The MLB the Show franchise was one of the first sports games that dedicated a game mode to making your own player and playing in a career mode called “Road to the Show”. You create your own player at whatever position you would like and begin your career in the minor leagues. From there you rack up playing time until you make it into the major leagues. Don’t worry, you do not have to play every single game fully like you do in franchise mode. Instead you fast forward in each game to the next appearance of your player in the game. Sometimes it will be a fielding play, but most of the time it will be your next at bat.
If you joined us from our MLB the Show 21: Changes for the Win! article, you’ll find us expanding further on the Road to Show section.
Before we jump right into the new features of MLB the Show 21, let’s take a look at the changes that were made in the 2020 version of the game.
2020 to Today
These changes were good ideas but overall could use some improvement going into this season. For example, a relationship system was introduced into the game for the first time ever. This acts like a team chemistry component, but instead of just having chemistry with your teammates you also have a relationship with opponents as well.
To create this relationship, MLB the Show developers took a page out of the 2K sports community by using in-game text messages to develop your relationships with other players. Although it seems like a cool idea, that was more of an item for just viewing pleasure. How strong your relationship was with a player mainly came down to how many games you played with them. Overall the relationship would range from the levels of unfamiliar, friendly, and bro. You could also choose a personality type for your player which shaped your relationships. Expect this system to be expanded in the MLB The Show 21 career mode features.
Character, Character, Character
Now these personalities were a much bigger deal than we anticipated in the career mode. There were four different personalities that you could choose from, either Captain, Heart and Soul, Maverick, or Lightning Rod. From there stemmed four different personality trees and different perks you could earn along the way. For example, one general perk was “Critical Strike” which had the effect of boosting your stats randomly in the game.
As you would expect these perks have more benefits as you expand down the tier. It was a good idea to start, but the options are really limited, especially if you play the game a lot or create multiple careers. In MLB the Show 21, these personality traits are expected to be expanded or possibly create some new ones as well. With millions of people playing this game, it is indeed very restricting to tell them all to only choose between four different baseline personalities. Also expect this feature to be better in MLB The Show 21!
From Rags to Riches
Now, the newest feature and the one that has gotten everyone in the gaming community talking is that MLB the Show 21 developers recently announced that you will now be able to take your player from career mode into diamond dynasty! This has never been done before in the baseball franchise so there is a lot of speculation as to exactly how it will be done.
In previous years, you have been able to create your own player in diamond dynasty, but this was something completely separate from Road to the Show. Prior to last year there was the option to boost your created players by trading in cards to boost his overall. Your player’s attributes would differ slightly depending on what card you traded in. If you put in a lot of cards with powerful hitters, then your created player would become a powerful hitter. The same goes for pitching, where trading in lots of pitcher cards will result in a good pitcher.
You Don’t Start at the Top
However in MLB the Show 20, this system was replaced with a completely new one. First off, your player could only become a maximum of 89 overall instead of 99. They also got rid of the card trade-in system. That way, your player improves his stats mostly by playing him at a certain position for so many games or racking up a certain amount of hits at that position. When everyone has a bad diamond dynasty team at the beginning of the year, don’t be discouraged, as it is expected. However, if you ever want to change the position of your player throughout the year, you must start the process over again at that new position.
Since you can import your player directly from Road to the Show (career mode), fans are still left up in the air as to what the maximum overall will be. There is already a clear cut way to improve your overall in career mode, so that is out of the question. In NBA 2K21 you can also take your player from career mode to their equivalent of diamond dynasty, but your player is only 83 overall which is not very good in the grand scheme of things.
Questions, Questions, Questions
Besides using your player in diamond dynasty, it is safe to say your player will also be available in franchise mode as well. We foresee that being a little more complicated for the following reasons:
- Will your player automatically be on your team or would he be a free agent?
- Will there be an overall maximum?
More questions to ask about franchise mode changes are found here! So many questions, so few answers. We’re all really antsy and waiting for the new changes to come!
MLB the Showstopper
The main MLB the Show 21 career mode features include personality trees and traits, relationships with teammates and opponents alike, and the newest of which allows you to your player outside the Road to the Show. The first two features will simply be improvements from last year’s game, but the final feature leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Either way, it shall make MLB the Show 21 a really showstopper!
And don’t stop whatever show when you are suddenly entrusted with which team to rebuild! Get some valuable tips here!
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