First Impression of Pawapuro 12 Ketteiban

I won't get to play much more tonight, but here are some more impressions.

Nishioka and Imae have their own ouendan songs.

Playing the allstar game on Powerful difficulty yielded these results.

Pacific over Central 4-1 9 hits to 6
Nishiguchi pitched a complete game with 9 Ks
Kuroda gave up a solo HR to Zuleta
Uehara gave up a 3 run HR to Cabrera

is powerful difficulty easier than it was in 12??

oh, and does powerful CPU pitching improves in the ball/strike ratio? it was close to like a ridiculous 8:2 ratio in 12 on powerful, they just dunno how to throw pitches out of the strike zone

also are powerful CPU hitting tuned down? I cant imagine being able to shut down powerful hitting in 12. Still remember that horrible 12-4 game i lost to the giants with them hitting like 6 HRs off me -__-|||

thx for ur insights

Yes it is. Powerful CPU pitching is about the same. It seems like it's easier to walk when the pitcher is off, but you need to have a really good eye. I made Masato Yoshii walk me twice in a row.

Powerful batting is interesting. I hated it at first, because I struck out everybody on Hard, but was hit hard on Powerful. To give you an idea how easy Hard level is now, I struck out 13 batters in a row with Utsumi by basically using curves and fastballs.

Anyway, you have to throw just outside of the strike zone now. You will be forced to throw more balls and will give up more walks. I gave up 20 hits to Rakuten when I stayed with my Pawapuro 12 methods. Now that I've switched to throwing more outside and forcing the CPU to chase pitches, I can get 5-8 hit games. Also, it seems like the strike out count is more realistic on Powerful.

Some changes I've noticed so far...

Catchers don't take off their masks for fly balls.

You'll only wave off other fielders on a high fly when there are people around you.

The three items that excite me most are:

-More high infield choppers. There just weren't enough of these in 12.

-Pop fouls behind the catcher. These were basically nonexistent in 12, though I thought that there were too many in 11 Chou Ketteiban.

-More CPU and Human walks.

My copy should arrive today, but I'm not going to open it until X-mas. Can't wait!

On 12, I play with CPU pitching and batting set to HARD and CPU running and fielding set to POWERFUL. Based on what I've read in this thread, it sounds like I might have to change my difficulty settings for 12 Ketteiban.

Here's a video I captured of Benny plowing Hidaka over at home plate.

http://www.youtube.com/?v=9f9aIjXqh0U

wooh~, that was nice

any more vids??

i still dunno if i am getting this or not...kinda broken these days from parties and presents and stuffs

so only hopes of easing this itchiness is for u to provide me with more videos XD~~

i'd appreciate if u guys can make me more videos to watch IF u feel like doing it

i might somehow get this game sooner or later even if not, so...ya

enjoy the game~

I probably wouldn't bother getting this. The new stats are nice, but I'm having trouble figuring out the right settings. Ever since this new producer came on board, the game balance has sucked. I really don't know where I stand with yakyu games anymore.

Hard level is way too easy and Powerful can be very frustrating. There needs to be a middle ground. I don't know what's wrong with Konami these days.

I wonder why they haven't updated the website. The game is out already and the website is still uncomplete. Where's the web designer?

"I wonder why they haven't updated the website. The game is out already and the website is still uncomplete."

Video game news is way more indepth in Japan, with Famitsu, Impress Game Watch, GPara, Weekly Jump, and many more gaming magazines and sites throughout Japan many of these have the information on video games in Japan before it's out on the website through contracts through the company to display this information. There isn't much information that isn't found in Japanese magazines and sources that wasn't released, plus it's also released daily and weekly for the Japanese audience with Famitsu Weekly(though I'm not sure here). Though it's very frustating to a foreign auidence who doesn't have the resources to view the material, and therefore misses out because of the language barrier and more so because of the regional-restriction on the PS2.

I think I figured out what I did wrong on Powerful. I was so used to just pitching to the corners in Pawapuro 12 that I forgot all about the middle of the strike zone. Now that I vary my locations and choice of pitches, I don't think I should have so many problems.

This new style will make experts very frustrated, though. I'm not used to walking batters and giving up runs. I restarted my Pennant and I'll give you an example of what the game was like.

