FA Soudatsusen: Nine Choices to Sign a Free Agent

A front-office meeting, not a season

I made a game where you meet players who declared free agency and get them to join. A rank comes out at the end, so go chase a high one. If you love baseball, I think it is fun.

The page title is FA争奪戦｜契約を勝ち取れ！ and the English line on screen reads PRO BASEBALL • FREE AGENT NEGOTIATION. The catch copy promises that you win the contract through nine choices and one last push. You are not managing a lineup or pitching a simulated inning. You are the club executive trying to close.

Play starts when you take the front-office job. From there the screen moves through a how-to labeled as six steps, an FA market of 12 players, your club's judgment, what the other clubs are doing, a last set of terms, and a final offer addressed to that player. The meeting ends either as a successful signing or as a collapsed negotiation, and the final result prints a scoring breakdown.

Twelve parody clubs, a market that reshuffles

An on-screen notice states that every player, club, stat line, news item, and personal relationship is fiction, that the contents change from play to play, and that the game works offline. The clubs are affectionate send-ups rather than real Nippon Professional Baseball teams. Names you can meet on the board include 北海道日本加工クラークス, 東北ポジティブシンキングス, 埼玉電鉄バンディーズ, 千葉レッズオーシャンズ, 福岡めっちゃ繋がるース, 東京乳酸ジュラインズ, 横浜湘南ノ海スターズ, 中部日本シェンロンズ, 猛虎カーネルス, and 広島ズームズーム.

The player cards are just as specific and just as made up. Roles you can see include starting pitcher and relief pitcher. Hometown labels include Kanagawa, Wakayama, and Kagoshima. Club-situation tags include a title race, an upper-table race, a last-place fight, and a well-funded team. Because the cast changes every run, a pitch that fit the last free agent can miss the next one.

Six axes, then a line that can overheat

Win the contract. Nine choices, and one last push.

After you lay out terms for the named player, you pick the closing line. The range runs from a straight pep talk to a sentence where the front office's enthusiasm has clearly boiled over. Signing alone does not explain a high rank. The result is worth rereading because it shows where that tone landed in the breakdown.

Set next to a typical casual baseball browser game, FA Soudatsusen skips the at-bat and the franchise calendar. It is a compact choice game: one meeting, a rival clock you only watch, and a grade. The fun is in how hard you lean on the player, and in whether the board believed you.

• Money

  One of the six scoring axes on the final breakdown.

• Title hunger

  How strongly the pitch speaks to the will to win a championship.

• Playing time

  Whether the offer reads as a real chance to get on the field.

• Hometown, trust, stability

  The other three axes: local ties, trust, and long-term stability.