Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Thanks for the advice. I think some people are underselling the show and to me that is still the best sports game on the market. The realism is there, but the PCI is just more random than a hitting cursor. Good in a way and it can be annoying at times too.

I play the Show similar to how I play this game game, but there is a few reasons why I think I struggle more when I chase pitches with my cursor, whereas the Show I line it up every time.

First, the cursor is a bit small than the PCI even on HOF/Legend, but not by too much.

Secondly, I know every single hitter and pitcher in the show, whereas this game...I have no idea. I still need to read the tendencies and pitchers pitches more. I am basically just reacting at this point and treating every hitter the same, whereas the Show I treat each player like their real life counterpart.

Third, the analog sensitivity is weird to me. It is fast in the middle, but slow near the edges. If you are high and in, it is nearly impossible to react and hit a down and away pitch. I know I can change the digital sensitivity, but I can't stand digital.

Last, I cannot find a hitting camera I like, therefore I can't really focus on the pitcher's delivery and my hitting cursor at the same. In the Show I only watch the pitcher's delivery and react, whereas in this game I am watching the delivery and trying to read the pitch then switching over to the cursor and trying to track the ball marker.

Are you guys watching the pitcher's delivery or you just watching the cursor the entire time?? What hitting camera do you use? I liked the center one, but you can't read the pitch and use the cursor on that one IMO.

Also, how effectively can you pull outside pitches on this game? I have gave up some HR's down and away, but it seems like I cannot pull it very well.

BTW I am using Softbank Hawks for their offense. It just seems like my guys are slow to reacting. Am I supposed to react right off the bat? The problem is I don't know which player they give me control of so I may react with the CF instead of the RF when it is hit in the gap.

[thegut]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Thanks for the advice. I think some people are underselling the show and to me that is still the best sports game on the market. The realism is there, but the PCI is just more random than a hitting cursor. Good in a way and it can be annoying at times too.

I play the Show similar to how I play this game game, but there is a few reasons why I think I struggle more when I chase pitches with my cursor, whereas the Show I line it up every time.

First, the cursor is a bit small than the PCI even on HOF/Legend, but not by too much.

Secondly, I know every single hitter and pitcher in the show, whereas this game...I have no idea. I still need to read the tendencies and pitchers pitches more. I am basically just reacting at this point and treating every hitter the same, whereas the Show I treat each player like their real life counterpart.

Third, the analog sensitivity is weird to me. It is fast in the middle, but slow near the edges. If you are high and in, it is nearly impossible to react and hit a down and away pitch. I know I can change the digital sensitivity, but I can't stand digital.

Last, I cannot find a hitting camera I like, therefore I can't really focus on the pitcher's delivery and my hitting cursor at the same. In the Show I only watch the pitcher's delivery and react, whereas in this game I am watching the delivery and trying to read the pitch then switching over to the cursor and trying to track the ball marker.

Are you guys watching the pitcher's delivery or you just watching the cursor the entire time?? What hitting camera do you use? I liked the center one, but you can't read the pitch and use the cursor on that one IMO.

Also, how effectively can you pull outside pitches on this game? I have gave up some HR's down and away, but it seems like I cannot pull it very well.

BTW I am using Softbank Hawks for their offense. It just seems like my guys are slow to reacting. Am I supposed to react right off the bat? The problem is I don't know which player they give me control of so I may react with the CF instead of the RF when it is hit in the gap.

Lots of questions. I don't have time to try to answer them all but I do have a suggestion for you. Under the Batting setting change CPU Pitcher Cursor from Fade to Off. You will now see a ton more pitches because every pitcher will not have the ability to paint the black for a strike every pitch. You may need to lower pitch speed because you will have substantially less time to deal with a pitch because you no longer have any prior warning where its going.

-If you play this game like the Show than you will probably never like it. Both play a great game of baseball, but they have extremely different philosophies on how to represent the mechanics of this game.

-Do not think of the batting cursor like the Show's PCI. If you are not completely lined up with the ball in PYS than it's probably going to be poor contact.

-Learn more about Japanese baseball. Japanese pitchers are typically control artists and pitch more to contact. There are very few Japanese pitchers that have what you would call "overpowering" stuff. Because their take on the game involves more balls batted in play there is a lot more focus on defense. The reason why you do not see many errors is because fielding is such an integral part of Japanese baseball. You will typically see defensive substitutions in every Japanese baseball game in real life where that's not common at all in MLB.

