JDM: Japanese Drift Master by developer and publisher
Gaming Factory—
PC (Steam) review written by
Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Introduction
On May 21st, a niche racing game titled JDM: Japanese Drift Master expertly slid onto Steam with a cool comicbook aesthetic, beautiful scenery, and high stakes. There is surely fun to be had by racing enthusiasts as it also feels like playing in a video game within the Initial D universe.
Back in 1995 Shuichi Shigeno began writing his 48 Volume Manga called Initial D centered around a student named Takumi Fujiwara who helps his father deliver tofu to clients. Takumi drives a white Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86) to do those deliveries, but he doesn't realize the full potential of the car that his father repeatedly tweaks throughout the series. When he discovers his love of racing, he works hard to best his opponents and quickly becomes famous for his legendary driving and drifting skills.
Initial D was the inspiration to Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift which was meant as a standalone movie in the racing genre because Vin Diesel was busy with some of his other projects. Thus, Tokyo Drift ended up being released with a whole new cast of characters and it was regarded as the worst in the Fast & Furious series, which I fundamentally disagree with (Fast 9 is the worst. Don't @ me.) Anyways, Initial D went on to inspire a number of other works including one
being developed by Sung Kang (who played Han in Tokyo Drift and then was brought into other Fast & Furious movies as they were being made).
As a fan of both Initial D and the Fast & Furious series, I was excited to give Japanese Drift Master a shot. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectations.
Gameplay
Loading up Japanese Drift Master for the first time provoked excitement from me, mostly due to the fact that I love racing games. So much so, that Gran Turismo is my benchmark to judging a new challenger in the genre. Unfortunately, this means that many racing games crash and burn - this one included.
It begins well enough with some beautifully crafted cutscenes and graphics that remind me of the multitudes of anime that I used to watch. As mentioned above, Japanese Drift Master feels very much like Initial D the video game because of the similarities between the Anime/Manga and this title. However, if we separate the game from the anime, it has a great foundation of a game I would play all the time. The problem is that it failed so spectacularly to a point where I threw my controller onto the couch and stopped trying to progress. I'll explain why.
Japanese Drift Master is meant to be a game all about drifting - a method of driving that allows you to do a deliberate and controlled oversteered turn. The trick with drifting is to find that happy middle ground where you oversteer just enough without doing a complete 360 into a wall. This is all well and good because you start by 'learning' how to drift with the tutorial levels and the convenient driving school. Let's talk about that.
Driving School
At first, the game does explain a small section of drifting, but after that is complete, your only way to practice is to keep trying. Even the driving school does a terrible job of helping you learn to drift as it gives you a course that is quite literally a roundabout. You're supposed to do this roundabout strictly through drifting, but it doesn't give you any pointers about what you are doing wrong. The second reason that the driving school is unhelpful is that you have to compete against an AI driver. Not only do you need to complete the course, but you have to beat the opponents score too.
In the driving school, there are a couple of other practice modes like the grip tracks and drag races. Obviously, I opted to do a bit of drag racing to get a feel for the Nissan Silvia you are given at the start. The first drag race you are to do has no opponents and forces you to heat your tires and then shift properly. The time limit is about 30 seconds to reach the end, which is more than enough time to complete the quick stretch. However, you fail the test if you don't try to slow down at the end. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it'd be nice for the game to give an indication of the requirement before failing horribly. I finished the stretch in 11 seconds flat and didn't understand why I kept failing. I'm sorry, but for a track in the driving school, I expect there to be some clarity.
Missions
Japanese Drift Master has a full story which is told to you in Manga format that comes up on your screen in between races. One of the aspects I like about the game is the need to drive between race locations. It gives you the ability to get used to your car and tweak it as needed. To get to your next mission, you will drive to the location and then press a button to start. While progressing through the story, you will end up racing without knowing what type of race it is. That also means that you might not have the right car for the job nor the right tuning - assuming it is a race that you can use your own car.
Apart from not knowing which type of race you are entering (drag, delivery, or grip), you also have no idea of what your opponents will be driving - meaning that you can get outclassed quickly. If that wasn't enough of a gripe about the missions, the difficulty of each race is a smorgasbord. Even in the beginning stages of the game, some missions require you to be a drift master already! In fact, there were a few of those early races that made me feel like I was trying to get my IA licence in Gran Turismo, and that is not where you want to start. Did I also mention that I was playing on Standard difficulty? I can't even imagine what would have constituted as 'easy' or even 'hard' difficulty based on what the standard benchmark is.
Also, in terms of the races, drifting itself is actually a moot point. What I mean is, if you give us a drifting game, I expect the focus to be on meaningful drifting, not wiggling your butt down a straightaway just for the points. You're not drifting, you're deliberately fishtailing enough for the point counter to appear. What's worse is that while you lose points for hitting a wall, it is not a fail condition. What this means is there is no real incentive to properly learn how to drift because the point value is the focal point. And if all you have to do is wiggle it, just a little bit, then you're not really becoming a drift master. Honestly, after failing a couple of those missions for incredibly silly reasons, I had little motivation to keep playing. But there are a couple of other reasons I became frustrated with the title, like the story aspect.
Story
Admittedly, I will say that I didn't get very far in the story because I gave up on the game entirely. For a racing game, I do appreciate that there even is story progression and not just a simulation game where you go from race to race earning money to buy better and faster cars. I will even say that I enjoyed the fact that there is a garage and a tuning shop which you can access after you get further into the game. There is a lot of impressive customization that can be done to any car you have in your garage, making it so that your baby can crush even the toughest of opponents. Japanese Drift Master allows you to change not only the exterior, but the interior of your car as well. It's a nice touch to the game.
