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| IkariDC
176th Post
 
Regular Customer
   
|  "Beatmania IIDX players, help me!"
, posted Sun 15 Aug 04:05
I'm the happy owner of a Beatmania IIDX controller, at least!! I preordered it on July at Play-Asia when I learned they were going to make brand new controllers on August. I also ordered a copy of 7th style.
I'm a good player with a Dual Shock controller in 5 keys games, and I guess you have to get used to it, but I suck with this controller! I started with the 5 keys mode, thinking that 7 keys mode was going to be too much for me, and I was right. The level 2 first song I played on Arcade mode was easy, but then moving to a level 3 was pretty hard to beat! It took me a while to beat Arcade mode, level 4 songs were just a nightmare! And they were just 5 key mode songs...
I understood that Beginner's mode was what I needed, but then again, playing with all 7 keys plus the scratch was too much on certain levels... Where is Lesson mode??? In what style they took out that mode?
So, I need your advice. I need tips and suggestion for getting into it. I play sitting on a sofa, with the controller on my knees. I find that some key combinations are hard to push in this position, my hand just cannot do it. And I think that the game should be played with one hand on the buttons and the other with the scratching, right? I tried selecting autoscratch and pushing the buttons with both hands, but I was just doing it a bit better, and it didn't feel right to me.
 Please, teach me many things!
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Replies:
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| StickClick 407th Post
Gold Customer
   
|  "Re(1):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!"
, posted Sun 15 Aug 07:27:
Only the really experienced use one hand on the keys.... use two! Using both of your hands for all 7 keys will make the game much more manageable. And eventually, when you get even more comfortable, you will not even have to lift your entire hand from the keys to scratch. You can simply reach with your pinky.
So try experimenting with different starting positions with your fingers on the keys. With time, it will become absolutely natural. It is incredibly awkward at the start, yea. I had serious trouble with the top 3 keys when I was starting, in particular.
7th Style is the hardest version to date, so there aren't that many easy songs. Stick to Beginner, of course... I haven't looked at Beginner in 7th, but I'm assuming there has to be a decent number of 1 and 2 star songs? Keep practicing them until you get comfortable. It's the only way. Practice is the only solution.
Oh, and forget 5 keys. Stick to 7 keys, even though it may seem daunting. Playing 7 keys is the only way to get comfortable... So just keep at those Beginner songs.
As for myself, I started with 5th Style, which had a really nice Beginner Mode with two 1 stars, a few 2 stars, and a bunch of 3s. It took me forever to get anywhere. The first few days were rough.
So don't be discouraged. It's only natural that the game will give you some trouble at the start.
[this message was edited by StickClick on Sun 15 Aug 10:02] |
| IkariDC
178th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(2):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!" , posted Sun 15 Aug 11:59
I've been playing more, and I've got to say that now I feel more comfortable with the controller, playing with one hand. Yes, the Begginer mode has 1,2 and 3 level songs, and there are plenty for each level. I have beaten most of level 2 songs, and I've beaten some of the songs on Light 7 in Arcade mode. Then, I went for the real thing, 7 keys on Arcade, and felt the pain again. So, I'm going to stick with Begginer's Mode till I master those level 3 songs.
So, your advice is to use both hands? Ok, I'm going to try it with those level 2 songs I can't beat at the momment. There are some complex button combination patterns that I can't keep up with...
7th Style is the hardest? Dammit, I picked it up because it was the latest... I thought of buying others, only if I liked the songs. You know, I asked about it in another thread. I like most of the songs I played in 7th Style. Well, it's not like I usually listen to those kind of songs, but they are cool when you are playing them the right way. TaQ does make some strange sounding songs... I really like "Bad Boy" by Vivi, I think that's the title.
The only thing that has dissapointed me, is that 7th Style has no intro. Appart from that, it's really great, with many customizable options, modes and songs to play.
I'll post again when I get better at the game, or if I fail in doing so.
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| DKW 269th Post
Copper Customer
| "Re(1):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!" , posted Sun 15 Aug 16:19
Ikari DC - Okay, you weren't clear on this, but I'm going to assume that you already have the new controller and 7th Style. Doesn't change my response that much anyway.
The most important attribute for any controller is being comfortable with it. Everything else is secondary. I've been using a joystick for years (not a pad, an actual, honest-to-god joystick, with two rows of four buttons), and it's been great. I'm so good with it now that I can't even consider getting the official controller now. I have a pop 'n music controller, BTW, and even it doesn't serve me as well as a joystick.
Now, difficulty. I've learned that it's important to be very specific and thorough when discussing this, particularly when advising anyone on whether to get the game. The easiest IIDX overall, top-to-bottom, all difficulties and modes, is 3rd, of course. The hardest overall is 6th. 7th is easier, albeit by only a little. However, 7th does have more completely, insanely impossible songs than 6th (e.g. A) on 7 Key, which I think is why some players say it's the hardest.
Once you start getting good at the game, Beginner should be a breeze, and Light 7 is going to be a lot of fun. 7 Key, however, will be an incredible pain on 7th unless you become a complete pro. It's actually a point of pride amoung the really hardcore IIDX community that there are so many impossible songs on the regular difficulty level and that this has made IIDX really unpopular among a lot of gamers as a result. (If you think I'm kidding, you've never dealt with the really hardcore IIDX community.) Yes, there are people out there who actually want IIDX to get frustrating and inaccessible really fast, and you're just going to have to deal with it.
But really, you shouldn't agonize too much about all the hard songs. I mean, it's not like anyone's going to CARE if you can't pass Max 300 or some-high-number-dan. Find your comfort level, and if you get the desire to get better, go for it.
Play like no one's watching. That's the only way to go.
(P.S.: Hey, where did all the ferociously anti-IIDX people go? There were at least four of them in the last thread!)
homepage - http://home.hawaii.rr.com/dkwff
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| Iggy 4089th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
     
