To All Those Who Have Used My Guides: An Extra HR Derby Tip

Hooray!

Not that anyone cares, but I finally broke the 100HR mark in HR Derby.

And I accomplished this with the D-Pad + L1 method.

If you hit 100 HR or more in one round, then all of the OB players are unlocked at once. But if your HR total is anywhere between 8/9 HR and less than 100, then you only unlock a few OB players for that round.

I was convinced that I would accomplish this with someone who had "A"s in both Meet and Power. But that's not how it turned out. I wound up hitting 101 HR with a guy named "Bryant." He wears an Orix uniform, and I think he's the last outfielder listed on page 7 of the OB player list. "Bryant" has an "A" in Power, but his Meet is something like an "E."

I believe 4 factors led to my breaking 100 HR:

1) I batted with a guy who had an "A" in Power.

2) I used the D-Pad + L1 method.

3) I chose a small stadium.

4) When in doubt, I errored on the side of keeping my batting cursor low. So when my aim was a little off, I'd still hit long, high pop-ups that cleared the short fences.

Ralph Bryant was a power hitting beast in his day. He wears the Orix uniform because he was their batting coach last year.

meet doesn't matter if u're a power hitter, the size of ur contact point is still gonna be the same no matter if ur meet is G or A...only difference it will make is when u simulate a game.

BigManZam and Shinigami,

Thank you for the information.

Shinigami, are you certain that Meet only factors into power hitting when you're simulating?

Now I realize that the power contact point/batting cursor remains the same size regardless of a player's Meet rating. And this might be my imagination, but it seems to me that the Meet rating does somehow influence my ability to power hit.

Again, its probably just my imagination. But in games where I'm batting myself (i.e. not simulating), I'm convinced its a bit easier to power hit with guys who have and "A" in both Meet and Power.

Does anyone else have an opinion or information on this?

err, i should re-phrase

it's useless when u use power hitting

if it's CPU, then meet affects how accurately they hit.

So if it's in-game, but CPU hitting, then the meets factors in. The higher the meet (CPU), the better the batter times and connects with the ball. They also choose pitches a lot better than batters with a lower meet stat. Batters with low meet usually swings wildly at times, and are easier to fool with high fastball just outside the strike zone. (only works with power hitting, u'll get killed throwing high fastball just outside the zone against meet batting)

so basically meet stat is only useful to human player when u're doing contact hitting and not power swing.

so if u aint simulating, u can basically have a bunch of G meet and A power and still play very well with them (however in simulation they will all stink and have like below .200 avg)

Shinigami,

You've helped me again.

You've given me a much better understanding of how the Meet and Power ratings affect Human and CPU hitters.

Thank you.

I can strike high meet batters out with high fastballs. I do it a lot with My Life right now, since I have the Rising Cannon from Ikari Mamoru. Most of the time, though, I like staying low with them and making them ground or fly out. The high meet for a CPU helps them foul off pitches, rather than completely whiff.

...and thank you BigManZam.

I've really appreciated all of the help/hints/tips that you guys have provided over the last few months.

I'm sure I'm not the only Pawapuro newcomer who's appreciative.

it still works, but they can get lucky hits and slaps a weak bloopers over ur infield's head. and ur chance of getting a batter out on powerful CPU with high fastball is way less than going low. but ketteiban's powerful CPU batting is tweaked so that u can get them to chase ur balls, and therefore if u mix it up and pitch in good locations u can get them to hit things they normally wont hit.

btw, u know u can learn sonic rising from ikari in 12's success? it's an upgrade version of rising cannon that even ikari himself still hasn't mastered yet.

Yeah thanks to all of you guys for the tips. I havent even played this game yet.. and am reading as much as i can on this forum before i get this great pawapuro 12K game. Some things still dont make sense..but once i get this game (playasia have confirmed my item has been shipped horray) im sure things will be easier.

