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LttP: Jet Grind Radio vs. Jet Set Radio Future

jet5--article_image.jpg


Or...

jsrf14.jpg


That is the question.

As I'm sure you are all well aware, Jet Set Radio (Or Jet Grind Radio in America) was an action/platformer released on the Dreamcast in in 2000. Developed by Smile Bit and published by Sega, the game is extremely well known for its style. Jet Set Radio was unlike anything anyone had seen at that point. It codified the use of Cel Shading in video games, giving the game a strange, pseudo hand-drawn look. It was also praised for its unique soundtrack, and game play. It took a very different approach compared to other games based on sports, instead using a more traditional action-adventure/platformer set up, making the game very accessible. The game could be described as a crazy 3D Pacman. The play is tasked with spraying graffiti in all of the select areas while being hounded by the police and anything else the Japanese Defense Force sends at you. The game apparently sold poorly, but it was received extremely well by critics and it has a huge cult following to this day.

And then Sega left the hardware business, instead releasing games as a third party publisher/developer.

In 2002, Sega released the game's sequel, Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox. It was very similar to its predecessor with a few key differences. First, the game play was much faster. Grinding a rail actually moved you faster than running speed, and could be kept up indefinitely as long as the player pressed the trick button with a consistent rhythm. Second, while the police and military are still present, they do not hound you throughout the levels, instead you are tasked with combating them in specific events. Third, all the characters were given new character designs. Fourth, the means of spraying graffiti was also changed quite radically. In the end, the game felt more like a modernized take on N64 collectathons than an action game. It was also very well received by critics, and also sold poorly. However, it seems as though time has not been kind to JSRF. JSRF is rarely mentioned outside of being a mediocre follow up to its predecessor.

So, tell me your thoughts. Jet Set Radio vs Jet Set Radio Future. Which is better and why?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Jet Grind Radio. Better gameplay and character designs.

Graffiti actually required strategy in JGR.


Also, I hate how Mew(aka Rhyth aka she's been renamed like seven times) looked in JSRF. She was way better in JGR on the Dreamcast.

JSR-Mew-jet-set-radio-future-14054079-1024-768.jpg



JSRF had much better music, though, and it's still a fine game, so....


Play both.
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
JSR

The tagging, the cops, it was just more distinctive and nothing can touch that soundtrack.
 

Suairyu

Banned
Different beasts, each with strengths and weaknesses.

My heart says Jet Set Radio is superior.

My head says Jet Set Radio Future is the better offering.
 

Lijik

Member
JSR

I could go more indepth, and I do like both games, but JSR is superior for one simple reason:
The padding in the last act of JSRF (starting at Deathball) is tedious and atrocious. Puts a real damper on the experience
 

Dizzy

Banned
Loved JSR, and so JSRF was one of the reasons I bought an Xbox but what a disappointment it turned out to be. The lack of police and change to tagging just ruined it for me.
 

Oreoleo

Member
JET SET RADIOOOOOOOO

One of those games I'm not sure I'd be able to return to if given the chance. It just wouldn't be the same these days. Loved the SHIT out of it at the time though. Never played the sequel.
 

0 HP

Member
jet grind radio. i thought the tension of trying to do the graffiti inputs while avoiding the cops, especially in the later stages, made the game. jsrf was amazing, but jgr was one of the best sega games ever.
 
JSR by a longshot.

Spent much more time with it than JSRF (which I poured tons of hours into as well) due to having a better story, better graffiti controls and just having more fun overall. Soundtrack was godly too, but the OST for JSRF was fantastic too (though I didn't care for more of the rock sound).

JSRF was loads of fun too, but simplified graffiti and too many damn skyscraper type levels annoyed me to no end. Oh and death ball was meh.

I miss both of these games dearly and want to see it come back someday. And Sega, if you want my monies, you'll port over JSR & JSRF to the PS3 & Project Café so that I can use the remote to simulate painting.
 
Jet Grind Radio was just crap. The controls were crap, the cities and missions were crap, constantly having to avoid the police was crap and having to waggle the joystick around randomly to tag things was crap. Future had some issues too but overall it was very fun to skate around exploring the large, impressively designed levels looking for secrets and things to tag while chilling to the awesome soundtrack except for Cibo Matto.
 

randomwab

Member
Shut up and eat
To bad no bon appetit
Shut up and eat
You know my love is sweet

Yes I'm cooking for my son and his wife
It's his 30th birthday
Put berries into the bowl
and milk of two months old

It's moldy mom, isn't it?
I don't give a flying fuck about it

Gotta say, I love both but Future has something about it that makes me love it more.
 

(._.)

Banned
Love both of these games very much. I prefer Jest Set Radio (Grind in NA) over JSRF. It was a really unique game at the time (still is) with an atmosphere and art style like no other. It was my GOTY in 2000 and is in my top five personal favorite games. Still have my original copy somewhere too along with the soundtracks.
 
Jet Grind Radio easy. the music was better and the graffitti was better

however JSRF had better levels (except skyscraper district). and the music was nearly perfect

it's a sin to not play both whowever
 
ProtoCents said:
Hello Allison
I want to hold your hand
I haven't been
The same man since I saw you comin' in
(forget the rest)
Ha, definitely the first thing I think of when the series gets brought up.
 

DJ88

Member
JSR no question.

