The presentation in the game is pretty fantastic. I love how all the captains have their own team names and banners. A small selection of fields, but with a lot of personality. And the character roster is pretty insane. You can play as the freaking Noki's from Mario Sunshine.
I do like how team composition matters. Different characters have chemistry with others, which will let them work better together, e.g faster throwing when fielding, and if the batter has chemistry with people currently on bases it will make them hit harder...or something. So not only is the roster great, but it even gives you a great reason to experiment with it.
Characters even have different swing styles which affect hit boxes and timing, and the effort that went in to making the large cast feel unique is kinda crazy.
The "story" mode, aka challenge mode has some good concepts. You pick a team captain, and face off against other teams, with missions throughout the match where if you pass the criteria, you recruit characters from their team. I've noticed that if you recruit their team leader before the rest of their team though that you can't challenge them again to get the rest of their teammates, which kinda sucks.
But also in challenge mode you can play mini-games. They vary in quality but provide a nice distraction. With this you earn coins to buy special types of pitches and swings for the "main" characters (basically anyone who is a captain, though they don't have to be the captain in that specific challenge mode).
But damn is this game hard to play. I couldn't figure out the batting in this game at all (which granted as someone who has never played a baseball game outside of Wii Sports may have something to do with it), but 99% of the time I hit the ball it just flies straight into the opponents hands. And the thing is the game has an "easy" option for batting where it shows you the outline of your bat hitbox, and the sweet spot for hitting the ball. But when I get a perfect hit in that sweet spot the opponent still catches it with ease? Like yeah I suck ass, but if you have a system in place specifically to help bad players like me at least make the damn thing intuitive instead of telling me I hit it perfectly when I just handed the opponent the ball tied up in a neat little bow ðŸ˜
When it comes to pitching I'm not sure if there's really any control over that. You have a few different ways to pitch but how can any of them affect gameplay? Surely the AI isn't going to be fooled by any specific throws. The best case scenario is a rock-paper-scissors type thing where the game decides "if you throw X type it'll hit, but if you throw Y type it'll get a strike". Worst case is that the game just decides whether or not the batter will hit regardless of how you throw. And the AI likes to get homeruns a lot, even on standard difficulty. I have no idea if you can prevent that at all, but having the opponent get 3 points in a row instantly makes me feel kinda hopeless.
Fielding felt very clunky. For one thing the AI has the obvious advantage of being able to control everyone at once, while a human player will be running to the ball with one character, then control will suddenly switch, so you start running the opposite direction with another. And throwing the ball to people felt very slow and would often just result in the ball landing randomly on the ground. Meanwhile the AI seemed to be able to throw the ball perfectly into the hands of the person who needed it as it flew across the whole field in milliseconds.
The funny thing is I went in to practice mode specifically for fielding, and you still have to go through he pitching part. You'd think it'd be set up so the AI always hits the ball in a way that lets you catch it or at least put it on the field for you to try and get them out. But no, you have to sit through countless strikes and home runs. I'm here in a game mode that you specifically told me was to practice fielding, why are you letting my opponents hit the ball so hard it makes it literally impossible to do anything with?
This game does almost everything right, but why is it so hard? Even some of the mini-games on easy can provide a challenge. I wanna like the game, but between being unable to figure out the batting, even with the in-game helper trying to provide tips, it always ends up gravitating towards the opponents. And pitching just feels like a waste of time where the result is determined without you doing anything.
I bet the game would be extremely fun with friends though.
I do like how team composition matters. Different characters have chemistry with others, which will let them work better together, e.g faster throwing when fielding, and if the batter has chemistry with people currently on bases it will make them hit harder...or something. So not only is the roster great, but it even gives you a great reason to experiment with it.
Characters even have different swing styles which affect hit boxes and timing, and the effort that went in to making the large cast feel unique is kinda crazy.
The "story" mode, aka challenge mode has some good concepts. You pick a team captain, and face off against other teams, with missions throughout the match where if you pass the criteria, you recruit characters from their team. I've noticed that if you recruit their team leader before the rest of their team though that you can't challenge them again to get the rest of their teammates, which kinda sucks.
But also in challenge mode you can play mini-games. They vary in quality but provide a nice distraction. With this you earn coins to buy special types of pitches and swings for the "main" characters (basically anyone who is a captain, though they don't have to be the captain in that specific challenge mode).
But damn is this game hard to play. I couldn't figure out the batting in this game at all (which granted as someone who has never played a baseball game outside of Wii Sports may have something to do with it), but 99% of the time I hit the ball it just flies straight into the opponents hands. And the thing is the game has an "easy" option for batting where it shows you the outline of your bat hitbox, and the sweet spot for hitting the ball. But when I get a perfect hit in that sweet spot the opponent still catches it with ease? Like yeah I suck ass, but if you have a system in place specifically to help bad players like me at least make the damn thing intuitive instead of telling me I hit it perfectly when I just handed the opponent the ball tied up in a neat little bow ðŸ˜
When it comes to pitching I'm not sure if there's really any control over that. You have a few different ways to pitch but how can any of them affect gameplay? Surely the AI isn't going to be fooled by any specific throws. The best case scenario is a rock-paper-scissors type thing where the game decides "if you throw X type it'll hit, but if you throw Y type it'll get a strike". Worst case is that the game just decides whether or not the batter will hit regardless of how you throw. And the AI likes to get homeruns a lot, even on standard difficulty. I have no idea if you can prevent that at all, but having the opponent get 3 points in a row instantly makes me feel kinda hopeless.
Fielding felt very clunky. For one thing the AI has the obvious advantage of being able to control everyone at once, while a human player will be running to the ball with one character, then control will suddenly switch, so you start running the opposite direction with another. And throwing the ball to people felt very slow and would often just result in the ball landing randomly on the ground. Meanwhile the AI seemed to be able to throw the ball perfectly into the hands of the person who needed it as it flew across the whole field in milliseconds.
The funny thing is I went in to practice mode specifically for fielding, and you still have to go through he pitching part. You'd think it'd be set up so the AI always hits the ball in a way that lets you catch it or at least put it on the field for you to try and get them out. But no, you have to sit through countless strikes and home runs. I'm here in a game mode that you specifically told me was to practice fielding, why are you letting my opponents hit the ball so hard it makes it literally impossible to do anything with?
This game does almost everything right, but why is it so hard? Even some of the mini-games on easy can provide a challenge. I wanna like the game, but between being unable to figure out the batting, even with the in-game helper trying to provide tips, it always ends up gravitating towards the opponents. And pitching just feels like a waste of time where the result is determined without you doing anything.
I bet the game would be extremely fun with friends though.