從上面的評語不難發現我關注的主要就是兩點，歌曲對不對口味以及難度。我的感覺是在這兩方面上老任都朝著面向大眾的方面走。歌曲多了些外語、取材也更廣泛，就是欠了點古風和熱血；難度方面則是缺失了幾種前代本質上比較難的形式，比如多種拍子重疊(比如初代的polyrhythm)、或者記住一節以上拍子(摩艾石像、second contact之類)，把這些拿掉的話遊戲就偏單調，以輸入特定短節拍、以及無間斷式打拍子為主。更挑剔一點的話就是完整復刻前代的關卡還是不夠，拔鬍子和忍者都被放到多人模式上，像是Dreams of Our Generation的經典結尾也沒有，不過這一點已經是情懷作崇的問題了。想要情懷、想要難關、想要鬼畜的一律建議回去看MAD。
提到FF(最終幻想)的經典歌曲，幾乎所有人都反射性般想起片翼天使。當然以FF影響力之廣，就連我這個在PS2世代沒有PS2的人也能說出好幾首片翼天使以外的經典。FF5的Battle at the big bridge、FF6的Terra's theme、FF7的Crazy Motorcycle Chase和Jenova、FF8的Liberi Fatali……嘛，很多都是因為Osu的緣故就是了。比如說我就很愛t+的Against Gilgamesh，這首原曲其實就是Battle at the big bridge。
到了2023年，這首歌又以令人意想不到的形式復活－－這次不是以同人作品的形式，而是以官方作品再次登場。在FF14的後續更新中炎之天王Rubicante作為BOSS登場，其BGM Forged in Crimson正是Battle of the Four Fiends的remix！這個版本由Hyadain本人編曲，由FF4當年的設計師兼寫手時田貴司填詞，可以說為橫跨三十年的夢幻聯動畫上完美的句號。這也是為數不多、從同人晉升官方的例子。除此以外我能想到的就只有從做寵物小精靈非法ROM變成為朱紫寫BGM的Toby Fox(雖然我覺得這個更像是因為他做Undertale的人氣啦)，還有從做Sonic同人2D引擎到成為Sonic Mania開發者的Christian Whitehead了。但是比起這兩位，Hyadain的身份更接近單純的同人創作者，也讓這個合作本身更讓人驚奇。
……雖然不得不說，我還是更喜歡Hyadain的版本xD。
Forged in Crimson的歌詞沒甚麼惡搞，主打表達Rubicante的熾熱和強大。當然明白官方不可能過份惡搞，但是這種直白英文的歌詞實在沒甚麼格調，唱起來糊成一團直接被網友吐糟還以為是拉丁文之類的「裝逼」語言，怎麼聽了半天才發現是英文啊。更直接的評語還包括"Amazing how they managed to condense Elemental Fury down into 1 syllable"(笑
當然，更多的評語還是對這種夢幻聯動的致敬，尤其這句的出現頻率簡直突破天際：
"Of the four of us Fiends, I believe that I'm the sexiest."
