All About the Changes in Jubeat Ripples

[DAZ-Y3]

Just a Bit of back-story before we get started:
I just got back from a year in Japan; I was studying at a university out there for the past two semesters... Well, that's what my professors everywhere believe; the truth is that I actually spent most days in the local game-center playing Jubeat. I started playing in September last year and have since racked up just over 1700 plays. 1574 on Jubeat, then a further 135 on Ripples in the 5 days since its release before I left Japan (yes, over 25 per day...)

During my time playing I made a number of friends who play Jubeat (since that's all I ever had to talk about because that's all I ever did in Japan) including a number of the top-10 players from before Jubeat Ripples was released. Y.S-Y, II-L, HO4-KT, 3UNI, ABA, SUB, JD to name a few. Due to this I found myself travelling around Japan going to competitions. I was also actually studying their language use for a university research project so I would go wherever I could with them. Invariably, of course, to a game-center, though... (Although Y.S-Y does like Yakiniku...)

If you look at some of the videos from the competitions my name occasionally pops up (my old card name was "DARRYL") and by the end of Jubeat in Japan I was ranked 254th in asia (read as "Japan, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong") with an average score of 987369, and 11 extreme songs at Excellent.

As you can tell I was (and still am... I wrote all of this, didn't I?) a little obsessed...

Anyway enough about me...

The reason you probably opened this thread in the first place:
Jubeat Ripples, as everyone knows I'm sure, is the sequel to Konami's hit rhythm game series Jubeat (UBeat if it ever makes it to the west), and is essentially the same game with a number of important changes:

Features:

• News Update (one screen for personal, one screen for friends)

  Appears when you log in. News being "this guy just got an excellent" etc.

• Points for achievements

  The old messages you could attach to your name are now worth grade points for leveling up.

• Competitions

  Mini high score tables to which players can invite friends made up of specific songs that the player can choose. They also appear on a "current competitions" list on the mobile phone website so other players can join as they choose without knowing the creator. Passwords can be set. Grade Points are awarded for winning and competing (700 to something small like 70 or so I think depending on place)

• Registering a Rival

  Out of your friends list you can choose one friend to be a rival; their name is highlighted in Red if you catch them online (friends come up blue). Their score then appears above yours on the menu when you select a song.

• Sorting and Filtering on the Song Select Screen

  Sorting includes Score, Difficulty, Version (Jubeat and Ripples songs are separated), Score Difference between you and your rival, etc, etc... Filtering enables you to display Jubeat/Ripples only songs, only songs in the competitions you are currently registered for etc... I usually have it set to "Ripples only".

• Matching and Random modes

  Choosing Random selects a song of the difficulty you decide from your list of playable songs. Matching is similar except it looks for someone playing a song of the difficulty you selected. Filter settings are ignored. This sometimes gets you into a game with someone who is playing a song you haven't unlocked yet. This was how I first played Area 51 and Coming True. (I totally nearly wet my pants when I landed on Coming True)

• BPM Changes

  Songs can now change BPM half way through like all the other rhythm games (gfdm doesn't do it, though, right?). There have been no Pauses as yet, however...
  William tell gets faster and faster as the song goes on which makes it both challenging and entertaining.

• Changeable Background Colour

  You can now choose the colour of your background display. Most people set it to Black. I use the green progress-bar-like markers so I used blue as my background. It depends, I guess, on which makes your marker easier to see.

Scoring:

• The scoring system has not changed!

  Despite what some people have been saying I am of the opinion that it is not easier and it is not harder. No change.

• The new "Logical music bar"

  The Music Bar, on Jubeat, displayed the readout from your best play. Black meant you missed at least one note in that phrase, blue meant that at least one note in that phrase was out of time, and yellow meant that all were perfect. This has not changed. However, if a bar (by the way, by bar I don't mean a musical bar; there's a line of bars running across the screen representing how you did) has turned blue once, it remains blue. If a bar has turned yellow once then it stays yellow. What this does is it serves to encourage you that "you can hit this bit: Look! You hit it once before!" (although it was no good for me on Natsu Matsuri; I kept getting one or two blues, always in a different place. My logical music bar was all yellow but I still couldn't excellent it; the beginning is too slow and the tempo change is from 141-143bpm so there's such a subtle difference which helps you mess up easily...)

• New grades

  950,000 points used to be the top grade: SS. You would get an "excellent" notice by the score if you had got an excellent, but it wasn't reflected anywhere else (apart from the 1,000,000 in the top score bar of course). SSS (980,000 points) and EXC (1,000,000 points) have now been added.

• Removal of Class-Points and Ability-rated grading

  So many people got stuck at S1 class due to the requirement for SS being an average score on extreme of 950,000 or above, and at least one excellent (basic or advanced was alright here). So many people, in fact, that the term "S1 Refugees" was used to refer to those stuck here. I know one guy whose average score was 972-something, a perfectly high enough score to get to SS, but he had still not got an excellent and so couldn't move up. Class-points have now been removed to make way for the new Grade Points (basically the same thing...)

Markers and What you have to "Touch, Touch, Touch!":

• Lots of new markers have been added. Veteran players won't bother looking at them except for the last one to be unlocked: The stealth marker (no display until you actually hit the note) -- something allegedly included at Y.S-Y's request.
  
  Angry anime-girl, a Painting that comes out differently depending on your timing, and others... The "Hidden Princess" (II-L's name for it) one isn't so bad...
  
  The default marker is not terrible like the Jubeat Original default marker...
  
