Pro Yakyu Spirits 5 Releases 4/1 For PS2 & PS3

Scan is in!

http://www.katsakuri.sakura.ne.jp/src/up30498.jpg

We got a beautiful big scan of the Pro Yakyu Spirits 5 feature with no warping of the text or anything. Much love to 2ch. You can't make out that much detail, since it is a magazine, but it's definitely enough to tide us over until the official site opens and updates weekly.

First things first, it's listed as being 95% done, so it's nice knowing that they aren't rushing through this at the very last second. PYS4 was listed as being 90% done this time last year.

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.

Here are the players in the bottom left of the scan for guys who can't read the names. Munenori Kawasaki, Takahiro Arai, Masahiro Tanaka, Kenta Kurihara, Yu Darvish, Norichika Aoki, Kaz Ishii, Yoshihisa Naruse, Nori Nakamura, Michihiro Ogasawara, Tuffy Rhodes, and Shuichi Murata. Darvish looks unchanged, which is a disappointment. His hair is more wild and colored in real life. Faces pretty much look the same as in PYS4, which isn't a bad thing. Some guys needed some serious work, like Naruse, but I think most would agree that the top players looked identical to their real life portraits. Looks like new batting forms for Nakamura, Satozaki(looks identical to real life), and Murata. Darvish pitches out of the stretch at all times now.

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.

There's some new gauge that shows you what kind of pitch the CPU batter is looking for. Probably for beginners, as I have no problems with pitching in PYS4. If anything, I'd say there are too many strike outs.

You can see that catchers will stand up and do a realistic intentional walk. This is yet another confirmed rumor from the Xmas posting by the staffer on 2ch, so I'd say there's about a 50% chance that post was for real.

New animation of Hara giving a double fist pound to one of his players. AI has been improved, and this includes the base stealing, which was already pretty good in PYS4.

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.

Nice! Thanks for the information.

Any chance you'll be doing a guide for the Stardom Mode? I'd like to live out my dream of being a washed up minor leaguer who gets a second chance as a gaijin.

^_^

I'll try my best with Stardom Mode, though I think there will be random events that pop up to help you earn points. That's one of the reasons why I couldn't translate Missions in Pennant Mode. I'll make an effort this year, though.

I'd like to add a couple more points about the article. The new CPU batting gauge actually shifts to the left or right based on the pitches you throw. The left side is when CPU batters expect slow pitches and right is fastballs. I think this is for less experienced players to learn how to mix up their pitch selection.

It says online play is identical to playing offline, but I'll believe that when I experience it for myself. They said the same thing last year and we know that was a big fat lie.

I didn't notice it at the time, but full player names are now displayed in the main gameplay screen. Looks like PYS is trying to branch away from Pawapuro a bit with this move.

Looking at the pitch counts and stamina bars, I think it's safe to say that they tweaked stamina to be a bit more realistic. You can clearly see Ishikawa throwing 96 pitches with only half his gauge down. Kawakami is over 100 pitches and isn't even in the red yet. The ideal situation would be to have players with the ability to pitch more than 100 pitches, but lose pitch efficiency as the count goes up. Most Japanese pitchers have the stamina to pitch well over 100 pitches, so it was kind of stupid when aces would sometimes tire at 80-90 pitches in PYS4.

One thing I noticed about pitcher stamina in PYS4 is that it seemed to plummet when the pitcher gave up hits. Maybe there's an intimidate ability on some players?

The only thing that keeps me from playing deeper into these games is my lack of knowledge of the Japanese language, but I still like to play these games. I'll still be staying away from Maji Pennant, but I think I'll give Stardom Mode a shot.

If the online play is fixed from PYS4, and it does play smoothly, I'll be all over it. Here's hoping.

Great news. Hopefully a few videos follow.

With some luck, I'll be working on a guide for the Stardom mode with someone. He was putting in a ton of time on the MVP mode last year... now I just need to convince him to buy PYS5 this year as well.

Great news on the release BMZ. Keep up the great work!

As ever good work BMZ!

Let the annual countdown commence!

I AM ESTATIC!


April One!
April One!

Official teaser site is now up.

http://www.konami.jp/prospi/5/index.html

On the PS3 side, nothing we haven't seen in the scans, though it's nice to get high res pics. There are a bunch of PS2 versions of the pics for people to compare, though. Here are my observations...

-Graphics look a lot more refined compared to last year. I think they just went all out and tried to make a game look good for screenshots last year, but hopefully we have a good working game this year. Jaggies look non-existent in PS3 screens. It seems like the "holy aura" of white light that surrounded players in PYS3 for 360 and PYS4 for PS3 has been greatly reduced.

-The sky looks more detailed and realistic now.

-Pants look like they fit tighter than last year.

-Still can't tell whether pitch grips have been fixed, since Darvish is throwing a two seamer and Kawakami is intentionally walking the batter. Since the PS2 versions has had pitch grips for a couple years now, I'd like to think they fixed this.

-The screen with Ochiai going to the mound is for Stardom Mode. Looks to be a reference to the Yamai incident in the Nihon Series. You can choose to tell the manager whether you want out or not.

-There is now an indicator on the main online screen that shows how many times the players in the lobby have disconnected from a game. This should help put an end to people who constantly quit when being beaten, especially with the Konami code system.

-Never noticed it in the Famitsu scan, but some players will have little nicknames at the top of their stat box when entering the batter's box. For example, Murata's says "Yokohama's Young Slugger" or something like that.

-In the Darvish pic, with the Rakuten catcher and Nippon Ham batter in the background, I'm guessing that's a cut scene for a complete game or shut out. He's probably throwing on the sideline to keep warm, like a lot of Japanese pitchers do.

-Naruse's face doesn't look that much better. They made him way too pretty. He looks better on PS2. In his pic, you can see the detail on the fingernails, which I think may be a new addition. I never noticed them before.

-The new Pennant menu looks nice. There are three things on it that I'm not familiar with. There's a "goal" section, training, and little blurbs that tell you about the opposing team. I'm guessing the old missions are in the goal section now.

-The real official site will be up at the same URL on 2/29.

Some more news to report.

-New Spirits Mode scenario takes place in Hawaii.

-Dual Shock 3 rumble support is in.

-Online matches will make use of a new starting rotation feature, so you can't use aces all the time and then bring in other starters from the bullpen.

-Missed this one in the Famitsu article. You can now switch between the different Pennant modes in the middle of a pennant race. If you don't feel like playing a match, you can switch to management mode and play a game like that.

