year. Reminds me of when I was a wrestling fan and the quality of wrestling games in Japan started to fall. Luckily, there are a handful of companies competing in the yakyu market(Konami, Namco, Sega, and the American companies to a lesser extent), since it's so huge. There was only really one company competing in the wrestling market back when I was following that. Monopolies and buy outs are not good for quality control. Hehe.

If you have the patience to get over the outdated rosters and bad stats, you'll be just fine. If you're just looking for fun and possibly play with friends, you should have a blast. No joke. I remember when I was first sent Pawapuro 10 by my friend Muka back in 2003, it was a completely new experience. You'll enjoy it, and maybe it'll open up new doors to NPB or other games like it did for me.

As for the stats, they could be annoying when you're simming a season. Daisuke's stats could possibly have him with an ERA in the high 1s or low 2s. Prince will only have 20-25 homers. We still aren't 100% sure the stats are the same for Power Pros, though. We also still aren't sure there isn't a full edit for Power Pros. It's just something we have to wait for.

Ugh! The stats and rosters where what I was afraid of.....


About the developers, makes you wonder why they would put newbies on a long franchise like Pawapuro. That should've been the last option to change the formula of a well respected game.

Makes no sense to me at all.

Hey guys. Been a fan of the series since Power Pro 10 when I picked it up for Gamecube with a Freeloader back in '03... I have to say that my buddies and I were blown away by that game, we wasted away many a night making players in Success Mode, playing MyLife, or just straight up games until 3, 4 in the morning.. we were pretty much obsessed!
Went to Japan, came back with a Japanese PS2 slim and 10-12 (got 12 when it came out, a week before I came back to the states). Ordered PawaMajor when it came out too... I have to say I was disappointed that Major didn't have MyLife mode, but not devastated. I'm pretty open minded about the lack of "edit mode." After all, what's the fun of making a guy as good as you want to without having to earn it?
We certainly didn't agree with a lot of the stats for the first Major game, and found that the quality of Major and 12 were lacking compared to 10, which was just so GOLDEN. Ah well, still a good game, I like even the new ones better than "The Show" or whatever else we have here at the moment.
My comment about the announcer's English in the first installment of Majors over in Japan would be that they tried to hard to directly translate the expressions typically used by the Japanese announcer... I don't know how the US release is going to be in that department.
From the screenshots I've seen of English version success mode, it's pretty typical of pawapuro success mode.. my buddies who don't understand Japanese are pretty hyped about it finally being in English.. I was always too lazy to go through and explain anything that wasn't important.. however they will soon realize they weren't missing much

Might have to get Famista or PawaPoke 10 when they are released for DS... I see they are both spec'd out to have online play, which I would look forward to.
I'd have to say Famista makes for the better handheld (I thought Famista Advance was better than the GBA Power Pro I played...) but we'll have to see.

I'd actually like to see an American release of something like Pro Yakyuu Spirits, with the Japanese Pro league and everything. It's a very good game, better than what EA and 2KS have been putting out lately, and I think it would be GREAT and fun in that the Japanese league gives US gamers something completely different from what they're used to. Plus, I think some of the Japanese stadiums are great.. I am quite partial to the Seibu Dome (which I have been to in person as well!) and the Tokyo Dome.
I know this wouldn't fly, not enough people would appreciate it like we would, but I'd enjoy it anyway.

They probably thought people would continue to suck it up and buy their new releases even if they suck.

And now they're losing more fans with every new series. It's gone to a point where it seems they just wanna attract new players who are inexperienced in the games...and just tell the old fans to go back to the old games.

And just like in Pawamajor 1, these stats for the new import Japanese players is like what they were doing the year before in NPB. It was like this for Johjima in Pawamajor 1. Even Igawa has C control and A stamina. His stats are like the exact same from Pawapuro 13. Daisuke's stats are close as well, just that they gave him more pitches to give better stats (Ironically, those were around the stats I had when I made Daisuke in Pawamajor's success mode).

Someone on 2ch brings up a very good point and he says that Pawapuro started getting bad once Toyohara was moved from programming Pawapuro to Pro Yakyu Spirits. Anyway, this poster makes a point to say that Toyohara used to have a column he wrote on Konami's website and you can really figure out the truth by reading his columns. For anyone who can read Japanese, here's the URL. Site is still up after all these years.

http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/pawa/dh/toy2/index.html