Professional Baseball Spirits for all
This blog has repeatedly gone on and on about the latest Prospi game. There have been some disappointments (the bulk of the animations are the same as previous games, there are some small bugs with fielding that need to get worked out, and please Konami give us some alternate jerseys) but overall, it’s been a ton of fun and so gorgeous to look at.
But the first item of business is how do you even buy it? If you live in east Asia (except for China) then you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s available on Steam, you can just buy it. For everyone else, I’ve dug around on several different methods and here’s the best info I have.
Should I get the game for PC or PS5?
Good things about the PS5 version:
- Fewer hoops to jump through to buy it
- Silky smooth performance and great graphics
- Fewer crashes and bugs
- A larger general online player base
Good things about the PC version:
- If a fan translation ever exists, it’s very likely to only work on the PC version
- A higher ceiling graphically if you have a monster rig, with the potential for 4K/60 compared to 1080p on PlayStation
- Cheaper, if you buy from certain regions and don’t care about access to the DLC
For me, my PS5 version is going to get more playing time, but I can read enough Japanese to get around so I’m not all-in hoping for a fan translation.
To give an example to help you estimate your performance on PC: My desktop has a 4060 and an AMD Ryzen 7. The game runs at a stable 60FPS on High settings at 1080p (pretty similar to PS5) or Low settings at 4K (still looks pretty great besides a few smeary hair textures). When I started the game initially with the default settings (which is the “Highest” preset at 1440p), my computer begged for its life and ran at about 4 FPS.
I haven’t had any crashes on PC or PS5 yet, but I’ve heard anecdotes from PC players with odd bugs and semi-frequent crashes.
This is the first PC Konami baseball game in decades, so it’s possible more optimization and bug fixes are coming. On the other hand, the game is also listed as “PS5 Pro-enhanced.” It remains to be seen what improvements are available for those who buy in on the upgraded version of the Sony console.
PlayStation 5 physical copy
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2024-2025 is region-free on PS5, though it can only be purchased digitally with a Japanese PSN account. If you get a physical copy, you can pop it into any PS5 and play. If you create a Japanese account, you can buy the game digitally, download it, and then play it with either the Japanese account or any other account on the same console.
There are several ways to import a physical copy. A simple but costly would be eBay, where the game is going for $80-90. This is a pretty big markup. Play-Asia is a popular site for import games. It’s selling the Japan and Asia versions of the game (these will be identical besides some of the language on the box). The current price is a reasonably small markup on the actual cost, though if you opt for the $9 economy shipping, you may need to wait at least a couple weeks to get the game. The express shipping is much pricier at $24, for the U.S. at least.
Amazon.co.jp will ship internationally. I bought a physical copy and had it shipped to me in the U.S. for $71. You may have to Google Translate a page or two to open an account, or follow this guide, but it is pretty straightforward.
If you’re interested in buying more than one thing from Japan, a site like Buyee would be pretty efficient. You can search there on Yahoo! Auctions or Mercari for a copy of the game using this search: プロ野球スピリッツ2024-2025. After buying the game, and anything else you’re interested in, you can consolidate your shipping and get it all shipped over at once for the same price you’d pay Amazon to ship only the game.
PlayStation 5 digital
If you’d rather avoid paying for shipping and get the game now, you can buy the game digitally. This requires creating a Japanese PlayStation account, and acquiring some PlayStation gift cards to fund your purchase. This doesn’t require a VPN at any stage.
After you’ve made your Japanese account, you’ll need to put money into it. This requires either a payment method that has a Japanese billing address (not easy to get unless you’ve lived there or have a good friend there willing to help you out and lend a credit card number). Again, Play-Asia has you covered on buying the gift cards, at a pretty big upcharge. But having the game now and arguably without having to put a disc in the drive is a pretty big selling point.
Buying the game on Steam
Unfortunately, Konami made the somewhat rare move of region-locking the game on Steam. There is no physical PC copy, and only Steam accounts in east Asian countries can buy the game. And Valve has a history of fighting scams that involve cross-region gift cards and purchases and the like, and they have an interest in stopping people from swapping regions to find the best price for a game. So this process is a little tougher.
The general steps are the same as buying digitally on PS5: You need to make an account in the region you want to buy in, then you need to fund the account somehow. Unlike on PSN, you can’t just make a Steam account in any region you want.
Steam has language in their terms of service that forbid using IP proxying to appear in a different region, whether for price shopping or to get access to content that isn’t available in your region.
The site ProSpi Translation has a guide for one method to access the game. I have also heard about other users who have a friend in a region where the game is on sale: The friend makes a new account, buys the game, then hands credentials over. If you’re temporarily in a country that sells the game, you can create a new Steam account there and then fund it with gift cards for that region without any issues, for another potential path. Your tastes may vary on what route you want to take.
Neither the game nor Steam require you to be or appear to be in Asia as you play or download the game, so once the game is purchased, you’re home free unless Valve eventually takes umbrage at your methods and decides to ban your account.
YouTube Viewing Guide
Here’s nothing but videos I’ve recorded of the new Prospi game. More on the way in the coming weeks.