John's already given me heaps on fielding etc.. since im not that cluey on all the rules of baseball.. so yeah.. im more than just a newie.. not only havent i palyed this game and wanting to learn the controls, but also trying to learn some of the rules and terms.. I have a long way to go.. but once i get the game, im sure things will fall into place.

btw.. what the hell is a sonic rising.. or a rising cannon??

Stevie B,

I believe "Sonic Rising" and "Rising Cannon" are skills that one can acquire in My Life and/or Success.

Unfortunately, both of these Pawapuro game modes require a pretty solid understanding of Japanese. So I've yet to mess with either of them.

I've stuck with Exhibition, Pennant/Season, Scenario, HR Derby, Practice, Skills Test, and Tournament/League. That's still about seven game modes, which I feel is pretty good for someone who doesn't understand the language very well.

The rising series only appears in success. it's a special fastball that floats up by very little as the pitch closes in towards the plate. the rising series also have gyroball effects, so it is in most way superior than an ordinary fastball.

the rising series is invented by long-time success mode popular character, ikari mamoru (who so happens to be ur rival-type character until pawapuro 10, as the characters in success mode ages every game, ikari is now 29 already, and he was only in high school when he first came into the scene in pawapuro...hmm...5?)

the rising series goes in this order: rising shot->rising cannon->sonic rising, with each successive one moving up a little more than the last one (but it's still very minimal that aint really noticable). ikari first developed rising shot when he was in high school, and when he got into the pro-leagues, he managed to upgrade it into rising cannon, and in pawapuro 12 he's thought up a new version, but he himself haven't mastered yet (altho ur character will have the chance to master in pawapuro 12)

this pitch is only learnable in success mode, altho since u can bring ur success character into mylife mode, so therefore a pitcher with a rising series pitch can appear in mylife mode.

Way to go Shinigami. Great explanation. I wish I developed Sonic Rising before embarking on My Life, but I just can't get the event to happen. Plus, there's a 50% success rate.

For you guys who don't know, it's basically a coin flip to determine whether you successfully learn the move or not. If you don't learn it right, you will ruin your shoulder and your "yakyu jinsei" or baseball life will end.

Success Mode is pretty great. I wish there were a way for English speaking guys to play it. I had the funniest random event while trying to get an all A player. Pawapuro-kun goes into the store and looks at pictures of girls in bikinis and his "arch" goes up from 3 to 4! That is the most genius thing ever.

haha, other than this event in the convenient store, u can also increase ur arch when 'himeno karen' gives u her 'digital photo' >__>, and i think there's an event with izuruki (the pitcher, not the girlfriend/manager) where pawapuro-kun will get a rise in arch too (also looking at 'stuffs' >__>)

actually the chance of successfully learning sonic rising is 60% if u got rising cannon, 40% if u had rising shot. Whereas the success rate of learning shot/cannon depends on ur relationship with ikari + plus ur max speed.

amazingly, i haven't for once failed getting any of the rising series, i got 3 guys with rising cannon, 2 guys with sonic rising, and not for once did i broke my character's arm and forcing retirement.

however, my fight against doctor daijobu is...err....3 wins 20+ losts...it's quite discouraging...especially the fact that i have the daijobu lab in my town. (unfortunately one of my guy died from a car crash shortly after successfully upgrading from surgery...fxck the damn luck...)

i love success mode...altho it gets pretty frustrating sometimes...and in 12 if u wanna make amazing players u gotta have a good town...which means u gotta use the memory card trick and stuffs...gets pretty annoying...

ahaha Just to get this right... does this rising ball actually exist in real life.. in baseball.. i mean a fastball that rises.. ie. goes up against gravity hmm.. i have no idea bout the physics involved with the ball and pitching.. but im guessing its gotta be similar to cricket.

If u guys have watched cricket, a spin bowler (similar to a pitcher) gets drift (ball moves from left to right or right to left) in mid air due to the spinning motion of the ball through the air.. caused by the bolwer spinning the ball heaps with his wrist on delivery. But spin bowlers also do overspins.. making ball dip.. as in tennis.. like a top spinner suddenly dips. Im thinking a baseball pitcher is kinda similar to a cricket's spin bowler in the way they move the ball about eg curve balls, however they do it with much more purchase and pace on the ball.

