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Experimental Gameplay Workshop
GDC 2003
 

MojibRibon is an unreleased single-player PS2 title - a rapping love letter, Japanese syllable-writing game

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created by Masaya Matsuura:

the funky genius behind

Parappa, UmJammer Lammy

and VibRibbon

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In this beautifully rendered game, characters run along arcs of clouds, writing calligraphy (Hiragana and Katakana) with black ink (the game's only resource) - in time to raps, music and beats.

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As ink is expended, the player must make timed jumps to a suspended ink pool, renewing their supply. Ink is metered to the left of the screen  - in a bamboo pipe.

 

The strength of your calligraphy (its darkness) and how often you "trip" over phrases increase your ink expenditure.

 

The gameplay is essentially managing brushstrokes and jumps in time to the music*, which is rapped by the characters using text-to-speech synthesis. As you progress through the game, character names and phrases which you select between levels are worked into the raps! 

 

 

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*This game uses only the right analog joystick for control.