-Split up the strike zone into 4 quadrants. Sit with your batting cursor in one of the zones you are expecting a pitch. Personally, I never look in the lower two quadrants unless I have 2 strikes on me. You will find that Japanese pitchers love sinkers, changeups, and curves low in the zone. More often enough what looked like hittable pitch low will have a late break causing you to ground out.

-If you don't have 2 strikes on you try not to swing at perfect pitches in the zone. They have such a small surface area that it's very hard to line up a good hit without hitting a pop fly or a grounder.

-no need to focus on the pitcher's delivery. You will eventually be able to pick up the speed of the pitch and where it is going at the same time (hard to explain but if you play enough you will understand)

-I just use the standard batting camera.

-The power swing is your friend. I almost never use the contact swing with less than 2 strikes. With power hitters with a low contact rating it's almost always better to use the power swing regardless of the circumstance. I see you are using the Softbank Hawks, Bryan Lahair has a tiny contact area regardless of contact or power swing. However the difference between the two if you make contact is huge. If the pitcher throws up a mistake pitch to Lahair: power swing=its over the fence, contact swing....I hope it gets out of the infield. Know the batter, know the situation, and know the batters special abilities.

-You can pull low outside pitches for power. I typically do not look low and outside but I have a few times and have hit several HR's by doing that.

-Can't help you with fielding since I use autofielding/manual throwing.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Lots of questions. I don't have time to try to answer them all but I do have a suggestion for you. Under the Batting setting change CPU Pitcher Cursor from Fade to Off. You will now see a ton more pitches because every pitcher will not have the ability to paint the black for a strike every pitch. You may need to lower pitch speed because you will have substantially less time to deal with a pitch because you no longer have any prior warning where its going.

-If you play this game like the Show than you will probably never like it. Both play a great game of baseball, but they have extremely different philosophies on how to represent the mechanics of this game.

-Do not think of the batting cursor like the Show's PCI. If you are not completely lined up with the ball in PYS than it's probably going to be poor contact.

-Learn more about Japanese baseball. Japanese pitchers are typically control artists and pitch more to contact. There are very few Japanese pitchers that have what you would call "overpowering" stuff. Because their take on the game involves more balls batted in play there is a lot more focus on defense. The reason why you do not see many errors is because fielding is such an integral part of Japanese baseball. You will typically see defensive substitutions in every Japanese baseball game in real life where that's not common at all in MLB.

-Split up the strike zone into 4 quadrants. Sit with your batting cursor in one of the zones you are expecting a pitch. Personally, I never look in the lower two quadrants unless I have 2 strikes on me. You will find that Japanese pitchers love sinkers, changeups, and curves low in the zone. More often enough what looked like hittable pitch low will have a late break causing you to ground out.

-If you don't have 2 strikes on you try not to swing at perfect pitches in the zone. They have such a small surface area that it's very hard to line up a good hit without hitting a pop fly or a grounder.

-no need to focus on the pitcher's delivery. You will eventually be able to pick up the speed of the pitch and where it is going at the same time (hard to explain but if you play enough you will understand)

-I just use the standard batting camera.

-The power swing is your friend. I almost never use the contact swing with less than 2 strikes. With power hitters with a low contact rating it's almost always better to use the power swing regardless of the circumstance. I see you are using the Softbank Hawks, Bryan Lahair has a tiny contact area regardless of contact or power swing. However the difference between the two if you make contact is huge. If the pitcher throws up a mistake pitch to Lahair: power swing=its over the fence, contact swing....I hope it gets out of the infield. Know the batter, know the situation, and know the batters special abilities.

-You can pull low outside pitches for power. I typically do not look low and outside but I have a few times and have hit several HR's by doing that.

-Can't help you with fielding since I use autofielding/manual throwing.

Lots of helpful info...thanks. I definitely don't treat this game like the show. The PCI is a total different hitting interface. I also do think I already turned off that pitch cursor off, but I'll double check.

Also, should I be using normal or assist for my hitting cursor?? Is assist a cop out? What is the default for like online play and tourney's?

I spent about 2 hours in batting training just trying to get my hand eye coordination and approach down. My hand eye coordination is there...I never get fooled by a pitch really (rarely) and my cursor is right on the ball. It is just that centimeter where I am off the ball. I never get line drives and I don't know if this is because I use the push swing a lot or not, but my cursor is right there. I don't think it is because my brain is telling my hands to put it there either when I am barely off. It is just the nature of the analog controls and how imprecise they are for me. My brain wants the cursor to be somewhere else yet my hands cannot control the analog like that. I can get the pitches on the black and the pitches in the middle...its the in between. I overshoot them a lot, causing me to either weakly ground out or fly out.

