UNDERSTAND- UNDERSTAND, THE CONCEPT OF LOVE

Jet Set Radio Future is a game that just oozes style and attitude that I really don't see many other games pull off. Especially not to the degree of JSRF. It keeps the spirit of the original Dreamcast title intact while expanding on the formula as a whole. It isn't without it's issues, but this is truly a unique experience.

First, like I mentioned is the style of this game. It absolutely wears it's early 2000's atmosphere with pride and I love it for that. The cel-shaded graphics really pop against the lower poly models, giving the game a hugely charming look. Not to mention all the mo-capped dancing that the player and NPC's do, it's awesome. A huge part of the style also comes from the music, mainly composed by the same man as the first game: Hideki Naganuma. This man never misses with his tracks and delivers some truly stellar music, even remixing some of the tracks from the first game. Not to mention there is some licensed music here too, just like the first game and they all generally fit the vibe too.

Now arguably the most important part of any game is the actual gameplay, and for releasing in 2002, I think JSRF delivers pretty well. The main goal of most stages is to roller blade, rail grind, and cover up graffiti as stylishly as possibly; and for 90% of the time, it's awesome. Chaining together tricks and flips while jumping from rail to rail as you blast around the map is incredibly satisfying. Although it isn't without it's shortcoming. There are a good amount of times where it feels like the controls are almost working against you, as they can occasionally show their jank/age. This is especially true when you're doing the tighter platforming that requires split second reactions. But as mentioned this is more of a rarity than a constant.

Story definitely takes more of a backseat in both Jet Set games. But that's not to say that it isn't there. It's a fun story of self expression and the battle against oppression, which it tells in the least subtle way possible and I wouldn't have it any other way. DJ Professor K will every once in awhile pop in to tell you what the Rokkaku Police are up to and how you gotta stop em. It's fun stuff, and a good amount of it is voiced too. The voice acting can be a bit of a mixed bag, although -Minor Spoilers- Gouji Rokkaku has an amazing voice over done by Charles Martinet. He absolutely stole the show towards the end.

If you haven't played Jet Set Radio Future (or the original) yet, do yourself a favor and give them a shot. They offer some of the most unique gaming experiences out there, with some of the best soundtracks in arguably all of gaming. They aren't without a little bit of jank, but honestly it kinda adds to the charm. I loved JSRF, and I'm extremely excited to see what the reboot of the franchise will be like, let's hope Sega is cooking something good.

Okay yes this game is a work of art. The original is so much better than it really should be like wtf happened this game feels impossibly rushed.

Why are most of the songs from a single beastie boys album? why did they adjust the physics in such a way that gaining verticality is twice as inconsistent? Why don't enemies show up for the majority of a levels run, but if they do you get locked in a cage where they're barely able to interact with you?

There came a point in the story where you just wander around aimlessly tagging walls until you figure out you have to go to specific rooms to trigger a series of story events, making a first playthrough a bit miserable. A lot of the scripted scenes feel haphazardly cut together, some parts more so than being frustrating or difficult are rather tedious, while scenes like the race and some of the chases feel trivial. You'll find there's moments that are sublime, the incidental beauty and swag of music, gameplay, visuals, rhythm and sound design falling into perfect synchronicity are jsrf's claim to fame, having simple levels, the majority of which wrap around predictably and piss easy objectives in what feel like lonely enemy free walks in the park are where you'll notice this game suffered an immense downgrade from its dreamcast counterpart.

Preferencial biases in favor of the original are something I'd also like to mention, the timer, the color grading, use of music throughout levels, you'll find that as a result of missions being kind of vague and a bit too long to get through at times, the music setlists will loop over and over in a predetermined fashion, there's a lot less unique mixes, and specially the lack of a middle act like what happened in the US stages of JSR deprive this game of a proper middle act.

I'm really glad I finally got to play this after so many years of being obsessed with the og game, and I absolutely set the bar too high going into it, I just didn't actually expect there to be so many things to look down on in a first playthrough.

Playing JSRF right after playing the OG, one of my favorite games I've discovered this year, and hearing nothing but praise for the sequel, I was disappointed to feel that JSRF took one step forward and two steps back.

Let me start by saying the original JSR's strength was not the gameplay. While fun if you mastered it, there was still a lot of room for improvement.
JSRF absolutely remedies this by fine-tuning everything that was needed with tighter controls, better physics, more tricks and options. Just objectively and absolutely devours the original game in the gameplay department. That is the one step forward and the best thing about JSRF.

The original JSR's biggest strength was it's style and soundtrack. Probably my favorite artstyle in videogames, and one of the best OSTs of all time. JSRF retains having a strong artstlyle and a good soundtrack... it's just not as good in my opinion. While the original POPPED, colors here are bleaker and have more of a depressing green tint to it. And this isn't some sort of "The future is bleak" commentary either, JSRF establishes that it's future is more advanced and hopeful than ever before. At first it is an interesting style choice, but over time you start to become bored of the game's visuals due to most areas looking very same-y in terms of color diversity.

The soundtrack is the more subjective take, but I definitely did not bop my head like I did when playing the original the entire time. There are some good tracks here and there but a lot of them become really grating as you hear them over and over again. Part of the reason the soundtrack suffers is how the game is structured, which I will get to.

The way the game is structured is another step back in my opinion. I loved the original for it's arcadey feel. You go into a level, complete the objective with the highest score possible, and you move on, kinda like a Tony Hawk game or Star Fox 64.
How JSRF is structed is basically a segmented open world, and it's LARGE. For many this is a popular structre. To me, it was a major flaw. You see, when it comes to arcadey fun games like JSR, I like to be put straight into the action. The problem with the open world is that it can take a while to get to your objective. There are many instances where you have to run through a section of the world that you have already ran through 5 times in order to get to a single objective. As an example, there are lots of times where you're at point A, and you need to get to point D. This requires you do run through point B and C to get to D. And then you need to get back to point A, so you need to run through point C and B again. I don't mind replaying a level with a different objective, the problem is the travel to the objective. It just becomes tedious. I will say, if traversal wasn't as fun as it was, this would be a major problem in the game and pretty much ruin it for me.

Having said that, with this structure in place, each chapter in the game will pretty much have 3 of it's own same songs in rotation, which you will be forced to hear over and over again while running through the padding this game likes to do. It really drives you mad.

I still did enjoy my time with JSRF and the first 2 hours gave me the impression this was gonna be an objectivley better game than the original. But the further you get through the more the tedium kicks in. And perhaps my expectations were too high after loving the OG and hearing all the praise this one was getting. Despite the flaws, JSRF is still a great game and I still recommend it if you loved the orignal. I even recommend it if you didn't like the original as for some people this is the only playable one (which I heavily disagree with).

Put it down for a few months and came back to realize I had left it off at the skyscraper district and lost interest incredibly hard ngl
JSRF is a bit of step forward step back sequel for me tbh, it doesn't really iterate on the first game as much as just kinda do something different with a similar idea that's better in some ways but also somehow clunkier in others.
It's been long enough since I put it down I feel like I'd need to start over to get back into the swing of it so it's going on the shelf for now. Maybe one day Sega will remaster it with a decent camera and give me the motivation to go back