Friday Starter is a weekly column of news and tidbits from the world of baseball video games—past and present, domestic and foreign.
Japanese baseball sim fans’ prayers are answered
Ever since some combination of the Com2uS acquisition and legal threats from an unknown party got the Japanese league stripped out of Out of the Park Baseball 23, the NPB has been officially unplayable in the series.
A new mod released this month on r/OOTP did the work to bring the league back, including player faces, ballparks, and team logo backgrounds in the UI. As a bonus, the Taiwanese CPBL is also included. The mod is only for Out of the Park Baseball 26.
Previously, the best available option was Project Isekai no Yakyuu, a fictionalized Japanese league mod from tehsuigi. But naturally, some players will be most interested in seeing how real players like Munetaka Murakami and Livan Moinelo play in the sim.
The NPB mod will never get enough official blessing to appear on the official OOTP website or Steam Workshop, but hopefully it will continue to get updates in future years. Even if you only play Out of the Park with MLB teams, it’s a huge loss not getting to see real players come over from the Japanese league and add to the talent pool.
New Pawapuro gacha toys
A new line of Pawapuro gacha toys is coming soon (unfortunately right after I get back from Japan). There are five of these 8cm-tall plushies to collect from capsule machines, featuring five of the most popular characters from the series: Pawapuro-kun, Yabe, Dr. Daijoubu, and Mamoru and Susumu Ikari. Their elastic band is meant for hanging onto a bag.
I saw a ton of cutesy fellas attached to bags during my trip, even on some stern-looking salarymen in their 40s. If I saw this set of capsule machine toys, I would have emptied the coin purse for at least a few of them.
Song of the Week
Keeping this post fully Japan-themed, we’ll close with a new girl idol group video dedicated to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu is a girl group, and this preexisting song of theirs, “Chou Saikyou,” is basically unaltered lyrically for the baseball video below.
I’m not really a fan of the genre of “idol groups singing about being cute,” but I like the video because it shows all different kinds of ballpark employees dancing and singing along with the tune in various parts of Escon Field. Press box, stewards, customer support, beer girls, and grounds crew all get in on the act, as the Fighters prepare for their first playoff game on Saturday.