Man, I would have never expected so see someone talking about Kaido Racer here. I tried that game about 2 years ago, but never got far. I only ever had the first track to play, since I never beat the right enemies to unlock the other ones. I probably should give it another go, it seems pretty well made even if the translation is a bit funky haha.
I think I'm about 40 hours in? I have unlocked all but one track in the game until now. You gotta remember to check the "internet forums" to challenge the leaders of every track, and get hints of how to find new rivals. After some point when you get sponsors, money stops being an issue, even if you can't farm races during the day.
Thank you for your tips. I do remember reading the forums, but never getting the point of it. Maybe I should set my game to English instead of German, the translation for the latter is very weird.
I also had the problem of finding rivals during the night that I just couldn't beat, because they were way faster than I was. And that was the case even after upgrading every part of my car. Maybe I just made the wrong choice for the first car? Which one did you start with?
This run, I started with a Toyota Vitz because of the Gran Turismo meme. Even painted it pink and all. Many cars are viable in this game, I'm currently tearing through most rivals with a Subaru Impreza Wagon! The thing you must notice, however, is that the game heavily relies on upgrading and tuning your car. And, many upgrades don't initially do anything tangible to your car until you manually mess with them. Upgraded transmission, go in there and set shorter gear ratios. Upgraded suspension, go in there and mess with hardening the springs and dampeners, change wheel alignment and lower the ride height. You can touch up almost any setup section you can think of, it's really a car game for gear heads. But that's why I love it. I think it's even more in depth in that aspect than even Gran Turismo, even if it's not trying to be a super realistic sim. The whole Tokyo Xtreme Racer franchise is like that, although the highway racers are much more hardcore. TXR Zero is straight up unfair if you're playing sub optimally.
This is really interesting, thanks for your insight. I don't really know a lot about cars, but maybe I'll give it another try one day. I will definitely keep this in mind :)