[Edited by: BigManZam on Feb 1, 2008 5:29 AM]

http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1213267_1407.html

Nothing new here, other than the ability to read text from the scan. I have no idea what the "talk" feature in Stardom is all about. The item area is different from what we've seen before. There is an item labeled, "high quality glove oil" and it's only good to last for 8 games. I have no idea what it's supposed to do. In addition, you can buy books to learn new abilities. For example, the bases loaded batter ability requires a 250 page book. I'm guessing you have to "read" all 250 pages in one way or another.

"-The sky looks more detailed and realistic now."

Does this series have the passage of time? So that shadows will change, the light in the sky will fade, etc.?

I don't think there's any change with shadows or anything during day games, as those usually begin around noon or so in Japan. Not 100% sure, but they really are in the middle of the day. Night games usually begin at dusk and turn into a night sky after a few innings.

While I'm posting, I might as well make more observations on the new pics. In the Kawakami intentional walk PS3 screenshot, you can see a strip of spikes to clean off mud from the bottom of the pitcher's shoes. This isn't present in the PS2 screen, though. You'll also see Kawasaki choke up on the bat a little on the PS2 screen, where as he has a normal grip on the bat in the PS3 screen.

I wasn't even paying attention to the background before, but here is what some starting line ups look like.

Orix

1. ??? (Probably Sakaguchi in CF)
2. ??? (Probably Ohbiki at SS)
3. LaRocca(3B)
4. Rhodes(LF)
5. Cabrera(1B)
6. Hamanaka(DH)
7. Goto(2B)
8. Hidaka(C)
9. Muramatsu(RF?)
Hirano(P)

Yakult
1. Tanaka(2B)
2. Miyamoto(SS)
3. Aoki(CF)
4. Guiel(Probably DH)
5. Riggs(1B)
6. Iihara(3B)
7. Kawashima(RF? LF?)
8. Fukukawa(C)
9. Fukuchi(RF? LF?)
Ishikawa(P)

Hiroshima
1. ???(Probably Higashide at 2B)
2. Alex(CF?)
3. Seabol(3B?)
4. Kurihara(1B)
5. Maeda(LF)
6. Soyogi(SS)
7. ???(Possibly either Shima or Hirose at RF)
8. ???(Definitely going to be Kura at C)
9. Pitcher

Well, Play Asia has their pre-order page up for the game. $69.90. A $5 increase over last years price. I guess that's the price bump that you detailed earlier BMZ.

A couple new screens showed up on a Japanese online game store.

http://image.rakuten.co.jp/edigi-game/cabinet/img0011/4988602141283-1.jpg

New shots include Hiroyuki Kobayashi warming up before the game starts, Michihiro Ogasawara hitting a homer, and Tsuyoshi Nishioka at bat against Kenshin Kawakami. The only real development that comes out of these pics is seeing the new Chiba Lotte Marines uniforms confirmed in the game. It still looks like Nishioka doesn't have an elbow guard, despite the fact that he's worn one for his entire career.

The real official site isn't even going to open and be updated until the end of the month. Meanwhile, Sega has already opened the official site for YakyuTsuku DS with weekly updates, though the game doesn't even have an official release date yet. On the domestic side of things, the MLB 08 staff has been uploading pics daily at operationsports.com and sending videos to sites on a weekly basis. The MLB 2K8 staff is also uploading videos to sites on a weekly basis. Konami is being outclassed by every other baseball dev team right now. It's time to get out of the prehistoric age and start communicating with the fans more. I'm already seeing a major shift with Japanese fans praising the work Sony is putting into MLB 08 and how Konami isn't even in the same league. It's a lot easier for gamers to leave a dev team that they don't feel close to. I just wish Konami would change their marketing strategy, because it's just so archaic.

It looks like (by looking at these pictures) that the player stats (BA,HR,RBI/ERA,K's,Pitch Count) will show through out the entire at bat. It's one of those little things that count (at least to me it does). I love how PYS5 is shaping up to be. As for MLB 08 and MLB2k8 they are showing improvement but still cannot touch PYS gameplay.

I don't know about 2K8, as videos haven't really led me to believe it's anything too different from last year. The Show looks like a big improvement, but the huge difference between the American and Japanese devs with gameplay is that the highest difficulty level on Japanese games is just perfect for me, where as I absolutely dominate the American games. I'm hoping for online play to help me get my fix of realistic difficulty.

I asked the guy in charge of The Show's batter/pitcher AI on operationsports.com about the issues of the highest difficulty not being severe enough. He basically dodged the issue and claimed he wanted AI to be more for casual players. This isn't good enough for me. I think it's just laziness on his part. He literally said new players should be able to go to the second highest difficulty level after a couple hours of play. That doesn't leave much of an option for people who are somewhat decent in these games.

Konami has always had difficulty levels that little kids could play with, but the top difficulty levels would always be ridiculously severe so that hardcore players would get enough out of the game to enjoy it. That's what I love about PYS. The difficulty can be so unforgiving at the top levels. You literally give up hits on anything thrown too far in the strike zone. You can only throw shut outs if you pitch right on the black with best pitch timing 75% of the time. Even then, the quality of your pitches go down with a drop in stamina. That's the severity of real pitching at the pro level.

The Show has done a great job at catching up with PYS with graphics and presentation, but it has a while to go before it can even come close to the difficulty of Spirits difficulty, real speed pitching, and digital cursor.

First post - wanted to thank BigManZam for all of the information and agree strongly with this point.

My skill isn't nearly up to the highest difficulty level, but I stumbled on PYS4 reading up on Fukudome, ordered a copy, and have been really intrigued by how different the baseball gameplay - not just the video game itself - is. It seems to truly represent the subtle differences in the American and Japanese games and every game is a bit of an education. Even if you can't hit a lick, anyway.

Welcome to the board.

To be fair to the Sony San Diego guys, the difficulty on the MLB 08 demo that just came out is a lot better than 07. It's still not quite Japanese level, but it's good enough. The graphics are amazing and I'm sure the atmosphere and commentary will be totally different on Blu-Ray.

My big gripe with it is the bugs. For some reason, the American devs just spend too much time on graphics to bother with huge gameplay bugs. I lined out with Marcus Giles to end an inning and he lead off in the next inning! That is inexcusable, but I'll let them off just because it's possibly an early build demo. I never see that stuff in anything coming out of Japan, so it bothers me a lot. Give me decent graphics and smooth reliable gameplay over eye candy any day.