任天堂當然有著數不盡的金蛋巨無霸IP，但它旗下的小眾IP也真不少，節奏天國就是其中之一。想看有關節奏天國的歷史的話可以看遊研社的影片。我想說的是節奏天國能有這樣的發展一方面少不了淳君的大力推動和岩田聰(Q.Q)的鼎力支持，但如何把那些讓玩家有共鳴的藝術、生活和音樂元素融入關卡中，又能讓玩家感受到「你的音感還不夠完美」－－這已經可以被稱為「art of the game making」了(？)。
回到遊戲本身。如果我要為這篇巡遊挑一首BGM，我應該挑甚麼呢？把小遊戲的元素撇開的話其實大部分BGM都是一段較短節奏/旋律的remix，或者說很多小遊戲的BGM要加上小遊戲本身的音效才是一首完整的音樂，就像一些Osu譜面一樣。完整的BGM的話我立刻想到的是Karate Man，但更有代表性的是3DS版破關credit roll遊戲Night Walk的BGM Dreams of Our Generation。作為破關BGM它有著十足的份量：地板上標示節拍的形式正好反映其作為音遊先驅的地位；那個隨樂曲推進而出現而跟上來的角色和飛鳥，那個高潮段走出黑暗進入光明的(對Osu玩家來說這叫Kiai)，最後我們透過準確的節拍把主角送回他的家中－－歌曲本身和特效互相呼應，給人一種雨過天清回歸基本的感覺。要比喻的話有點像火紋風花雪月裡破關BGM Star in the morning sky回到火紋主題曲那種感動？
大概真的沒人想到節奏天國真的還會有新作吧。正如標題和曲名所言，這正是Dreams of Our Generation，這幾天也一堆人在上面影片留言說夢想成真。原來淳君也快六十了，如果說我們從3DS版等到現在等了十年的話，那這一作之後還會不會再有淳君監製的續作就更不好說了。希望他能像櫻井那樣把這作當成最後一舞那樣燃燒自己造出最好的遊戲吧！(然後過幾年又生龍活虎地跑去做下一個作品)
最近我在把我的Youtube收藏清單從頭到尾聽一次，看看我以前都在聽甚麼東西。隨便舉例的話列表上在100、200、300和400位附近的分別是陳慧琳的星期五檔案、四月是你的謊言古典音樂集、beatstream的地方創生☆チクワクティクス和The Best of Brahms。第一千位呢？是One Winged Angel的交響樂版。即使這列表已經累積了十年以上的曲目，有些規律喜好還是始終如一：古典和遊戲音樂。
說到遙遠的關卡，一個我立刻想到的例子是卡比鏡迷宮第九世界[Candy Constellation]。其BGM同樣帶有宏大、遙遠的感覺。在完全開放式的地圖裡通往這關的通路可說是頗為隱蔽，如無意外它會是玩家最後一個發現並攻略的地區。其關卡設計也配得上「星雲」之名－－無天花地板/半空水塊的非常規地形，加上大量講究技巧的寶箱，整體難度就跟Moon Level一樣要難上一截。不知各位小時候打過鏡迷宮的玩家對這個關卡有印象嗎？再往前一點的例子還有Super Mario Land 2的The Moon。SML2是SML即瑪莉奧的GB續作。沒錯甚至不是GBC而是GB，時間也是更早的1992，至於後來SML2再續下去怎就變成Wario Land 3和4那又是另一個故事了。回到音樂本身，SML2不知道是為了省成本還是怎樣，幾乎所有場景、除了接近效果音的過場音樂以外、全都是同一段旋律的remix。在太空的環境裡原曲的4/4被改成了3/4的華爾滋，用chiptune形式再現，這樣又有沒有月面上的感覺呢？
回到樂曲本身。DJMAX裡面好歌有一堆，ESTi跟M2U都出了不少難忘的作品。隨便舉例ESTi有SIN和OblivioN，M2U則有Space of Soul和The Princess of Darkness。但為甚麼我偏會記得Son of Sun這首呢？
很簡單，這首歌的節奏感極強加上BPM200的速度，是拿來做音遊的一流素材。規律的重拍子貫穿全曲，配合各種複雜的拍子比如0:14那段x xx xx的節奏或者1:31落在1/2拍子上的人聲都是可塑性非常高的段落。DJPop早在2009就為這曲子做了個鬼畜譜面，但要體現那個節奏感的話那些同時容納多軌道的音遊才是更好的載體，比如DJMAX TECHNIKA本身，譜面1:46那段一隻手hold+另一隻手推進；又或者我上面打的中二一隻手上下應付AIR note另一隻手極速左右晃動應付下面的音符。(當然Ultima難度就更誇張了……)
在我的時代裡世嘉在家機市場上已經奄奄一息了。我接觸到的Sonic不是在大賣場裡(而且多半不是sonic 1)就是在任系平台GC和GBA上玩的到，但這堆遊戲的難度都遠不及最初本家那三作。順便一問，我在大賣場玩的時候看過一關一開場就跳彈弓，飛不夠遠會摔死的關卡。大家有印象是那一關嗎？沒記錯關卡有個hill字，但Sonic 2的Hill top zone並不長這樣，也不是3的mushroom hill zone。難道是魔改版嗎？
I had a great feast that night, but I couldn't resist to try the new maps...
