Jet Set Radio: XBLA/PSN/PC/iOS/Android/Vita

[thisismyusername]

Well, I somehow beat the first chapter but I'm completely screwed on getting Combo to join. Beat is too fast for me to get down the hill quick enough and I can't land rails to save my life.

[Himu]

For Combo, don't follow Beat when you get to the Love Shockers area. Also, when you get to the park area, stay along the side of the fence where Beat is and jump over the overpass to get a head start. On races like that, characters stop at specific places. Those are your opportunities to get a head start. Try watching this to see what I'm talking about:



Also, getting speed, boost, and jump. Boost and jump.

[thisismyusername]

Got it.  Still fighting with the controls/physics though. I suck so bad.  :'(

[Himu]

Takes loads of practice. I've been playing JSR for years. Stick with it.

[chronovore]

I'm also finding that I suck at this game. SUUUUUCK.

The big thing for me is not being able to jump from one rail to another; in Shibuya, I can't consistently hop from the elevated stairs rail grinds; I really frequently hop right over and off the walkway, resulting in raaaAAGE. I also can't seem to wall-ride into a trick/jump, leaving me short when trying to connect the loop. Super annoying.

[Himu]

You need to get speed and then time your jump and position.

Like this:



See this person going down the elevated rail for speed. You're not going to get as much speed when you get on a neutral, flat rail without the juice (tricks, momentum, boost).

Notice when the player jumps at 0:19 it is to create SPEED. Jumping is a trick, speed = tricks.

[chronovore]

Thanks.

I'd seen small jumps used to gain speed while grinding, but I didn't know that larger jumps also build up speed. Unfortunately, small jumps are the only thing I can manage in the Shibuya stage. Any big jumps mid-rail will land me without room to jump over obstacles and breaks.

Clearly I need to practice more. I just wish the game was better about explaining its controls. Yesterday, before trying the Tutorial, the "Unlock Garam" stage showed up. This is the first time a wall-ride is shown, and it requires a Trick with air-steer on its heels. There is no explanation on how to do it, but I got it in about 8 tries. The next sequence, he says, "This is a hard one," but I got it in one. The last stage, Jesus, I thought I was going to rage quit and never go back -- in the sewer, there's several grind-jump-airsteer-grind before a reverse-direction wall-ride. I think it took me maybe 20+ tries, each failed attempt goes through the full fall into the sewer water, fade-out, scene of climbing back onto the deck, then cuts to the skater falling to his knees in failure, and requires a "Retry?" FUCK MY FUCKING LIFE, THE STAGE IS LOADED, JUST LET ME FUCKING RESTART.

I was vexed.

Controls: It seems like, unless you want to change direction, tricks should be performed without L-stick input, and then L-stick input should start during the trick for air-steering. Is that correct?

[Himu]

When you're doing that thing with Garam in the sewers, you steer the character in the air while they get air. When you're jumping, try to make sure you never oversteer as you change direction. You use the left stick slightly. Think of it as a platformer and not like Tony Hawk. When you're playing Mario, you use short jumps and long jumps and change direction depending on what you wanna do right? When you're in the air, you can always control where you're going to go. Don't hit the stick if you're doing to trick, left stick is for changing direction, yes.

[chronovore]

Thanks for clarifying that there is a significant difference between "jump+steer" and "jump, steer" -- it is making a lot of difference.

Tutorial's 50-trick combo: cleared (!!!), I can now hit a loop around Shibuya about one-in-six tries. I may use it to get the 100-trick Achievement as well. I maxed at 76, so far.

However, I have a lot of trouble with the bus stop's wall-ride, rail grind, jump across the street, but even when I make that, I seem to flub the next wall-ride, jump to bicycle parking pretty frequently. I have played the hell out of that map though, and can see that it's a 3D exploration/platformer, which is unfortunately tweaking a lot of the right pleasure-centers for me.

From a development perspective, I'm wondering how they tied The Concept of Love to Tutorial completion, which itself is unassociated with Save Data. My best guess is that it looks at GamerTag Achievement status when determining the unlocked state for The Concept of Love, because I completed the Tutorial and quit out without saving any data (PANIC), but once I loaded Save Data, it has the song unlocked. It even shows an "Unlocked" message onscreen, but doesn't appear to do anything with a save data file. 

[Himu]

I assume you're not having trouble with the wall grind, that's easy. I assume you're having trouble making the jump from one rail to the next after the wall ride.

With regular skating, you will never make it from one pole to the next. Start with the first one, near the parked cars and the shortcut with the stairs. Loop around the bus terminal, after the wall ride, jump at the very last part of that rail. The extra speed and momentum allow you to hit the next rail.

If you want, I can record myself doing that grind.



People are probably tired of me pimping my videos but seriously, watch this. In this I have every single lesson in the tutorial mastered to perfection. Notice how I jump. If I want to do a fast jump to change direction like getting off a real fast, I steer+jump, if I want to actually CONTROL my jumps I hold jump and steeeeeeer it while the character has air. 360 controller is perfect for JSR especially since the DC stick bites into your thumb. With the 360 pad you should be able to obtain mastery of controls with just a little practice.

[chronovore]

Thanks for the offer, that's really kind of you. However, I think I've got it! 

Yes, considering the route you suggest, the first wall-ride is not a problem, but when I hit it again after a full circuit, I guess my momentum is different than the first pass, and I under- or over-shoot the rail at the bike parking. And sometimes I just don't get the jump timing right, and just skid off the sign. But I've been getting better about that.

The 2nd wall-ride, above the taxi area, sometimes I mis-time and don't clear the two raised platforms, which ends my trick-combo.

That's a really impressive Kogane run. How are you doing the sprays so quickly? At first I assumed you'd sped up the playback for those, but the music doesn't change.

[Himu]

Memorization and swift sprays with analog stick. 360 pad means I can play like that. On DC I can but my thumb eventually hurts due to the stick.

[thisismyusername]

I'm completely stuck on getting consistent wall grinds to raise Combo/what'sherface up to the level of the tags at the back of the level in the first chapter 2 area.

[Robo]

You don't need to start from very far away.  You should be able to get up there in just two wall jumps, three at the very most.