Enthusia final build impressions (Japanese version) *updated*

  • Thread starter SaintKamus
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Wow. I really like the physics in this game. Theres a better feel to the cars than in GT4. Graphics wise its still a very solid title. Small touches like skidmarks and 3d rims make the cars feel more "solid".
Also love the scenery on the "ring". Better than GT4s but overall GT4 is nicer. Great game. I can see myself playing this more than GT4 now.
 
tiptopcream
How do you save the game? :dopey:

I've seen the save in the options but it keeps saying error and some Japanese I can't understand. :indiff:
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Maybe your memory card doesn't have enough space? And remember each time you save it'll ask you if you want to overwrite so there's a [YES] and [NO] option, and on the bottom it should show the game status of the existing file.
 
spooony
Maybe your memory card doesn't have enough space? And remember each time you save it'll ask you if you want to overwrite so there's a [YES] and [NO] option, and on the bottom it should show the game status of the existing file.
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Ok, but doesn´t the game have an autosave option? I was playing the "Driving Revolution" mode last night. I stopped at level 9, and then I had to go to the main menu, and then the option menu to be able to save it. Is there an easier way to do it?

What about the career mode? I´ve played a few races, but I don´t remember having saved the game at anytime... :scared:
 
FatAssBR
Ok, but doesn´t the game have an autosave option? I was playing the "Driving Revolution" mode last night. I stopped at level 9, and then I had to go to the main menu, and then the option menu to be able to save it. Is there an easier way to do it?

What about the career mode? I´ve played a few races, but I don´t remember having saved the game at anytime... :scared:
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There is no auto save, you will need to go to options to save/load.

data-create-new.jpg

data-overwrite.jpg

data-error-save-nospace.jpg


Added total 13 screens (mainly save creation/warnings and tune screens) to the translation album

http://z-o-g.org/gallery/enthusia-tr
 
Thanks maskrider, very usefull pics as always.

One more thing though. What´s that thing that appears before the game loads, it´s a screen with four options, tcs, off, etc. I can´t remember them all. What is it about?

And I didn´t liked that you have to steer with the L3, I like to use the D-Pad. :(
 
FatAssBR
Thanks maskrider, very usefull pics as always.

One more thing though. What´s that thing that appears before the game loads, it´s a screen with four options, tcs, off, etc. I can´t remember them all. What is it about?

And I didn´t liked that you have to steer with the L3, I like to use the D-Pad. :(
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Already in the translation gallery (the first batch of translated screens)

http://z-o-g.org/gallery/enthusia-tr/enthusia_driving_assist

And no, you cannot use D-Pad.
 
FatAssBR
Hey maskrider, could you please translate this screen?

Thanks!
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Couldn't believe myself doing that, but I had it done.

Added 11 images on the whole search part to the translation gallery, same URL as the previous post.
 
maskrider
Couldn't believe myself doing that, but I had it done.

Added 11 images on the whole search part to the translation gallery, same URL as the previous post.
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Thanks man, that´s really helpful. 👍

Edit: Oh, and IGN made a nice write-up about the game:

IGN
March 17, 2005 - Our initial play time with Enthusia: Professional Racing after having just picked up the game early Thursday morning (Japan time), suggested that Konami had put together a quality racer in its first attempt at simulating the real driving experience. Since that time, we've played for a few more hours and are now convinced that if you weren't before, you should be enthusiastic about Enthusia.

We've at last managed to put in some big time with the game's main mode of play, the Enthusia Life Mode, where your goal is to rise to the top level in a ranking of 1000 other racers. The mode is split into multiple weeks. For any week, you have a couple of options from which you can chose: take part in a race or change cars. Either of these actions takes up a full week's time. You're also free to tune and test your car on a number of test tracks, without incurring any time penalties.

You rise in rank by, of course, winning races. Each week, you have a number of different races available to you, from which you choose one. Clear the race, and depending on its difficulty and your final position, you're awarded "rank points" which raise your rank. How fast you progress is up to you. By choosing to take part in the more difficult races, you can make yourself rise in rank faster. Also, purposely using a weaker car gives you extra rank points in return. Prior to the start of a race, all participating cars are displayed alongside their odds of winning.