So my next question....is analog the way to go or digital? I keep experimenting with both. With analog I can chase and protect better with 2 strikes, but I don't hit for power at all and I find it impossible to pull inside heat (Middle + pitch speed). With digital I am more precise within the quadrants, but anything 2 quadrants away and I'm done for.

I've tried everything...so far and im like 5-20, hitting .167 with like 2 homeruns. Usually I try to work the count, and slap the ball the other way. If I get someone on I try to do hit and runs and stay patient. I just cannot pull the ball with these settings, but I want to learn how. I just don't feel like with analog I will ever consistently do so. I can get 6-7 hits a game combined with 2-3 walks, but they are all singles so I rarely have any big innings.

My pitching is good...no complaints there. I enjoy that.

Defense is also good. I put it on Assist with manual throw. Now my guys are getting the correct jump on the ball and I am actually competitive in games. I just lose 2-0, 2-1, etc a lot.

Are you swinging with power with pull with every hitter? Do you know if I have any good oppo power guys or should I even bother doing that?

[Manny_Shevitz]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Thanks for the advice. I think some people are underselling the show and to me that is still the best sports game on the market. The realism is there, but the PCI is just more random than a hitting cursor. Good in a way and it can be annoying at times too.

I play the Show similar to how I play this game game, but there is a few reasons why I think I struggle more when I chase pitches with my cursor, whereas the Show I line it up every time.

First, the cursor is a bit small than the PCI even on HOF/Legend, but not by too much.

Secondly, I know every single hitter and pitcher in the show, whereas this game...I have no idea. I still need to read the tendencies and pitchers pitches more. I am basically just reacting at this point and treating every hitter the same, whereas the Show I treat each player like their real life counterpart.

Third, the analog sensitivity is weird to me. It is fast in the middle, but slow near the edges. If you are high and in, it is nearly impossible to react and hit a down and away pitch. I know I can change the digital sensitivity, but I can't stand digital.

Last, I cannot find a hitting camera I like, therefore I can't really focus on the pitcher's delivery and my hitting cursor at the same. In the Show I only watch the pitcher's delivery and react, whereas in this game I am watching the delivery and trying to read the pitch then switching over to the cursor and trying to track the ball marker.

Are you guys watching the pitcher's delivery or you just watching the cursor the entire time?? What hitting camera do you use? I liked the center one, but you can't read the pitch and use the cursor on that one IMO.

Also, how effectively can you pull outside pitches on this game? I have gave up some HR's down and away, but it seems like I cannot pull it very well.

BTW I am using Softbank Hawks for their offense. It just seems like my guys are slow to reacting. Am I supposed to react right off the bat? The problem is I don't know which player they give me control of so I may react with the CF instead of the RF when it is hit in the gap.

Yeah, my point wasn't to undersell The Show -- though I will admit that I pretty much stopped playing it after I started playing PYS -- but to emphasize how different the two games are. There's a lot going on under the hood in The Show, that, like you said, requires you to be familiar with the players and their abilities, and plan your at-bats accordingly. But you don't really need to take physics into consideration when playing that game the way you do in PYS. With PYS, you definitely need to become familiar with the different players and their strengths and weaknesses, but you also need to think about exactly where and when your bat is going to make contact with the ball, every time you swing.

[Manny_Shevitz]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Also, should I be using normal or assist for my hitting cursor?? Is assist a cop out? What is the default for like online play and tourney's?

I spent about 2 hours in batting training just trying to get my hand eye coordination and approach down. My hand eye coordination is there...I never get fooled by a pitch really (rarely) and my cursor is right on the ball. It is just that centimeter where I am off the ball. I never get line drives and I don't know if this is because I use the push swing a lot or not, but my cursor is right there. I don't think it is because my brain is telling my hands to put it there either when I am barely off. It is just the nature of the analog controls and how imprecise they are for me. My brain wants the cursor to be somewhere else yet my hands cannot control the analog like that. I can get the pitches on the black and the pitches in the middle...its the in between. I overshoot them a lot, causing me to either weakly ground out or fly out.

I would recommend keeping your batting cursor on Normal. It's not so much that Assist is a cop out, but what tends to happen when you use assist batting, especially if it's set to anything higher than level 2, is that you will see much less hit variety in your games, which means you'll be missing out on one of the things that makes PYS so special. If you do feel you need to use some level of assist as you're learning the game, I would recommend not setting the level any higher than 1. This should help you make better contact, but won't compromise hit variety too much.

