SilentAngel vs. the DDR machine (Ongoing Journal)

SilentAngel · Last edited by SilentAngel on Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've recently (read: 3 months ago (September 1)) gotten into the game DDR (Dance Dance Revolution, if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's an arcade game which involves using your feet to step out patterns of arrows in a particular sequence to the beat of the song). I've played a total of 6 times since I started, starting on the easiest songs in the game, and quickly progressing to harder songs, through the Light mode songs and now Standard mode with occasionally Heavy mode.

Went to the arcade last Friday, and played through 12 credits worth (which is roughly 36 songs, give or take a couple).

In the last week alone I've jumped from 3-4 foot Light mode songs, to 6 foot Standard level songs, with the occasional Heavy song chucked in there every now and then. My biggest achievement on Friday was probably passing the song "Can't Stop Fallin' in Love (Speedy Mix)" on Standard mode (damn that song is such a bitch to pass...so fast and streamy-like (many arrows in a quick sequence) which in the end just tires you out. I don't know how my friend next to me managed to get an A grading on Heavy mode Big grin

).
The stepchart for CSFIL Speedy (Standard) is here: The Stepchart
I also got A gradings on 2 Heavy mode songs too.

My next challenge - pass the song "Love <3 Shine" on Heavy (stepchart here). It's a horribly difficult song to pass at my current level (with lots of jumps in it) Crying

. I can get probably halfway through it though. I still have three challenges to complete, namely to get a certain score on a nonstop course (which is 4 songs back-to-back with no real break between them), pass certain Heavy mode songs, and to get an AA grading on a song which is at least 6 feet in difficulty.

This journal will be updated periodically when I play again, or when I achieve something noteworthy.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:33 pm Post subject:

OMG. I HATE when they throw a verticle horizontal combo in the mix. I always miss the up and right ones. Try sitting on the pad and using your hands. :3

"I suck at DDR because the arrows are too destracting"
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

SilentAngel · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:28 pm Post subject:

What, for example the Up + Left arrows at the same time? Eh, they're easy. The hard part is when they throw, say, this sequence at you:
Up, Left, Down, Right, Up.
It's really hard to not step on 3 arrows with the same foot consecutively. Gotta learn how to spin properly Wink

.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 11:31 pm Post subject:

WRONG! You gotta learn how to use both your feet and your hands when yer dancing!
Tripple combos are BAD ASS.
I just can't do the easy shit for some reason.
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

SilentAngel · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

In DDR itself there's no triples or quads. In ITG (which is a DDR variant) there's triples and quads, also known as handplants. If your foot's long enough you can hit two arrows with 1 foot, you just have to know where to place it, rather than bending down to hit them with your hands, because often the songs with triples/quads in them are Expert-level songs of 9 foot or above, and you need to be really quick to do decently on them. You don't really have time to bend all over the place hitting ridiculous amounts of weird sequences.
You don't really need to use your hands in DDR, except if you're freestyling a song, which I don't do 'cos I'm playing for accuracy, not style of a dance "routine".
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:58 pm Post subject:

SilentAngel · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:19 am Post subject:

Actually, you just have to have a long enough foot to be able to bypass the corner brackets of the arrows, if you place it over the bracket you could do it with a relatively medium sized foot. That's how most of the really good players do the handplants, actually.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:22 am Post subject:

Sounds a bit lazy.
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

SilentAngel · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:33 pm Post subject:

When you're hitting in excess of 5 arrows a second for about 100 seconds nonstop, you tend to try and conserve as much energy as you possibly can. Some of the songs take absolutely ridiculous amounts of stamina to even pass, let alone do well on them, even with the flatfoot method I described.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:48 pm Post subject:

That's not fair. I have small feet, so I need to work harder.
Also, that makes high scores meaningless beyond "You were built for this".
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

SilentAngel · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:57 pm Post subject:

Not necessarily. After all, there's more than one way to do things in the DDR world. Some people play with speed mods to help them read arrows quicker, some hold onto the bar for balance, some use handplants with hands, some use their feet, some people play on their toes, and the list goes on.
The best players in the world have a variety of styles, actually. Some are brilliant playing 1x, no bar. Others can get 100% perfect steps holding onto the bar. It's really a matter of preference. For example, my style of playing is dependent on the speed of the song - faster songs (ie. songs which are >300bpm I play on 1x, very slow songs I'll play on 3x or even 5x) and I never touch the bar. Plus I use a variety of on-toes and flat-footed steps.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:09 am Post subject:

I see. So it's really a matter of "I found my preference and you haven't. Had you found your preference, you could have beaten my score."
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

SilentAngel · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:

Well, to an extent. It's possible to be extremely good at all of them, but obviously you're going to have a natural affinity for one type. You can still play the other ways, but it takes a lot of work to be able to get good at it. And in any kind of contests (ie. tournaments) they often have a set theme, so you have to try and work on that particular style to be good enough to win.
Also, some people are just naturally good, some people it takes a lot of hard work to get where they are. It also ties in with experience too. For example, I've been playing roughly 6 weeks now (a total of 5 times at the arcade, I don't really regard the first time I played as actually playing, plus it was 3 months ago, so yeah, there was a massive gap between then and the next time I played) and I'm already playing the easier Heavy mode songs. Some people it takes them 12 months to be able to do that. Others they can do it in a week.
_________________
Current Projects:
Hikari no Senshi - Inperiaru Taisen: ~10% Complete
http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/download.php?game=392

Stepmania Online Stats:

Next song to pass on Stepmania: Paranoia Survivor Max (Heavy)
Next song to pass on DDR: MaxX Unlimited(Standard)