Gameplay overview

The game features all 12 Nippon Professional Baseball teams, and both the Pacific League and Central League All-Star teams (circa 2006, but with changes made for traded and/or retired players).

The difficulty level for the game is adjustable. The easiest mode will appeal to younger players who have probably never played a baseball game before in their lives, and the hardest mode—known as Spirits Mode—will give even the most experienced and advanced players a challenge with superior AI. Other modes can be selected in a sort of pseudo-gameplay sliders mode. For instance, gameplay speed can be increased, as well as pitch speed (which can be set to "real" speed).

The basic batting interface is a silhouette of a bat which influences how the ball will travel. Depending on when and where contact was made, that influences where the ball goes. The pitching is a 2-click system where the player selects his pitch around a grid, presses X to start his delivery, then pressing X as one circle converges on another to try and perfectly time the pitch.

Reception

Around the time of its release, it was the only PlayStation 3 video game that was among the top 50 best-selling video games in Japan.^[5]

Improvements and Additions

On the PlayStation 3 version of Pro Yakyū Spirits 5, the game saw many small improvements. The graphics were enhanced further from the previous incarnation, but the major fixes were in the gameplay. First of all, the load times that plagued the previous game were fixed, meaning less of the "black screens" that ere used for short load times in PYS4. The game also has more of a television-style presentation, new animations for slap hits, and a new meter that tells players what pitch the CPU batter is expecting.

The new mode in PYS5 which replaces the MVP Mode in the previous game is Stardom Mode. It plays like a full-fledged Career Mode, where a player can either take control of an existing player or create their own player to go through a maximum of 20 years of play. Experience points are distributed on how well the player does in his at-bat.

Pro Yakyū Spirits 5 Kanzenban

On December 4, 2008, Konami released a new, updated version of Pro Yakyū Spirits 5, with the subtitle "Kanzenban," which means "Perfect Version." Priced at 8000 yen (US$88) and released on both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, Kanzenban touted many improvements over the original as a post-season version of the game. For instance, every player who appeared in a game in the 2008 NPB season for all 12 teams was included on each team's roster, there were new player animations, enhanced artificial intelligence, and also small improvements to graphics (foreign players, for example, no longer look generic and have their actual swings), online play, baserunning, and fielding.

Kanzenban marked the first time since Pro Yakyu Spirits 2004 Climax that a PYS game had been re-made for a post-season version, similar to that of the "Ketteiban" games in Pro Yakyu Spirits' sister series, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu.

New Features

The new major mode in the game for this season is the World Baseball Classic mode. Upon booting the game, the first menu is to decide whether the player wants to play the WBC mode or the regular Pro Yakyuu Spirits game. The rosters are accurate for all WBC teams, and it is possible to play an entire tournament as any of the 16 teams.

Resume

The previous version was released on the 3DS, but publishers have decided to give preference to PlayStation Vita.

The announced release date, is the same for all announced platforms, and is timed to the launch of a new baseball season.

New features and updates

• Has been completely redesigned graphics, back view of many of those before the operation. In addition, the display changes were made to account for the display and the player's name, which contains.
• Roster can be online updated in the PlayStation Vita version.
• Added new commentator - Tsutomu Ito