But a fast bowler in cricket moves (im only talking about in the air - since in cricket ball also moves off the pitch aswell) the ball due to the shine on the ball. A cricket ball has 2 sides seperated by a seam (similar to stiching of a baseball) down the centre of the ball.. and bowler shines one side more to get a swing effect in the air (left to right or right to left). Later when the ball is older, the bolwer will dampen one side with heaps of spit or what not to begin reverse swing.. ie. ball swings opposite way to normal shiny side method. Im not certain if baseball pitchers do this????

I know this is kinda off topic, but yeah.. thats why im wondering if these rising balls actually exist in real life.. i guess id have to see a mpeg to believe it haha

Btw, any u guys know of any decent baseball site which explain all rules, terminology (including types of pitches an hitting techniques and including various statistical terms) to newbie who wants it as simple as it can get hahah

ciao for now
steve b

i dunno much, lol, but if i got my facts right, there's no pitch that rises in baseball.

some have said they see a rising ball before from underthrowing/submarine pitcher, but then that is most likely the case of just a fastball but from how the pitcher throws it, seem to look as if the ball is rising.

however, in softball, there are rising pitches.

hahah softball..yes... why didnt i think of that
i guess the equivalent is a bouncer in cricket. its a ball that is bowled very fast, but very short in length meaning it hits halfway down the pitch instead of closer to the batsman.. it the proceeds to bounce off the picth and rises at around head level.. main purpose to knock the batsmen out cold hahah..well scare him a little.. lower the confidence.. or make him play a bad shot

I've had success with Daijobu in my past two Success attempts. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Rising Series event. My speed only went up to 154 km/h with Daijobu. How some of these guys get 160 km/h without him is beyond me.

160km/h.. whoa.. thats fast. Can i ask who the fastest pitcher is in real life jap baseball.. and who is the fastest in this game?? im thinking average speed. This Daijobu u mention must be a well known quick pitcher right???
While im here.. who has the fastest pitch in real life.. are they in the major league or are the in japan?? excuse my ignorance if ive asked anything silly

Steve B,

Major League Baseball has pretty strict rules against pitchers putting foreign substances on the baseball ("doctoring"). I'm guessing that Japanese Professional Baseball places similar restrictions on its pitchers.

Though some pitchers, like Gaylord Perry (MLB), have had successful seasons due mostly, or at least in part, to "doctoring" the ball. It becomes a cat-and-mouse game between the umpires this sort of pitcher.

As for rising fastballs, I believe that they exist. But some chalk them up to an optical illusion. I agree with Shinigami's comment about side-arm and submarine style pitchers - you're probably more likely to see one come from them. Pitchers who throw incredibly hard/fast, by using the seams/stitching, can make the baseball do some pretty amazing things.

As for guys who throw the fastest, I'm not entirely sure. But I will throw out the names of some current and former Major Leaguers who spring to mind ( and some of these guys are aging/older current players, but threw even harder in their primes):

Roger Clemens ("Rocket")
Randy Johnson ("Big Unit")
Nolan Ryan ("Ryan Express")
Rob Dibble (1 of the 3 "Nasty Boys")
Bob Gibson

BigManZam and Shinigami,

I seem to recall a TV ad for MLB a few years back in which the slogan/catch-phrase was, "Chicks dig the long ball."

Success mode sounds incredible...wish I could play it.

Bit of a warning for Steve B. I know there's a cultural difference and all, but you'll need to stop saying "jap", as it's a derogatory term for Japanese people from WW2 days. From now on, please make the effort to type in the extra five letters to refrain from offending anyone.

I believe the fastest pitch ever clocked should be in the history forum or one of those there from a thread months ago, when kroon set the new Japan record with 161 km/h.

and ya, kroon (yokohama baystars)is the fastest pitcher in Japan today, clocking in the late 150s numerous times and 161km/h some time in june against hanshin's akahoshi. The fastest japanese on the radar gun should be igarashi, irabu and like 1 or 2 others at 158 iirc.

for details plz check the history forum, they posted the top speed ever reached over there.

current hardest throwing pitcher in the MLB i think is new jay pitcher AJ burnett, think he clocked 100 or 101m/h this yr.