Anyways, what I can say about the story is that it is decently told through the manga. Japanese Drift Master allows you to turn on the reading assistant which tells you which panel is next. This is important because the western audience reads from left to right, top to bottom. In Japan, you read right to left, top to bottom. While I appreciate the story telling to be done this way, the dialogue is fairly basic and not great. There's something to be said for localization of a game, particularly when releasing a title for the North American audience.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that the story is good either. On the whole, it is cool to be presented in true anime format, but I read multiple reviews where people mentioned a specific character interaction. I know that in other cultures certain things are 'accepted' or not discussed publicly, but I personally will not stand for assault against women - especially if the protagonist simply watches it happen. Because multiple people mentioned it in their reviews of the game, I immediately put down my controller and walked away. While that may not be a deal breaker for some, it is for me. And I cannot and will not recommend this game to anyone unless that problematic content is removed.
Graphics and UI
After lambasting the game rather harshly, the game does have some excellent features like the amazing and detailed graphics. I absolutely adored the bright lights that are strong enough to make a statement without being too much of a distraction. It was amazing to drive down the long winding roads surrounded by beautiful cherry trees and well lit tunnel stretches where I found myself saying, 'Secret Tunnel!' even though it wasn't a secret at all. Also, I was taken back to my high school days when looking at the Silvia because it comes with neon lights underneath it - which is sadly illegal to have here. But once upon a time, I had a friend whose job it was to install vertical doors on cars. He also had some of those neon lights and a spectacular surround sound system that we would listen to while driving.
Instead of having a ton of menus to access the garage, missions, or driving school areas, all you have is a cellphone which you use as your GPS navigator as well as checking recent messages, missions, and career statistics. You can also look at that manga again if you feel so inclined. Apart from that, you have your speedometer on the right side of the screen as well as your accumulated wealth and driving level.
Japanese Drift Master absolutely nails its graphics and UI, where other games may absolutely fail. (We could talk about some of the previous Gran Turismo games where the menu screens were cluttered and difficult to get used to, but that is a separate conversation entirely.) Although, while I adore the graphics style both on the road and with the manga, the UI did have one minor flaw that I hope will be resolved in a future update. To play the game, I was using my 8BitDo controller which has X,Y,A, and B buttons. However, Japanese Drift Master is clearly a PlayStation based game because it doesn't allow you to change the buttons to be the same as your controller. This isn't a fatal flaw, but in a game where you have the option to switch between KPH and MPH, I hoped that I could also change the control scheme. (I'll shoehorn in the idea that I was not expecting the devs to change anything major like which side of the road you drive on, because that's unrealistic. It just took a bit of getting used to.)
Audio and Music
One of Japanese Drift Master's spectacular features is its audio. We can definitely talk about the realistic feel of the game based on the swerving sounds or the wind blazing past you as you put the pedal to the metal, but where the game absolutely nails it is the music. There is only one choice when it comes to music for an Initial D inspired game, and that is the genre the anime is synonymous with: Eurobeat.
In the early 80s, British Eurobeat became a hit genre with its fusion of two dance styles that were both created around the same time. Those were Eurodisco influenced dance-pop and Hi-NRG Italo Disco. Combining the two styles of music became Eurobeat (which is different from EuroDance and EuroDisco) and when the anime Initial D was released, the series used a ton of Eurobeat music during many of the racing scenes. It was after that realization that Eurobeat became synonymous with Initial D which is why the musics' inclusion in Japanese Drift Master is a hugely positive note. While there are other music choices in the game, I'm absolutely elated that Eurobeat can be listened to.
Good Drifting or Bad Drifting?
Summarizing the good and the bad in Japanese Drift Master is simple. The game has a lot of good foundations that would make this title a ridiculously fun one to play. Among the good elements are its graphics, simplistic UI, and tons of licenced cars to choose from (including the Skyline, GTR, NSX, and BRZ). It stands to reason that this game is meant as an ode to Initial D because it even has a version of the AE86 in the form of the Alpha Moriyamo. As mentioned above, the game has some killer music to accompany it as well.
But even with all of the care and attention put into the game, it has some terrible elements. The difficulty of the races are all over the place, the story is not fabulous - although points for having a story to carry players through, and I can't let it slide that the loading times are abysmal. If some more time was taken to refine some of the major gameplay aspects like the drifting itself and localization improvements, Japanese Drift Master would knock the genre out of the park. Sadly, the game understeered with too many of the larger elements that left me both frustrated and really sad.
Final Stretch
It is clear that Japanese Drift Master was created as a love letter to drifting culture and to Initial D because of its clear connections with music, vehicles, car customization, and inclusion of an in-game manga which are all brought to life for car enthusiasts and Anime lovers alike. However, due to several gameplay issues and lack of clarity, the game seems to slide itself off the track. I can only hope that the developers take additional time to improve some of the core elements and pay attention to the audience that they brought the title to, because it has the potential to bring more fans of both genres into the game. And it wouldn't hurt to re-evaluate some of the story aspects to be more in line with the North American audience - if not that, at least be sure to include content warnings.
Sadly, the graphics and the music won't be enough to really sell the game to a wider audience, but with some time, perhaps it can really shine. I'm just not sure it'll be able to pass its other contenders in its current state, although I did have some high hopes. The fact that Gaming Factory hit so many of the important notes only to fail on the main aspects of the game really crushes my soul. Please let the game cook some more.
Score: 6 out of 10
