I'm going to do my best to stay like, critical and not get too rude about it, but I'm extremely disappointed in the game already. First off, off topic from RTTS, but the entire UI is just.. lacking. The main menu has little personality outside of Tatis', and while I get he's the cover athlete, I wish the favorite team themed menus had stayed. I just don't care about Tatis' so seeing him on every menu is tiresome. And even in game there's a lack of color, so everything seems flat. I'm not sure how easy of a patch that would be, but I'm hoping we can see a change made to reflect our favorite team again.
But as for RTTS, I want to acknowledge the work that went into the mode, and applaud SDS for trying something to mix up the mode, and give us more narrative, but the cost was too great IMO. The introduction of two-way players is huge, and I love that we have it, but I think the decision to force it upon us, was a mistake. As was directly tying DD and RTTS through ballplayer. It restricts RTTS far too much. The removal of Sounds of The Show already put a damper on the customization, but the direct connection to DD took away the rest.
It's very confusing at first when you start a new RTTS, and are immediately thrown into being drafted. It took me awhile to figure out I had to customize ballplayer at the main menu before starting RTTS if I wanted my own guy in the initial cutscenes. And it took even longer to realize I had to get past some cutscenes to even pick my position.
And even then, it didn't matter. I understand the hype behind two-way players, but from a player perspective, it was extremely frustrating being forced to "give it a shot". I had zero interest in pitching even one game, and picked every dialogue option to make that clear, but the game still forces you to pitch at least one game. You're taking the game and the creativity out of our hands. Which is frustrating.
There is simply put, no connection to our players anymore. The magic of RTTS, for me at least, was I felt connected to my player. I chose where they're from, crafted their look and game style from the get-go, and made them my own. I spent time picking the perfect walk-up songs, and even sometimes customized the song to fit the team I was playing for, Detroit Rock City anyone? By stripping the mode down this much, and from the start forcing the two-way narrative on us, even after successfully removing myself from the pitching depth, it doesn't feel like MY player. It feels like a player handed to me that I made a few tweaks, but will always be someone else.
I feel there was a lot of inspiration drawn from the 2K games, and there's no harm in taking inspiration from other highly successful artworks, but I feel like the identity of RTTS was lost in the process.
It's still extremely early, so I will try to keep playing and hopefully enjoy it more, but I'm already hoping we can see revisions made in '22. Again, I applaud the work that went in, and no disrespect to the devs who worked tirelessly on this, and I appreciate the attempt to keep things fresh, but I feel the direction taken was a misstep.
Look forward to giving the other modes a bit of a try irregardless, and hope that those that do enjoy the two-way aspect, thoroughly enjoy the mode.