I watched the White Sox's Bobby Jenks clock in at 101 here at SafeCo last year. I was going crazy. Every pitch he threw just got faster and faster until 101. Everyone in the crowd was stunned. Of course most don't know how impressive and rare it is, but I appreciated the show.

Scratch that. It was 102!

ya, bobby jenks is one of the hardest throwing closer right now

but when he throws this fast, his command isn't really good. from the times i seen him last yr (late regular season + playoffs), he seems to work best when he throws at around the top 90s, that way he has way better control than when he throws his 100 mile heater.

he's still very young, we'll see how he develops.

Hi there,
Yeah sorry bout cutting the Japanese wording to the first 3 letters, no intent on offending the japanese.. i love em

Just back on ball speeds.. im guessing thats the speed it leaves the hand.

In cricket (sorry if im goin off topic n boring ya guys) these days, they measure spead off each ball and have stated its when it leaves the hand... as u can imagine, once the ball hits the pitch before the batsmen plays it, it slows down quite bit.. i remeber once they had a speed gun which measured the various speeds.

Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan has sent down the fastest delivery ever recorded in cricket: a 161.3 Kph or 100.2 mph thunderbolt, the second time he has broken the 100 mph barrier, standing alone as the 100 mph man of cricket, while Brett Lee of Australia followed him closely at 160.7/99.8 mph. This is their fastest ball.. ie. 100%+ on their best day.. but normally these bowlers would bowl average speed of about 145-150km/h, bout 90% most of the time. I dont know how long pitchers last, but if bowlers were to try bowl 100% all the time, they wouldnt last long at all. Usually Back injuries. Im thinking pitchers would have very sore elbows and am guessing this is what ruins halts careers.

Now back on the subject of Pitching in Pawapuro 12.. ive only seen a few videos, and there seems to be good sense of speed.. infact the ball physics is what drove me to this game and this forum. can someone cofirm, that the real fast balls (from fast pitchers) actually look much faster? Also ive notciced fromt the Konami website, there are a couple of views.. the normal one where u see the view from behind the batsmen and pitcher in a straight line, with catcher box above. then i saw another clip where you are on a slant watching from behind the pitcher.. thats a great veiw also..but is this ingame .. or just when cpu plays cpu.. i remember someone saying that but i cant remember.

i should finally have the game tommorrow or early next week
cheers,
steve

Ok.. just doing some baseball reading/research and found this bit of info on 'Rising Fastballs'

"In baseball, the rising fastball is a pitch perceived by batters, but known to be baseball-myth. Some batters claim to have seen a "rising" fastball, which starts as a normal fastball, but as it approaches the plate it rises several inches and gains a burst of speed. Such a pitch is known to be physically impossible, due to restrictions of gravity, conservation of momentum, and air density. It has been explained as an illusion. What is really happening is that the pitcher first throws a fastball at one speed, and then, using an identical arm motion, is able to throw another fastball at a higher speed. The higher speed fastball both arrives faster, and sinks less due to its high speed. In fact, the added back-spin from the higher speed further decreases the amount of sink. Thus, as the pitch is thrown the batter expects a fastball at the same speed, yet it arrives more quickly and at a higher level. The batter's eyes and brain perceive it as a fastball which has risen and increased in speed. A switch from a two-seam to a four-seam fastball can further enhance this effect."

nice explanation
im enjoying this

Ha.. and this:
"It is possible for a rising fastball to be thrown by a submarine pitcher because of the awkward technique with which they throw the ball. Because they throw almost underhand, with their knuckles near the dirt, it is possible for the ball to rise slightly as it gets to the plate. However, this is not the traditional rising fastball batters believe they see."

lol, this is from wikipedia, that's where i read it before, haha

haha yes it is.. and ive just gone though the entire Baseball part.. my knowledge of the game has just increased 10 fold haha.. bring on Pawapuro already

btw, the 'behind the pitcher view' is only available when u watch CPU vs CPU

when u play u will always have the 'behind catcher view'

there's been lots of fans wanting that view, as it is in pro yakyuu spirits (or was it baseball live? i haven't played any of those, so i dunno)

Steve B,

I'm not sure, but I believe that a baseball pitch's speed is measured as the ball crosses home plate. If anyone else knows for sure, then I'd like to know too.

