Out of all Initial D games I've tried, I felt this one had the deepest understanding of its source material when it came to the actual racing. At first it felt like skidding around on ice but I came to understand the strong emphasis this game puts on drifting above all else. After all Takumi's AE86 was never a speed demon, relying more on drifting technique to get by. Compared to its (honestly laughable) predecessor on Saturn, there's a nice sense of speed and the handling is miles better, however loose it might seem in the beginning. Attacking corners is really fun, you'll definitely feel impressed at the drifts you can manage to pull off once you get the hang of it.

The story mode takes from the manga, roughly covering its main events and delivering them in deliciously janky 3D cutscenes. Despite being pretty funny looking I have to applaud the effort into adapting Shuichi Shigeno's charming artstyle. The soundtrack's cool too, not the iconic heart-pumping Eurobeat of the show but it's not bad either. Overall just a neat game I can easily recommend to any Initial D enjoyer, with decent replay value for increasing difficulty and new cars.

The first in this reboot series doesn't have a great reputation among Hayarigami fans in Japan and it's obvious why. The messy story, the incoherent progression of events, the robotic characters... Yeah, it's far from enjoyable and the stiffly written localisation does little to help. Even its soundtrack is surprisingly lacking in any sort of memorability or atmosphere. The gameplay absolutely left a bad taste in my mouth, being rewarded through the Liar's Art mechanic to put the blame on a sexual harrassment victim for failing to report the perpetrator, or motivating a suspect to commit suicide in a mocking manner. Yet these characters never feel questioned for these acts. Part of me continued to pray for the story to improve, but the slow progression towards the conclusion never felt satisfying or natural. I absolutely did not care for the shitty romance subplot between the main character and her creepy sexist coworker. I could best describe the feeling this visual novel gave me as repulsive, absolutely not in any meaningful way. What a shame that artist's beautiful talent has been wasted on this.

90s is probably the most overused term to describe soul hackers, but what better way is there to put it? your love for this game will totally be down to how much you vibe with this era's design sensibilities. there are an array of random experimental mechanics like loyalty you'll either find incredibly endearing or unnecessarily clunky. personally i love the genuine attempt at immersing the player in the summoner's shoes. try to form a perfect team for a tricky fight and demons of opposing alignments might refuse to cooperate. or you may run out of magnetite and they'll turn their backs on you altogether. managing your demons can be a real pain in the ass and i'm all for it.

how can i forget the soundtrack? the perfect soundtrack to complement its atmosphere. every sound is drenched in this dreamy digital echo, with lots of spacey synths that invoke feelings of the mechanical nature of this rapidly digitising world. trudging through algon headquarter's narrow hallways as the ominous tune transforms into a hopeless synthetic melody is fucking beautiful. or wandering aimlessly through the vr art museum in that droning ambience, as if lost in a dream you can hardly make sense of. a beautiful work