Do you want a new Jet Set Radio game? Well unfortunately Sega forgot about that series until recently because they just announced a new game. Although Team Reptile decided to make their own game called Bomb Ruch Cyberfunk (BCR), a very interesting game that takes a lot of inspiration from the Jet Set Radio series.

Pros

• Simple but extremely fun gameplay
  
• Lots of collectibles to go out and find
  
• Fantastic soundtrack that is nice to listen to
  
• Very beautiful cel-shaded style and graffiti signs

Cons

• The game is very vague in teaching you how to play
  
• Combat is rough around the edges
  
• Some of the levels are linear

The story starts out with Faux, who is locked up in a cell and woken up by Tryce who is trying to escape. Faux agrees to escape and to help Tryce become All City until Faux is killed by DJ Cyber who cuts his head off. However, the body did not die and Faux assumes a new identity called Red but does not know anything about his past and must find out more about himself by becoming All City.

I don’t know how to necessarily describe the story fully for this game as there is just too much to talk about. BRC is pretty thick on its storytelling as it will have these moments that will probably confuse you, until later. That’s not to say that the story is bad in any way, it has some moments that are generally good and enjoyable. I do enjoy the characters and the rival gangs are all charming and have their own personalities to them.

Now if I am in any way being vague or confusing about what I am trying to talk about, well that’s the kind of story you're getting yourself into. While it may have some issues when you are playing the game when you are done with it all, it starts to make sense, but it will still have these issues. I do feel that Team Reptile made something to appreciate in the game but there is just something missing from it.

Now the gameplay for BRC is the best aspect of the game as it blends in this nice feel-good kind of gameplay that is more of a relaxed experience. You will be going around the levels in an open-world setting. You aren’t forced into the missions immediately and instead; you can complete the game at your own pace by exploring the areas of the game. In each area, you will see a set of graffiti that you need to paint over and put your graffiti on it. You want to do this so you can challenge the main gang of that area and you do this by getting rep you also need to complete these mini-challenges to get access to the Crew Battle.

Crew Battles involve you scoring more points than the rival gang and you have to do it on a two-minute timer. Now to get points, you have to grind on rails and do tricks, you can also go on some walls and such as well, you have to do tricks on the grind rail to get your points up. You will also have to build up this multiplier and to do this, you have to bounce off the corners of the rails. This builds up a multiplier that you can score more points in, you can keep a certain rhythm loop by tricking in a small circle. However, the game does encourage you to seek out more corners to build up a higher score and this is something that I love. The game wants you to explore its levels, which can lead you to find some of the game's secrets.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3237347750
Now BRC is an extreme sport and a platformer and I say platformer very loosey. As there are these mini-platform levels you have to go through at the last part of every chapter. They are pretty fun to do and at times I wish there were more of them, although the developers would have to make more levels and the game would end up being longer. You also have access to a superpowered backpack, which can be used for your boost meter. You build boost by doing tricks on rails or collecting these small ball canister things called Boost Chargers.

There are also three different Movestyles in the game, there is a skateboard, inline skates, and BMX. Skateboards can be used on fire hydrants by jumping on them to make them extend vertically. Inline Skates can be used to break patterned glass on floors by sliding on them, and BMX’s can be used to weigh down panels in front of doors with its symbol. None of these features will ever really come up, or they never came up to me, so really, you are only changing what you are using and the tricks you can pull off. Although riding a BMX is the fastest way to travel on the level without going on rails, skateboards, and inline skates are slow for traversal although, they are faster than walking but not by much. Any character can ride any of these, so if you want to play as a certain character and ride a BMX, you can.

Speaking of characters, there are ways to unlock new crew members in the game, although the game itself is vague on telling you this. This is fine, you can unlock several other crew members, but you have to complete their respective challenges to unlock them. You also need a certain number of rep to even trigger the challenge. There are also a ton of collectibles you can find, like graffiti, cosmetics for your characters, and music. This adds some flare to the game as you can go look at every nook and cranny for a secret.

Although BRC does have a few issues with the game that I did find throughout my time playing. The game is vague about teaching you how to play, it can give you the basics, but it won’t teach you certain stuff on it. A good example is in the very first mission of the game, where you are thrown into a combat segment, although the game never teaches you how to attack enemies. On top of that, combat is also one of the game's weakest aspects, due to it not having anything special to it. The mechanical enemies are where combat can get interesting, but you need to get a high wanted level for that to happen, and there isn’t much of a point in getting one, as there is no reward or feeling of getting one.