Fastballs, especially from hard throwers, can look very fast in Pawapuro. But the difficulty settings affect this. The higher you turn up CPU pitching, the closer BOTH your pitcher and the CPU's pitcher will come to their listed top speeds. And on some of the highest settings, I think that they might consistently exceed their listed top speeds! I'm not 100% sure about any of this either. This is just what I recall from my early experiments in Practice Mode, when I first began playing Pawapuro.

And I'm actually finding some of this cricket-talk kind of interesting. I realize that this is a baseball website, but I don't mind a little cricket here and there.

lol, back on topic, i just slammed 46 homeruns with kubo in ikari stadium. dang it it was going so well for so long, i thought i had a chance to get 100, lol~~

Errr, lotte's pitcher kubo that is...^_^;

Hitting with pitchers in HR Derby can be quite fun.

Its been a while since I've tried this. I remember choosing a pitcher who had no exceptional hitting abilities, and choosing a decent-sized ballpark. It seemed liked the only two ways I could get the ball over the wall were to pull it down one foul line or slice it the other way along the other foul line.

Again, great fun.

Though I don't believe I ever came close to matching your total, Shinigami. Maybe I'll try again tonight...

well, i chose kubo bcoz he had one of the highest power amongst pitchers. An arch 2 plus F power will allow him to hit it out straight away center (max distance i got was 133 with kubo iirc)

it's easier to launch the ball with an arch of 2 than most pitchers with arch of 1.

but i've seen some japanese guy used kudoh (arch 1 + G power) and hitted something like over 50 HRs in a pawapuro tournament event's homerun derby.

Hey there, excuse my ignorance.. but what do u mean by
"An arch 2 plus F power"

"A" power is the best right???.. i see all these letters next to each player .. about 6 or so.. where can i find what they each mean.. eg A,D,B,F,F etc..
and where does the arch show itself.. and what does it mean??
btw.. if someones power is great..eg A or B does that mean physically the Bat cursor (normal one size of a bat, and the big hitting cursor which is as small as the ball size) inccreases size for certain players??

finally who's the biggest hitter in the game.. and what club does he play for?? Does the top team have the best hitters in them.. or just heaps of above average hitters..??


hope that question actually makes sense.. sorry bout the silly questions

any help will be much appreciated, ta
steve (just got pawapuro 12 K n Love what ive seen so far even though i havent even learned all teh basics yet - so much more to look forward to)

finally got the game huh? great

the stats are as follow from top to bottom:

arch - the arrow above the letters, from 1-4, higher this is the higher arching ur hits will be, 3 or 4 is needed to consistently hit homeruns (of coz power is also needed)

meet - the higher the larger the batting size is -> easier to hit

power - the higher the harder the batter will hit

speed - faster u run bases and during defense

arm strength - faster ur throws will be

defense - faster release of the ball, more accurate, able to react quicker after the ball is hit, wider diving span, higher u jump, and also affect how quick u move (defense + speed are both needed on how fast a player move in defense)

there's also a hidden stat that u wont see during the regular stat screen when u choose ur team, however u can see it in the detail status screen under option

All stats goes from G to A, with A being the highest and G the lowest.

