Initial D: Arcade Stage Help Needed

[C']

For the last month now I have been struggling to defeat Bunta. No matter how I approach Akina he always comes out the winner and it is bankrupting me at the moment but I have to beat him.

Clearly my drifting technique is letting me down. At times I can fly around the majority of corners, others I scrape the sides quite drastically. However, the point that always lets me dow, if I'm having a good run, is the 5 consecutive hairpins. I always screw up the first one and end up having to crawl through the rest at aroun 115mph.

Sometimes it is recoverable. On about 6 occasions now I have come very close to beating him. Only been about 7 metres behind with a time around the 3:09/3:10 mark.

Guess I need some tips on refining my drift technique. Maybe I'm approaching the corners in the wrong manner. If anyone can divulge the ideal drift technique I would be most grateful. I can't afford to be spending the kind of money that I am (?40 in the last 2 nights alone) amd making no progress. Sad to say, but I am actually getting quite angry at the game at times as well which I am a little ashamed about.

Please help to save my sanity

[Excelsior]

Hi mate

I've a best time of 2'59'9xx and do 3'03'xxx average on Akina Downhill (will post my time up later in the challenge forum )

Don't worry about the concecutive hairpins Takumi/Bunta will always catch up there as they do it at an inhumanly pace (keeping in line with the anime/manga)
Bunta should gain around 100M on you there so unless you're over 100M in front of him before hand then you won't keep your lead. DON'T BLOCK HIM just let him pass. Because of the next "lap".

Afterwards is where you can really catch up to Bunta because even if he has a 150M lead on you you can catch up and beat him.

After the hairpins is the 3rd checkpoint and then two more hairpins.
1st one you have to slow down SLIGHTLY for. Just ease off accel and take it around 120-125kmph
2nd one is much wider and you don't need to let off the pedal if you do it right. Take it around 130kmph

Then is the important part for many. The last wide/big hairpin before the very long straight - stay in 5the gear and let go of gas and turn early into the corner. You can take it at around 150KMPH but can as long as it's above 140kmph and you didn't hit the walls AND ARE ACCELERATING then you're in with a good chance. try to stick close to the walls when you're going downhill (i hope you know what part im talking about) there should only be one tricky part where you have to slow down to -170kmph or use the gutter technique - I can't do it on this corner yet - it's the tight corner before the finish line.

If you live close to glasgow I could show you in person and be easier to explain it but the gist is this. If you're within 150M of him after 3rd checkpoint you're in with a chance. Just avoid the walls

try it and if that advice isnt good enough i'll give advice on the rest of the course so that hopefully you'll have a good enough lead on him come the 5 hairpins.

BTW what car you use?

[Chief H]

Probably the most important piece of advice you can hear is that "slower means faster" in relation to cornering, esp hairpins - worked a treat for me. Get on the brake early. When you start to really work on you akina downhill times aim to be at the very most 130km/h as a general rule of thumb for hairpins but you may want to be closer to 120 at first. As Excel indicated, you'll soon work out which corners need a little more brake than others and which ones you barely need to touch the brake for. The key is making sure you don't touch the sides. Even if you're cornering slower than other approaches involving the walls, you really want to avoid the acceleration penalty you get for touching the sides too hard.

Bunta is well hard. I expect to lose 10-20m advantage at each hairpin unless I nail them and keep him at a level distance or only lose 2-3m. As Excel said, the key to success is the fast sections of the track. Bunta corners like hell but has poor top speed. You can really use this to your advantage. Excelsior highlighted the long straight after the numerous hairpins and the other spot to get your groove on is the long sweeping corners after the fourth hairpin (after the first time you get two hairpins chained together). It begins with a long left-hander which tightens and then switches to the right and then back left again. I find this set of corners well tough, and so does Bunta - he'll take them pretty slowly. I like to tap the brake as the first lefty tightens as it's vital to have a good position in the middle of the road as you turn right in order to make the next left work for you. Done well, I can keep my speed above about 160km/h and you'll get a nice advantage over bunta to boot.

bunta's also very aggressive. He'll knock your car all over the shop so if you're busy in a set of corners (especially the five hairpins), let him pass. you'll reduce how far ahead he gets more by taking the corners with your favourite racing lines and speeds rather than having to work around bunta and get pushed into walls by him, giving you a nasty acceleration penalty and letting him scamper away. The exception to the rule is on a corner you're 100% comfortable with or a straight where you can keep him behind for ages by blocking him. keep bunta in the middle of your rear-view mirror and he won't go anywhere fast. You may even be able to keep him there until you can accelerate away, redicing the gap he may have made otherwise significantly (welkl, eradicating it, in a sense)

Watch other players. Look at their lines, how they steer and brake. you can learn a lot from just seeing if they approach a corner differently to you. By thinking about it whilst not at the wheel, you'll learn the track and how to race it better and better and the best bit is that it's free!

Final piece of advice. Listen to Super Eurobeat!!!! If you're at home relaxing on the sofa, whack on some Dave Rodgers. Getting Psyched for an exam - Leslie Parrish and 'Save Me'. Wooing the Missus? Something more sentimental like 'Love is in Danger', 'Heartbeat' or 'Remember Me'. Trust me on this one. It makes you faster - and not just in the arcades.