To answer your questions about MLB 2K8, 2K totally stole EA's all-analog scheme from their MVP 07 College Baseball game last year. Analog will be used for everything: pitching, batting, fielding, everything. From the videos I've seen, there are STILL too many home runs. Even worse, no news of a career mode, fixing framerate or online play, making realistic stats, nothing.

The good news on the batting side is that there is no backward part of the swing stick (when do you ever move backwards while swinging anyway?), and pitching looks more difficult. The problem comes with 2K's awful track record the last 2 years. 2K6 and 2K7 were embarrassments, and The Show looks like it'll wipe out 2K again this year.

About attracting casual players, this is a disturbing trend in games nowadays. Developers seem to have this need to attract casual players and leave hardcore gamers out in the cold. I play on Spirits mode with slower pitch settings in PYS4 (haven't had much of a chance to play recently with school and all), and language barrier be damned, I still have more fun with PYS4 than I do with 07: The Show. Developers here in NA need to find that balancing act that Konami has done such a good job with.

Nothing new on the information front, but the official cover art has been released.

http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/SAVE/167/M00174/04/VT005J1_l.jpg

Unlike last year, both PS2 and PS3 versions will be the same. The PS3 version last year had a black background while the PS2 version was yellow.

just pre ordered... I only hope that the blank/black screen issue is gone and that the framerates have been improved and I will be VERY happy with my 90 PLUS dollar purchase for this game. last year i had A LOT of fun playing the game and though it was great is was marred by the bugs the game had in the fps/cutscene departments. I truly hope it is fixed./ almost everything else about the game was magical

Some new info and pics came out of Famitsu PS3, but since it's small time compared to the main Famitsu magazine, I have no scans to show. Apparently the quality of the screenshots was a lot better this time around.

-Catcher's throwing motion is faster this time.

-Catcher can now check the runner at first like Ivan Rodriguez likes to do.

-Computer AI will "learn" from the tactics you use.

-Pitchers can cut off throws from the outfield now.

-They researched the specific lighting for each ballpark, so that will seem very different now.

-Added an option like The Show in which the pitch cursor will fade after a short time. It lists this as when you're batting, but it'd probably be worth more while pitching.

-Player pics shown were of Sho Nakata, Sadaharu Oh, Kazuhisa Ishii, and Yu Darvish. I want to see the Nakata pic.

Just wanted to point out how realistic PS3 stadiums are this year.

http://www.konami.jp/prospi/5/img/ps3/001.jpg
http://www.jingu-stadium.com/img/080213-1.jpg

Check out the green netting on the left and the trees on the right. The PS2 version doesn't have this.

http://www.konami.jp/prospi/5/img/ps2/001.jpg

You can probably expect the official site to be up late Thursday night or early Friday morning. I'm hoping for a couple videos to be uploaded.

I went back and played 4 yesterday and although the gameplay and animations are stunning the blank black screen are too numerous to get any enjoyment out of it. it's almost like always turning of the light in the room every 20 secs.....

I seriously hope they've fixed this as if not. Konami will have to have me translate my anger at them...

Do you care about the cut scenes at all? You can turn off the cut scenes and get a way faster paced game. Just check the translation FAQ.

I did that but i like those cut scenese at first i did anyway

The official site is finally here.

http://www.konami.jp/prospi/5/

Unfortunately, no video. I expect the first videos to arrive at least next week. It's always been the "Koko Ga Spirits!" section to open first. After that, it's the modes and gallery section, player list and more movies, and then finally the final week finishes up with the commercial. At least we got different pictures in both PS2 and PS3 sections, instead of the same scenes in both. Now for the observations...

-You can definitely tell the lighting is different this year. I like it a lot. It was way too dark in PYS4.

-Some people are saying that the graphics look a little worse when compared to PYS4. I think if there is any drop in screenshot quality, it's probably to sacrifice detail in order for the game to run smoother. I'm all for it.

-I like how you can see the lights inside the skyboxes at Nagoya Dome. That's crazy.

-Yoshinori Sato doesn't look very much like himself. Rookies always look bad in PYS, with Masahiro Tanaka being the exception last year.

-Kroon still looks like E.T. and doesn't have the crooked cap. All these other games have the crooked cap, but PYS5 doesn't. I wonder if the Giants are going to force Kroon to have a straightened cap this year, though.

-Is it just me or are those simulated versions of those electronic ads behind home plate? They look translucent.

-Takeshi Yamasaki got a new batting animation thanks to blasting over 40 homers last year.

-Looks like a new cut scene that involves the bullpen in that Kroon shot. He's in the bullpen and it displays the Giants as having a 1 run lead in the bottom of the 8th, so that's a cool new cut scene.

-The Akahoshi shot really makes it look like the ground texture is a lot better. It looks fantastic there.

-Seibu Lions' 30th anniversary patch has made it in.

-You can call time anytime in the game now, which fixes the problem of pitchers entering the box before you can call for the pinch hitter. This should also be nice when you hit a gap shot and get a phone call out of nowhere. Very nice subtle change.

-Alex Ramirez looks a bit too skinny.

-Sho Nakata has his own batting form.

-Takahiro Arai's batting form was touched up a bit.

-I don't know why Hideaki Wakui's thrown over 80 pitches and his stamina bar is barely even used up. It possibly has something to do with him not giving up any runs and perhaps very few hits.

-Helmets look better than before on PS3, for some reason. It may be the new lighting shining off of Hamanaka's helmet. That picture looks really good.

-I still can't tell whether pitch grips have been fixed for PS3.

-Rosters have been increased from 50 players per team to 52. That's an increase of 24 players added to the game. If they add any more, we may start seeing taxi squad players with triple digit jerseys.

Quote- "Is it just me or are those simulated versions of those electronic ads behind home plate? They look translucent."


WOW!!!! I saw what you were referring to, and it looks like there is an electronic ad.....however, that translucency you're talking about is actually a protective flexi-glass. Look at it closely and you will actually see the reflection of the pitching mound, the outfield and even see the ads on the outfield wall. Very impressive stuff.

Either Konami is reading this forum or they learned something about how to run a website, because they just randomly updated the official site with new pics and a schedule for future updates.

