New Promo Video gives more details on the upcoming game
Above is the PV for the Pawapuro game coming out next month on July 18th in Japan. It’s a 9-minute video going over each feature in the new game in better detail than we’ve had up until now. Namely:
- Ohtani – Konami landed the big fish: Shohei Ohtani is playable despite not actually playing in NPB, the game’s only licensed league. You can play as or against him in just about every mode: Pennant, Eikan Nine, MyLife, etc. Also the Samurai Japan jerseys are in the game.
- Pennant – Three former NPB teams have been added to the game for exhibition or season/franchise play. The Hankyu Braves, Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, and Nankai Hawks. Osaka Stadium has also been added, a stadium that was closed in 1998. Historical NPB season and career records are also added to the game’s Pennant Mode, so you can get some official recognition when one of your players makes history.
- Vs. Legend Battle – Take on OBs (former players) in single at-bat confrontations to unlock them. Reviving an old mode from the PS2 days.
- Pawafes Adventure – The roguelite-ish Pawafes/Pawa Festival mode looks a little different, with a board game-like overworld map for charting your way through the mode. Boss characters from previous games reappear in this mode. Some classic Konami characters are also available: Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3, Bomberman, Goemon, Alucard, Pyramid Head, Pastel Twinbee, and Shiori Fujisaki from Tokimeki Memorial.
- Success – The series’ flagship replayable story/RPG mode brings back several Success modes from previous games: All 12 NPB teams have their own Success mode, the high school captain mode from the previous edition returns, and the board game mode Sakusuccess returns. The all-new mode is Pawafuru Futures, a sci-fi time travel scenario that seems to have a lot of throwbacks to previous games and includes a cool stadium that reminds me of 2020 Super Baseball.
- Eikan Nine – The high school management mode is back with some minor tweaks. You can now customize the look of your team assistant manager, and non-Japanese OB players have been added to the mode for the first time, like Randy Bass.
- MyLife – This Road to the Show-ish life sim mode returns, with new potential girlfriend characters added from previous editions of the series.
- Live Scenario – The “Moments”-like single at-bat mode pulling from real NPB games returns. 2024-2025 adds the ability to create and share your own Scenario challenges.
- Pawapuro Collection – A new mode that lets you unlock and view the opening/title art and opening cinematics from previous Pawapuro games.
Pawapuro-kun in Taiwan
Konami did several promotional events with the CTBC Brothers, a team in the Taiwanese professional league over the past couple weeks. First, one TV broadcast borrowed the Pawapuro UI for their broadcast graphics:
This even included things like the on-screen text after a home run, and split color backgrounds for players who play multiple positions.
Pawapuro-kun also did a dance to the 2024-2025 OP song with a group of cheerleaders:
YouTube Viewing Guide
- Famidaily – Moero!! Pro Yakyuu – I’ve been meaning to recommend RndStranger’s channel here. He does a mini documentary on every Famicom game (plus other consoles now), which obviously includes lots of baseball games. Sharing this one in particular since it lets you hear the voice samples, a special bit of hardware inside the cartridge that doesn’t work playing the game on anything but a real Famicom.
- Jujutsu R.B.I. (PC) CPU vs. CPU Gameplay – Definitely not worth the price tag as it is now unless you’re willing to play the base game, but this is a charming thing. A bonus R.B.I. Baseball hack basically, included with the Jujutsu Kaisen fighting game that came out this year.
- Baseball Heroes (iOS) Gameplay – Boy, I knew Zynga had a bad reputation, but this is the worst game I’ve played yet for the channel. A very simple one of those Flash game home run derby things, with constant ads which I mostly edited out for this video.