Out of nowhere, Konami dropped its free to play game eBaseball Pro Spirit for both the PlayStation 5 and PC in early March 2026. The timing here is in line with the discontinuation of it’s former budget title WBSC Power Pros (2023) which was delisted from online storefronts on January 30, 2026 and will have online support for the game shut down on March 31, 2026. If you’ve checked out our coverage on Konami’s Pro Spirits over the years, you’ll know what to expect here, at least when it comes to visuals and gameplay. But when it gets down to it, what exactly does this free version have to offer and, more importantly, is it worth your time? Let’s get into it.
English Support
Before getting into anything else, one great thing about eBaseball Pro Spirit is full English support. Pro Spirits 2024-2025 had partial support but lacked it in the deeper modes that the game had on offer. Sure there are no story heavy elements or anything like that here, but it is nice to have EVERYTHING available in English. You can rest easy on that!
Gameplay
If you’ve never played a title in the Spirits (or Power Pro series), things are easy enough to get used to. Pitching has players choose a pitch with either the D-pad or joystick, select your location and then press X. From that point, timing is key as you’ll have to press X again at the right time as the cursor is shrinking. Pressing this too early to too late will result in a wild pitch. I takes a little while to get used to and you’ll make some mistakes along the way, but it’s a really solid system.
Fielding is a no-nonsense kind of affair, with based being assigned to the face buttons. Additionally, actions such as a jump or dive are assigned to X when the ball is in play. Batting is easy to pick up, too. Normal hits can be done with X, opposite field/delay hits with Circle, and bunting with R2. You can change to a power swing with the tap of R1. I really enjoy the gameplay in Spirit(s) and have for years. Batting can be a bit tough depending on the difficulty settings, but if you give it some time, things will become like second nature.
Outside of the standard gameplay set-up, there are a few other options in case you are having trouble or want to change things up a bit. Some of the other options available let you focus exclusively on batting and pitching, similar to a mobile Pro Spirits style of play, more CPU assist for fielding and batting, and a Power Pros style of gameplay. I prefer the standard style of play with no CPU assist, but it’s great that there are multiple options.
Modes
Pro Spirit features three two main modes - World Championship and Exhibition. Other options are available including Team Edit, Training, Tutorials, the ability to look at player data, settings and a digital manual. If you’re new to the series or want a refresher on things, the tutorial is very helpful at showing you the ropes. Before getting into World Championship, I wanted to touch on Exhibition and the editor. Exhibition can be played with up to four players locally or spectate a CPU game if you choose. One cool aspect of the these is that if you are finding yourself pressed for time, you can opt to save and quit and then pick up and player later.
The editor gives fans tons of options for editing not only their teams, but individual players as well. While I didn’t mess around too much with this aspect of the game, I did go in and create a team of my own and also change the Japanese and United States team uniforms so they more appropriately reflect what they look like in real life. Of course, there are some limitations here, but I was pretty satisfied with my results on both of these. The lighting in the editor is also a bit dark, so the colors end up a bit lighter than what you think they would. Regardless, there are a lot of things that you can do when it comes to customization. Given that odd color choices and designs for the default uniforms for the teams, this is great to mess around with.
World Championship
World Championship is the main hub for online play. Of course, if you’re playing on PS5, you will need to be an active PlayStation Plus member in order to play online. I wasn’t (I primarily play games on my Switch 2 or Switch), so I threw down for a month of service for the purpose of this review.
This section of the game is divided up into two sections - Tournament and Casual Game. We’ll get into Tournament in a minute, but Casual allows you to create a custom match with the parameters of your choosing. You can adjust settings for to opponent strength, set passcodes for private matches and more. If you don’t want to make a match yourself, you can scroll through the different lobbies to see what’s currently available.
Tournament is the main focus here. This section contains several different ongoing, rotating tournaments that you can check out. These all have different rules and Cost Limits for your teams. Just as an aside with Cost Limits, each team that is available, either created by your or the default teams, have these. If your team exceeds these, that essentially means that your team has too many good players and that you cannot use them in online tournaments. You’ll have to make some adjustments to your roster(s). Playing online earns earns you a higher MR, or Match Ranking, as well as additional players and items. Even if you lose, you’ll still earn these points, but obviously you earn more with wins.