Shimizu dominated the first 4 innings and only gave up 2 hits. Kosaka and Nishioka got a couple hits and exposed Fujii's weaknesses as Rakuten's catcher by stealing bases. That setup a score of 2-0 early on.

Iwakuma wasn't too bad, and struck out the power hitting Franco and Lee to stay out of trouble. Shimizu gives up a few hits and Rakuten gets on the board from a Luis Lopez single. Until the 8th inning, the game was 4-1.

Shimizu stayed in a bit too long, gave up a walk, and a couple hits to make the game 4-2. This set up a huge pinch for Yamasaki coming out of the bullpen. He got a couple outs, but gave up a hit to Luis Lopez to tie the game.

Iwakuma then gets an out and is replaced by Taninaka. Taninaka isn't too sharp, but finishes out the inning. Komiyama then comes in for Lotte and gets a scoreless top of the 9th after making Satake look foolish with the Shake.

Taninaka continues in the bottom of the 9th. He strikes out Lee. Imae goes in and lines the 5th pitch up right center. He steals second in a huge gamble, since his legs aren't at the level of Nishioka or Kosaka. Satozaki goes up and flies out to shallow center. Kosaka is supposed to go up, but Hori will pinch hit. Hori sees a first pitch fastball right down the middle and smacks it over Iida in right center. Imae comes home and Lotte wins the season opener via pinch hit sayonara.

Hmm, interesting...so they let the pitch go even if it's down the middle, if u're able to move them around and vary ur pitch

u're not using YFK combination to end game???

I use YFK to keep leads and I use Yamasaki and Komiyama when I'm behind. Takagi is used for long relief.

My settings are all Powerful except CPU pitching. I set that to Hard so they throw balls out of the strike zone more.

I advise guys playing on Powerful to set defense to semi-auto to avoid defensive frustrations. Mix up your pitches and pitch to the strike zone lines everywhere in the box. Make sure to keep the CPU batter guessing. That's the only way you'll get grounders, fly balls, etc. If they predict where you're going to go, they'll get hits every time.

I also advise you to be more conservative with pitchers. I used to try and get complete games all the time. If I do that now, I'll lose more. To give you an example...

Shingo Ono pitched decent for 3 innings, but broke down in the 4th. He was hit many times in a row and ended up giving away 7 runs, because I refused to take him out. After that, our bullpen gave up only 1 run for the next 5 innings. You need to understand when the day is done for your pitchers. Pulling them out at the right time is key.

Dan Serafini pitched a very solid 6 innings the next day. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits. With the score 3-1, I decided to take him out and finish the game with Yabuta, Fujita, and KobaMasa. They pitched an inning each and gave up only a single hit the entire time. We won 4-1. That is the key to winning on Powerful level in Pawapuro 12 Ketteiban. It stinks that there's such a huge gap in the different difficulties, but Powerful seems really solid right now.

hey, just robbed my friend of his game and played a few games, so gonna post up some thoughts

first off, i think i am liking 12:kettaiban more than 12. the difficulty level is pretty much more real than 12 (well, at least in powerful...)

i first tried all powerful but hitting at hard again. but it got bored after 2 games already, first game i used tigers against the giants, i killed uehara in 6 innings, with kanemoto hitting a 2 run shot, akahoshi scoring 2 times after stealing second with toritani's rbi singles. sugiyama pitched 9 innings, gave up 1 hit to abe, striking out 12. i won 4-0.

2nd game was nippon ham vs orix, seguignol and shinjo both hit solo shots, and the scary thing was kanemura pitched 85 pitches for a 1 hit shutout, which came with 1 out in the 9th, and kanemura was just yellow face normal condition. orix's players were swinging at everything, and was striking out. heck, they even screwed up slow balls down the middle into double play groundouts. i won 2-0

got bored immediately, switched it to all powerful, played a game lotte vs rakuten. watanabe vs hodges. i jumped to an early lead in the first, after kosaka stole second, then scoring on a matt franco double. then they got the run back in the 2nd, before lee smacked a changeup over the wall in the 5th with benny and saburo in scoring positions to make it 4-1. Then they got a few back, making it 4-4 before i went ahead again with nishioka and kosaka scoring on saburo's 2-out single. 6-4 going into the 7th, altho watanabe pitched well, but gave up 9 hits, so i took him out and went with YFK trying to shut the things down. But then i thought i was gonna win, so i became lazy and didn't think before pitches and locations. they tied it up in the 7th before yabuta made it out of the inning with 2 on, then fujita completely screwed it, giving up a grand slam to isobe, they later got another to make it 6-11. and it was over. at the end, i gave up 21 hits for 11 runs, even though i had 14 hits myself.

