If you have been following Japanese game news, chances are that you may have seen the above character at some point. He is Pawapuro-kun, the mascot character of Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball, a series of baseball games created by Konami that has a huge following in Japan. And he will have another new game on the PlayStation platform soon.
As reported by Japanese news blogs Ryokutya and Hachima, the latest Weekly Famitsu magazine has revealed Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2018, which will be released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan. This upcoming new iteration is slated to follow in the footsteps of its prequel Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2016, which managed to sell over 100,000 copies on PS4 and Vita separately in Japan.
The upcoming 2018 edition will retain the Pawafes Mode, first appeared on the 2016 edition, that has the player compete in a tournament against legacy Success Mode characters. This time, it will take place at the Queen Of Festival luxury liner. The new game will also have more usages of a Roulette system. While in the 2016 edition the player’s team would always bat in the bottom of the inning, the latest iteration will now decide randomly if the team will be batting in the top or bottom inning. Roulette will also determine the requirements for recruiting characters in the opponent team.
Also, for the first time ever in the series, Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2018 will have PlayStation VR support. Although details are not known yet, a demo version of the game will be playable at the game series tournament to be held on January 6 at Makuhari Messe.
Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2018 is currently 70% done and will be released in Spring 2018. Although this series is highly popular in Japan, Konami has not localized this series in the recent years, so the chances of this game receiving a Western localization are very slim as well.
