Playing Minna no Golf Guide

Play a golf game before? If so, then the three-click system is probably not that unusual for you. For those who haven’t had any video game golfing experience the three-click system is basically three inputs or button presses to start your shot, set the power and then set the impact you make with the ball. In other series this system is sometimes represented differently but essentially they are the same thing.

Traditional System* [従来ショット]

In Minna no Golf there is currently two ways of playing with this system, and it is probably best that you start with learning the Traditional system… the idea is to get a good grasp of the games physics in relation to the shots you are inputting, also the Traditional or Standard shot system is currently covered in every release of the series.

This is what the Original Shot system looks like in Minna no Golf 5:

The system is represented by a White cursor, a Power meter and a White line at the origin for Impact. When you first start your shot, the cursor travels up the power meter and then travels back down during this if you don’t set the power nothing will happen, on your second press during the cursors movement you will set at the point the cursor is at along the bar this will confirm and set the power at a percentage of the total distance your club will reach.

While setting power if you set it early the cursor will continue to travel up the bar then travel back down towards the impact area, if you set it while it has already started to travel back… the time from that point down to the impact area will be alot shorter. So if you like to set power on the way back better hope you have fast enough reflexes to set the impact.

In the Impact area there is a white line which is what you want to hit when the cursor returns, don’t worry if you miss… If your character has high Impact ratings, they will generally have a larger pink impact area which is considered an decent hit by the game but is not the same as hitting the white line or otherwise refered to as Just Impact [JI] or Perfect Impact [PI]. Putting does not have an Impact area so all you need to do is set the Power.

Missing Perfect Impact isn’t too bad if you land the pink areas, but later on as you unlock more characters to use there will be characters with lower Impact ratings the pink areas become smaller forcing you to hit more Perfect Impacts or send the ball flying to the right when you hit too early into the red area or to the left when you hit too late into the red area. Of course you could miss impact areas completely and end up with a Yellow Skull which could send you to an unwanted location randomly. Try your best not to skull or hit the red areas when playing if you want to improve your game.

*Available in all releases of the game.

Advanced System** [本格ショット]

Starting from Minna no Golf 5 on the Sony Playstation 3 is a new shot input system which they have called Advanced Shot. It still is the same three-click system but it is represented using a more analog feel with the power indicator based off the character’s swing animation. Impact is also represented with the ball and a shrinking and expanding circle on top of the ball, when the circle becomes a dot or the ball that is the point of Just Impact [JI] or Perfect Impact [PI].

This is what Advanced Shot system looks like in Minna no Golf 5:

The play input between the two shot systems are the same, except in Minna no Golf 5 the Traditional system is 15 yards less distance than the Advanced system. Advanced power meter is abit harder to read, but if you understand the game physics in relation to the shots you are hitting you will know how to get around the power meter and use the full 15 yards to your advantage. Despite Advanced system having more distance by default, the impact area is slightly more forgiving than Traditional system, on a lower Impact rating character there is still some pink impact area to save you where as on Traditional system you would have hit the red impact area.

Ever since Minna no Tennis was released, when you hit the red impact areas now it will be represented with a Rabbit [White Circle] for too early and Turtle [Green Circle] for too late… just like before early sends it to the right and late sends it to the left. Despite it doesn’t show this on Minna no Golf 5, Minna no Golf Portable 2 displays the two icons when you miss the pink impact area. Missing the impact zone completely will still give you the Yellow Skull… A nice thing about Advanced though is that during the swing animation if you miss 100% power because you waited too long it cancels the whole shot.

This may sound like Advanced is a better system, but Traditional is by far the better system for accuracy and it was because of this the developers  made Advanced system more forgiving and better status wise so that hardcore verterans of the game would move over to the new system. Hopefully in future releases Advanced is balanced out abit more. 

Putting with Advanced system is a little tricky at first, if you just bought Minna no Golf 5 and or have not updated the game ever it is a good idea to do so as the first update to the game added a ghost club for swings and a ghost ball for putting or short chips under 15 yards, the update also adds an new overhead camera for putting. The ghost ball is basically a small transparent ball projected out from the ball when you begin to putt and it lets you use it as a guide for setting power. It does not follow the lines of the green and only projects out in a straight line. Other than that, the putting is basically the same as the Traditional system… there is no need to set Impact.

**Available in Minna no Golf 5 +
　Everybody’s Hot Shots Golf World Tour Out of Bounds.

Perfecting Impact

With your system of choice [unless you have no choice…] play until you have a good grasp of impacting your shots, then you should be ready to take your game to the next level. Perfect Impact is Very Important to improve your game from these guides.