I know they definitely read 2ch, as the resolution of the PS3 pics were fixed in an hour or so since the site went public. Lots of computer newbs were complaining about how the graphics sucked, when they were really just looking at poor resolution pics. If they just viewed the images individually or saved the pics, they'd see the full resolution. Anyway, Konami fixed that fast and it was pretty obvious they were reading the main thread on the Sports/Racing forum. Here's my breakdown of the update.

-I think I see improved faces for everyone. When comparing the graphics between the new pic of Tuffy Rhodes and the old teaser site pic of him, you can see a huge difference. The colors are full and the textures are crisp. Maybe I should upload a pic later today displaying both pics side by side, because it's a remarkable difference in quality.

-Looks like Konami fixed Masahiro Tanaka's glove color, as the teaser site had him with a brown glove. It's now the correct yellow color. I just wish they had Satozaki's white mit.

-I don't know about you guys, but the game looks a lot prettier than it was last year. It's brighter and more colorful. The new research they did on lighting is also making a huge difference. We still need to see whether it runs smoothly, but the screenshots are really impressive so far.

-There's a pic of the new Chiba Lotte uniform with the faded look. It's 100% accurate.

-They also have the new naming of Rakuten's Kleenex Stadium. Yes, that's the actual name of the place.

-Ohbiki has his own batting stance.

-There looks to be a new home run scene, as well as a replay between innings like The Show. It also looks like they gave Shunsuke Watanabe his own cut scene in the middle of his start. He likes to do a sumo squat in between outs to keep his legs loose and it's awesome to see they recreated that. There's also a couple of other new cut scenes, but I'm not quite sure in which situation they'll be used in.

-Faces look slightly improved for PS2, so they weren't lying about not ignoring the PS2 port.

-There's possibly a new display for when you make defensive changes. You can tell that they really focused on presentation with this release. I have a feeling that it's going to feel completely different from PYS4.

-The new Pawapuro style fly ball cursor has made it's way to PYS. The higher the ball is in the air, the bigger the cursor.

-This isn't on the official site, but I have pics of the box art and it states that you can transfer Spirits Mode data from PYS4. You can also transfer ouen songs. Same commentary team will be used again this year. I wouldn't expect much of a change in commentary.

Future updates will look like this...

3/7 - Player List & Explanation of Gameplay Changes
3/11 - More Game Modes & Gallery Update(hopefully movies)

Looks like they're going to update every Tuesday and Friday.

Official site has been updated at 8 AM in the morning, which is like 12 hours faster than usual. Another possible sign that Konami's site got it's act together. It's mostly text, but there are some pics. Here is all I got from this update...

-Basically 99.5% of players expected to play in 2008 are in the game. The biggest omission seems to be Matsuyama of the Carp, but he's still a young prospect. Jeremy Powell isn't in the game, but the resolution of the contract dispute just got settled last week. G.G. Sato is in the game, despite contract troubles that lasted past January. I have no idea what to expect with the Powell thing. They still have the character from PYS4, so it's possible for them to patch up the game to resolve that. It's just a question of whether Konami is the kind of company to do that. They haven't really proven themselves to be the roster update and patching kind of game developer on the Japanese side of things. Things are changing with their website, so maybe they've turned a new leaf? It's too early to tell.

-AI got a complete overhaul. Certain batters will aim for home runs in certain situations and try to get on base in others. For example, a lot of foreign batters will try to hit home runs with 2 outs and nobody on base. If you lazily throw a fastball in, your chances of being hit hard are strong. The new CPU batter AI gauge is meant for beginners so they can get used to this new type of AI. They want you to use it so you set up your pitches better. More advanced players can continue to mix pitches as they see fit.

-Batter AI abilities have increased to include attributes like being a good fastball hitter and a poor dropping breaking ball batter.

-In previous games, no matter whether the pitcher had G control or A control, perfect timing of the pitch release would give you a perfect location every time. They've changed this now. Even if you get perfect timing, poor control pitchers will still miss their spots. This is a massive improvement and will lead to giving up more realistic walks. I definitely believe in the overhauled AI now, as missing location would cause automatic home runs on Spirits difficulty in PYS4. Normal pitches with bad timing aren't effected by this. It's just best pitches.

-Normal difficulty has been made a bit easier for beginners to play with. They're trying to get beginners to learn the difference between balls and strikes, rather than worry about aiming the cursor perfectly and getting good timing on the ball. The difference between balls and strikes is easier to differentiate on normal. They did this because they'd see people playing at demo kiosks and not being able to hit at all. So I guess this is an effort to get more first time buyers.

-Swing speed has become a little bit faster.

-Foreign batters have different follow throughs from Japanese batters. Follow throughs differ depending on the power level of the batter and the type of hitter they are. They also differ depending on the location of the pitch you're hitting.

-Catchers will move to catch your pitch depending on where you first aim your pitch. The catcher doesn't call the game like American games.

-Looks like your chances of getting a stolen base on a bad start have been reduced. You'll have to concentrate a lot more and earn it.

-Load time "black outs" and framerate drops have been "considerably improved", so that's nice getting confirmation yet again. Director Toyohara says that it feels like a totally different game and you won't be able to fully appreciate it until you try it for yourself. Average match times have decreased 30 MINUTES(!!!) because of this. That's equal to Pawapuro tempo now.

Next update will be on 3/11 with the rest of the modes and an update to the Gallery. Developers' column will be updated on 3/13 with info on Online and 3/14 with info on Stardom Mode. I'm liking this new motivated Konami marketing team a lot. I hope the final product will live up to the hype.

We should be seeing a new update later on today with more pics and POSSIBLY video. If we don't get video this week, I'd start to worry. Before that, though, I'd like to post a couple pics I made to show two differences.

The first is the difference in detail between the teaser site pic of Tuffy Rhodes and the official site version. The second is a pic of Go Kida from the Training Mode section of the site. Kida changed the back of his jersey this year to show the ridiculous, "Kida.Go" as his name in an effort to be more marketable. Konami just had his normal "Kida" on it when they first updated the site. 2ch mentioned the difference in name this year and Konami came back the next day and uploaded an updated pic. Just an example of how aware they are of the fans.

I remember they did some edits like that last year on their teaser site, but most of it was because they completely messed up the player stat displays. The other edit they did was an uploading of a new Tsuyoshi Nishioka pic after lots of complaints about how he looked and spelling his name as TUYOSHI instead of TSUYOSHI.

http://www.katsakuri.sakura.ne.jp/src/up31190.jpg
http://www.katsakuri.sakura.ne.jp/src/up31191.jpg

A minor thing perhaps, but it's nice to see they've got the new Jingu scoreboard in the game.