One Thursday I entered the arcade to try those new Nostalgia songs and suddenly the DDR cab looked a bit different...it wrote DDR A3.
The update came sooner than expected.
They seem to have read what I wrote last time with A3 comes with many challenging maps. Happy angel is a nice refreshment to an old song, Zektbach's ZETA gets a 17 which should have been an 18 but oh well. We get Reiwa as the newest bullshit 18 after NGO and DEAD END groove radar remix...they are mostly fun to play with though. More importantly they contain a much wider spectrum of technicalities which allow players to grind particular skills.
量子の海のリントヴルム is surely the highlight of the batch (or perhaps sdvx players would be more excited with Black Emperor but it looks like a standard 18 and not that gimmicky comparing to its sdvx maps). BPM 140(280) with nonstop streams throughout, 834 notes in like 105 seconds with 1/6s and jumps in between. Adding all these together such difficulty is nowhere else to be seen at the same level -- you get those jumps mixed in streams in the two Possessions, but those are intermittent. You have consecutive jumps in Tohoku evolved csp and Fascination eternal love mix, but it's only a short section for Tohoku and it's the hardest bit for Fascination eternal love mix with nothing much else.
After trying that for the first time (in my second credit of the day, very unusual -- following my standard schedule 18 only happens from the 5th credit) I would say that its exhaustion level is very similar to Paranoia revolution challenge which is a 19. I failed both of them in earlier attempts in a similar way: your brain is still functioning but your legs are not responding anymore despite your greatest effort.
The good news however, is that this is a 140 song. With 400+ notes hitting to fast on my first try, I believe that I can save my stamina if played without panicking. Those jumps are fearsome but most of them are skippable if you just want a pass. Clearing the map should be just a matter of time with proper study on the map...plus a lot of luck.
Oh the avenger map is also hard, but the IX treatment should do it well.
*
Still it's very surprising to see two all time Touhou classics in A3 -- Usatei and overdrive aka Kanbu. Remember the time when we had all of them mapped by DJPop? That's probably the best time of Touhou (perhaps also the best time of Osu).
The country ranking taken recently...but still with a bunch of familiar names.
We had great remixes from IOSYS, silverforest, REDALiCE, EastNewSound, Sound Holic, Cool&Create...many of which never surpassed by more recent mixes. It doesn't mean that we don't have great touhou circles anymore. We have like *checks osu song list which is basically frozen since 2013* senya, felt, Alstroemeria Records *runs out of big circle because he always go for unpopular instrumental stuffs* and the list goes on and on as can be seen from the TLMC updates every Reitaisei and Comiket.
Touhou is still a promising doujin brand and will still be around for a very long time. It is just somehow stagnant under the ever shifting Internet/doujin environment...but that is a topic for another day.
Back to the maps themselves. Both Usatei and Overdrive are known to have offbeat vocal sections and there are always arguments on how to map those.
Overdrive's mainly fine as the map followed basic beats in that section...and they even put what happened in the video into the real map! The map was marked 100~200 so I didn't expect an acceleration but I knew immediately what's going on. Credits to whoever decided to put that in :3
Usatei is a bit more controversial because they really tried to fit random notes under 1/12 scale to fit the vocal. Do you call that bullshit mapping? I personally think that to be alright...only that you should stay consistent, just as how we treat osu maps. The only problem is the transition from vocal to the x xxx x melodic reference at 1:02 or combo 243. Percussion made a quintuplet 1 beat earlier but if you are following the vocal then that is totally unexpected as you may take that as whatever weird stuff from the vocal.
To indicate the transition in a clear way ideally there should be a short break between the vocal and the instrumental references but there isn't one here unless you extend the break from combo 238. The problem here is if you were referencing to those random vocals anything could be possible whenever vocal fits, so the notes after the break themselves do not indicate a clear shift of reference.
Instead we need notes that follow the new references in a clear way as an indication. As such the triplet (243-245) is deemed weird to me...I personally prefer a quintuplet right there or x xxx x to fit the coming melodic pattern.
...I hope my modding sense is still around...
But at the end I am so grateful to have those Touhou songs added to the game and I am certainly expecting more. How about a lv18 challenge on Marisa?