I would also recommend that you lay off of the opp field/push swing button, except in situations where you are behind in the count with 2 strikes. If you're using the opp field swing, but still timing your swing to get out in front of the pitch or drive it up the middle, you're not going to get good contact on it. The 'O' button is really intended for hanging back on a pitch and swinging at the last possible instant to either fight off a bad pitch, or drive a good outside pitch away. That being said, I have hit plenty of opp field home runs, so it's certainly not a useless swing. You just need to get a better feel for when to use it.

When you are in batting practice, make use of the swing timing meter after each pitch. It will show you the timing range, depending on whether you used normal or opp field swing, and it will show you exactly where your swing fell on the timing meter. That way you'll know whether you are swinging too early or too late. Spiritstranslation.com has a page on this which explains it much better.

Good luck!

[VoItage]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

I would recommend keeping your batting cursor on Normal. It's not so much that Assist is a cop out, but what tends to happen when you use assist batting, especially if it's set to anything higher than level 2, is that you will see much less hit variety in your games, which means you'll be missing out on one of the things that makes PYS so special. If you do feel you need to use some level of assist as you're learning the game, I would recommend not setting the level any higher than 1. This should help you make better contact, but won't compromise hit variety too much.

I would also recommend that you lay off of the opp field/push swing button, except in situations where you are behind in the count with 2 strikes. If you're using the opp field swing, but still timing your swing to get out in front of the pitch or drive it up the middle, you're not going to get good contact on it. The 'O' button is really intended for hanging back on a pitch and swinging at the last possible instant to either fight off a bad pitch, or drive a good outside pitch away. That being said, I have hit plenty of opp field home runs, so it's certainly not a useless swing. You just need to get a better feel for when to use it.

When you are in batting practice, make use of the swing timing meter after each pitch. It will show you the timing range, depending on whether you used normal or opp field swing, and it will show you exactly where your swing fell on the timing meter. That way you'll know whether you are swinging too early or too late. Spiritstranslation.com has a page on this which explains it much better.

Good luck!

I use batting assist lv2 on 2012 (Vita, because the thumbsticks are too sensitive for effective hitting), and I still have an immense array of hit variety. Bloops, inside outs, rip doubles, etc.

Lv1 I can't hit much at all, Lv2 I have games where I get 2 hits and others where I shred the pitcher. I didn't want to have an extremely slow pitch speed or a pitch difficulty where they just pour it over the middle either (currently on Hard-)

[Manny_Shevitz]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

I use batting assist lv2 on 2012 (Vita, because the thumbsticks are too sensitive for effective hitting), and I still have an immense array of hit variety. Bloops, inside outs, rip doubles, etc.

Lv1 I can't hit much at all, Lv2 I have games where I get 2 hits and others where I shred the pitcher. I didn't want to have an extremely slow pitch speed or a pitch difficulty where they just pour it over the middle either (currently on Hard-)

Vita is a whole different story. I can't hit for **** unless I put the assist on level 2, and it doesn't seem to negatively affect hit variety much. But I was talking about the PS3 version.

[VoItage]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Vita is a whole different story. I can't hit for **** unless I put the assist on level 2, and it doesn't seem to negatively affect hit variety much. But I was talking about the PS3 version.

Ahh, gotcha. Thought the assist levels were pretty much universal. My bad.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

I am getting better...not by much, but I am understand the swings more. You can still go opposite field with pull swings, so I am using that more. I am swinging with power a lot and I have squared up a few homeruns, but I have no plate discipline at the moment and I feel like that is a bad thing. My main problem was not swinging early enough for any power. I was putting the cursor on the ball pretty well. I am swinging soon as the ball being released, so I can't really lay off anything either. Do you guys swing early for fastballs and still react to other pitches? I find that impossible on middle+ or higher pitcher speed.

I won the last game 1-0 and thought I was going to score 5+, but I only scored 1 early and that was it. Maybe I need to use contact swing more and just try to pull with that too, because I need more singles and what not.

Does anyone know if any of softbank's hitters can go opposite field with power???

