Shellin Burgundy Restarts Ridge Racer V on Hard Mode in Pursuit of the Ultimate Grand Prix

NIJISANJI — Nijisanji’s Shellin Burgundy started a new save file of Ridge Racer V (リッジレーサーV) on Hard difficulty on Saturday, aiming to unlock the game’s Ultimate Grand Prix, and ended the night without finishing even the first Hard Grand Prix.

Shellin explained that the Ultimate Grand Prix, the game’s toughest mode, appears only if the save data was created on Hard, and that difficulty cannot be changed partway through a save. He had therefore started over in the second of the game’s three save slots, which reset his mileage to zero. Before the stream he had also run time attacks on his old save to overwrite the records set by the game’s computer-controlled cars, and in doing so he learned to drive with the manual transmission.

“Hard is pretty tough.” — Shellin Burgundy, closing the stream

For the attempt he chose a car called the E.O., which a strategy site he had read described as relatively strong and friendly to beginners. He said it handled very differently from the grip-style cars he had used before: it neither drifts nor grips in the usual way, and is built around top speed. Over the following hours he kept running into trouble with rival cars that blocked his line and pushed him into walls, and said the best he could realistically manage on the opening laps was around third place. About 90 minutes in, he said he had expected to reach the Extra stage easily and wondered aloud whether he should have stayed on Normal. Late in the night a run ended in game over, and he called it there, saying he needed practice and would take on the challenge again, with more time attack in between.

Between laps he talked about racing games he grew up with and about people telling him he comes across as intimidating. He said newer colleagues sometimes fear him, and guessed that he is simply timid, like a wary wild animal. He mentioned a song of his, Serenade, which he said had reached about 500,000 views.

Chat joked that he sounded like a stern father to the younger talents, and cheered the Serenade mention. Near the end of the stream he said he had updated his note that morning and that his reading series, Shellin Bunko, would continue, with the next installment set in the Edo period.