MLB The Show 21 Features: San Diego Studios Reveals Pitching, Hitting, and Gameplay Changes
San Diego Studio presented the first of six MLB The Show 21 Features videos on Thursday. In the video series, they’ll preview some of the updates in the MLB simulation game. In their first episode, they looked at the changes coming to pitching and hitting in The Show. Those include new difficulty and gameplay adjustments, as well as the PAR interface for pitching.
MLB The Show 21 Features Video reveals new gameplay settings
In the new game, players get to choose their preferred gameplay style at the start of The Show. That will include Casual, Simulation, or Competitive. The Casual and Competitive options didn’t exist until MLB The Show 21, giving gamers more options for how they enjoy the game.
These options will fine-tune the gameplay for how various aspects of the game work, such as bunts, contact swings, steals, and more.
Casual gives fans a fun, stress-free option. However, the Competitive option puts pretty much everything on the user to really immerse themselves in the gameplay. It also features a stricter ruleset to prevent users from spamming and taking advantage of the game.
Dynamic Difficulty adjusts gameplay as gamers progress
After selecting a team and gameplay style, gamers will select one of six difficulty levels. These are Beginner, Rookie, Veteran, All-Star, Hall of Fame, and Legend. Once that difficulty level is selected, gamers can choose to set the Dynamic Difficulty setting to On or Off. This will adjust the challenge based on a gamer’s performance using MLB The Show 21. Those options can be changed at the Settings Menu at any time too.
Ramone Russell pointed out during the presentation that since this will be the first time MLB The Show is on Xbox consoles, Xbox users will probably benefit from putting Dynamic Difficulty on. This will help the game adjust the difficulty to them as they play.
Check swings, Perfect Perfect hit updates
They mentioned some key changes with Check Swings in MLB The Show 21, because they were being too generous in The Show 20. The developers removed the Discipline rating for players, so that puts the check swing 100 percent on the user.
Also, with hitting, the Perfect Perfect hits have been tweaked a bit. In The Show 20, 98 percent of Perfect Perfect hits were fair, but now that’s up to 99-plus percent. So Fernando Tatis and other top hitters in the game will be able to have more fair hits than previously on Perfect Perfect.
PAR interface should give more accurate pitching
Pitching will now include the new PAR system, which refers to the Perfect Accuracy Region. This is available with Analog, Meter, or Pinpoint pitching. With PAR, a shadow will appear around the ball for the pitcher’s pitches. That shadow will shrink or grow larger based on difficulty level and a pitcher’s energy or confidence.
If a user input for the pitch is just right, it will land the pitch within where that shadow is, 100 percent of the time. Obviously, the better pitchers in MLB will tend to have better use of various pitches in PAR, while minor league call-ups won’t.
A screenshot from the video (below) looks at Blake Snell’s four different pitches and how the PAR system looks with each. Notice the shadow’s size is larger or smaller with specific pitches for Snell, giving more or less of a region where the ball goes.
The video also gave a better idea of how the three different PAR styles are in terms of the interface. Pinpoint is the most accurate but also takes work to master. Meter is second-most accurate, and Analog is third.
Their video above goes into a deep dive about how Pinpoint pitching will be extra helpful for gamers with the “best stick skills.” It seems very similar to how 2K updated NBA 2K’s shot meter for even more user control over jump shots and layups.
Basically, with the new MLB The Show 21 features coming to next-generation consoles, it seems developers wanted to take user control of gameplay to the next level. However, time will tell if gamers love or hate these updates based on glitches or gameplay issues and how it affects their experience.
Visit our MLB The Show page to get more news about San Diego Studio’s game.