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| PSN: robotchris
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|  "BRC and JSR" , posted Fri 24 Jul 02:20  
Hey Cafe! I hope everyone has been navigating pandemic life safely!
What made me come back to visit was seeing (and hearing) the trailer for the latest in a series of recent in-all-but-name Jet Set Radio sequels, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which honestly looked so good in the tiny 15 seconds of trailer that I shed a quiet little tear in nostalgia for one of my favourite games of all time.
I mean seriously. If you're a JSR fan and the lovingly late-90's perfect Naganuma Hideki music doesn't at least slightly move you, you must be an emotionless, desiccated husk of a human.
But it's got me thinking, since this is at least the second JSR-like in the last several years-- Hover: Revolt of Gamers being the other one. Speaking for myself, I wasn't ever extremely excited about Hover, but I'm extremely excited about BRC, and I'm not 100% sure why that is. Both have Naganuma Hideki music, both are open(er) world takes on JSR, both involve the same kind of skating/tricking gameplay, so what makes BRC different?
And this is an open question-- I'm still trying to figure it out, and I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts. One idea I have is that there's some perfect sweet spot, where it's not just a cut and paste of JSR, but also not too modern or divergent, both in gameplay but especially in styling-- Hover in particular looks very different from JSR, even down to its redder colour palette and smoother polys, and its much smoother and more modern cel shading.
Anyway, that's just one thought! I was going to also mention the recent release of Mr. Driller DrillLand, which is I think what got me on a late 90's/early 2000's thing to start with, but I think I can save it for another thread.
You have to carefully reproduce the world of "Castlevania" in the solemn atmosphere.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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|  "Re(1): The Concept of Love / Rock It On" , posted Fri 24 Jul 05:48:
quote:
I mean seriously. If you're a JSR fan and the lovingly late-90's perfect Naganuma Hideki music
You called??? Here at the Cafe, we most certainly understand the CONCEPT OF LOVE
And that includes the late great Jet Set Radio. I totally hear you about this Bomb Rush Cyberfunk vs. Hover gap. It can't just be due to the infinitely better and JSR-like name, and poor Hover even had one of Naganuma's sweetest tracks of all time. I think the answer might be pretty simple: it's got better art direction judging from that trailer. Making a JSR clone gameplay-wise like Hover did was easy enough, but half of the appeal was in the gloriously stylish art, and Hover unfortunately fell into the first of two main art categories available for 90% of American games: 1) well-meaning but incredibly unskilled and amateurish or 2) highly detailed space marines. (Yes, some indie games manage a bit better, but you know what I mean.) Like, Hover meant well, but I don't think I'm being too discriminatory to say that this art just kind of sucks when compared to the epic intensity of JSR.
PS: I guess what I’m saying is that this game will be a guaranteed masterpiece if JUAN can be hired to illustrate ASAP
He’s too humble to tell you he already has graffiti in the original JSR’s US version, and let’s not forget inktober
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Fri 24 Jul 06:03] |
| PSN: robotchris
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| "Re(2): The Concept of Love / Rock It On" , posted Fri 24 Jul 06:14:
quote:
I mean seriously. If you're a JSR fan and the lovingly late-90's perfect Naganuma Hideki music You called??? Here at the Cafe, we most certainly understand the CONCEPT OF LOVE
And that includes the late great Jet Set Radio. I totally hear you about this Bomb Rush Cyberfunk vs. Hover gap. It can't just be due to the infinitely better and JSR-like name, and poor Hover even had one of Naganuma's sweetest tracks of all time. I think the answer might be pretty simple: it's got better art direction judging from that trailer. Making a JSR clone gameplay-wise like Hover did was easy enough, but half of the appeal was in the gloriously stylish art, and Hover unfortunatley fell into the first of two main art categories available for 90% of American games: 1) well-meaning but incredibly unskilled and amateurish or 2) highly detailed space marines. (Yes, some indie games manage a bit better, but you know what I mean.) Like, Hover meant well, but I don't think I'm being too discriminatory to say that this art just kind of sucks when compared to the epic intensity of JSR. Here's hoping this new entry can at least sort of approach the latter.
Oho, I should have guessed you would UNDERSTAND - UNDERSTAND. 
Yes yes yes, on all counts, I agree! I was extremely excited when I first saw Hover, I think because I could tell that the team making it definitely meant well, and definitely loved the source material. They just couldn't quite get it to the point it needed to be. You're right though about the predominant art style of most American games! When you drill down to American indie games though, there's also quite a bit of wholesale ripoffs of popular older games, so it's weird that they didn't try to make it a little closer to the JSR style, since it's 100% going for a 'spiritual successor' thing.
That said, I feel as thought the BRC team not only gets what's fun about JSR, from the aesthetic to the music to the camerawork, they also understand how to perfectly put all of it into a 15 second trailer.
EDIT: Just learned that BRC is by the people who made Lethal League, itself a not so far off take on the Jet Set Radio aesthetic! This makes me even more excited to see this one through!
You have to carefully reproduce the world of "Castlevania" in the solemn atmosphere.
[this message was edited by karasu on Fri 24 Jul 06:43] |
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