Rising in rank and winning races unlocks additional cars. These cars then become available for access in the other modes of play and are also added to a growing garage for use in the Life Mode. Unlike many other racers, you don't have to go through the chore of buying new cars by earning money. Instead, you simply play the game at your own pace, and you'll get cars in return, which can be switched to if you choose. Usually, the cars that you unlock are the ones that you just raced against; following the race, you earn one of the opponent cars at random.

In addition to rank points, Enthusia's Life Mode also awards you "skill points" based on how you perform in the race. To determine your skill points for a given race, the game takes into account any problems that you may have had during the race, such as hitting other cars or going off the track. You'll probably want to avoid reckless driving. Earn enough skill points, and your car will go up in level, giving you added tuning capabilities.

Tuning, incidentally, is handled intuitively in Enthusia, even for beginners. To tune your car, you select between seven modification areas: height, spring rate, damper, toe angle, camber angle, gear ratio and L.S.D.. The actual modifications are made by adjusting a sliding scale, with the effects to steering, speed, acceleration, response and so-forth clearly displayed. Even if you don't know the slightest bit about cars, you'll be able to understand the changes you're making in Enthusia's garage screen.

Your car also earns extra HP when it goes up in level. HP? In a racing game? Yes, believe it or not, Enthusia's cars have hit points! Your car's HP total depletes when you hit other cars or run into walls -- in other words, when you do anything you probably wouldn't do with your car in real life. If the HP meter depletes all the way, you lose the ability to race the next week. Clearing a race automatically replenishes some of your HP, but to refill completely, you'll have to wait a full week's time, either by changing cars, or by selecting a "rest" option.

We're more than 10 weeks into the Life Mode and are having a blast. It's a relief not having to go through the standard practice of earning money, selling old cars and buying new ones. We're also relieved that there are no license tests. It's easy to jump right into Enthusia's Life Mode and get absorbed in your attempt to reach the number one rank. We get the feeling that Konami meant for you to play this mode multiple times, trying out different races and car combinations as you unlock new tracks and cars.

Life Mode isn't all Enthusia has going for it, of course. In addition to free race and time trial modes which are similar to the similarly named modes from other racers, you'll also find the Driving Revolution mode. In this mode, colored gates are placed along the track. They animate to indicate if you're going too fast or too slow. Your goal is to go through all the gates at just the right speed.

You start off with four test runs set on a straight test track, then progress to more advanced tracks where you may find yourself struggling to even hit the gates, let alone go through them at the right speed. Based on how well you navigate the gates, and how close you are to passing through at the perfect speed, you're given a letter grade at the end of the test. Get a C or above on all four tests and you unlock the next set of tests on another track.

The point of Driving Revolution mode is to improve your driving by forcing you to take turns properly. Whether or not you use the mode as a learning experience and drive properly in the other modes of play is up to you. Whatever the case, we've found this mode to be lots of fun, and we've noticed improvements in our driving as we attempt to get "S" ratings on each test.

Serving as a foundation for these two unique gameplay modes, Enthusia seems to have all the basics in place. Particularly, the feel of driving and overall control seem like they've been refined through exhaustive testing. Even through a standard Dual Shock, we don't think you'll have much to complain about with Enthusia in these areas. The game's interface is also smooth, with minimal load times and a quick search feature for displaying a specific set of cars in the car selection screen.

Konami has also done a good job with the game's visuals. While not the best the PS2 has seen, textures and car models are solid and there are some impressive lighting and dust effects, particularly in the natural environments. It's too bad there's no support for wide screen or progressive output.

Sound doesn't hold up as well as the visuals. While the music is catchy, the sound effects are a bit weak, with the sound of your car failing to change when you switch views or enter a tunnel. Also, there's no Dolby Pro Logic support, something that the higher end PS2 games tend to have nowadays.

We haven't played enough of Enthusia to unlock many of the tracks and cars. The initial set of available tracks suggest great variety, with city and natural environments, an oval speedway and off-road tracks. Some of the stages have weather effects, with rain making it particularly difficult to drive. The game even has a number of test tracks, including an infinite straightaway and a "track" that's set in an empty airport parking lot, offering lots of room to try and spin your car around (if only we could get some rain on the course!).