Really looking forward to this PYS, just a few weeks away now.

Keep up the good work with the updates BMZ. Much appreciated as always.

Official site updated

I've always been a pawapuro-er though, I'm finally seeing PYS in a better light due to what I've seen already for 5...

Just one thing though, is the "Field Play" mentioned in the play options (well more or less in Exhibition mode section, though it says it can be used in other modes like pennant) something from a past PYS or new to 5?? I've always thought that pawapuro missed out by never having MyLife have fielding as well as just pitching/hitting/baserunning...

That sort of "be one player on the field" aspect I haven't seen since like... Sega Genesis Triply Play 97 Gold or something lol... Mylife was close but meh... no fielding makes it things boring or well makes one too focused on just hitting/pitching well and thats all for a string of games.

Just that option alone makes me wanna get PYS5... maybe even just PS3 altogether...

Field Play has been around since PYS2, I believe. The Show tried to copy the concept for Road To The Show, but failed miserably, since they only show defense when you have to make a play. Baseball is all about being ready for a ball to come to you at any moment. PYS recreates this very well.

Site got updated at 6:30 AM Japan time, which is just crazy. People thought it was an early update at 8 AM last week, but Konami just loves messing with their fans. Anyway, today's update wasn't too big of an update. There were a bunch of new pics, but not much new info or videos. Here is all I got from today's update.

-Like I reported before, every single pennant mode style has been unified this year, so you can switch between the different styles in the middle of a season.

-Something Japanese fans were worried about was the new Climax Series rules being in the game this year. Well, Konami has confirmed that the new rules are indeed in PYS5. For people who don't know, basically NPB has gone back to the "advantage" style playoff system they had before. Probably to appease the sore loser teams(*cough* Giants Tigers Hawks *cough*) who choke when it counts the most.

-Draft system looks unchaged, but hopefully the players have better faces and more personality this year. I will be really disappointed if they all have the same generic batting/pitching forms with no batting gloves and generic faces. I really wish they'd copy Pawapuro's pennant system more. PYS is too sterile with this kind of presentation.

-A new training section has been added to Pennant. It just looks like an extension of the different missions you're supposed to complete, but in game results don't seem to matter. I'll have to experience this to see whether it's needed or not. So far, it seems like it's not needed. I'd rather have editing of player accessories.

-Before every match, you can choose whether you want to play that match as a team, individually with Field Play, as manager, with a friend, watch the CPU play, or skip and let the CPU simulate it. I find it interesting how they subtitled each option with English here. Gotta wonder if they're aware of us. This game has always been very friendly for non-Japanese speakers, as they use a ton of visual aids.

-They gave Arakaki nothing but F and G control, which is very awesome.

-Looks like pretty much the same stuff in VP Shop. The items that advanced players are going to be using right away, like Spirits difficulty and more pitch speeds, have been made much cheaper. You can pretty much buy them after playing a single game now.

-The Yomiuri Giants' 5000 win memorial throwback uniforms are in the game. They also have the Seibu throwbacks uniforms.

-New to this year's game is the ability to change the color of the main menu screen. You can also set it to random.

-A picture of the online mode shows the catcher in the new PYS5 catching position, so hopefully we won't have to deal with the absolute BS of having to play online with a year old engine. That really was ridiculous in PYS4. I've never seen anything like that in my life.

-The rotation in online will give pitchers 3 days rest between starts, which will probably mean you have to use different starters for 4 games. This solves people just pitching with aces all the time, yet not making it so they're forced to use really weak 5th or 6th starters. This system will only be used for ranked games.

-You'll only be able to use 2 created players online, and they're only usable in free mode. Ranked games are default teams only.

-Free servers will give you the ability to change pitch speeds, so this is a good sign that they really did fix the lag issues. They also have a separate lobby for players just practicing, and these servers will not record your stats. Very nice touch, Konami.

-Jeff Williams has an updated face, which is about time. He's looked terrible in every single PYS game ever made. Oh also has a new face.

-The fans behind home plate look really detailed this year.

Next update is in 2 days concerning Online Mode details, then a day after that will be details on Stardom Mode.

This game looks like it could be (dare I say it) better than The Show. Now I'm anxious to hear how they've improved Stardom Mode and the online play. I'm sure you'll agree with me that some of the PYS4 games are utterly unplayable online.

They gave Arakaki nothing but F and G control, which is very awesome.

Which is what he deserves. They could've had a strike zone about as big as Alaska and he probably still couldn't hit it last year.

Does anyone know if this will have voice chat for online games?

Site got another 6:30 AM update. This time it's about Online Mode.

-Manual defensive shifts and block sign system have made it into online. Good to see online getting closer to the experience of offline play.

-As mentioned before, there is a new system for the different game lobbies. There are six different lobbies for middle speed pitching. They are separated by skill levels, but if it's anything like PYS4, people are just going to fill up the Beginner lobby. In addition to the normal rooms, there is a lobby for basic speed pitching, real speed pitching, and a practice lobby for people who don't want their stats to record at all. Practice lobby will use middle speed pitching, as that is the default pitch speed for ranked games.

-They say they specifically made the real speed lobby for the FREAKS who will hit .500 on middle speed pitching. It's basically their way of getting certain players to pick on people their own size. I'm interested to see whether there is any lag or not with this, as I want to see some advanced players battle in this lobby.

-The producer specifically requested for a basic speed lobby.

-Created players usable in online won't just be Spirits Mode players, but you can also use Stardom players. You'll be limited to using only one pitcher and/or one position player.

-You can freely write comments on your created rooms now. You can use up to 16 characters.

-In a very wise effort to increase the number of ranked games, they're changing the system for leader boards. In PYS4, your chances of getting up on the leader board were slim, because people who were playing tons of games from the very beginning had too many points to catch up to. PYS5 will reset scores every week, so everyone will have a chance to make the leaders on a weekly basis.

-GP won't be lost when you lose, so playing more is encouraged. Someone who is 12-0 will be ranked the same as someone who is 12-100. May seem cheap, but it encourages people to play more. Probably a smart move, as activity was always an issue in PYS4.

-The amount of GP you gain will differ depending on how many innings you play.

-If you gain enough GP to rank high, you'll gain different medals that you can use as icons in the lobbies. For example, if you rank in the top 3, you get a trophy icon.

