The Most Overlooked Yakyu Game

Everyone knows about Pawapuro, Pro Yakyu Spirits, and even Namco's Netsu series. The one series that gets overlooked, and seems ridiculously deep to me is Sega's Pro Yakyu Team O Tsukurou! series. I'm not talking about the PC version that I reviewed a short time ago. I'm talking about the very good console version that has yet to see a new release since 2005. I've had the opportunity to play a few of these, and I own a couple of the J-League Soccer versions.

This series has been around since the Sega Saturn　and Dreamcast, but it used to look very different. It used to have these super deformed characters with huge heads and huge lips. Only a handful of these characters looked like the big stars at the time.



When the series moved to the PS2, it went to a more realistic style that matched the J-League Team O Tsukurou! series. No matter how hard I try, I just can't get into the old style graphics.



This series is really special because of all the different player/manager/coach/scout skills, replay value, and OB/fictional players. You can play up to 100 years with a single team, I believe. Some players will have one or two skills, with the ability to learn more from teammates or coaching staff. Some examples of these skills are...

Speedster(Araki, Akahoshi, Fukumoto, etc.) - Ability to steal bases is increased until the third pitch is thrown.

Miracle Man(Nagashima, Akiyama, Shinjo, etc.) - If you get on base in a close game, the chance for your team to rally is greatly increased.

Bun Bun Maru(Ikeyama, Taiho, etc.) - You only try and swing for the fences. Power is increased, but contact goes way down.

Belief In Youngsters(Manager skill that Nagisa Arakaki has) - If you use a player younger than 24 in a pinch hit or relief opportunity, their abilities increase.

These skills make management very deep and will keep you on your toes in certain game situations. Player attributes are deeper than any other game. They are ranked from D to S+. For positions players, it goes something like this...

Stamina(How well your body will keep up during the season)
Contact Batting
Contact vs. Righties
Contact vs. Lefties
Power Batting
Bunting
Batters Eye(I think every game should have this)
Speed
Baserunning Technique(covers SB skill, as well)
Defense
Mentality(RISP)
Catching Technique
Arm Strength
Throwing Technique
Catcher Lead

Then they have a small screen showing the field and the different positions that player can defend with letter grades for each possible area. You can also press R2 and see how much range your player has at certain positions. This is nice because sometimes you'll have players who can play areas that don't even show up on the fielding screen. Pitchers have a whole other set of attributes.

Stamina - How much energy used differs on what kind of pitcher your guy is and what situation he's put into. Relievers with A level stamina won't last as long as a complete game style starter with A level stamina.

Pitcher's Stuff - Reflects how much batters will swing and miss at pitches. It also represents how easy or difficult it may be to hit you hard.

Control - Probably more important than any other game because you can't personally control where your pitcher locates. If he gives up walks, he's going to give up a lot of runs.

Defense - Not that important for pitchers, but it will determine how often the pitcher will bobble a comeback grounder.

Mentality - How well your pitcher does with RISP.

Then of course you have the different breaking balls with their letter grades. One of the cooler parts of this game is the fact that great attributes don't necessarily mean you'll get great results in game. Condition and mentality play a big role, and sometimes your player will just be in a random slump. Shigeo Nagashima hit 38 homers for me last year, but he's only hit 4 with close to 40 games finished this year. He's still on pace for 100 RBIs, though. Just like in real life, no player is guaranteed to repeat the success he had previously. This is the only game I've played to successfully recreate this.

On the flip side, some players will just explode for big numbers out of nowhere. Former Hanshin lead off man Mayumi was a pretty marginal player for me. His attributes aren't off the charts, but he's on pace for 30 homers and 60 RBIs this year. He had a very similar power surge in his real life career when the Tigers had that miracle 1985 season.

The game will also give you an assistant who you can send out to different areas of Japan and even the world. He'll come back with random items that you must combine to unlock events or increase the popularity of your hometown. For example, if you combine a student's book bag with a plate of spaghetti, you can open a baseball academy in Italy.

When you open a baseball academy, I believe you're contracted with that academy for 3 years. Players will be anonymous and referred only by nicknames. It's your job to figure out what position they should play and what training they should do by the end of the year. You'll unlock player ratings if you're successful, then you can sign whoever you want at the end of the season. Some of the players stink and some of them are future hall of famers.

While you play games during the season, you'll have to send scouts out to the various HS, college, and industrial league tournaments. Scouts will increase their knowledge of the different areas of Japan over time and be able to scout where the great players are. If a player is really good and on the radar of a lot of teams, you'll have to compete with a maximum of 4 other teams while scouting. Each successful meeting with the player will unlock more info about him until you get the option to sign him before the draft. HS players are unavailable to sign before the draft. These players are all a mixture of fictional players and historical figures from NPB's past. This doesn't just include legends like Nagashima and Oh, though. They also have very average players like Dave Ohkubo and Kazuyoshi Ono. A lot of players will also show up as possible managers and coaches, where they will have special skills and training methods for spring camps. If one of your players decides to retire and he put up good numbers, he's eligible to have his number retired and enter your franchise hall of fame.

You can also send scouts overseas to leagues in North America, Central America, China, Korea, South Africa, Europe, and Australia. If you don't have a great foreign scout, it'll be very rare, but you can get some very good players. Jeff Williams will show up in Australia. All those great suketto of the past like Randy Bass, Ralph Bryant, and Warren Cromartie will show up in American Leagues. You'll even be able to find fictional versions of Ichiro, Matsui, Bonds, Nolan Ryan, Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, etc. Ichiro costs a fortune and Bonds demands ridiculous salary increases. Matsui is very cheap to begin with and can hit 40-50 homers, though.

A lot of people would argue this is the best yakyu franchise going. Some of the more hardcore fans actually put up blogs to keep track of how their teams are doing, since the game doesn't keep track of individual season stats over the years. It'll keep track of career numbers, though. If a Pro Yakyu Team O Tsukurou! 4 is announced for 2008, it would be easy for me to forget about what happened to Pawapuro. The next time I go to Japan, I'm definitely going to seek out the two previous PS2 versions I haven't played.