DDR and dance-related games

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...

A few cafes in Taiwan

The blog serves more than just mathematics or academic things, so let's talk about food this time.

I went to Taiwan a month ago to meet my friends (from osu! and more), joined FF27, read books,...and of course ate a lot. Without doubt the night markets and old rusty little stalls in the dark corner both yield delicious traditional food, but I also tried lots of western-styled cafe - most of them are giving great surprises. Here allow me to introduce 3 of them:

1. Caldo cafe [台北市復興南路1段107巷5弄2號]

Earl grey, such elegant tea never combines with pastry easily: you want its aroma but not much of its colour, you want its smoothness but you've lost its liquidity --- earl grey cake is quite tricky already, then of course a successful earl grey souffle deserved to be a masterpiece.

Pictured above is an earl grey souffle with grapefruit sorbet and sea salt caramel (on the right it's a cup of fruity Columbia coffee). A well thought combination and the relaxing smell of bergamot spreads throughout the cake, and it spreads evenly and smoothly in your mouth with the assistance of heat from the freshly baked souffle.

I ordered a cinnamon apple pie as well --- not the apple pie in traditional sense, but they use multiple layer of cinnamon crusts with layers of apple on the top and finished with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The cinnamon mix works really well, but the crust quickly changes its texture from crispy to soft chewy due to the moisture of the ice cream, and both aren't really something that you would fully enjoy, That's why I would recommend the souffle more -- 7 flavors available and once per day, you will always find something you like the most there.

Cost: 350 ~ 400 NTW for souffle + a cup of drink

2. Leslie [復興南路二段160巷11號1樓] (oh this is actually on the ground floor)

Absolute quality. It's hard to find sweets like that at a medium-high price or even in some of the top quality restaurants. Here they specializes in French styled pastry and light food. My first impression is the very warm decoration, and you can feel that from the behavior of customers: a comfortable place for comfort food.

As shown above they serve different tarts, many of which are limited edition. I tried a lemon tart, and failed to overcome the desire to have a try before taking a photo. Silky smooth custard but never too heavy as the zesty lemon flavor immediately comes in taking care of your mouth. The layer of syrup allowed the custard to retain a rather consistent texture and also giving a more mouthful appearance as well.

I also ordered a mille-feuille as shown above. Thin and fragile layers but never too crispy (in contrast to the cinnamon apple pie), you can cut through the cake without much effort and enjoy the combination between the buttery layers and the wonderful cream in between in one single bite.

Certainly I cannot try 4 or 5 different pastries in a single visit so I do missed a number of other deserts like tiramisu made using a mix of coffee wine etc. The shop also serve tea from Mariage Freres, a tea producer that has the same status in France as Twinings in UK. Sakura 2011 is the one I tried and the rose scent works properly with high quality sencha --- and that opened a new door to me as a tea frantic: the moment that I was typing this sentence I was enjoying a cup of wedding imperial with irish cream...

Cost: 350~450 NTW (2 cakes/1 cake and a cup of drink)

3. Simple Kaffa [敦化南路一段177巷48號B1]

Suited in a European styled hotel would this coffee shop brings you to back to a memorable nigh in Prague...? Probably not, but perhaps Tokyo would do. They serve coffee that has won a few medals and their cakes are quite unique that you are not going to find them elsewhere.

Pictured above is a honey flavored cake with a cup of toffee almond latte (hopefully I got this one right). The cake has a sponge texture but with more moisture; the honey foam fills the gap in the cake so that it smells good but it's never too sweet. They also serve a green tea cake that has a really concentrated matcha flavor in its custard that melts under room temperature --- I do not think I'll be able to describe this really interesting combination, but that deserves to be called as innovative in a positive way.

Cost: ~300 NTW (a cake and a cup of coffee)

Hopefully the above allows more choices when you are looking for light food in Taipei and they are really worthy for a go, especially Leslie :)