Pro Yakyu Team Wo Tsukurou! DS Releases This Spring

http://www.yakyutsuku.com

Official site is now up and will be updated weekly. There are a handful of new pics and a column by the dev lead. It's confirmed that OB players will once again be in this installment of the series. You can expect everyone from Randy Bass to Suguru Egawa. Past YakyuTsuku titles also had "fake" major leaguers who were modeled after players like Ichiro, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and Cy Young. It's still unknown whether this will make it in this DS version.

I never even thought of this, but the site makes it a point to state that gameplay tempo is fast and perfect for a handheld. Console versions of the Tsukurou games have been plagued by torturous load times, so this will be a nice change of pace with the DS having zero load times.

I'll translate screens from top left to bottom right.

First screen is for stadium upgrades. Upgrades include a team store for 5000-man(little under 500,000 dollars) all the way up to a stadium upgrade for 20-oku(little under 20 million dollars). The upgrade usually increases maximum capacity by 5000 seats or so.

Second screen shows a scouting screen for foreign players. This guy is a 24 year old catcher who is asking for 1560-man. He bats right handed. Judging his abilities by YakyuTsuku 3, he's a low .200 hitter vs. both righties and lefties with 10-15 homer power, a solid judge of balls and strikes, stinks with RISP, and can get a bunt down every now and then. I'd judge him to be a #8 or #9 batter only if there are no better options at catcher. When you start a catcher, defense is probably more important than the bat, because guys will run on you. You can help keep SBs down by using pitch outs, but it's best to go with a strong arm. The way a catcher calls a game is also very important. Other stats will surely include...

Stamina - Effects how many games a player can start in
Speed - Effects your overall base running and defensive level
Base running technique - How well you round bases and steal bases
Arm strength and throw technique - Effects overall defense
Catching ability - Effects how often you bobble a ball
Defense - How much of a jump you get on a hit ball

Pitching stats include stamina, breaking balls, mentality, how good your "stuff" is, pitch speed, control, etc. Managing your players right is the difference between having a reliever with a 4.00 ERA and a 2.20 ERA.

The next screen is simply for when spring training starts.

The first screen on the second row is for when you first make your team and choose the name, location, logo, flag, uniforms, etc. The touch screen displays all the NPB teams and you're to decide which team you want to use as a base and eventually replace.

The next screen is the main gameplay screen. You have the score in the top left and count in the top right. Batter and pitcher stats are right below that. The touch screen doesn't have to be used, as you can see by the button assignments. Top left switches between gameplay speeds you want to use. I usually speed through most of the game and go real time only in big situations. Top right is for when you want a time out. The main setup has bunt defense as the top option, intentional walk on the right, pitch out on the left, and "skip" on the bottom. I've never seen the skip feature before, so I'm guessing you can just skip individual at bats this way.

The new create a skill feature looks cool. In this screen, the player is using "God of Pinch Hitting" as the base skill with two extra power points added to it. This will make a player extra powerful in pinch hits situations and make pinch hit walk off homers possible.

I won't lie, I'm probably more psyched for this right now than anything else. I guess I'll see whether it lives up to the old game or falls flat. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the YakyuTsuku series, so I'm hoping Sega goes all out, as this game has a ton of potential. The graphics aren't great, but this game really is all about the stats.

http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1213457_1407.html

Ok, now I've fully understood how the new 10 year cycle system is going to work. I'll break it down here...

1. You choose whether you want to make your own fictional team or use a real NPB team with reduced salary. The latter means you usually have to drop a couple high profile pitchers and a big power bat. You play with this choice for 10 years.

2. At the end of 10 years, you get to choose once again whether you want to use a fictional team or real NPB team. The fictional team option will allow you to possibly keep some players from the previous 10 years. You'll also retain your funds and skills in an effort to make your next 10 years even stronger.

3. There are certain events that unlock in the game only when you've played through multiple 10 year cycles in the game, so starting all over from scratch is discouraged.

When you make an original skill, that skill has the ability to evolve over time.

A lot of people were ragging on the new 10 year cycle system when it was first revealed, but I'm not so sure it's a bad thing. Seeing "100th year" at the top right of the screen just isn't realistic. I know it's tradition with this series, but some traditions need to die. If that really is 100 years into the future, how come the relievers don't go to the mound via hoverboard? Where are the soylent green vendors? I don't see any Jackie Robotson crusading for the rights of other robots to play the game.

I'm just glad that funds, skills, and some players transfer into the next 10 years. It would be kind of pointless if you lost everything.

Official site received it's weekly update. There is a new section on the 10 year cycle and dev lead Baba talks about the difficulties of predicting player abilities with each release. The 10 year cycle part is nothing I haven't already posted, but the player attribute blog is interesting.

He says that player abilities come from many different sources and not just the previous year's stats. For example, a player who put up good numbers 3 years ago is more likely to have better attributes than someone who has yet to prove themselves. He says a lot of gamers will want to personally revive those careers, so they have to make it somewhat possible for those possibly washed up players to become usable.

Official site is updated with a promotional movie and new pics. You can see the movie by clicking on the icon to the right of "GAME" on the main page.

The graphics may not look too great, but the animations are fantastic, IMO. They even have Julio Zuleta's batting stance. You can see plays at the plate, wild pitches, outfielders robbing home runs, etc. The video looks VERY promising, and I think this has a chance to be a real sleeper hit this baseball season.

Rumor has it that the release date will be 5/22.

Also Hideo Nomo has been named as the "image character" for the game, so he will be available as a real player in the game. A very cool addition, as it looks like Nomo may catch on with the Royals this season.

First off, thanks so much for your work in translating several of the BB games coming out, it's really appreciated.

I remember owning "Lets make a Pro Baseball team" on the Dreamcast and how much it hurt me not to be able to read the Japanese characters especially since it seemed that this was the type of baseball game I dreamed about. I have played several Pawa Pura games but found the options and settings in "Lets Make Pro" to be ten times for daunting. I'm glad you're translating some of the options, screens, etc.. But my question is, do you think it would be possible for me to enjoy this game regardless of the tons of options in Japanese? Like I said I've played several of the Pawa Puro series and actually found out how to change lots of options and difficulty setting and even play a season or create my own team, but I just remember that somehow "lets make" was so much more daunting. I really wanna get this game, I hope that perhaps with the help on this site I can enjoy it more than my previous experience.

Did anyone get this game yet?
I'm having a great time with it. The tons of Japanese text is daunting but I figured out the basics by using my friends electronic translator and some trial and error.