MLB The Show 22 is harder than any Soulslike.

Let Me Solo Her has now moved on to a much harder game

As a school teacher, I look forward to summer every single year, and for so many reasons; vacations, pools, beaches, no kids, and, best of all, getting through my video game backlog. On the first night, I poured myself a nice glass of Eagle Rare to celebrate and fired up Elden Ring. I was immediately hooked. I found myself playing it every night we weren’t streaming. I just kept playing and dying and playing and dying and playing… and dying.

Photo Credit Artura Dawn

“Wait… Am I supposed to beat this guy? *20 tries later* I don’t think I am supposed to beat this guy.”

The game builds you up almost as much as it breaks you down. The feeling of killing a boss or mini boss gives you such a rush of dopamine and adrenaline and keeps you playing the game. And then you immediately lose all of those runes you’ve earned to some fucking imp who popped out of a corner and takes you out on your way back to picking up the ones you dropped. 

Elden Ring had significantly more rage quit moments for me than it has those “LET’S GO!” moments. One night, needing a break, I took a look at the PlayStation Store for something new and nothing at all like Elden Ring. Combing and combing led me to something I haven’t picked up in a long time: MLB The Show 22. I haven’t played any of The Show games in over a decade. The game had always been one of the go-to’s whenever my cousin or I would sleep at each other’s houses. I had fallen out of love with Baseball right around then. It just felt overwhelming. The player’s I had grown up loving were retiring, I was heading off to college, and I didn’t have an addiction like Fantasy Football that could keep me interested in it. Baseball got left behind with so many other things. Then, this year, I got completely drawn back into it with the help of my best friends. I started watching games again and enjoying it, I started to fall back in love with the Red Sox (though, admittedly they are really hard to love at the time of writing this). My love for baseball, completely rekindled, inspired me to pick up this game, just seeking out something to help come down following the rage that Elden Ring filled me with so that I could go to bed. 

The game finished downloading, I fired it up, and made my Road to the Show character. Drafted by the Red Sox and playing for the Portland Sea Dogs, my Little League fantasy is being lived out on my PS5. My character is wearing the number I used to wear, playing 3rd base just like I did so many games, and I was so excited to start playing.First game, I struck out three times. I had 4 more in this series to prove myself, so no big deal. Just learning the ropes and getting used to the slightly different controls this game mode uses from the ones I chose upon start up. 4 games later, I had 24 at bats in this series, 2 hits, and 15 strikeouts. All I could think is “This game is way harder than it used to be.”

Back in the clubhouse, my coach reprimands me for my plate discipline, or lack thereof, and tells me I need to improve it for the next game, giving me a little boost to the stat. I pick the workout for my day off: speed training. The most important stat in pretty much any sports game. I finished the little box jumping mini game, my stat increases closer to a level up, and it’s time for the next series. Series 2: 23 at bats, 12 strikeouts, no hits, 2 RBIs, 3 ErrorsImmediately frustrated, and back in the clubhouse, I navigate through all of the menus, desperately looking for where I can spend my XP to increase my character stats. More importantly, where in the hell can I spend real money to buy whatever virtual currency I need to increase my stats. I want to be good at the game as quickly as possible. It’s my dopamine and I need it now!

Photo credit Gamepur

“I was so desperate to hit a homer, $9.99 for 99 Power vs R felt like it would have been a good deal.”

“It’s gotta be here somewhere!” I think to myself, “This is a sports game, in 2022”. I am eager to spend $10 more dollars if I can go into the next series and make my coach eat his own words while cranking out a couple homeruns. Unable to find it, I turn to google, and find out that this is not an option. I can’t buy my way to “Babe Ruth” status. Unsatisfied with that answer, I return to the game and look for a place to at least spend my XP and turn it into upgrades. But that also doesn’t exist either.

