Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 Impressions

[Manny_Shevitz]

Quote: Originally Posted by cardinalbird7

I just got this game....I need some help with my settings and hitting approach. I am pretty good at the show and I won my first few games on here, but I think it was on easy mode. I looked online for some setting advice and I amped up the difficulty. I have the cpu pitching on Hard- and it seems not very realistic...they never throw mistakes...ever. Is that realistic in Japan? I doubt it. So this may be my problem right there. Its basically look for a pitch on the black every pitch and when I do hit it...it usually is a ground out. My pitch speed is on Middle+. I think this is fine honestly. I doubt I change this to help me. Hitting is on normal and not real...I think anyways. From what I've been reading online these are the main settings for vets. I want the game to be a little challenging and I expect to struggle, but I don't expect to be getting shut out every game when I am making good contact and drawing walks. Do I need to steal more? hit and run? I don't know. I've never been an aggressive player in that regard. As for my hitting approach....I am basically desperate and I only look to go opposite field with normal swing. Power has done nothing for me. I put the ball in play a lot, but the cpu never messes up on defense whereas my guys are slow to reacting so that doesn't seem too fair. BTW CPU defense is on normal too and I haven't seen one error from them, while my guys commit errors all the time. It seems impossible to pull the ball and I can't even tell if I am early or late half the time. It seems I am early more than not. I just cannot consistently get the cursor on the ball I guess. I am barely missing. Do you guys keep it in the middle before the pitch or you looking in a certain zone? I keep mine low and look for anything low or away to slap it to opposite field. Pulling seems like a waste as it only results in a jam shot or a swing and a miss. Tips?

It doesn't make sense that you're not seeing any mistake pitches on Hard-, but it is true that in Japan, pitchers focus a lot more on accuracy and good movement, as opposed to the MLB, where there is a heavier focus on blazing fastballs. That might be why, coming off of The Show, it seems like the CPU pitchers in PYS don't make mistakes.

It sounds like the settings you're using are pretty good if you're looking for a challenge, and you just need to keep practicing. Use batting practice to work on your timing and lining up the cursor. You need to keep in mind that the physics in this game are very precise. It's not like The Show. If you don't get out in front of the pitch, you're not going to pull it. If the cursor is lined up just slightly above the pitch, you're going to hit it into the dirt.

I tend to look for a pitch in a specific zone. If it's less than two strikes, I will keep my batting cursor where I think the pitch is going to be, or where I want the pitch to be, and I try not to chase after pitches that are way outside of that zone. I also don't use opposite field swing with less than two strikes, unless my batter has the opposite field special skill, and the situation calls for it. Once I'm at two strikes, I tend to leave the cursor in the middle of the strike zone, and try to fight off bad pitches. I'll also pretty much always use opposite field swing with two strikes, unless it's a full count and I have a good power hitter at the plate.

As for CPU defense not making any errors, this is again a specific trait of baseball in Japan. In the NPB, there is a much heavier focus on defense, so you tend to see fewer errors than you do in the MLB. That's not to say you should never see errors, and believe me, the CPU does commit errors in this game, but if you're used to The Show, it probably seems like it's not happening often enough. As for why you're seeing so many errors committed by your team, there could be a number of factors involved. For one, I don't know what team you are using, so it might just be that you have some bad fielders on that team. More likely is that you are trying to throw to a base too early, before the fielder has gloved it or gotten his footing, or you're moving your players too sharply as they're about to make a catch. It is possible for you to cause errors this way.

Overall, my advice is that you just keep at it and try not to get frustrated. Your skills in The Show are not going to translate to this game. There is a lot more going on in PYS than swing timing and player attributes. I cannot overstate how meaningful and precise the bat on ball physics are in this game. You'll get it eventually, you just need to get out of the mindset of how things work in The Show.

[cardinalbird5]

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by cardinalbird7

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by thegut

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by cardinalbird7

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by cardinalbird7

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by Manny_Shevitz

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by VoItage

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.