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This morning I received this early Christmas present 2 days prior to it's official release date and I've played through a good amount of it.

Songlist Info:
54 arcade songs
26 revival songs
10 console exclusives

The customization features are back, and now the song select music can be customized as well. I will also state that there is now a Pop'N version of the IIDX interface which I personally consider the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life.



Also, in a surprising development this release has a timing offset option which surprised the hell out of me. The actual timing of the game is later than most of the prior release, but it's not as bad as 3rd Style thankfully. From what I've seen though, the timing offset itself was intended to fix the issues with more problematic TVs, so the increment is higher than just a few milliseconds to say the least.

The rival system has also been brought back, and along with it there is rival data for approximately 4,000 Japanese arcade players (Plus data for 8 of the 10 Top Ranker Tournament Finalists), which is a nice touch, but due to the fact that the arcade's timing windows is substansially smaller than the console version this should only be used as a guideline for reaching a higher EX score and not as an actual measurement of skill against other players.

As for the actual gameplay, personally I'll say that this is the hardest release that I have played hands down. Most of the newer players might actually be scared away from this particular release cause of how hard it is. Honestly, I like the overall increase in difficulty as it is a reflection of how the series has evolved and also reflects the usage of the ratings system of 1 to 12 for difficulty.

Overall, it's a very well done release and I recommend it to all IIDX players aside from beginners. In my case, my social life will most likely become completely nonexistant.

Yeah, this is definitely not for beginners. Pretty much everything on Another is roughly equivalent to a flashing 8.

Yea, I should also state that there are a shitload of 10s on Hyper.

Amp Divorax wrote:Overall, it's a very well done release and I recommend it to all IIDX players aside from beginners. In my case, my social life will most likely become completely nonexistant.

Beginners meaning?

As sad as it may seem (yes, IIDX really does get this hard), if you can't pass V L7 (normal), you're probably a "beginner" in terms of being able to do batshit crazy insane stuff that they throw at you these days.

That doesn't mean you won't enjoy Happy Sky, just that you may find it a bit difficult. IIRC, there are 9s on Normal!

AMP: Did they actually change the timing windows on the CS version nowadays? The old ones seem fairly spot on. Certainly 8th style timing windows were comparable to the RED AC timing windows when I played. I was under the impression that CS timing was a faithful port from the arcade, other than 9th style (which was FUBAR on AC, and decent on CS). pop'n music certainly seems to be. In fact, the only Bemani game that seems to have changed timing from AC to CS is DDR, which is quite notably larger. Please do not authoritatively answer if you don't authoritatively know.

Pheonixguy wrote:

Amp Divorax wrote:Overall, it's a very well done release and I recommend it to all IIDX players aside from beginners. In my case, my social life will most likely become completely nonexistant.

Beginners meaning?

If you can't do AT LEAST 5's and 6's on L7. From what I've seen Merk play, it looks damn hard.

IIDX just keeps getting harder and harder.... i got my first C on RED ( which was AA another) and my first D ( which was Mei another) on Happy Sky... and let me tell you, i struggled to get the D. definitely not recommended for a beginner. i would say anyone who cant do a 6* at the very least on 7K probably shouldnt play much of Happy Sky.

and MonMotha... the timing on 8th and earlier compared to 9th and later CS has a very noticable difference. more so on 3rd - 5th. you can ask anyone in the IIDX community on that. i dont know why but the timing varies style to style. but less so on the later versions i think.

I'm going to repeat what I said several months ago.

9th timing is most likely THE TIGHTEST of all the CS Styles, but IT IS DEFINITELY NOT the same as the Styles after. Konami probably did it to reflect the arcade timing from 9th, I don't know, but it was noticeably looser for 10th and 11th.

HS does have strange timing, I really don't quite understand it. I also thought it was late, or maybe it was just me because Mei Hyper was giving me a HELL of a time...and I passed it quite easily on the arcade (as in an actual machine with an official kit, not on PC or a hack). Maybe I just need to play it more.

Amp: You also didn't mention that the select menu music are customized according to DJ's. So far though, the Yoshitaka and dj Taka musics kinda suck. I think I'm sticking to the default.

Amp Divorax wrote: The customization features are back, and now the song select music can be customized as well.

Yes I did.

As for the timings, I can confirm that from 10th style on the timing window was made alot smaller for the arcade. (The best example being that I slaughtered Empty of the Sky Another on HS CS without a second thought and I could only get low to mid AAs on DistorteD a couple of weeks ago.)

In my case I like the fact that they made the timing late with this release cause I won't have to use Xploder HDTV Player now. (I use that on 9th - RED for lagfree gameplay.)

Hrm, I meant to emphasize that the HS system music was done by different composers, but oh well.

And the timing windows weren't made smaller for the arcade, they were made BIGGER for the home versions. 8th CS for example, the timing window is HUGE compared to the arcade.

Yea, I kinda stated that all wrong. Atleast it wasn't along the line of Ted Stevens saying that the internet is a series of tubes.

As for the artist BGMs, I know that some of them were also on Happy Sky AC and could be used if the player had E-Amuse. L.E.D.'s music isn't on there to my knowledge, and that's also my favorite.

Oh Noes, double post!

Alright, I have just discovered and confirmed the existance of one of the hardest, most evil songs hands down that wasn't mentioned on my review.

Go to class mode, spin the turntable down to 7th Kyu (Very bottom class) and keep spinning down for a few seconds. Once you stop in a second or two you should hear the ending sound to Scripted Connection A Mix. Select 7th Kyu and instead of that Kyu a different course pops up consisting of Scripted Connection Long Mix (That's right, all 6 minutes of the song at once, with the song going over 4400 notes!) and Mei Another.



This song is harder than any 12 that I have ever seen, espically the ending! PimpMachine, I don't think even you will be able to beat this!

i know Mei another embarassed me badly. i do alright at Scripted Connection but still cant pass it. ill have to try that though. sounds interesting.

Haha that course was hilarious. That "course" is pretty much all the Another charts of the 3 Scripted Connections, making it HARDER, and tossing them in one loooong song. I watched my friend do it, BARELY passed Scripted Connection with 2% (the ending is RIDICULOUS, IMO harder than SC A Mix [a], especially since your hands are probably going to be super tired by that time). He failed Mei [a] after about 30 seconds, and got to brag that he failed 7th kyu.

Yea, I have to question why in the holy hell they decided to give the long version only 1 notechart and put it on hyper when that notechart has another written all over it.

Oh, a really weird development that I saw firsthand. In the console release of 10th style, the decision was made to alter the notechart for Love Is Eternity Normal to have less notes than it's arcade counterpart. In the console release of Happy Sky, Konami has opted to change the normal notechart back to the original version that appeared in the arcades. With this in mind I have to wonder what the hell is up with Konami sometimes. To check out the respective notecharts, http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~hibroad/score/10 ... html?1N600 shows the notechart that appears in the arcade and Happy Sky CS whereas http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~hibroad/score/10 ... html?1N000 shows the notechart that appears in 10th style CS.