[Spirits Translation]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Hey, welcome aboard. First off, in 2011 the NPB switched to a heavier ball so run production went way down. Thus, in the roster updates the devs nerfed player attributes. The out-of-box version will have much more offense than a completely patched version, because attributes were based off 2010 when the league used the light ball. At release there were a few issues which were fixed, such as HR's being a bit too easy to hit (but it sounds like this is what you need. )

Defense: I mainly use auto fielding/manual throwing. I remember Rex Hudler talking about his time playing in the NPB. He said managers went crazy and seemed to take things personal over every little mistake. They want precise play all the time. If you want more errors from the CPU just bump down the difficulty, it will basically result it slower reaction time and more line drives & hard grounders getting through. In regards to pitching Japanese players don't have over-powering stuff so accuracy is key for them. It's something PYS players just have to adjust to.

Batting: Don't focus on the pitchers release or the ball in the air, you can look at his wind-up but as he brings his arm around switch your eye and look right at the batting point. This will show the rotation of the ball which is the most important thing you need to see at this point. Just like in real life the sooner you "see" all of his pitches the better, so try to work counts and especially get his fastball timing down with your first several batters.

CPU pitching at Hard- should be a good spread. The key is to wait and take advantage of that one mistake pitch you'll get with every at bat (well, at least hopefully you'll get one.) Personally, I aim in a zone with less than 2 strikes but am always ready to pound on a meatball in the middle. In some versions you can switch from digital to analog live by holding/releasing the LB button. I've grown accustomed to the analog on the Vita and play with no assist, but digital does have it's advantages. On the PS3 I always go analog.

I like to play each batter the way they are used in real life. So for example I'll pretty much always use contact swing with a high average contact hitter. With a bigger sweet spot if I'm off a little I can still get a flare or blooper which would be a pop-up if I used power swing. With meaty power hitters though I'm looking to go yard. Look at our special skills section, this will tell you who has opp field skills on your team.

Also, slow breaking balls are easier to hit for home runs than fastballs and sliders. Look for our posted "Pitch weight chart" on the site.

And in order to score runs you really have to do the little things. Since there's a lot of "throw low" ground ball pitchers in the NPB I like to use hit & run a lot. In a recent game I was losing by 1 run in the 9th and my first batter walked. My 2nd batter had speed so I bluffed a bunt and the CPU brought in the 3rd baseman. Next pitch I pull a grounder to the 3rd base side which would've been an out if I hadn't bluffed that bunt! The pitcher is tossing forks & curves down low, and with the next batter I decide to go for the score. I call a 'hit & run' and bounced a grounder to first. The CPU IW's my next guy, then I strike out trying too hard for a sac fly. Bases loaded, 2 outs, I bring in a power hitting pinch hitter to the plate and the defense goes deep (I also brought in a speedy pinch runner to 2nd base.) Instead of using power swing, I went contact and hit a hanging single to CF (would've been an out with normal depth) - both runs score and I win. Textbook stuff, but rarely does things go this smooth. Anyway, the point is that you have to play smart, take what they give you and use you're players strengths.

I'd maybe keep things as is, but bump CPU pitch speed to middle until you start pulling some pitches and hitting line drives.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Thanks for the response.

I am using Digital +2 ATM and I find I am able to hit better this way. Now I am just trying to determine if I should never look at the pitcher's release and just focus on the strikezone, like you said. I feel like I can pick up the pitch pretty fast from his release point, but the problem is trying to transition my eyes from the pitch delivery to my cursor and then put it on the ball.

I've been reading a lot on the translation site and it seems like with Hard-, majority of pitches are low and the CPU only throws 30-35 pct fastballs. So I may just look to pull those sliders/splitters, etc. and I'll still have time to hit those slow curves and off speed pitches.

I am getting better for sure, I just need to get my approach and settings down. Not difficulty settings either, but my camera and whether or not to use digital/analog and when to power/contact swing or pull/push.

MLB 13 has ruined me this year. I am so used to waiting back and still being able to pul pitches, so this game feels more like MLB 12 and MLB 11 with the fastballs. You have to swing extremely early and commit yourself or you will be late!

You guys don't use the cpu pitching cursor or pitch info? I'd find that extremely easy. I found a few youtube videos and they'd be using the cpu pitch cursor and everything so they know where the ball would be. That makes it too easy IMO.

[Spirits Translation]

Re: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

Hmm, digital +2 is too fast for me (at least on the Vita which is what I mainly play on.) Where pitches are thrown really depends on the pitchers individual pitch attributes. If he has a great fastball and his other stuff is meh then he'll throw that FB all over the zone and all day long.

Basically the higher the individual pitch ratings the more you'll see it, generally seeing anything rated below a "D" will be rarely thrown.