IIDX Red is HERE!!!

sam · Post by **sam** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:31 am

Well..will be...SOOOOOOOOOOOON!

go faster interweb

burning burning burning

:D

sam · Post by **sam** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:08 pm

ok. now it's here for real.

impressions? FUCK YES!

finally i get to use the rival mode. it's awesome. it has a ghost mode and can tell you how far ahead or behind you are of your old ex score while playing. you can change speed of the notes in the middle of play. the hidden/sudden+ were given a # counter so you can know where you set it on songs. Oh did I mention customization?

THIS GAME IS FREAKING AWESOME

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:37 am

Overall it is another solid Beatmania release. Quite a few notes on this release.

1. In a huge first in the Beatmania IIDX series, this is the first release that doesn't have any repeat songs. Nothing from 10th style came back! This also means, OMFG V IS NOT ON RED!

2. The revival rules were changed. We got a console exclusive revived, songs that don't appear in the arcade version of RED, and Gambol's L7 timing has been fixed! (7K though has been left unchanged, and while there are hidden another steps in the Slake Expert course, the timing is set to only flashing greats and bads as a insane joke!)

3. Hi-Speed modes going up to 4.5 and 5.0 along with Sudden+. Now most people think that this will make the game too easy, however, as somebody who has played RED on a REAL arcade machine while abroad lemme say this next point...

4. The songs in this release are noticibly harder than before! One song in particular that sticks out is Gigadelic which is hard as hell in all difficulties.

5. All songs use the videos from distorted. About 12 songs are effected by this, most noticibly AA. Honestly though, this is a good thing as the custom videos look much better than what was used on RED.

6. Unfortunately, alot of songs by Osamu Kubota got revived. Aside from his newer work, most of his stuff feels like a child with severe ADD made them!

7. The customizations are sweet as hell, but there's a catch to them. They all have to be unlocked! The only way to unlock them from what I've seen is by completing courses in Class and Expert modes. I don't have any other specific details yet on it, but I've cleared the 1st - 6th Dan Courses several of the Expert courses and I only have a little under half of the stuff unlocked.

8. Also, for the first time since 3rd style, there are NO preview songs. Also, all 89 songs are available right off the bat with no unlocking required. There will be those who will be unhappy that there are no preview songs, however I personally have no issue with it. Another note to make is that the game takes up 4.37 gigs already and is probably the best looking to date. The next console release is gonna have to pull out all the stops if it's gonna be considered better than RED.

9. Toxic and You Really Got Me from Beatmania US are on here unfortunately. However, they now have Another notecharts.

Overall though, this is a superb release and I've been playing it all afternoon. Tons of new scores and records. Expect tons more tomorrow and John783/Spinz will get to play it tomorrow.

Now if only my Desktop Arcade controller would finally arrive....

sam · Post by **sam** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:21 am

you might want to note that this is actually DistorteD's engine

nice indepth review but i don't buy there's no unlockables...do more challenge levels open up? I finished the 8 internet ranking courses in expert mode but I was having issues on the last challenge level. can't really be exact, i don't know japanese.

another cool thing i accidentally found (wish i could agian) was that you can turn on the rival bar over the video and have the video play in the bg rather than the huge red panel covering everything.

...holy crap how many expert courses are there? i have to stop playing today, for some reason my right hand is all swollen now and hurts to play iidx

BakaOrochi · Post by **BakaOrochi** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:29 pm

sam wrote:you might want to note that this is actually DistorteD's engine

How do you figure? They've all run off the same "engine" for however long, but interface changes are not the same as a gameplay engine...at least 11th-13th run off the same.

Konami has done tweaks since (BUGGY @$$) 9th Style...fortunately, most of those nasties never showed up in the CS releases, so most people who weren't aware of the problems in 9th Style AC never knew what was wrong with the damn game in the first place.

No unlockables? What about Customization mode? And Dan courses? And Expert Courses? And Gallery Mode?

"Back side" expert courses unlock as you pass every official Ex course. I don't think there's any other hidden back sides. And Dan courses usually go up to 10.

Amp: When I played RED in Cali, I also noticed that. RED has a BUNCH of considerably hard songs, much more than other releases. Heck, it has Scorpion Fire, which I've heard either no one or like 1 person has AAA'ed the Another in the world.

But some songs I think require more dexterity and stamina if anything (to me, that would be Gigadelic and AA).

Sudden+ is just nice because people who used "towel mode" don't have to worry about putting a damn towel on their screen or monitor again.

And don't diss Kubota's older stuff, they're a lot better than his newer stuff =p

But yeah, this release is definitely worth a purchase.

Too bad the poster that comes with is SO PISS UGLY. GOLI WTF? Sakura looks like a MAN.

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:06 am

Orochi, I already stated what was unlockable aside from the usual gallery and course unlocks which are somewhat expected now. The only thing I said didn't have any unlocks were the songs as all 89 songs are available right off the bat. However, there are two special hidden notecharts.

Gambol Another - Pass the Slake Backside Course on another. You'll need alot of luck as the timing has been tightened to where it's now flashing greats and bads instead of flashing greats and goods like on 7K and the 3rd style version of L7.

Erasermotor Maximium Another (name morphs to Erasermotor Phantom) - Has been confirmed as real. I haven't confirmed which backside course it is on yet. One bit of warning is that it has over 1600 NOTES!

As for the engine itself, both generations of the IIDX engine has always had a buggy start which is somewhat to be expected.

sam · Post by **sam** » Thu May 18, 2006 7:29 am

aha! tap select after the song has loaded and the video will play behind the graph

oh my god http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4902090053 hahahahahaha

you get gambol[a] by completing the backside course in another. it's #14 so complete 6 courses and you get the Slake backside course.

has anyone noticed the timing in this mix seems to be really easy? i don't know if i magically got better from not playing but my count of flashing greats has almost doubled from 10th to 11th.

up to 17 expert courses now...you can complete backside to unlock more backside

as for the no unlockables, i meant song-wise. i knew about the customization unlocks and gallery mode.