Meet increases the batting cursor, power just makes ur batter hit harder. And in order to hit homeruns, u gotta switch to power hitting (there are rare cases that using contact hitting will get homeruns, but those are extremely rare).

the biggest hitter in 12ketteiban is matsunaka, zuleta and kanemoto. matsunaka and zuleta plays for fukuoka softbank hawks, while kanemoto is the slugger of hanshin tigers.

the strongest team in this game is hanshin tigers, chiba lotte marines and fukuoka softbank hawks imo.

hanshin tigers have good pitching, tons of hard-throwing pitchers plus the best bullpen in the whole league, and the best current leadoff man in NPB akahoshi, and the cleanup lineup of kanemoto and imaoka are one of the best. overall they have great depth and balance in the team

marines dun have much power hitters, but half of their team bats great during chances, and their whole lineup is full of balance and good contact hitting players and good speed. their pitching is also one of the best.

softbank is the hardest hitting team in this game, with 4 players have A power (no 3-6 batter in their lineup - batista, matsunaka, jojima, zuleta). Their batting lineup could very easily be the best in the whole NPB. Their starting pitching staff have the highest stats in 12 ketteiban as well. Bullpen is a little weak, but their starting pitchers can usually carry them thru 8 or 9 innings easily.

Shinigami,

So far I've only managed about 20 HRs with Kubo.

But I haven't given up yet...

I'm considering starting a new thread in which people could post and compare their HR derby totals. People would list the player name, the HR total, and the stadium.

And this would all be governed by the HONOR SYSTEM.

I mean, what would be the point of lying about HR totals? No one stands to gain anything, other than bragging rights.

Does this sound cool to anyone else?

U sure can do it, but there wont be many people posting, haha

i usually just play a round of HR derby right before i am about to shut off the game for the heck of it. Well, if i ever get a 100 HR try, then I probably will not come back, it gets pretty boring after a while, haha. My highest total is just 82 (with my original 200 power hitting monster), so i will still play it once in a while to get a few more OBs.

That kubo 40ish HR try was something i've never done, and didn't do it once more again.

Thanks heaps for your previous post on telling me what the stats mean - ive added this info to John's translation guides. very helpful indeed...and now im finding it quite easy to go through regular games etc, and also understanding what things mean, and how to alter difficulty settings etc.

I actually played heaps yesterday (yes i finally had time).. and my batting stinks haahah It was much easier on 2 player... when i play against the com.. even with setting the hitting to the pink option on contact cursor (the one which mean its more forgiving) - i didnt get a run in about 4 games haha how embarrasing. U guys must be laughing haha..
I think its cause i swung at almost anything, but also, any hit would be a poor one.. and if i did get the odd nice hit.. to get a player on base... the next batters would stuff up - haha me i mean.

In the tutorial batting, obviously its much easier.. as in home run derby where the ball just goes down the middle..but any tips to hit runs in a game.. even homers??? i think its more a practice thing... so ill keep pluggin away.

also ta shini for letting me in on the top teams etc.. as a confidence thing, im gonna use the better teams.. who knows.. i probably was doing this before anyway haha

oh yeah.. also John, i was playing homerun derby the other day, and yes.. u can change the view.. after the ball is hit by pressing square for view from left field.. circle from right field..and a fav of mine..the triange for a view that basically follows just behind the ball still i wished they had the topish view as in the normal gameplay view.. still..that triangle (behind the ball) view is awesome dont know who i used..but 145m was my biggest hit. Im gonna guess in saying that a fair bit further than what cricketers normally hit.. when they hit sixes.. depends if they hit it just over the boundary (i think normally 80-90m in cricket) or to the top tear or even out of the stadium..which is rare..but a great sight

cheers,
steve

I found Pawapuro's learning curve, especially with the hitting, a bit steep. If you've never played a Pawapuro game before, it can seem a bit overwhelming at first.

Here are my suggestions, things that helped me when I was learning the game:

- Use the assisted (PINK) batting cursor, sounds like you're already doing this.

- Leave the CPU Pitching on NORMAL.

- When batting don't be afraid to let some pitches go by, even if they're strikes. Only swing at EVERY strike when you've got 2 strikes against you and you must protect the plate. If you've got less than 2 strikes against you, you should be more patient. Don't just look for ANY strike, look for a good pitch to hit.

Thanks for the reminder on how to change the camera view during HR Derby.

My deepest HR in the Derby traveled 153m.