it sucked, but all i could blame was my own mistake for letting loose and didn't think before i throw a pitch. overall i think this is good, altho it was only rakuten, at least i know it's realistic with my level. gonna go try it a little bit more with some tougher teams and see how it goes.

but to be honest, even if powerful becomes waaay too hard, i dun want hard batting anymore, they look like 12's normal, and they were dumb. 2 straight games with 1 hitter complete game, now that's bad.

I use Powerful on CPU running, Hard on CPU defense(so I can hit doubles and triples), Powerful on CPU batting, and Hard on CPU pitching.

Ok, played another match, i guess i am extremely pleased with all powerful settings.

i got a triple today with akahoshi, and a few doubles into the gap, so i am ok with powerful defense

and i think right now i am thinking more and looking at the right pitches to swing at, so powerful pitching is good too (tho i am still getting way too many hits)

just did another match using yakult vs nippon ham, kawashima vs lee. i had 7 hits in my first 8 hitters (iwamura worst condition, stroke out), altho aoki tried stealing second but was gun out. ramirez swinged at a changeup offering from lee and it went over the right field wall for a 2-0 early lead. Then the guys followed up and riggs got an rbi single to make it 3-0.

kawashima kept the batters at bay, giving up only 1 hit thru 3, moving the fielders deeper or shallower made a great differences against guys like seguignol and ogasawara, they popped out a few times at the warning tracks, and 75% of my pitches to them were cutters that they didn't get completely, ending up not enuff distance for a HR.

they got a run back in the 4th when i loosened up a bit after once again getting ogawasara and seguignol to pop up, and i tried to go in the middle with a fastball on a 2-2 count on inaba, he sends it out of the park, making it 3-1. I got 3 more runs off yokoyama in the bottom of the 4th (lee had 7 hits, and looked bad, they took him out in the 4th) with a double by aoki, singles from miyamoto, iwamura, manaka and riggs to make it 6-1.

It was 6-2 after motoi made kawashima pay with another solo offering, but after 8 innings kawashima only gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, while striking out 6. Ishii came in to close the ninth, gave up another solo jack to seguignol on a first pitch in-high fastball, but then settled down, struck out inaba, got motoi to pop out, before catching kaneko looking at a forkball low and out touching the edge of the box.

7 hits gave up by the pitchers, 14 hits including ramirez's 2 run jack, and miyamoto's 4-5 outing. 6-3 results.

i realize that it's not safe to pitch in, in and high against powerful resulted in a few HRs already in like 2 powerful matches, and their hits mostly came from in and low pitches. pitching in make them easier to pull on the ball and therefore creating more power to pull it out of the park, and so far none of them seems to be vulnerable to inside pitches, altho it's effective if u pitch in 'just' outside the of the strike zone, batters in more cases will try to swing at it and get K'ed.

seems pretty nice so far, i like the choppers and foul balls behind the catchers, altho i tend to be seeing a few more than enuff choppers than i want, but then that's just me and my fingers not responding fast enuff to get it right

btw, any takes on pulling balls??? i know my reflexes aren't fast enuff, and when in powerful pitching, i always react too slow and/or move the cursor too slow to the ball and ends up slapping it softly into the infield, making me rarely swinging at in pitches right now bcoz of this reason.

wow, didn't realize i wrote this much...sorry guys~~~ ^^;

Its nice to hear about a triple being hit against POWERFUL Cpu defense.

I felt that this was a bit too difficult to accomplish in 12. Though I did have a few in 11 Chou Ketteiban.

Well, if you're ever going to hit a triple, it'll only be with Akahoshi. Trust me.

I'm still trying to figure out what strategies will work best for realistic stats. I hit too many HRs with the Giants. I also don't want Nishi going 4 for 4, but that's what happened.

I guess lack of realism still turns me off from Pawapuro. I don't like how the pitchers can effectively hit, unlike Pro Yakyu Spirits. When you simulate a full season, there are way too many RBIs hit. You'll see like 10 or more people with 100 RBIs, and a bunch more with 80 and 90 RBIs. It's also way too easy to steal bases.