-There is a stat called "MR" when you check out a player's stats. That stands for Matching Rate. This MR changes even during unranked games. The closer the player's MR is to your MR, the more similar his skill level is to you.

-They added an option in ranked games in case you don't care whether you want to play 3, 6, or 9 innings.

-Awesome change here. Depending on how many innings you choose, the starter's stamina will change. So in a 3 inning game, pitching 2 innings will be equal to throwing 6 or 7 innings in a 9 inning game.

-Games will be called off if you have a 6 run lead in a 3 inning match. In 6 innings, it's 8 runs. 9 innings and it's 10 runs.

-You can set a personal comment for your profile, as well as an icon to represent you. At first you will have access to 60 icons, but this will increase as you gain experience. For example, you'll earn an icon if you beat an S rank player. The PYS5 staff even have their own icons, and that's how you'll be able to tell when they're online. They said they're most likely to be online in the middle of a weekday, which is evening for us, so let's play them!!!

-They already posted some hidden tricks. I'm guessing you hold these right before you start a game. To set the ballpark you play in as random, you hold the L1 button. You hold L2 for day games and R2 for night games.

Official site has been updated with new pics and a 1 minute teaser trailer. The next picture update is slated for the 25th, but there's supposed to be another Gallery update on the 21st, so we can assume that's when we'll see a new video.

Hopefully it'll be a better update, because this one just didn't sit right with me. It makes me think they're hiding bad gameplay with flashy cut scenes. Not saying that's the issue, just stating how it comes off to someone who's been jerked around by Konami more than a handful of times. If you're reading this, Konami, we want GAMEPLAY VIDEO!!!! Some video of online play would be nice as well. Sell your product.

To be honest, it's pretty ridiculous that we're seeing video footage for the first time with 2 weeks left until release. If this were The Show, we'd be playing a 3 inning demo by now. The Show crushed 2K8 this year with their brilliant online marketing campaign and just straight up confidence in their product. Everyone knows 2K8 is garbage this year when compared to The Show. They can download the demos for themselves to come to their own conclusions. That's not to say The Show is perfect, but it's easily the superior product. Maybe Konami's issue is that they have no 2K8 to compete with.

The graphics and animation seemed smooth enough in the first video, but I don't trust these kind of flashy presentations to show me what actual gameplay is like. Anyone remember the Motor Storm and Kill Zone 2 trailers? I really was looking forward to actual raw gameplay footage showing off some new animations or something, and instead we have to settle for a glorified commercial. Save the commercials for right before release. You're killing us, Konami. The Japanese fans are starting to get impatient as well.

Some of the pictures on the PS2 side of the update were just a waste of time. I'm hoping Tsutaya updates their page with a REAL trailer with gameplay footage before the 21st.

Japanese PS Store has been updated with the trailer. It's in HD, so I advise any of you with Japanese accounts to download it. Here is what I gathered from the HD version.

-Graphics look identical to last year, but I'm hoping the slow downs are fixed at the very least.

-Still can't tell whether pitch grips are fixed, which is probably a sign that they're the same.

-Toritani and Kurihara have new batting forms.

-Nishioka finally has his elbow guard.

-There's a shot of Hamanaka throwing the ball and Soyogi fielding an awkward grounder. Ibata's throw to first also looks new, since his momentum is very realistic. Hopefully this is a sign that they revamped defensive animations, because I know that was an issue with a lot of people in the past.

This is ridiculous, I can't believe they haven't posted a promotional video or anything like that yet. PYS5 needs good online play since The Show is terrible online, and after playing the demo, I'm not touching 2K8 with a 40-foot pole.

Whould have been nice to see "actual" gameplay i agree. I only fear the framerates and blank/black screens once it transistions from cut scene to cut scene...

Man, you guys get in panic mode way too quick. PYS5 will deliver a great baseball experience, just like it did last year. I didn't experience much of the lag some guys claim. I thought it was pretty smooth (maybe my connection) only beef I had was with cheaters that paused the game to slow it down and hit a tone of HR that way (despicable). Hopefully that has been addressed in this year’s game. Plus, they seem to have added a bunch of little extras, on-and-offline which I think is cool and will put this year’s experience over last years.

As far as MLB 08, it is a very good game, but I would take PYS4 over it....YES.....PYS4. MLB 08 has too many defects to make it a GREAT game. First off, the fielders seem to be picking daisies or something; they take way too long to put the ball back in play. In one game D. Ortiz had 3 triples because of this issue....I don't think he has 3 triples for his career yet alone one game. Another issue is the CPU seems to try to make a decision for you when you try to pick-off a base runner. Zambrano would not pitch or throw to a base while my opponent ran safe into second. That's a steal alright...I got robbed by the game itself. Online, they really need to allow for choosing timing or cursors (freely) and they should get rid of pitch guess altogether. I think the highest score this game should have received for review is an 8. Anything higher is just a fanatical point of view.

And 2k8 just plain sucks.....I got it as a gift and I would like to take it in for trade and if I had to pay to trade it in, that would be cheap. The ideas of what was to be new and innovative were great, but the vastly poor execution of it was horrid. Graphically the game went back to 2k5, and what's up with having movable shirts. I know it's supposed to be the wind, but not every park has a wind that strong...some don't have wind at all...like Arizona. 2k8 was poorly developed; I would be ashamed to be part of the team that put this type of product on the market.

That said I have faith in Konami bringing us a high quality product.....even when all they have been doing is teasing us with a bunch of pics and a trailer that says nothing about the game. This is my one shot to virtual baseball happiness this year and I am looking forward to it. I will play MLB 08 and maybe a little 2k8 (just to laugh at it) until I get my hands on PYS5...then they will just collect dust or used as trade in whenever they give that extra $10 at GameStop.

Official site was updated with new Spirits Mode pics, but more importantly, someone uploaded the 6 minute trailer with GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE to NicoNico Douga and YouTube.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2705284
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFeKhP_orA

It'll probably be uploaded to the official site tomorrow. Here is what I caught...

-New follow throughs look nice. I like the difference in opposite field hits with power batters and contact batters.

-Looks like Ohba may have his own pitching form. As usual, it seems like every single player got revamped batting and pitching forms. Tuffy Rhodes looks perfect.

-You can set CPU difficulty to "omakase" and it uses AI to figure out your skill level and adjust settings for you. Really nice if it's executed well.