Will never forget grinding and tagging the rooftops of Benten-Cho when Miller Ball Breakers came on for the first time. I was in a zen mode, the music, the graphics, the gameplay was surreal. One of my best moments in gaming.
 

Muffdraul

Member
Going down a bullet list of all points, I would definitely check off most of them in favor of the original JSR. But IMO JSRF corrected two major flaws from the first game: the fucking time limit, and the immortal enemies. As awesome as JSR was, those two things stepped on the fun factor. If not for those two aspects, JSR would be an easy hands-down winner. If there was an updated version of JSR that was basically the original game with no time limits and killable enemies, I wouldn't give half a damn about JSRF.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
JET SET RADIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Love that game all the way, I would do anything for a XBLA/PSN HD release!
Do you hear that Sega? I will pay at least 15 euro's!
 
ToyMachine228 said:
I own JSRF for Xbox and JGR for GBA. Never got to play the Dreamcast original. I wish this series would come back.

If possible, try to locate a cheap Dreamcast, VMU & JGR and play it. It's one of the best games ever and holds up extremely well due to it's visuals.
 

Hixx

Member
Suairyu said:
Different beasts, each with strengths and weaknesses.

My heart says Jet Set Radio is superior.

My head says Jet Set Radio Future is the better offering.

Same for me.

The one thing that bugged me was the change to tagging though, there wasn't as much of a rush in JSRF so the manual tagging would have fit even better imo.

JSRF is still the only game which had an OST I actually went and hunted for, ended up paying through the nose for an import on eBay and then a few years later I lost it when moving house... amazing soundtracks.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
nincompoop said:
Jet Grind Radio was just crap. The controls were crap, the cities and missions were crap, constantly having to avoid the police was crap and having to waggle the joystick around randomly to tag things was crap.


nincompoop
Member
(Today, 11:47 PM)
Reply | Quote

I think this was appropriate?
 
"Jet Set Radio, Radio, Radio, Radio!"

This can't honestly, seriously be a valid contest, Jet Set Radio pisses, shits and then sets fire to JSRF!
The first game is infinitely superior in practically every aspect, the sequel was a dire instalment that failed to improve on any aspect of the original.
Style, presentation, controls, physics, music, character design, all were worse in the second game. Search your hearts, you know it to be true.

"I'm gonna bake my son a birthday cake! Watch out yo! Here I come yo!"
 

Zekes!

Member
cj_iwakura said:
Jet Grind Radio. Better gameplay and character designs.

Graffiti actually required strategy in JGR.


Also, I hate how Mew(aka Rhyth aka she's been renamed like seven times) looked in JSRF. She was way better in JGR on the Dreamcast.

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/14000000/JSR-Mew-jet-set-radio-future-14054079-1024-768.jpg

Mew/Rhyth is my favourite character and I think both of her designs are good. Overall I prefer the JSRF designs for most characters though.

Anyways, Jet Set Radio. JSRF is awesome in it's own right, but quicktime tagging in JSR is superior to just holding down the R trigger (though the QT tagging wouldn't work so well with how JSRF is built...). Plus the later levels in JSRF are just...not fun.

I think if they were to made a third entry (and they fucking need to) they should go back to JSR's QT tagging system, but speed things up like in JSRF (maybe not quite as fast) and improve the trick system. Keep the open world from JSRF too.
 

KamenSenshi

Junior Member
For sure JSR. From the first moment I heard the music on the demo and started playing I knew it was something special.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
JSR for sure. JSRF got rid of the time limit, but the game actually suffered as a result. Also, I wasn't a fan of the simplified tagging.

Basically, JSR is a better game in every way.
 
JSR all the way.

I remember being severely dissapointed with the changes in JSRF, although the movement felt good I wasn't happy with the overall design of the levels.

And come on, I mean... BIIIIRRTHDAAAAY CAAAAAKE!!!

seriously, that song ruined the game for me.
 

LaneDS

Member
Love them both and hope they show up re-mastered someday. A sequel would be grand too although my faith in it turning out as good is lacking.
 

Lijik

Member
cjelly said:
What's he up to these days?

Wikipedia has nothing since 2006. I guess he left Sega.
Whats weird is 2006 was his most active year.
He did Sonic Rush, and contributed to Banana Blitz and Sega Rally 2006
 
Jet Set Radio > Jet Grind Radio >>> Jet Set Radio Future

JSR isn't the same game as JGR, they did a lot of weird stuff to it when localizing it. They didn't just add Bantam Street and Grind Square (and Rob Zombie), they made the game much easier (although the game was perhaps a bit too hard before), changed Cube's look and attitude a bit and tied her with Combo, changed how some of the challenges worked (and alternated between making the AI much smarter and dumb as a rock, the possessed Poison Jam used to be so god damn hard), and altered some other aspects of the game. It was still a good game localized, and things like adding the health meters were nice, but I liked the way JSR presented things better.

And what was with doing all the extra localization work, and yet not translating, or even just captioning, the meaning of "uki uki waku waku feeling"?

JSRF in turn was much worse. Huge bland areas that were easy to get lost in and meander around for way too long without making progress, glitchy, especially the multiplayer which was clearly rushed in late in development, and the only decent music in the game I remember were the reprises of old JSR songs. Now, maybe you loved this blaring out of your speakers every third song, but there were some major misses with the JSRF soundtrack.
 
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