Viva le Initial D thread! Ressurect the thread in Gaming Discussion! you know you want to!

[C']

Cheers guys. Advice much appreciated.

From your advice it seems I am on the right lines to beating him (which explains how I've got close on a number of occasions). 130MPH is the kind of speed I was aiming for but I tend to lose a bit more during the drift. Will have to go again toniht to try out some more.

I was actually watching someone beat him the other day and got chatting. He said that you accumulate stars each time you beat him which makes him harder to race. I've got no chance whatsoever

BTW what car you use?

I'm driving an FD.

[Excelsior]

any major bunta beating yet?

i'm going to semi refute what the guy told you. Yes when you beat everyone once you get a star and will do so up to 6 stars
yes they will get harder to beat with the exception of bunta. he stays the same skill level but eventually takumi on akina downhill gets just as good as him
the cars don#'t drive any better i think they just get a sort of boost - eg when racing Myogi I'm going 200+ with my FD and for some reason Itsuki's 85 is catching up to me ?!??! i hold the lead but it's ridiculous.
for note I have 4 stars and am close to 5. Only thing stopping me from getting 6 tomorrow is lack of money + i mainly concentrate on time attack now.


IF you're still having trouble with Bunta try to tell me your lap times.
Bunta runs a time of 3'09'xxx
Try to get lap times similar to this

1st - 46 secs
2nd - 50 secs
3rd - 47 secs
4th - 46 secs

The 2nd lap is the hardest for most people because of the "S-curve" more advanced techniques

[C']

Not had chance to get to Namco today. I'm off work on Friday so may pop down then and test him once more.

I am able to run 3:09/3:10 if I have a good session, but usually it's around 3:13. Not entirely sure what my split times are though.

Once he falls to me (which he will ) I'll let you know

[C']

YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!1!11!! I ROCK

Just in case you haven't figured it out, Bunta is now officially beaten.

Thanks to both Chief and Excelsior. Your help was invaluable. I decided to slow down my approach for the 5 hairpins from 130 to 120mph and it seemed to do the trick.

Had an awesome start and stayed ahead of him for the longest I ever have at the start (until just after the first double hairpins). He took overtook me but was never able to pull away and I got him again a couple of corners before the 5 hairpins. I put as much distance between us as possible and approached the first hairpin with the intention of doing it 120mph (as per your advice) seemed to work as although I still drifted out a touch it was much better than normal and the others fell into place and I handled them a little quicker. He retook me on the third haipin but wasn't able to put enough distance between us before the last section (where you said I should be able to catch him). I did and took him just before the final corner that has to be drifted slightly.

Didn't get the time of my run (I was more shocked that I'd beaten him him) but I guess it would have been around 3:07/3:08.

Once again guys, thanks for your help. Really appreiated.

Goingto concentrate on Akna now to see if I can break the 3 minute barrier.

Also how does the stars system work exactly. I noticed that once I beat Bunta only he is crossed off on the progress screen. If I race anyone now will they be the improved versions? It's just that the star only seems to appear under Akina. Is this normal?

[Excelsior]

Kudos man join the club

Having beaten the 3 min barrier only once and ridden the low 3'0x'xxx 's i can say it's dam hard work!!!

For the 1st start you beat everyone and then get the free game vs bunta. regardless of you winning or losing against him you get a star.
the rest of the stars you get will be after you beat everyone and then beat bunta after beating them (ie he's last each time)

if you beat him first then finish off with takumi then you won't get the star (annoying but meh!)

Star only appears udner akina for some reason yeah

They will be the improved versions. You might not notice it at the start but wait till you do a mistake on Usui then you'll know!!!!!

Hey C' where's the good arcades in london? me and a couple of friends are goign down in the summer for a few days and trying to find out the hotspots I feel like challenging some peeps to Initial D and having my ass handed to me - not something that happens in Glasgow - I am so King of D here but pathetic on a worldy scale

[C']

Hey C' where's the good arcades in london? me and a couple of friends are goign down in the summer for a few days and trying to find out the hotspots I feel like challenging some peeps to Initial D and having my ass handed to me - not something that happens in Glasgow - I am so King of D here but pathetic on a worldy scale

Sorry mate, but I can't help you there. I don't live in London ( nowhere near in fact). I play in Manchester.

I did actually try to play some of the earlier opponents again. CLeared Myogi easily but made a mistake against Keisuke on Usui. Never saw him again

[Excelsior]

whoops my bad mate

just usually all the arcade talk is with everyone in the london area and it sounds so much better there. I'm like deprived!!!!!

Glad you know what i mean about mistakes now

One last point about akina. Try to do some other courses as well. It's really bad when you try to put your akina refinced technique to other courses and you end up hitting walls etc but overall knowledge seems to help you in the other courses

if that made sense to you then good on ya sorry for makijng it a bit wobbly

[C']

Don't worry about it.

To be honest, I actually wish I was in London as the arcades seem slightly more active there than anywhere else in the country (actually I wish I was in Tokyo but that's a little out of my reach).

I don't plan on abandoning the other courses completely. Whilst I will spend a considerable time on refining my Akina technique, I will still be building up those elusive stars in Legend of the Street mode on all courses.

My love for this game is incredibly high, yet I don't want to ruin it by focussing on Akina, reaching a peak that I simply cannot get over, and end up resenting the game.