Version Differences

Official Versions

There are 6 officially released versions of JSRF: 3 Combo Disk, and 3 Standalone, with a pairing for NTSC-U, NTSC-J, and PAL. The Xbox doesn't support SECAM, so there is no SECAM version of JSRF.

NTSC-U Combo Disk

Released in North America. This is the most desired version, as it's one of the only two with Sewer Skip, and is the most accessible internationally. Even if you don't want to do runs on this version, having the cache for Sewers from this version is extremely important (see How The Cache Works for details).

This version also has other minor glitches, such as the NT-3000 glitch (see Various Glitches), as well as the game Sega GT 2002 (an alright racing game) as well as several demos and videos for other Xbox games and Xbox Live (A+ meme material, highly recommended).

Load times are the worst of any version, relative to whether it's installed or not (as in, uninstalled Combo Disk is the worst of all uninstalled versions; installed Combo Disk is the worst of all installed versions). Despite this, Sewer Skip saves more time than loads would lose.

NTSC-U Standalone

Released in North America. This disk only has JSRF - no Sega GT, and no videos or demos. Sewer Skip is patched.

Various glitches, like the NT-3000 glitch, are fixed.

Load times are better than Combo Disk, saves about a minute RTA.

PAL Combo Disk

Released in PAL regions. Same as NTSC Combo Disk, but Sewer Skip is patched. Note that PAL JSRF runs natively at PAL60, so there is no framerate-related timeloss compared to NTSC.

Unknown if/which minor glitches were patched.

Load times are the worst of any version, relative to whether it's installed or not (as in, uninstalled Combo Disk is the worst of all uninstalled versions; installed Combo Disk is the worst of all installed versions). This is probably the worst version to run on.

PAL Standalone

Released in PAL regions. Same as NTSC Standalone. Loads save about a minute RTA from Combo Disk.

NTSC-J Combo Disk

An odd version. The .xbe is coded as NTSC-J, but other than that, every single file on the disk is identical to NTSC-U Combo Disk (the game language is even in English). This version was likely made for non-Japanese Asian NTSC countries (note the Korean on the disk, and there are also support numbers for Singapore and Hong Kong in the game manual). Regardless, that means Sewer Skip works!

This version also has other minor glitches, such as the NT-3000 glitch (see Various Glitches), as well as the game Sega GT 2002 (an alright racing game) as well as several demos and videos for other Xbox games and Xbox Live (A+ meme material, highly recommended). Although this is coded as NTSC-J, it does not have the minor gameplay differences featured in Japanese Standalone.

Load times are the worst of any version, relative to whether it's installed or not (as in, uninstalled Combo Disk is the worst of all uninstalled versions; installed Combo Disk is the worst of all installed versions). Despite this, Sewer Skip saves more time than loads would lose.

NTSC-J Standalone

Released in Japan. This disk only has JSRF - no Sega GT, and no videos or demos. Sewer Skip is patched, but if you're able to get yourself a cache, this becomes the fastest version.

Various glitches, like the NT-3000 glitch, are fixed. There are, however, some very tiny gameplay differences (see below).

Loads save about a minute RTA compared to a Combo Disk version.

Dialogue is in Japanese, which saves over a minute in cutscenes overall. Due to this, some tricks (Heli Skip, Quickage) are a lot harder.

Other Versions

Installed

You can install any version of the game to a softmodded Xbox (see How to Softmod Your Xbox). Doing so will immediately save about a minute RTA in load times compared to whatever version you had. These load time improvements seem to be relative - installing a standalone version may result in faster loads than installing a combo disk version. Note that this is all RTA - if you have a softmodded Xbox to install to, running the IGT mod will make these differences moot.

Apart from RTA load times, the main benefit of installing the game is easy access to your Sewer Skip cache, as well as importing custom graffiti and textures (see How The Cache Works).

Obviously this cannot be defined as another 'version' of the game, but we in the community treat it as such for practical reasons.

JP Demo Version

A demo version of the game, seems to have been released only in Japan. Allows you to play through Dogenzaka Hill and then ends.

According to Neodos, the game files in this version are extremely similar, if not identical, to the full Japanese version.

EN Demo Version

A demo version of the game that was apparently bundled with the Official Xbox Magazine Issue 7, June 2002.

Other Minor Differences

Japanese vs English halfpipes

The ends of halfpipes behave differently in the Japanese version than on English versions. On English versions, if you reach the end of a halfpipe rail that transitions into flat ground (there are several areas in Bottom Point that have this), you will transition smoothly onto the flat ground with no issues. On Japanese, you will fall off of the grind back into the halfpipe, likely causing you to lose time unless you slow down and jump out of the halfpipe manually.

This is one of the very few gameplay differences between English and Japanese versions.

(video soon)