![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlThere was a time back when the Dreamcast was king, where I was really really good at Jet Set Radio. All wallriding every available surface, winning races, tagging all of Shibuya and beyond. I loved that game to bits, so Jet Set Radio Future was a system-seller for me. 'Major reason to buy an Xbox' style system seller.
I've never played more than about an hour of it. Why not? Three reasons.
A: All my skills were useless. Wallrides? Specific walls only. Tricks? Key to score. Tagging? No more minigame, which I loved. Jumping? Slows you down, doesn't speed you up. Grinding? Much faster and wilder. Everything I knew how to do felt useless.
B: My favorite character? Cube. Major part of the JSR plot. Here? Hidden character only unlockable towards the very end of the game.
C: I had other stuff to play. Otogi, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Breakdown, Shenmue 2, Dead or Alive 3... Stuff I -was- pretty sharp at. Stuff I didn't have to spend hours relearning.
So, I was a fool and I stuck JSRF back on the shelf and listened to the soundtrack off Youtube. Hell, I am listening to the soundtrack on Youtube right NOW. That soundtrack is BAD ASS. But how's the game?
Well, I'm gonna find out. And this time I'll put in the practice to not SUCK doing it. Oh man, I can already tell that's gonna be a challenge. I don't think I'm gonna blog the whole process, but I do have this open for my notes.
That said I kinda love the aesthetic of this game, and the... mindset of it. It's hyperfuturistic, bright and groovy but still kinda oddly gritty. And the -psychology- of it, the "you must be with a gang so you belong" is so... that's not spraypaint cans you're collecting. It's the SOUL OF THE STREET. If you aren't down with the street, you can't even SEE those. Give it ten years and somebody's gonna pull that for real with Google Glass or some other augmented reality program, where it'll overlay beauty on the mundane that you can only see if you hang out with the right groups.
While I've been yammering philosophical over here, I've also been cruising around the tutorial in a big circle, ignoring the instructions while I get used to the grinding. Once I can make a grinding loop of the garage area without hitting the ground and feel confident about my style, I get things going.
Anyway eventually I spraypaint the proper hoops and DJ Professor K lays out the plotline for us.
...and then I go off to Dogenzaka Hill and I just... mentally get lost for a while in a dreamy daze. The music. The smooth skating. I dismissed this for not being its own predecessor? WHY? I am beating gang members in a race and winning them. I am cruising smoothly around effortlessly collecting Graffiti Souls to unlock new tags.
I had totally forgotten that this game had the mechanic where you can blitz straight through cops and then spraypaint them on the ground and they just... give up, because you have CLAIMED THE COPS as your own.
We've evolved from passive-aggressive anti-authoritarianism to AGGRESSIVELY aggressive anti-authoritarianism. I am so totally all right with this.
I rock that on for a while.
From there, it's off to Shibuya Terminal to paint over all Poison Jam's stuff. Poison Jam are enormous guys in weird kaiju outfits and while I respect their aesthetic I have no intention of letting them -keep- a nexus point like Shibuya Bus Terminal. Spraypaint away as I float like a butterfly up and down rails and over traffic. (I LOVE that angelic "aaah" sample.)
Eventually Poison Jam themselves show up to challenge me. Test my skating skills against a bunch of lumbering kaiju? Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
Anyway, they get driven off and with some fancy skating I pick up Combo next. The G.Gs grow! Yay. It's time for another plot update from DJ Professor K. Poison spray paint? ... I don't remember anybody's death in original Jet Set Radio. Well, except Coin.
So now I learn how to combo, fight the police and such from the sarcastic robot tutor gang member. I kind of LIKE this future. So I go into a kind of lazy trance state, just riding around scoring points and bouncing around, until I hear:
"This is HQ to Armored Division! SEND -ALL- THE TANKS!"
TANKS?! (You're welcome.)
... a-all the tanks? Yes. They send ALL the tanks. Straight down the street at me. Isn't this a little extreme for just rollerblading? Happily I can hose the tanks down and leap over them, spraying the driver that pops out, to disable the whole shebang. Ahahahaha.