Online Play Performance
The online play itself can be a little bit laggy, especially when you are pitching. Your inputs aren’t affected however, when you’re pitching, the ball will appear to be going in very slowly. On the flip side, when you’re batting, this isn’t really an issue. With online play, it’s difficult to nail down exactly why things like this happen. It could be your opponent’s online setup, it could be you, or it just could be something on Konami’s side of things. Regardless, the online play here is mostly fine, but the lag might upset some of you out there.
Visuals, Audio & Performance
Just as with the previous Pro Spirits 2024-2025, the eBaseball Engine also shines in eBaseball Pro Spirit. The stadiums look great, lighting is fantastic, and the rain effect is still awesome, showing water beading up on helmets and forming puddles on the field. The players also sport an incredible level of detail with uniforms, gear and facial expressions. Performance is very stable, with the game running at 60 frames per second and pretty much never skipping a beat. Sound is great, too, with everything that you would hear at a baseball game. The Japanese influence (and carry over from Pro Spirits 2024-2025) is also apparent with the occasional beer girls asking if anyone wants something to drink.
For the first time in series history, English commentary is also provided here with play-by-play handled by Josh Lewin. It’s a little bit basic and not as robust as what the Japanese commentators offer in the series, but I’m glad that it’s here.
The graphics look great, the audio is on point and the performance is top notch. There is no getting around that. On the other hand, one thing that you’ll notice is the somewhat unnatural look of some of the players. I can’t say this for sure, but these were either randomly generated in the editor or somebody at Konami took the time to piece these guys together. Either way, there are sometimes some odd choices or just odd looking players. It’s not a huge deal, but it is something that you will notice.
Lack of Pro Licenses & Future of Series
Of course, I would have loved to see something a little bit more substantial from Konami and Pro Spirit. The lack of any pro baseball license is disappointing. Dealing with licensing from the likes of MLB and NPB is expensive and I’m sure there are other factors that come into play that we as fans just aren’t privy to. Given the lack of these from any league, I can understand why Konami released this snippet of gameplay from the Pro Spirits series. Adding other elements from the mainline game like Star Player or Pennant rely heavily on existing teams, players and real world locations. It would be a tough sell to have without these. If you’re wanting to try out a more fully fledged title, I would suggest Pro Spirits 2024-2025 or be on the lookout for a 2026-2027 version. The mainline NPB game from 2024 does have a little bit of English, but I think it’s unlikely that any future titles in that series will have full English support.
While I would have also loved to see (and honestly kind of expected with the next Pro Spirit game) a Switch 2 version of this game, releasing it on Steam alongside the PS5 is huge. Konami didn’t skip out on the PC with their last Spirits release. Not only that, but many of their recent releases and upcoming titles also have planned releases on Steam. PS5 and Steam aren’t my preferred places to play my games, but I’m glad that are at least two options. I’m still holding out hope for the next full Spirits game to release on Switch 2, but it’s looking less likely.
Conclusion
The gameplay and visuals in Pro Spirit are both absolutely awesome. Getting to try out the series for free is a plus, and everything being in English should alleviate any concerns that you may have had with trying the Japanese version of the game out in the past. Even with that said, the online competitive focus, simple exhibition matches against the computer or a friend might get old for some. One of the main appeals for baseball sims like this is being able to see the players and ballparks that you know and love (or love to hate). That’s not to say that eBaseball Pro Spirit has no merit - it absolutely does. It’s definitely worth checking out, but depending on your preferences (mainly if you like online competitive play), the available content might not be enough to keep you coming back.
But let’s turn it over to you guys. Did you pick up eBaseball Pro Spirit? Have you picked up an of the games in the series in the past? What do you think of it? Be sure to sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
Final Score: 7.0
by Danny Bivens
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