osu! moments

23-11-2016, 08:03 PM

Faded Wrote: I wouldn't say you can't compare top ranking osu! gameplay to Bemani gameplay.
Especially considering how osu! is getting faster and harder rapidly, depends on the gamemode too though.

I won't deny that it is, but right now it's not there yet. Not that I'm a top player, but when you look at it objectively Bemani games are built to be competitive and hardcore, whereas osu! can be very welcoming to new players. Bemani games on the other hand are very daunting and hard to get into. If you don't know Japanese, that's a barrier to entry. Even getting around the menus could be difficult for a lot of people. Time and time again I see people coming to these machines and giving up mid-tutorial. Even if they get past the tutorial, the easiest songs are very challenging and it is very easy to fail. And when you do fail, you don't get any retries or lives. You get three songs per credit in Bemani games (usually). If you fail one, it's over.

It doesn't help that the games lock difficulty until you play the highest difficulty available. For instance, in SDVX, you can't play songs above level 7 at first. Once you beat a level 7 song, you unlock up to level 10 (I think). Once you beat that, you can play any difficulty song that's unlocked on the machine if you're playing on the guest account. Yes, you have to unlock songs with in-game credits you earn. Of course, the whole difficulty locking thing ends once you end that playthrough. So when you insert more credits, you have to do it all over again. If you pay more to get an eAMUSEMENT pass, your stats are saved online and your progress is tracked (songs stay unlocked, etc). The difficulty lock is still there, songs unlocked starts from scratch as your account is separate from the guest account, and you have to do skill analyzer sets to unlock higher difficulties.

In osu!, the tutorial is very welcoming and easy to understand. The game is multilingual, and there are no difficulty or song unlocks. You just download whatever you want. You also have the ability to change skins. You could even make your own maps. That's where osu! shines. osu! is built to run on anyone's machine, and has calibrations for those who have visual/audible/input latency. Bemani games are only made to run on official machines at approved locations. And you have to pay to play, even through emulations. osu! is completely free to play.From this perspective, it doesn't compare. In terms of potential difficulty, it will get there in time. All of the osu! gametypes have Japanese rhythm game origins, so they all have the potential to become just as difficult.