Oh, Jet Set Radio Future. Spraypainting "PUMP OUT" next to the thigh of a giant robot dinosaur. This has... no connotations. None. At all.
Next up: Race Poison Jam! I do this, win. Poison Jam are not really EFFECTIVE rivals. They promise to bugger off if I beat them, so I do and they do: To a different map where they keep raising hell. *tap fingers* HONESTLY people just GO AWAY or JOIN ME. Oh well. Off to hang out with the Rapid 99. Not that I have a problem with THEM, but they're Poison Jam's rivals. INFO-GETTING.
Wow, 99th Street makes my 360 slooooow dooooown like honey in winter. Oh well. Xbox emulation is hard even for Microsoft. I tag everything out there, and... nothing happens because apparently Poison Jam is somewhere else. Oops. Rokkaku-Dai Heights it is. Zoooom.
Along the way, I manage to unlock secret character Rhyth. ... That's MEW. In a different outfit. I miss her weird fur thing. Oh well. Hi Mewyth!
All right, up to that telephone wire, hop off to the billboard, then to that rail over there. And Rhyth goes up the telephone pole, along the wire... loops around to the UNDERSIDE of the wire and grinds that back down the pole again. ... Yes, Rhyth, you DO have the highest grind score of anyone I've unlocked, but let's not SHOW OFF, okay?
Rokkaku-Dai Heights cleared, and back to 99th Street, where I can finally interview the Rapids. This interview takes the form of a game of capture-the-flag. For this, I earn the location of Poison Jam's hideout. Of COURSE it's the sewers. Where ELSE would mutant fish people hang out?
Down in the sewers, I fall into a DEVIOUS TRAP that turns out to actually be a TUTORIAL TRAP. After teaching me how handplants and such work, Garam joins up. I like Garam. He's like a slightly-feminine black Kamen Rider.
It is at this point I get stuck in the enormous mazelike sewers, though. I need to spray a number of switches, and that number is two more than I can find. The in-game map is no help. I'll need to work something out later.
I've never played more than about an hour of it. Why not? Three reasons.
A: All my skills were useless. Wallrides? Specific walls only. Tricks? Key to score. Tagging? No more minigame, which I loved. Jumping? Slows you down, doesn't speed you up. Grinding? Much faster and wilder. Everything I knew how to do felt useless.
B: My favorite character? Cube. Major part of the JSR plot. Here? Hidden character only unlockable towards the very end of the game.
C: I had other stuff to play. Otogi, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Breakdown, Shenmue 2, Dead or Alive 3... Stuff I -was- pretty sharp at. Stuff I didn't have to spend hours relearning.
So, I was a fool and I stuck JSRF back on the shelf and listened to the soundtrack off Youtube. Hell, I am listening to the soundtrack on Youtube right NOW. That soundtrack is BAD ASS. But how's the game?
Well, I'm gonna find out. And this time I'll put in the practice to not SUCK doing it. Oh man, I can already tell that's gonna be a challenge. I don't think I'm gonna blog the whole process, but I do have this open for my notes.
That said I kinda love the aesthetic of this game, and the... mindset of it. It's hyperfuturistic, bright and groovy but still kinda oddly gritty. And the -psychology- of it, the "you must be with a gang so you belong" is so... that's not spraypaint cans you're collecting. It's the SOUL OF THE STREET. If you aren't down with the street, you can't even SEE those. Give it ten years and somebody's gonna pull that for real with Google Glass or some other augmented reality program, where it'll overlay beauty on the mundane that you can only see if you hang out with the right groups.
While I've been yammering philosophical over here, I've also been cruising around the tutorial in a big circle, ignoring the instructions while I get used to the grinding. Once I can make a grinding loop of the garage area without hitting the ground and feel confident about my style, I get things going.
Anyway eventually I spraypaint the proper hoops and DJ Professor K lays out the plotline for us.
...and then I go off to Dogenzaka Hill and I just... mentally get lost for a while in a dreamy daze. The music. The smooth skating. I dismissed this for not being its own predecessor? WHY? I am beating gang members in a race and winning them. I am cruising smoothly around effortlessly collecting Graffiti Souls to unlock new tags.