 
| "Re(2):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!" , posted Sun 15 Aug 16:28
quote:
(P.S.: Hey, where did all the ferociously anti-IIDX people go? There were at least four of them in the last thread!)
If you're talking about me, I don't have anything about IIDX, it just doesn't make my butt more attractive.
Actually, I only played the first Beatmania (or maybe the second also ? I'm not sure), and the esthetic, the difficulty and most of all, the songs, where far less entertaining than Pop'n, so I never continued the series.
So MAX 300 was a II DX song to begin with... I think I understand now (if you haven't seen it in hard in DDR Party edition, it's... wow.)
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| IkariDC
181th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(6):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!" , posted Mon 16 Aug 04:24
DKW: Well, I think I made clear that I own the IIDX controller and 7th Style. When I said I was good at playing 5 Key games with Dual Shock, I was referring to PSX Beatmania games.
I understand what you say about the controller. Have you played BM98? Playing it with a keyboard, you can think of many button configurations to play the game. For example, putting all the white keys to "Z X and C", and the blue keys and scratch to "M , and .". I learned to play the game with "Z" as the first white key, "X" the first blue key, "M" as the second white key, "," as the second blue key, and so on. I can't play the game with another configuration.
My first Beatmania game on PSX was the European Edition. It came with a European exclusive controller, with piano shaped keys instead of the buttons in the Japanese controllers. They messed it up doing that. You have to push the bottom part of the buttons if you want them to work, and you have to push them hard. After 3 songs, your hand hurts and you don't want to play with it again in your entire life. That's why I get used to playing it with the Dual Shock.
I always dreamed of owning the IIDX controller, so if I was going to start playing the IIDX games, it had to be with it, plus it must be difficult to play all 8 keys with Dual Shock...
There is a label on the scratching turntable that says in english "The next generation beatmania -Deluxe version- A real-time dance music game hard and extreme. That's beat mania IIDX!! It's too cool!". They wanted the games to be extremely hard? So, it's their fault if the series doesn't sell well, making them not appealing to everybody. 7th Style being released under that many special conditions and everything...
Iggy: The esthetic in IIDX is quite cool, if you ask me. I really like Goli's artwork for the IIDX series, but it's true that the first beatmania series were "boring" in that matter.
I've never played Pop'n Music, it does appeal to me, but I'm not ready to buy another controller for playing it properly, at least for now. 9 keys it's too complicated for playing it using Dual Shock, I guess...
shindekudasai: If I were you, I would try donwloading some BM98 stuff. BM98 it's a customizable Beatmania clone for PC. You can download songs and put them on the game. This way you can learn how the game works, and if you like it, you could buy the games. If you are interested, I can save you all the trouble by sending you a BM98 pack.
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| IkariDC
185th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(2):Re(10):Beatmania IIDX players, help me!" , posted Wed 18 Aug 08:44
So the controller works with BM98! That's great! Now that I'm checking those BM98 packs, I'll give it a try myself.
Those packs are about 40 MB each, they are built with .wav and .bmp files, that's why they are that heavy.
I added one of the Final Fantasy packs to .rar file, now it's just 10 MBs. I'm sending it to your email account right now! Sorry, but I don't know AIM.
I have many BM98 packs with songs from many games (not related to beatmania or ddr games), some of these packs came with the defunct Loading, a spanish magazine. I have other packs that I built myself :D
Maybe I should share these packs using bittorent, so whoever is interested could mail me for getting the torrent file?
What do you think?
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Blister