What I was looking for was a relaxing, fun, game to play to decompress right before bed. Not necessarily a power fantasy, but something I could feel like I was successful with following a punishing late night in The Lands Between. Instead, what I had found was a game that was far more punishing than Elden Ring had ever been.If I was having a difficult time with a portion of the game, I could go near the Warmaster’s Shack in Stormhill and kill the trolls there to grind runes. Or, even easier, go to the Impassable Greatbridge site of grace and just watch the redmane soldiers duke it out with the giant dogs, reaping the runes for almost no risk of death. 

Imagine if, in Elden Ring, your stats only increased based on your performance in battle. Swing your gigantic sword a whole bunch to increase your strength, run to increase your stamina (that, actually, would make the game easier), and take non-fatal damage in order to increase health.That is exactly how MLB The Show 22’s “Road to the Show” mode works. No farming. No Cheesing. You want to get faster? Hit the ball better so you can run more! You can’t hit the ball better? Well, hit the ball bad and eventually you’ll hit the ball good.

Photo credit Gamepur

“You also have the option to increase your stats via training in-between series,but that may not even give you a full level. Plus, I would rather be getting caught up on my soaps on a day off!”

And as if the game couldn’t get more punishing, doing poorly can decrease those stats you have worked so hard on increasing. Plate vision is a great example. I just finished my first season and my plate vision stat floated between 30 and 34, which is not a great place to be. You can increase your plate vision by not swinging at bad pitches. But swinging at bad pitches decreases your plate vision by a greater amount than taking the pitch would increase it. Also, the game does not care if you make contact or not. Sure you hit 1 RBI double, but the pitch was down and outside and you shouldn’t have swung! Decrease! Even more difficult is that the adjustment to the stat happens live in-game. You don’t even have the luxury of stressing out about being worse the next game because you’re going to be worse your next at bat. Another luxury of Elden Ring is that you have the option of summoning an ally for those really difficult boss fights. Some stranger, who’s better at the game than you, will come in and beat the bad guy for you, as you stand by mostly watching, maybe swinging once or twice to curb the shame,  just like your older sibling, or a parent, would when you were a baby.

Like Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own “There’s no summons in baseball”. Big Papi will not come save you once the AI pitching learns that you get tied up, every time, by a curveball low and inside. Manny Machado and Mookie Betts can’t help you break a .200 average. It’s just you. And other people might be saying “But Chris, there is the Relationship mechanic” and I would say “you’re right”. The relationship mechanic offers you a little bit of boost and potential a little bit of boost to the people around you in the batting lineup. But do you know how you get that boost? YOU GIT GOOD! Just like in real sports, if you suck, your team hates you. If you’re stinking it up, or you got a case of the yips, your relationship with your teammates can go away and you can say “bye bye” to your boosty. MLB may be punishing, but at least it doesn’t have boss fights. But what it does have is pitchers, and they are way worse than anything Elden Ring can throw at you.

Photo Credit FROMSOFTWARE

“Though, I do hear Margit has a crazy knuckleball”

The AI for pitchers in this game is incredible. They have a pitching cycle, their best pitches, and, worst of all, they will learn what you swing at. They do to the player what the player does to bosses in Elden Ring. If a pitcher gives you a high and away fastball and you hit it, first pitch, for a home run, guess what pitch you’re not going to see in your next at bat? Does the previously mentioned low, inside, curveball catch you swinging every time? You’re about to see more of those, then, pal! And, just as you figure out their preferred pitches, windup, and delivery, they replace the pitcher and the process starts all over again. Imagine you have died fighting a boss 4 times, but you feel really confident this time because you learned their attack pattern and got them into phase 2 last time. You press through the door fog… and it’s a totally new boss. That’s how it feels.

Elden Ring is an incredibly well made game. It is punishing, it is addicting, and it has a great story if you’re willing to read the description of every single item you’ve ever seen in the game. But MLB The Show 22 is simultaneously the most punishing and rewarding game I have ever played. Your success is your own. The only way to improve your character is by improving as the player. It is the closest simulation that a sports game can be to the real sport and the ultimate test in “Git Gud” mentality and the pinnacle Souls-Like experience.