Despite having played a number of great racing games for the PS2 over the past few months, we're having a great time with Konami's debut in the simulation genre. Even the latest generation of PS2 racers is already represented in your game collection, you may want to give Enthusia a look when it arrives stateside in early May.
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I indeed have a questions to the players of the game.

I have never drived high power cars (max is a mere 1300cc corolla) and I had never floored the gas pedal, not even once (typical family driver).

Is higher power cars (like the RX-8 @ 250PS in my video) spin the wheels that easily ? The game feel a lot like a drifter and you can make the car drift easily.
 
maskrider
...Is higher power cars (like the RX-8 @ 250PS in my video) spin the wheels that easily ? ...
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My family car and daily commuter is a Mercury (Ford) Sable (Taurus) with a 3L V6 making 200hp. Even with an automatic transmission it will spin the wheels in a heartbeat if you floor it when launching.
 
Does anyone know how many levels are there in the Driving Revolution mode? I´m currently on level 16, thought it should be over soon.
 
I've beaten up to Level 18 (the "Challenge" level) and it didn't unlock any more :(. I'm not sure if I need to A or S all the stages to unlock more, but my status screen doesn't look like Driving Revolution is complete yet. It only says "DR: 56%" or so...
 
spooony
I've beaten up to Level 18 (the "Challenge" level) and it didn't unlock any more :(. I'm not sure if I need to A or S all the stages to unlock more, but my status screen doesn't look like Driving Revolution is complete yet. It only says "DR: 56%" or so...
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Maybe there are only 18 levels, but you have to get all "S" to do 100%

That will be hard, some tests are really difficult.
 
cant wait to get home to play this game.

thanks a lot maskrider. i shall attempt to navigate the game, though it seems quite complicated (not knowing the language and having hte computer upstairs).
 
I'm at level 9 in driving revolution i think. I have S everywhere and i have 149 cars unlocked in time trial mode at the moment :)

Btw, i finnaly got rank 1 in enthusia life mode :dopey:
 
My other major questions will be :

Are you a racer ? How do you rank a game as a sim than arcade ?

Enthusia may be better in some cases, but is the hype around Enthusia justified by real experience than opinion ?

GT4 is still a better overall package IMHO.

edit: I am always wondering how people claim something as sim and something as arcade, is it real experience or just personal projections. I don't think anyone has drive enough cars to properly justify their claims, on any games.
 
just played Enthusia for a bit...interesting exerperience...i was expecting something different.

i was expecting a simulator style game but its definitly not what i experienced.

a lot of arcade-like features. sorry im not good at writing mini reviews, i just gotta say, im a bit disappointed. GT4 is superior to enthusia IMO. *note - i didnt compare much on the physics realism of enthusia, as the rest of the game just doesnt add up for me to consider it that far.

also i must say, after playing enthusia and being a bit disappointed by it, i now truely value GT4. i was expecting enthusia to be a GT4 competitor, but they just arent on the same level. 7 years developing the same series, 2 years of the making, really makes a difference.
 
Gek54
Anyone able to get the game to work on HDloader? It freezes when trying to play Life and Revolution.
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Did you try to turn any mode on?
I found music skipping with no mode on
it seemed to play fine in mode 3
 
franz
Did you try to turn any mode on?
I found music skipping with no mode on
it seemed to play fine in mode 3
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Yeah I tried all the mode configurations with no luck until I totally turned off all the BGM.

What happened was that after Life mode loaded off the memcard the music would start skipping and the game would freeze. In Revolution I would get the first tutorial screen and it would freeze. All other game modes would work just fine. I can easily live with out all the jpop music so no big loss, the loadtimes are MUCH better now.
 
cb1021
a lot of arcade-like features. sorry im not good at writing mini reviews, i just gotta say, im a bit disappointed. GT4 is superior to enthusia IMO. *note - i didnt compare much on the physics realism of enthusia, as the rest of the game just doesnt add up for me to consider it that far.

also i must say, after playing enthusia and being a bit disappointed by it, i now truely value GT4. i was expecting enthusia to be a GT4 competitor, but they just arent on the same level. 7 years developing the same series, 2 years of the making, really makes a difference.
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Thats what I think every time some say its better than GT4, they dont consider the game as a whole but just the fact that they can drift easy.
 
As I´ve said somewhere, the game is realistic, but not as much as GT4. It´s somewhere between Toca 2 and GT4 IMO.
 

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