I think I'll just stick with the various Success Modes in all the different installments, and mess around with My Life Mode with a pitcher every now and then. I'll hope that PS3 brings some better stats. I just can't play a game without realistic statistics.

In my season/league for 12, I played the first 35 games without simulating. I played as the Hawks. And I began to sense that Kawasaki, Chibahara, and Omura were all stealing too many bases.

But then Kawasaki suffered some injuries, and I began to simulate games. At season's end and when all was settled - the SB stats didn't seem all that outrageous.

I think I understand what you're getting at though, BigManZam.

If you kept playing instead of simulating, you'd probably get over 100 SBs. I know I had 25 with Nishioka by April 22nd.

hey big man when you get a chance look at the other messages for you and see if you can help ot tks and merry christmas. kid

Here are a few things I've noticed:

- Its easier to hit homeruns with guys that have a "B" in power. This is a welcome change for me because I felt it was too difficult to hit HRs with "B" guys in 12. Nearly all of my HRs in 12 came with "A" guys.

- Triples seem to come a bit easier too. This is also a welcome change because I almost never saw them in 12.

- It seems easier to really get around on a ball and pull it over over the wall for a HR. I felt that I hit too many opposite field shots in 12.

Finally, I don't know if Bullpen45 is still playing Pawapuro. But Bullpen45, if you are - the Carp are much stronger, offensively at least, in 12 Ketteiban.

Carps are pretty good in this game...their pitching is around the same, but better than 12. And their batting lineup had massively improved...altho there's a drop in larocca and shima's stats, arai has become a monster, and maeda's powers gone up too. plus with the fact now that shima and larocca without their A power, they're actually using more meet power instead of power swing...making them WAY hard to strike or fly out in powerful. And dun even talk about arai...played a game the other day and he rocked me for 2 HRs, his power is just slightly below matsunaka's, and can almost take u out of the park to the opposite field everytime u allowing to get a good crack at the ball. it's pretty scary facing their lineup.

Which is exactly why I stopped playing Pawapuro, because the only reason the Carp batters get so many HRs is because Hiroshima's stadium is tiny. 99% of Shima's homeruns were at Hiroshima. Matsunaka deserves the power, because he spreads them around and Yahoo Dome is huge. I can't stand giving up homeruns at decent sized stadiums to Hiroshima's scrubs. I'm playing Pro Yakyu Spirits 2 right now.

This is Zam, by the way.

Hiroshima don't have that much scrubs, well the bullpen is a joke and they definitely need at least 2 more bonified starters.

I do think konami did went overboard with Shima, especially in Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2 giving him both As for meet and power.

I see where you're coming from, BigManZam. And I respect your opinion. You know much more about the real-life teams than I do.

But personally, I like having a few ballparks in the game that yield HRs much more easily. It adds variety/spice to the game dynamics. I'll sometimes pitch power guys slightly differently when I know that a long pop-up could clear the wall.

Three ballparks come to mind: the Carp's home park, and two of the extra stadiums (you probably know which two I mean).

Anyway, this is just my opinion.

So far, I'd have to say that this is the best version of Pawapuro that I've ever played. From the variety of animations, to the seemingly infinite number of ways the ball could come off the bat, to just the OVERALL FEEL: this game is clearly a step forward from 12.

Matsunaka does seem to hit deeper bombs than most. I jacked a 148m shot with him in my first game.

And I actually enjoyed hitting 3 HRs with the Carp in the Tokyo Dome. I'm not sure that it was realistic, but it sure was fun!

I'm still playing Pawapuro 12 ( although i did not get the fall version yet)...
but since I got Yakyuu Spirit 2 I've been playing it alot more then pawapuro.
Has the balls/strikes ratio been changed in the fall version ?
(that was my main problem with Pawapuro 12)

After playing Ketteiban some, I'm not sure the ball/strike ratio has changed all that much. So it might not be for you, Bullpen45.

But overall, this game feels just about perfect. Much better than regular 12, in my opinion. Although regular 12 did still move the series forward, in my opinion.

And I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but I'll say it again here - the Carp's offense has significantly improved in Ketteiban. But their pitching's still a bit sketchy.

Shinigami also offered insightful comments on the Carp's hitting and pitching earlier in this thread.