Some of the levels are also linear, when you are playing this game for the first time, this is not an issue. Although you may notice it on your next playthrough or while you are playing the game, Millennium Mall and Mataan are the two worst offenders for liner levels. There isn’t much to explore in those levels, my favorite level though is Pyramid Island, as it had a lot of twists, turns, and alternative routes to get to areas.

The art style for BRC is absolutely beautiful! I love the game's art style and the direction it chose, the cel-shaded art style and the mix of graffiti art blend perfectly together. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while playing and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs, the soundtrack is something else I liked as well.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a very fun game that I really enjoyed playing. Despite a few issues I had with the story, I still loved my time with this title, but the gameplay is where it shines the most. The game takes around eight hours to beat, if you don’t focus on the other objectives the game has. I would wait for a sale for the game though, as 51.99 is a lot of money for content offered unless you are a fan of [bJet Set Radio or any extreme sports games, then you could feel good about picking it up at full price.

But there are things you can't change, your age, your roots, you better own and rock that s**t at Life Needs a Little Sin

The story starts out with you, an unnamed protagonist (you can choose their name) who wakes up with no memory of themselves. They are introduced to a woman named Kat who tells the protagonist that they are on a reality TV show where they can choose to date between five women. There is a catch, however, that being, if the protagonist fails to find a love interest, they will be killed.

With five different girls to choose from, will our protagonist manage to find love on this gameshow they have to take part in? Or will they die lonely and never get a date at the end? Or is there something else going on the island that they or the other girls don’t know about?

Pros

• A somewhat charming story with some decent humor
  
• Five different girls to pick from, each with their own unique traits
  
• Nice art style

Cons

• I don’t know if the main character you play is either a self-insert or a main character
  
• Your choices do not matter in any meaningful way
  
• Has an option for voice acting but there is none

There are quite a few characters in this visual novel with a total of eight unique endings in total. With that said, the visual novel does have five unique women for you to choose from, all of which have their own personalities and special traits associated with them. The story is in fact charming and has some decent humor in it. There are also references to other sorts of media that I have noticed.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253611317
The story is rather good and there is some good stuff enjoy in it. The dates that you go on with the characters you choose all felt unique and it’s something I like. The comedy aspect that was included was also nice as it broke away from the typical romance stuff that usually romance visual novels do and I applaud the developers for that.

All of the characters are likable in their own ways and are well-developed. Except for Yui, she is meant to be the childhood friend and animal lover but her character does not really go past those traits and is left empty. Other then that, everyone who you can date felt like well rounded choices.

The two characters that shined for me the most were Terra because she has green hair and wears a Pink Floyd shirt so she has quality taste in music, and is also a gamer. Then there was Violet, a women who is a very skilled cook and can be cold sometimes but is just as beautiful.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253610025
You have the ability to date all of these women on separate dates but the order in which you initiate the dates is up to you. I actually ended up liking Aillie more than I initially thought I would which was a welcome surprise.

Although not everything in the visual novel[/b[]visual novel is the fact that I can’t even tell if the main character is meant to be a self-insert or an actual character. I want to say self-insert because you can play as any gender, although that’s kind of contradictive as you are giving three genders, he/him, she/her, or they/them. I am aware that the visual novel can’t put all genders in but originally, those three options were not included on release.

Find Love or Die Trying was free to play when it came out and you just assumed your gender from there on with no options. You were just thrown into the visual novel and that was that. Now this pronoun issue is not really much of a problem on the grand scheme of things but there are times when the character that should of been self inserted, is not.

This is because there are moments where the character just feels like a character, that is fleshed out. I am going to bring up Yui again here because I said she is meant to be the childhood friend. Well, I don’t think having the self-insert character and a childhood friend you have known since you were younger works here. I understand that the character that you play does have amnesia but that serves a different plot point.

Your choices also do not matter at all at any point in the visual novel. You can pick any options and choices for one character and throw the thought that you are affecting the story right out the window. This underlines the entire plot point of you being on a reality TV dating show and it also ruins all of the choices you made throughout the visual novel as well.

The art style for this visual novel is very well drawn and colorful, with the detail on the art and characters being very nice and pleasant to look at. I do like how the areas were drawn and how the character models were designed. It all felt nice but there was that hint of something else is going on. I tested the visual novel on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while I was playing and it should be able to run on any PC.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253611723
is a fine read if you are looking for a casual romance visual novel. Despite its flaws, the story overall is fun to go through. It will take around 2-4 hours to complete depending on your reading speed but for $5.99, that’s not bad of a price. If you are still on the fence with picking this one up, the inevitable Steam sales are always right around the corner.

9 out of 10 forest beasts recommend following Life Needs a Little Sin for good quality reviews