Being in Japan, the country is gearing up for baseball. There are ads everywhere for the upcoming Japan Series. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that there are ads for Konami’s mobile baseball game. For the last week, I’ve played a lot of eBaseball: MLB Pro Spirit on my many commutes around Japan. It has some interesting elements, but I’m not a fan of the gacha mechanics.
Trying to build a winning lineup
The game is a tad confusing at the start. The game grants you what presumably looks like a solid squad. My starting lineup features Aaron Judge, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Shohei Ohtani. I thought this was a sample squad, but that’s not true. Yes, you have those players, but they aren’t rated as high as you’d think.
The game incorporates a Grade system for player cards. Starting from Grade I to Grade IV, this limits the potential a card can grow while on your squad. To get a player to move from one grade to the next requires using duplicate cards and other training boosts. It’s a long process if you decide to go this route.
The other option is getting lucky through contracts. There are a few ways of getting better rated players, but contracts use Diamonds to open. You can spend real money on Diamonds, but you also earn them through playing the other modes in the game. Thanks to that, I’ve managed to pick up a few solid Grade IV players. Now, I need to use them in-game so that they earn experience and level up.
Long Seasons of grinding
The game’s main single-player mode is Season. This isn’t a traditional 162-game season. In Rookie Difficulty, you have to win 30 out of 37 games to reach the postseason. Then, once in the postseason, you’ll play through three rounds of playoffs to win the World Series. The only downside here is that the game doesn’t let you choose your difficulty. So, a new player will start a season on Beginner before moving on to Rookie. Only after winning Rookie will you get to play on Normal.
The game does offer you the option of playing through a full match, but for a mobile game that’s too long. Instead, you’ll most likely play their Highlight mode, and this is the most enjoyable part of the game. What happens here is that the game will auto play, but at three different moments, you will take control. When this happens, your performance can earn you rewards.
They call these moments “Show Time”. They are always meant to either turn the tide of a match or to shut down your opposition. You might get a task where you have players in scoring position and you need to drive in the go-ahead run. As a pitcher, you might have players in scoring position but you need to get the last out of the inning. Depending on how well you do, the points you earn reward you with extra coins or in-game items.
Easy to grasp but not much depth after that
It doesn’t take long to get a hang of the controls. Batting has three options: zonal, contact, or power hitting. Most people will stick with zone controls, but both contact and power can be fun to use. You need more timing, but if you’re already winning your games on beginner or rookie, you have time to learn.
I used to enjoy the touch-controls pitching of The Show on PlayStation Vita. So, the touch controls here were easy to grasp. Pitching is very similar. First, you pick your pitch type, then the location you want to aim for. As soon as you do that though, the pitch meter starts. To throw a great pitch you have to tap the screen at the ideal time. Being too early or late will cause your pitch to miss. The timing here takes some time to get used to. Once you do get the hang of it, you’ll be hard to hit.
Unfortunately, that’s all there is to the game on the gameplay front. When playing Highlights, you don’t do any of the fielding. You also don’t determine when your players advance or not. It’s all on the AI. For quick play, this is fine but some people might want more. It does appear that if you play a full game, you have a bit more options to fool around with. For a mobile game, I don’t see too many people going this route outside of online play.
Grinding and even more grinding
Outside of Season mode, there are only a few other game types available to you. You can play online if you choose, but I see most people playing this on their own against the AI. There are a few “Prize Games” available. Playing these can earn you training items that you’ll need to upgrade players. Unfortunately, you can only win up to three of these per match. To upgrade players, you need 20, so you’ll need to play at least seven games to get enough.
This is also an Event. Last week, the event was a Batting Mastery mode. Here, your players face off against different pitchers who throw a specific pitch. You have to earn enough points to complete the challenge. Like Season mode, you start on easy and make your way through three difficulty settings. This is a grind fest since you will need to go more than once per pitcher to earn the necessary points. You might be able to finish a pitch type on Easy mode on one turn. Unless you get consistent home runs, you will need to go a few times.
Events also use a different energy system. It maxes out at 10, so you only get a few attempts per day. You gain one back every hour (now 90 minutes for this week’s event), so it takes a while to get enough. Of course, you can spend Diamonds if you choose, but I saved those for contracts. Since the game only launched a couple of weeks ago, they have been granting more Diamonds and other perks. It’s not bad, but you will still need to play a lot to upgrade players.
Let’s see how things play out
I couldn’t stop playing eBaseball: MLB Pro Spirit this past week. I loved the fast games and the latest event, a home-run derby challenge, is a lot of fun. But, I can’t get past the grinding needed to upgrade players. I have some decent Grade II and III players I’d love to upgrade, but I don’t see an easy way of doing so. I’ll keep playing while in Japan for a few more days, but I don’t know if I’ll stick around much after that.
