There are a wide selection of cards and all can be levelled up so almost work like your party in a JRPG. What adds to the strategy of the game is a card system used to help you during racing. One crucial area of Initial D is improving your FP (Fight Power) which is necessary in order to progress.
Essentially you can either do a JRPG-esque grind or take a short-cut to the finish line. The second currency (D Coins) used to buy cards etc (more on these later) is more limited and can be topped up via the eShop or earned through successfully gear changing.
The initial currency (RP) you have at your disposal is used for purchasing your car and the game is fairly generous in start-up funds. IAP wise it gets more confusing as the game has multiple currencies. Before moving onto the game I know a major concern is how obtrusive the IAP are and whether the game is playable offline (a valid question since ‘online’ is part of the title.įortunately in-spite of a few pop-ups of Japanese text, Initial D is perfectly playable offline (obviously not the online multiplayer). Obviously these are just parts of a whole and both parts mean little if the overall gameplay is lacking and that’s where the challenge lies – in making what can effectively be considered merely a gear changing game one of great substance and enjoyment. Two areas where Sega can be commended for is in both the excellent aesthetics and presentation which give Initial D a polish that many full-priced ¥5,000+ titles fail to match. Essentially Initial D is thus more akin to a rhythm game in the guise of a racing game. What I found more fascinating than Sega’s new racer Initial D: Perfect Shift Online being the third 3DS free-to-play game after Darumeshi Sports Store (Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball) and Steel Diver Subwars is that I had no idea there was an Initial D game (Initial D Gaiden) for the original Game Boy! Based on an anime/manga Initial D is less of a racer than it looks from the screenshots as steering is totally automatic with you just controlling the shifts (hence the Perfect Shift part in the name).
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