-Fujikawa has a new ability called "hi no tama" or fire ball. I'm guessing it's like Nobi 6 or something, since his fastball has more rotations than anyone out there.

-Online play looks way better this year. You can see no slowdown in the pitch speed or animations. Let's hope this is for real, because it looks identical to offline. I like how they showed the ball rolling to the wall just to show us it's not lagging like crazy. If this is online, our league should be very fun.

-It looks like the camera for when the batter enters the box is going to zoom in like the next gen 2K games.

-This video says that it's not in HD, so don't expect it up on the PS Store. That's a shame, since I think they could generate interest and sales. They really need a demo.

This is probably what PYS4 should've been, but I'll take it a year late than never at all.

yeah, taking it a year late is sooner than later eventually. This time last year was a special time for a newly made fan of the series. This year i can not wait to really experience the difference a year makes!

I watched a demo video of some gameplay, so here are my impressions.

-Don't expect anything really different from PYS4 presentation wise. It looks very smooth with load times completely fixed. For example, the "black out" between the pitcher introduction and batter introduction is basically one second now. Unless Konami did some editing, the black out for cut scenes are basically non-existent.

-The new catcher movements are very fluid. I'm disappointed that he doesn't give signs, but oh well. Maybe next year.

-I see new batting forms for Nishi, Takuro Ishii, Kinjoh, Murata, Kurihara, and Tomonori Maeda. Every single batter showed has a new batting form. Unfortunately, like past games, they still have their previous year's walk up cut scene. So Kinjoh will go up to the plate jumping around while wiggling his bat really fast, but the new animation looks nothing like it.

-Scott Seabol has what looks to be a new generic style foreign batting stance. It's a lot better than the generic stances they gave to everyone last year. This was a change they really needed to make and I'm glad to see it with the new footage of Seabol and Sledge.

-There are new camera angles for quick cut scenes and new animations added here and there.

-The base runner at second base has a new faster animation for when he gets his lead. This fixes an issue from last year in which you always had to cut through the very slow lead off animation if you wanted a faster paced game. Now you can just let the animations roll and still have that decent pace.

Major concern IS the blackouts being even 1 sec. i feel there were either far too many times you'd have to skip these cuts i would rather have a fade into them ala MLB 08. MLB 08 does beautiful QUICK fades as PYS5 should be doing the same. the video seems to be doing that in the gameplay vid i've recently seen too, but who knows for sure.

Updates to the official site will probably be pretty minor until the game releases. I wouldn't expect anymore videos. The latest update had some new insight into the revamped Pennant Mode, so I'll share my thoughts. I also saw another demo kiosk movie, so I'll post about that too.

-Roster management has been overhauled. Designating responsibilities to pitchers and setting a batting order has been merged with the ability to call up or send down players. You'll be able to make a lot more decisions on a single screen.

-Roster screen for before matches has also been updated. Fatigue ratings are default now. You had to press square to see them before. You'll also get a portrait of each player right next to their attributes. To the right of the portrait is what stats that player put up in the previous game. I like this a lot, as it adds some much needed personality into the presentation.

-Main menu for home games and away games will be different. Music will also change depending on whether it is home or away. They wanted to give you the feeling of home games being more comfortable than away games, so home games will actually use up less energy in your players. You'll also get a screen that comes up when a long road trip is about to begin.

-They did away with the old Mission system in favor of a new training system. For example, you can teach a new pitch to a young prospect or convert a player to a new position. In the middle of these training periods, you will be able to see how that training is going for that player. Using this indicator, you can determine whether it's wise or not to cancel that particular training for that player. If you fail the training, a repeat of that training will result in a higher success rate. Since you can make players in ichi-gun stronger by just playing with them and getting results, this is the method encouraged for raising farm players into contributors.

-There's a new "break awakening" system that will have a player increase in abilities temporarily every now and then. You can then use this improved player in actual games to gain experience points so he can increase in abilities on a permanent basis.

-A new condition that reflects a player's unease will debut in PYS5. The player will be able to play games, but his abilities will really be off. If your player gets injured under this condition, it could become a very serious injury.

-Fatigue under 20 will lead to better condition and over 20 could possibly lead to poor condition.

-Judging by demo videos, black outs are completely eliminated. If Konami edited them out, then it would be a very shady move by them.

-I see no noticeable slow down at all.

-New follow throughs really add a lot to the game. It's especially impressive with foreign batters and gives them a lot of individuality.

-It took them a lot of time, but it looks like they finally made all batting stances fairly realistic.

-Matsunaka finally has his elbow guard, so it looks like Konami watched a few games last year. I still can't stand that Daisuke Hayakawa has blue batting gloves and wish they had an option for us to at least change accessories.

Thanks for the updates. It all sounds very promising indeed.

I like the addition of portraits, as you say, it will help add a little bit of personality to the presentation.

About the slowdowns. IF Konami edited them out it would be alott of work for them to do so so i'm hoping everything is A OK

Famitsu review is in and PYS5 for the PS3 got a score of 9/9/8/9 to get the highest score of the week. This is identical to the score PYS4 got and one point less than what PYS3 got. The bad news is that the PS2 version got a score of 8/8/8/8.

Dengeki PS only reviewed the PS3 version and gave it a score of 90/90/90/85

These scores are all about politics, as Square-Enix would be furious if one of their top RPG franchises got an equal score to a baseball game. The scores do tell us whether a game is quality or not, and we all know PYS5 will be quality.

did the review mention anything specific about the framerates?

Specifics of the reviews are usually never posted, but Famitsu would never mention something like framerate drops. It's a magazine used to increase sales, so they would never mention framerate drops. They didn't write about it last year, so they wouldn't do so this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTzl80kBjg

Well that solidifies it. Choppy framerates,stutter,blank screens...




GONE!


I have no problems dropping nearly 100 Us dollars for this...

It looks like a seamless real broadcast. It flows and plays beuatifully. I mean i was W O R R I E D, now? HAHAHA

Roll on April 3rd!

The only issues in that video are the very low strike zone and the glitched shortstop during the Nippon Ham scene. He turns around and sets up defensively with his back to the pitcher. Hopefully this is something that didn't make the final release, can be patched, or can be worked around, as it is very annoying.

agreed on the shortstop... everything else is is doable

Official site has been updated again with info on graphics. Here are some of the details.

-As you could probably tell by all the pics and video before this update, they improved shadows significantly.