17 total expert courses. FUCK DAI-SEN-KAI OR WHATEVER THAT BEFORYOU SONG IS. I can't read the god damn song. I keep failing it and it's the last challenge I have left

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:20 pm

Actually, the timing is pretty damn close to 9th style from what I've seen.

A bit of an update on Erasermotor Maximium Another and Gambol Another. For those who can't pull off clearing the Slake course on another, they can still play this song by going into training mode, selecting that song, and on the training screen change the difficulty to another there.

As for Erasermotor Maximium Another, I got to see firsthand why it's called Erasermotor Phantom. This is a new song hidden as the another and it's harder than hell. 135-270 bpm song and very difficult.

Oh, Ki-Se-Ki is not that hard! What, do I have to do a vid of that on 7K when my Desktop Arcade controller comes in?

sam · Post by **sam** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:49 pm

i know it's not i just am not 'the man'

i can pass 6 stars mostly with a B but this song is killing me. the jump up to 7 stars is not really going over well for me though.

BakaOrochi · Post by **BakaOrochi** » Thu May 18, 2006 5:25 pm

Amp Divorax wrote:Orochi, I already stated what was unlockable aside from the usual gallery and course unlocks which are somewhat expected now. The only thing I said didn't have any unlocks were the songs as all 89 songs are available right off the bat. However, there are two special hidden notecharts.

Gambol Another - Pass the Slake Backside Course on another. You'll need alot of luck as the timing has been tightened to where it's now flashing greats and bads instead of flashing greats and goods like on 7K and the 3rd style version of L7.

Erasermotor Maximium Another (name morphs to Erasermotor Phantom) - Has been confirmed as real. I haven't confirmed which backside course it is on yet. One bit of warning is that it has over 1600 NOTES!

As for the engine itself, both generations of the IIDX engine has always had a buggy start which is somewhat to be expected.

Heh, well I just prefer not to have anyone say "OMG THERE'S NO REASON TO PLAY IF EVERYTHING'S UNLOCKED" sort of thing, so I just wasn't sure of your context.

But timing? Ugh no, I'd say it's much closer to 10th CS than 9th CS. 9th CS felt more like actual arcade timing, 11th CS is definitely looser than 11th AC, and not as tight as 9th CS.

This is coming from someone who can't score for shi+ on 9th CS, despite how much time I've spent trying to AAA Love Shine on Hyper.

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:08 am

True, after playing through it again in terms of the sync it's somewhere in the middle. As for the window, the arcade timing windows didn't get loosened a bit until happy sky from what I have seen.

Sam, what mixes do you have and how long have you been playing. If it hasn't been that long don't worry about it as sometimes it takes a little time. One good skillbuilder that I found is to use random on songs to improve overall skill and precision.

Edit: HOLY CRAP! I have over 800 score entries on VJarmy now and I'm nowhere near done on RED.

sam · Post by **sam** » Fri May 19, 2006 7:28 am

i got 3rd-12th styles (yes, i have happy sky.)

the timing on this is *much* looser than HS. I have so many As in this mix versus any other mix it's just silly. i started whenever 5th style came out but i quit after i was bored with 6th style due to konami's drama with 7th style. i figured there was no point in getting into a game that is nowhere near me and would be such a tedious bitch to get upgrades in. started up again when iidx usa came out because the controller's so cheap. now we're here. i would be able to pass the song but i can't get the timing down on a few sections consistantly.

yay i beat ka-sucky! and the dan course after that...i'm on the 10th now...so freaking HARD

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:06 pm

You aren't the only one who has happy sky to say the least

so I'll just officially say that I know nothing. I can understand where you are coming from as I heard about the huge gap between 6th and 7th styles. In my case I've only been playing a year so I'm probably doing pretty good for only having played that long. Then again, being stuck out in Iraq with nothing else to do after hours does help.

From what I've seen with most people on that song they get nailed at the beginning by galloplike notes and the turntable portion of the ending.

sam · Post by **sam** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:10 pm

yes, the gallops were hard to read at the speed i had it at..i just sucked it up, learned the massive parts and slowed the song down and it was awesome.

when 6th came out konami said iidx was dying because they had beatmania the final. then there was a surge of interest because they started updating the engine and making the game look slick. konami felt that iidx players only liked the arcade and didn't care about home versions. they required some # of people to email konami and they'd do a special run through konami style of 7th style but it'd be 'the last' for ps2. well, it got popular so they made a normal issue and quit being crap heads..but there was ~1 year without a new mix

Amp Divorax · Post by **Amp Divorax** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:06 pm

That's one way to learn how to play the song.

Oh, for those who haven't seen it. VJarmy now is allowing people on there to upload their rival data. I have uploaded mine to my profile and tonight I'll be updating it as I have quite a few new scores I have to add to it. There's a thread on their forums about what is required to do this, but I'll relay what is needed.

Action Replay MAX/EVO or Codebreaker 8.0 and newer
USB thumb drive supported by one of the two programs.
PS2 save builder (Can be downloaded from http://www.ps2savetools.com)

In my case, I use codebreaker 8.0 and a Lexar 128 meg thumb drive as I have codes that change the japanese DDR release to use arcade timing windows and I don't think they have been posted for Action Replay. Another note is that there is also a program that takes data from IIDX game saves and puts it on VJarmy automatically. However I don't know if they have worked all of the bugs out yet so I'm not going to mess with that yet.