Came across this on the PS Store this morning: I've been wanting a Japanese rail sim, but this doesn't look so hot and seems a bit overpriced. Curious if anyone here has played it.
This video looks to be from the PS4 version: It's all FMV, so I'm guessing no camera control or anything. Weird.
I used to play a web based game like this that was essentially controlling the playback speed of a cab ride video for the graphics. It was lower resolution but this looks like it’s an updated version of the same game. Slightly interesting fact. I travelled on that line every day for 10 days when on holiday in Kyoto. Ah, the memories.
Yeah, I did a bit of research and apparently these types of Japanese FMV rail sims have existed at least since the PS2 days. Kinda interesting, but the janky frame rate puts me off. I could probably sink some time into this, but man... that price. Japanese Rail Sim or Mass Effect Trilogy? Decisions, decisions...
Well, here's a long overdue follow-up on Japanese Rail Sim: Journey To Kyoto (PS4 version). It never went on sale so I ended up purchasing the game at full price ($60US!). As we've discussed, JRS is a very limited rail sim when compared to TSW2. You've got two lines to choose from, one and a half really, since both lines follow the same route for a good portion of the trip. It's all FMV, so no camera control, the same cars and pedestrians moving about every time you play. Even the FMV itself isn't great, maybe 1080/30fps when the train is rolling at a good clip. You've got a throttle and a brake. Oh, and a horn. With JRS, it's all about hitting the stops perfectly, within the second and the centimeter. But the FMV experience (anyone remember Night Trap?) makes this feels more like an interactive movie than a video game. That said, I actually did have a bit of fun with JRS. The routes are interesting if repetitive, the platinum trophy is dead easy, and earning high rankings gives you interesting info about the various stops and landmarks along the way. I do plan on going back and earning S Rank on all my stops. But for $60US, there is no way I can recommend JRS to my fellow rail sim enthusiasts. Watching a Japanese train ride on YouTube is a better viewing experience (4K/60fps!), it's definitely cheaper. Now if only they'd bring Densha De Go over here.
I used to play one of these mini games as well when I was a kid, after reading this comment I was curious to see if it still existed and here it is! It is in italian, and it is a bit ancient but it was fun rediscovering it after so much time About the japanese game, I think it would be better if the HUD wasn't so huge and obnoxious, and if the cabs didn't look like something out of MSTS... especially for that price, but I think there is a place for a well done sim produced from a recording of a real line.
This kind of reminds me of Densha de Go. I've been looking at that game for awhile. Unfortunately I don't have a ps4 to play it. Although I think it's on the switch now. Definitely more of an arcade style and not so much focused on realistic physics and train driving. Still looks fun.
The video clip games were an interesting stop gap between the older text based stuff and the newer titles with a dedicated graphics engine, but never really satisfactory. We had a few in the UK called Cab View Driver, used poor quality video extracted from Railscene cab ride video. Never quite matched what the train was doing, sometimes the camera swerved to take in something off to the side and had a weird mask over the clip to represent the actual cab. Well I suppose it was one way to watch Railscene without Jeremy English’s inane babble but not the best solution to virtual driving experience.
Yeah, Densha De Go is a much more polished product than JRS based on what I've seen. I'd have bought the Densha import disc already if my PS4 optical drive wasn't dead. I know I can buy it on the Japanese PSN store, but I don't want to deal with creating a Japanese PS4 account, adding funds, etc.
I still want to buy JTK but not at £40 and I haven’t noticed it in a sale at any time (I haven’t constantly looked either). It would be for a bit of fun and a little reminder of my time there and not for any serious train sim use. I’d like the little challenge of getting to the destinations on time and accurate stops and I’m sure I could get several hours of use from it on the couple of lines that are included.
Sorry for necroposting but this game reminds me of another game I used to watch on YouTube back in the early PS3 days called Railfan, developed by Ongakukan and Taito.
Was that Ashley Greenups Cab View Driver? If it is, it wasn’t web based it cost quite a bit of money on PC at the time (mid 90s), the “video” was in a small box in the middle and speed limits, signals etc were placed around it!
No, it won’t have been that. I can’t remember what name it had if any. It had the same station stop graphics as Japanese Rail Sim, was Japanese, and was entirely web based and free to play. I played it about 5 or 6 years ago.
It's 50 percent off in the Playstation store for about the next 10 days. I'm thinking about it. Would love to know what anyone who's played it thinks.
Wow, it actually went on sale after all this time? I'm kinda surprised. In any case, I have a fairly unbiased review of JRS (as well as other Japanese rail sims) on my site: https://www.heyimbill.com/j-trains.html