那天晚上我挨在火爐旁邊打開電腦，那Osu圖裡用的背景正是冰原上的少女。那天早上的雪景在我腦海中飛閃而過，我幾乎不加思索便寫出了自己最滿意的作品之一。現在看回去，副歌當初用的1/6 xxxxx x實在有夠亂來，不過修成xxx x x也還能反映我對樂曲的理解(impression)。我被不少人問過，這首歌在的IIDX上面的BGA明明是沙漠，怎被你寫成冰原了？我只能說兩隻在地理性質上都差不多(誤)。只能如果我當初就有這首歌的BGA是沙漠的印象的話靈感就不會涌現了吧。
我一直都沒打iidx，所以錯過了不少劇レコ的樂曲。不過至少後來在jubeat、DDR跟nos上面他的歌也慢慢變多了：jubeat上有我が麗しのバレンシア、亡国のヒストリア跟アレスの楯等等；DDR有Ishtar、SWEET HOME PARTY；而nos上面的愛、遠く和Eurasian Journey都是我的熱身指定曲之二。
An easy level 12, disappointingly easy. I got 98% on the second day.
I hate difficulty locks in MUGs by a lot. Games like Nostalgia, Chunithm and DDR partially, have an unlock system where higher difficulty unlocks only when one completes a lower difficulty with good enough scores. This is a complete waste of time because a large portion of advanced players simply do not touch the lower difficulties. Among these Beatstream had the most notorious system among all -- the nightmare difficulty only unlocks when the player completes a course with accuracy up to 95%-99%.
As a result I never got the chance to try the nightmare difficulty of Ebony & Ivory till the last play that was available to me via multiplayer game with my friend, and it plays as exciting as watching that on screen. It has one of the most iconic streams in Beatstream that is uncontested till the end of service. It's a nice song too, another great piece of work my long time favourite OSTER project.
Unfortunately the design of Beatstream is really incompatible with extreme maps. At note density as high as those top maps in Reflec Beat it looks really bad on Beatstream. This is apparent when they pushed Lv.神 on KAC which looked really unappetizing. As a result Beatstream had its service terminated on 31/7/2017. Still I am still waiting for its revival on mobile device as it is apparently one of the Konmai MUG that is more compatible with tablets (right after Reflec Beat).
Beatstream machines were transformed into Nostalgia machine since then. It's properly designed and is connected to my beloved piano based songs. I have spent around 1000 credits since its introduction -- but I still miss Beatstream time to time. And with Ebony & Ivory became available I am triggered so write this diary as a record just in case I cannot retrieve my score screenshot anymore (I am pretty sure I have a screenshot on my Beatstream score for Ebony & Ivory but I failed to find that somehow).
Oh and something about the Nos map: the lack of Real difficulty is really disappointing, cause I have been waiting for that for a long time! The expert map yields 1009 combo whereas the nightmare difficulty from Beatstream contains 991 combo where most notes are single notes. This song is perfect for a real lv.3 I am not joking...
As a MUG lover you must have encountered this one of the earliest rhythmic games available as an arcade machine - DanceDanceRevolution (DDR). Of course the choice of songs are quite different from now, and that is reasonable considering the change in composition of arcade players that time to now. They realized this before making one of the many sequels DDR Nova so it revives pretty well and remains to be one of the legendary MUG that remains in the arcade center. Other MUGs whose ages are more or less the same meets similar problem as well. Some fixed it and some did not so they rise and fall, like teams in the Premier League...oh this is off-topic now.
So since when I was addicted to this game? I can't really tell. I am of course an Osu player specializing those modes but on the arcade side I used to play taiko primarily then jubeat and beatstream (yes that is rather new, and I do have a rather shallow arcade experience too). But one day my wrist is not feeling well so playing taiko and jubeat would probably be a bad idea [of course, playing DDR with damaged wrist is an even more stupid idea that I didn't realize at that time] and I saw some random player playing caramelldensen [the original one] and that instantly reminds me of the strawberry cake dance from the remix. [Yes the machine is that old!]