I had totally forgotten that this game had the mechanic where you can blitz straight through cops and then spraypaint them on the ground and they just... give up, because you have CLAIMED THE COPS as your own.
We've evolved from passive-aggressive anti-authoritarianism to AGGRESSIVELY aggressive anti-authoritarianism. I am so totally all right with this.
I rock that on for a while.
From there, it's off to Shibuya Terminal to paint over all Poison Jam's stuff. Poison Jam are enormous guys in weird kaiju outfits and while I respect their aesthetic I have no intention of letting them -keep- a nexus point like Shibuya Bus Terminal. Spraypaint away as I float like a butterfly up and down rails and over traffic. (I LOVE that angelic "aaah" sample.)
Eventually Poison Jam themselves show up to challenge me. Test my skating skills against a bunch of lumbering kaiju? Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
Anyway, they get driven off and with some fancy skating I pick up Combo next. The G.Gs grow! Yay. It's time for another plot update from DJ Professor K. Poison spray paint? ... I don't remember anybody's death in original Jet Set Radio. Well, except Coin.
So now I learn how to combo, fight the police and such from the sarcastic robot tutor gang member. I kind of LIKE this future. So I go into a kind of lazy trance state, just riding around scoring points and bouncing around, until I hear:
"This is HQ to Armored Division! SEND -ALL- THE TANKS!"
TANKS?! (You're welcome.)
... a-all the tanks? Yes. They send ALL the tanks. Straight down the street at me. Isn't this a little extreme for just rollerblading? Happily I can hose the tanks down and leap over them, spraying the driver that pops out, to disable the whole shebang. Ahahahaha.
Oh, Jet Set Radio Future. Spraypainting "PUMP OUT" next to the thigh of a giant robot dinosaur. This has... no connotations. None. At all.
Next up: Race Poison Jam! I do this, win. Poison Jam are not really EFFECTIVE rivals. They promise to bugger off if I beat them, so I do and they do: To a different map where they keep raising hell. *tap fingers* HONESTLY people just GO AWAY or JOIN ME. Oh well. Off to hang out with the Rapid 99. Not that I have a problem with THEM, but they're Poison Jam's rivals. INFO-GETTING.
Wow, 99th Street makes my 360 slooooow dooooown like honey in winter. Oh well. Xbox emulation is hard even for Microsoft. I tag everything out there, and... nothing happens because apparently Poison Jam is somewhere else. Oops. Rokkaku-Dai Heights it is. Zoooom.
Along the way, I manage to unlock secret character Rhyth. ... That's MEW. In a different outfit. I miss her weird fur thing. Oh well. Hi Mewyth!
All right, up to that telephone wire, hop off to the billboard, then to that rail over there. And Rhyth goes up the telephone pole, along the wire... loops around to the UNDERSIDE of the wire and grinds that back down the pole again. ... Yes, Rhyth, you DO have the highest grind score of anyone I've unlocked, but let's not SHOW OFF, okay?
Rokkaku-Dai Heights cleared, and back to 99th Street, where I can finally interview the Rapids. This interview takes the form of a game of capture-the-flag. For this, I earn the location of Poison Jam's hideout. Of COURSE it's the sewers. Where ELSE would mutant fish people hang out?
Down in the sewers, I fall into a DEVIOUS TRAP that turns out to actually be a TUTORIAL TRAP. After teaching me how handplants and such work, Garam joins up. I like Garam. He's like a slightly-feminine black Kamen Rider.
It is at this point I get stuck in the enormous mazelike sewers, though. I need to spray a number of switches, and that number is two more than I can find. The in-game map is no help. I'll need to work something out later.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-11-22 11:54 pm (UTC)Also the angelic Ahh in 'Float like a butterfly'...IIRC, I think that same sample is used in some of the Sonic CD tracks, too.
Heh--Poison Jam is apparently a splinter of the Jokerz? ;-)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-24 12:19 am (UTC)