-It's amazing to see them recreate even something as simple as the side of Shuichi Murata's head. They even jokingly talked about how you don't even see that detail in game unless there is a cut scene.

-Skies look about as good as any game ever released, in my opinion. This dev team has to be one of the more talented graphical dev teams on the planet right now. Even people with zero interest in Japanese games or baseball have to leave comments on gametrailers due to the sheer graphical prowess. There are 25 different variations of the sky in PYS5.

-They recreated Softbank's 7-11 advertisement in center field.

-During a hot day game, the effect of the waves of heat can be seen in the background. That is crazy!

-There are new rare cut scenes. For example, there's a specific cut scene for when the batter is a veteran and the runner on base is a young prospect.

So WE'RE excited then? one more week! is it April 1st/ or 3rd/ i have ncsx saying it's the 3rd?

Official site has been updated with gameplay footage. Once again confirms little to no black outs and no slow downs. Even on PS2 the black outs have been reduced.

Hello All,

I am new to the board and the Pro Yakyu Spirits series. I just recently got PYS4 on the PS2 and I absolutely love this game.
I have the Show 08 on the P$3 and ever since I got PYS4 I have not touched the Show. I already ordered PYS5 for the PS3 and can't wait to get it.
I have a new found love with Japanese baseball. Thanks for this helpful site.

Yes the blacks out WERE shown thow in ONE instance...HOWEVER everwhere they were last year they are not this year. last year when you hit a hr EVERY sceene was cut by a blank screen this year NO I've only seen cut after cut without disruption. I am so happy

I just pre-ordered it yesterday (should be shipping tomorrow I guess). All the videos I've seen from last years version and this year seem good overall. Does this site help each other with translation? I found one on gamefaqs.com that had last years manual translated for the most part. Hopefully that will happen again.

Those gamefaqs translations were born out of these forums, so you can expect translations within the first week.

Are there any japanese baseball magazines in which i can familarize myself with this years teams?

I think all the info you need is on these forums. Check JapanBall.com also.

Well, start your engines. Just got an email from Amazon.jp that my copy has been shipped this evening at 19:13 Japan time, so should be getting it tomorrow.

Only downside is that I'm away for 3 days after that! No!

Anyway, you should all expect your copies to be shipped sometime soon!

same here. Actually, got the email from konamistyle last night (31/03) ^_^

but same here,,,i am actually currently away on a business trip...so my wife will receive it but i wont get to play it for another week....

Looks like I won't be getting my copy for a little while, I think my parents dropped the ball when I asked for it for my birthday. Gotta wait another paycheck I guess -_-.

I ordered from Play-Asia.com, standard shipping, etc., and its still being prepared.

Same. I'd be surprised if they even have it. I think they're only somewhat claiming to have it because they don't want to lose sales to anyone else. Notice how they haven't updated with any "shipping out today" posts because they don't want to make it look any shadier. It's not an American company, so they don't follow the same business ethics as a company like NCS would.

Well, after a couple of quick games, I can say that it is pretty much the same game as last year's PYS4, minus the slowdowns and blackouts.

Which is a very good thing indeed.

That's what I figured from watching videos. I'm upset that they kept the same pitching form for Maa-kun. That thing is a joke. Anyway, what I'm really interested in are online mode and whether Pennant is even playable after the first season.

Play Asia has my pre order listed as Preparing Order, so that has to be good, right? I haven't gotten the shipping notification yet, but I am super anxiously awaiting it. Preparing Order must lead to shipped very soon, it had better anyway. I paid $20 for FedEx so that I can play PYS5 asap.

Well it does say in Play Asia on the product page..."Usually ships within 1 week." So like Big Man said they are probably waiting on the shipment themselves. That's why I picked the cheapest shipping, because I knew it might be awhile before they actually had it in stock. I can wait, I will just pass time with THE SHOW.

Same exact situation for me! I must have checked that page 15 times!

Well, I emailed Play-Asia about my order, telling them my last message from them said they would ship it on or before April 1st and I had not received a tracking number. They replied saying my order would be shipped UPS today. If I still don't get a tracking number I will email them again and again until I do.

Future purchases depend on how they handle this one. Last year I went with NCX and they did a great job shipping my game. I only went thru Play-Asia because of th $10 discount. Anyhow, if they don't handle this well it will be "arigato" and "sayonara" to them and I'll go back to eBay, NCX and Japan Video Games for my imports.

Product page has been updated. It says "In stock, usually ships within 24hrs." I thought I saw on another import site that the they would have it on the 3rd, so this makes sense. I don't think it will be too long before they starting sending orders out.

My order was shipped from PLAYASIA.COM, so y'all should look if you ordered from them. I got the cheapest delivery, so I'm hoping it should get here by the middle of next week....but it is on its way.

I'm really thinking about getting this off playasia. I have only recently started playing the Konami Yakyuu games, specifically Pawapuro Portable 2 for psp and I really enjoy the experience.
I just want to know whether Spirits 5 is similar to pawapuro, ie same mechanics but with a realistic skin. If not, will it be easy to get into?
Thanks for any advice

Pretty much real Pawapuro. You should get it.

I have a post it on my mailbox saying a package is in the office, so my package probably got here overnight. I'm not expecting anything else in the mail, so looks like they messed up on their site and sent out yesterday. Too bad the office is closed and I won't be able to get the game until tomorrow. Oh well. Warhawk 1.3 is out and I'm also still playing YakyuTsuku 3 for PS2.

Nice. I trust you will give us some impressions soon. I'm still on the fence about buying this though. It just looks alot more intimidating than pawapuro, especially since my Japanese is not brilliant.

Well, Play Asia sent me a "shipped" notice; so I should be getting it within the next two days. I will play MLB 08 until the "Fukudome" roster comes out then for the most part it will collect dust and make way for THE baseball game to play....PYS5 of course.

Please note the PS3 version of Pro Baseball Spirits 5 will arrive tomorrow and all preorders will ship on Friday. NCS only received the PS2 version this morning and preorders for the PS2 edition will ship today.

Whats up Big Man,

Did you get your copy yet? I just got mine today and boy do I like it. If you do not mind, I would really appreciate you helping us with translating the Pennant menus. It seems to be set up differently. Thanks in advance.

Do you like it better than last years?

For those looking for some video...found a new one on YouTube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=02GOfKfzW6s

I got a message from UPS.....it's out for delivery.....I get my copy today! YES!!! I know what I'll be playing thru-out the weekend.