So I just gave it a go and never get out of it again. Of course, unless there's absolutely no DDR machine nearby that I can do nothing, like now. Luckily I have my own DDR pad at my home so that I can do some regular minimal practice. Playing with pads definitely weakens the experience you can get from playing the arcade. The difference in hardness [or the spring coefficient] gives you some hint on your positioning without the need to figure it using some extra senses. On the other hand the pad is just simply too slippery at times, so it still takes time for me to fully master that.
A clear substitute would be Pump It Up (PIU) one would say, but I don't really like it. The 5-button setup is a natural choice as a dual for the 4 arrows, but the mapping theory is not very consistent and sometimes forcing awkward movements or maybe I'm just too weak to realize them; choice of music is of course important: SHK and ESTi are not bad. I've been cooperated with mapper for these two composers for quite a long time already -- but if you will the song list with, say, 20% of them you're lacking variety. You can see the choice of songs are quite well-spreaded in terms of the genres but within the same genre they lack variation. It's a wow to see vocaloid and touhou songs --- you do see the might bad apple in both PIU and DDR, but if you compare between the two you can tell PIU's map being unrankable straightaway [using the term from Osu]. For sure you want hardness for competitiveness but that is not for every damn single song. Bad end night for sure go along with dances properly, but are you sure you want a lv23 on this song? That sounds like a group of nuts cramping on the ground. That brings up another issue: the difficulty spread is just stupid. Not only inappropriate levels are assigned to different songs, but the difficulty curve is not well-designed as well.
Poor song selection - mapping - evaluation combines to give a downward cycle in the overall quality and that we have seen numerous time in Osu already...that takes a lot of work for them to capture my heart into it, but I am sure that they'd rather capture others' interest instead. Oh just two more physical complaints -- the inherited light is too hot and the the machine itself is too loud that annoys me seriously on/off the machine. Have to say that the above are all personal opinions so...don't go too hard on me :)
Let's back to DDR. It is kind of interesting that it is a 4K 2-dimensional game [4 inputs with two dimension: notes in the space of 4 arrows and time. Who cares about its topology?], but I am just not good in any of the other 4K-wise game. IIDX, SDVX [should be 6K+2 non-traditional input but well for beginners it is almost 4K]...but I can play DDR and I don't understand why :/ I guess that is associated with one's ability to visualize the theory of a song given all the notes and element played/showing up. I can do that in Osu, taiko and CtB --- all with large hitting objects so maybe that's the key.
If only I can watch my replay, I would be able to analyse songs and mapping using my theory but since I do not have Paseli that is not going to work. So I guess that is all for today -- some shit talk without evidences, just expressing my thought on such essential component in the world of rhythmic games. Here is a little record to remind me how good I was and where am I going to --
DDR: Consistent on lv.15, passing some lv.16. Similar absolute accuracy [in ms] but looks poor in DDR [in grade]: B or C for lv.15 and consistently A or above under lv.15
PIU: Successful attempts around lv.15 but only bothered to play in a relaxing style around lv.6, or sometimes aiming for a perfect --- I've never get a single excellent on jubeat but I can do consistently on PIU songs steadily so you can see how loose the judgement is...
ITG [in the groove, 'fake DDR' or 'stepmania arcarde']: lv.11-12 which converts to high-10 or post-10 in the old DDR scale, but you know these high level songs are not official and they do not tell much. The only thing I can tell is, they are really streamy -- can you imagine a short version of Kokoro with 750 notes and サラマンドラの踊り子 with 730 notes? Don't forget these are low BPM songs meaning that the map is filled with 1/4 and 1/6 mix throughout!
If there is a goal of mine that would be the mighty dancer miku, but that is still too far from me...
I joined a few musical events before the end of 2013 which include the nutcracker performance (for those who follow don't shoot the pianist, you will know that Nov and Dec are always the time for such performance lol) but I also spent some time on reviewing old and new Christmas songs. By chance I found the game BGM Christmas in the 13th month which is a wonderful piece after all. Now I'm enjoying a succeeder of the song, dancing Christmas in the 13th month's remix from sync. art (I guess it's well known for their touhou remixes) so I hope that you will enjoy them too. Well the above one isn't from sync. art but the best performance among all clips in my opinion that the smooth sound from the viola greatly enhance the dancing that mixes well with the lively going background.
