Been back on the ol' 7 buttons like a bastard these last few weeks, amazed again at how a break of year or so sees you improve. Am all up the BMS these days due to not being arsed to torrent the AC iidx releases from sows.
Any road, will try to post a vid or two of progress, easy cleared some more 12s (with ease) and can actually do jackhammers now, mydays. I think this is a result of playing on laptop keyboard for a month before switching back to controller.
Still as fresh and challenging 12 years after I started playing as it was on day 1.
Gains keep a-makin'. I've joined the discord bms community and apparently I'm playing the insane scale now, which is nice to know (normal scale goes 1-12, then insane 0-12, then overjoy scale). Granted I'm doing insane lvl0 but still, it's nice to know I've broken into that tier.
A bit when most people in the discord are 10+ years younger; I've been playing longer than some of these guys have been alive.
I've said this before but I'm consistently pleased by making gains still, 12 years after starting. Best thing I ever did was stop playing for a few years, coming back I'm fresh af with no bad habit muscle memory. I cleared something yesterday that was 3k+ notes in less than 2 minutes. Feelsgoodman.
That song's used to end the 4 track overjoy ranking course, it's very famous across most rhythm games, appearing in several; on bms/lr2 specifically it's got a 4% clear rate on the internet ranking page, although I don't think it's the hardest song in the game (there's some very silly stuff out there).
Now, I'm a total snob and only play bms/iidx, but even so I enjoy a good speedrun/WR progression video, and seeing how ttf&f went, which when I cleared on expert back in the gh3 days saw me literally shouting an punching the air, was really cool, especially when these sick-heads start doing things like increasing the speed to 150% etc.
Obviously though there no random modifier on gh/rb, so, um, there's a degree of memorisation, but even then, to pull it off is staggering.
Yes there are several random modifiers and the vast majority of players above an intermediate level use them (or use Random at least):
Random (shuffles note placement but maintains type)
S-Random (shuffles everything, can create really awkward stuff)
H-Random (same as S-random but prevents jackhammers)
I don't think I've played on non-random for years, maybe if I'm trying to clear something particularly difficult and I know the non-ran (i.e. default) chart I have a better shot at. Usually tho, I'll just grind the randoms.
First instinct is to think randomising the pattern makes things harder, but can be either - easier or harder, and it also avoids muscle-memory building up bad habits on stuff by playing the same pattern over and over.
Random (and maybe S-random) is legit and allowed in tournaments etc, it's very, very rare to see any top player videos that aren't using Random. It just makes the game so much more fun, imo - the chart is different, yet the same.
For example, if you know there's a part coming up that's very chord-heavy, it'll still be chord heavy, but the placement of those chords will be randomised. It doesn't change the type of chord either, so e.g. a 3-note chord will still be a 3-note chord, it just could be formed by any 3 notes.
H-random isn't legit allowed as it prevents jackhammers (i.e. notes placed in the same lane with only a single-note space between, so you have to press rapidly, like a jackhammer on a road - see measures 55 to 61 of this for an example - http://textage.cc/score/12/script_a.html?1AC00). Jackhamers are hard as shit and because S-ran doesn't maintain note type, it can cause, e.g. a scale of notes from key 1 to 7 to become all 7 notes on the same key, in a jackhammer.
You can hit different random options in that link above to see how it changes the chart (if selecting random, enter a different key order to 1234567).
I love random, if the game didn't have it I'm not sure I'd still be playing, or at least no where near as much as I do.
The community have terms like 'slap random' to describe a random that's so good it makes the chart a lot easier and you can slap away at the keys all happy like, and 'butterfly random' to describe a bad random where shit's split awkwardly. It's important to keep playing through bad randoms as this is what makes you better.
'Use random' is often one of the main pieces of advice to players trying to break through intermediate level stuff, as it exposes you to more and more patterns that you don't get 'naturally' through non-random play.
Lastly, on BMS you can choose to play the same random as a leaderboard entry submission, so you can play the same chart as others so there's no 'they had a better random than me' stuff.
Honestly random is much more impressive to people who don't play; it's not difficult to grok/tell what or where the notes are, they can come down in whatever pattern they like. The difficulty when you're playing at your skill level isn't where the notes are, it's execution and timing. I could play a level 11/12 (insane level 0) and it's not the following of the pattern that's the hard part, it's hitting it.
I always tell people who ask that the hardest part of this game is the first few weeks where you don't know what finger correlates to which button; once you don't have think what to press, your brain just does it, that's when the real game begins, that's when it becomes about how dense a pattern can you parse.
Obvs when you're playing just above your skill level, to improve, then parsing the pattern is much more difficult, but even then, I keep random on. Random is king.
Use your thumbs, use random, play more. Those are the only three pieces of advice that matter.
SInce I now have a JP PS2 I started looking at the possibility of dipping my toe in IIDX.
Plenty of games but the controllers look pricey on eBay.
I used to have the PAL version of Beatmania with the 5 button controller - didn't get into it but I do like the rhythm genre - enjoyed Amplitude, Parappa (reason I got a PS1), Donkey Konga and Vib Ribbon.
Yeah the ps2 Japanese controller goes for around £200 on eBay I think, got mine for £30 back in the day. There are US versions that were slightly worse due to the innards of buttons occasionally breaking (still useable tho) but I can't see any on eBay.
I got an arcade controller off him years and years ago for about £300, still works but it's stopped connecting to my new laptop, need to investigate that.
The last game on ps2 goes for about £200 also, saw it in shops in Akihabara for that price, and on eBay.
It's an expensive game to get into if you're determined to go ps2
I'd recommend grabbing lunatic rave instead (which is what I play), the pc BMS sim client. Or beatoraja, which is the same but I've never used. Beatoraja is still updated whereas LR isn't as the source code was lost.
You can skin both to look like iidx, and get the song files for iidx if you know where to look or who to ask (hello).
The crazy vid I posted previously is one of those SIM clients, beatoraja I think.
Many players play on keyboard due to the prohibitive cost of controllers. I play keyboard at work, controller at home.
Lastly, I did start out on that same 5key original beatmania controller, so it can be done, but I was itching to get a full 7k controller, my gf at the time kindly bought two shortly after and burnt all the games on CD for me
I've actually got a complete collection of all the ps2 games from Japan, probably worth a few quid in total.