  It seems like the frame-rate has been increased on the new markers, too, so it's sometimes easier to see the timing, but I'm not sure whether that's just my eyes playing tricks on me to be honest...
• The new songs are different to the old ones
  "Well... duh..! What do you mean?!"
  • There are a lot more double hits in the new songs

    This means more notes to hit and more possibilities to mess up your timing. Excellents are a little harder to get, but songs are easier to pass because there are more places to get your score up and more chances to get bonus points (oddly this does indeed make it easier)

  • New ways of pressing

    Doubles come up in funny positions... 4s like you've never seen them before... If you found In Scottish Highlands' unusual patterns entertainingly fresh then you will find these new ones fantastic! (a nice big カ across the whole screen in the middle of Baka-Survivor)

  • They stopped being lazy

    There are no longer so many of those annoying "but I swear that was on time" just-out-of-rhythm-to-annoy-you---I'm-looking-at-you-JUMPINGBOOGIE!!! notes in Ripples. They are there, just there aren't that many. Instead, though, things are getting intricate. Remember Bass2Bass has the rapping parts? They were kinda hard but not really; just double-timed... Baka-Survivor, however... They follow the rapping to the note: It's like your hands are rapping... Sort of...

  • Independent Rhythms

    This is a big change from Jubeat. There are now songs that have each hand doing an independent rhythm. If you are a veteran Pop'n'Music or 2DX player you shouldn't have a problem with this, though... and I am not and therefore do...

Songs:

• Difficulties

  The difficulties of most songs have been adjusted. The only level 10s from the last game that remain level 10s are Evans and GigaBreak. GigaBreak, except for the "Giga Flare" section is not really that hard, though...

• New songs:

  42 new songs have been added, bringing the total from 59 to 110 songs (bearing in mind that Kiss Kiss was removed)

• Hidden Songs, and when you unlock them:
  • Bronze Fox

    Queen's Paradise

  • Bronze Lion:

    Russian Snowy Dance (this is supposed to be a level 10 but it's not hard at all...)

  • Silver Rabbit:

    Eco Fighter

  • Silver Fox:

    恋のメリーゴーランド[Merry-go-round of love]

  • Silver Wolf:

    Sweet Angel

  • Silver Lion:

    Area 51 (Level 10 for a reason but still not as hard as Evans)

  • Gold Squirrel:

    Invisible World

  • Gold Rabbit:

    Shining Star

  • Gold Ocelot:

    Coming True (most badass song ever imho)

  • Gold Fox:

    Starlit Dust/スティルに捧ぐ[Dedicated to Jason Michael "Stillwind" Borenstein]

  • Gold Deer:

    Good-bye Chalon (Somewhat entertaining)

  • Gold Wolf:

    Eyes

  • Gold Tiger:

    隅田川夏恋歌[Sumidagawa Summer Love Song] ("Sorry, what? How do you press that?!")

  • Gold Lion:

    Macuilxochitl (this song has NO rhythm; it has a tune but sounds like a Jazz piano or something...)

Things that made me laugh:

• The pronunciation of "Jubeat" has been changed; whereas on the old version it was pronounced "Juuuubeeeat!", it is now pronounced "Jubeeeeeeeeat" and the voice is more airy than it used to be; it's almost angelic(?) now... The speaking across the whole game has now got noticeably slower and more relaxed, as has the background music. My guess is that it's to make you less aware of what damage Evans and the other Level 10s are going to do to your fingers (My middle fingers and outer edges of my thumbs are calloused because of a year of this game...)
• There is an achievement for getting a score ending in ~9999 (ie 949,999 [one point off an SS]), annoyingly you only get 1 grade point for it, though...

A final word:
Since the location test a LOT of improvements were made; the menu was extremely hard to see and the background when playing was terribly distracting. This all has, thankfully, been sorted out...

Multiple hits in the same place a la Ouendan? -- Nope...
I read someone on this forum asking about whether this happened or possibly would happen in the future. Judging by the way the markers are I doubt this will ever happen, thank god!

Hold Notes are still not in the game but they are soon to be added in the new version of 2DX so who knows?

Evans......
My average score of all of my Extreme high scores before Ripples was 987369. I played a total of 5992 songs. Nearly 900 of which were Evans. Evans was still only 93-something before I finished. I failed it 51 times in total out of the 900 (all of which within my first 400 plays where I was hovering between 67 and 75; then suddenly one day I could do it an within a week brought my score to 85, then within the next month I got to 92 or so.)

I was ALREADY SS class when Evans was released and I still failed it that many times. Even on the new numbering system Level 10 does not cover it; Evans is easily a 12 or 13.
Do not underestimate it!!!

---

Well that's that... It's been a few weeks since I've played so I may have missed out a few things but I hope this answers any questions, but feel free to ask away on here, though if there is something you'd like to know more about...

[_____Cait]

Wow, very informative, thank you!

Just how much money did you spend playing this, out of curiosity?

[DAZ-Y3]

Originally Posted by stickyfeetzero

Just how much money did you spend playing this?

I cringe every time I think of this... 1700 plays at an average of 100yen/play (sometimes it was 200, sometimes 50 also, but 90% of the time it is 100yen)...

Which is roughly $1 per play... so $1700?

However because of Jubeat I wasn't going out and getting drunk so much like all the other respectful students, so I think that in real terms it saved me money

[Catastrophy]

The key difference I was hoping to see was an American or European release :P

[deathfisaro]

I've seen someone take 99 tries to beat Evans EXT (he beat it on his 100th try, what a milestone),
and I've seen someone who beat it on his first try.

It took me 6 fails, and when I was about to start raising its score I had to come back to Canada.

Play count 18 / 24
High score 842024

Played 316 times and EXT avg 957k. There's a jubeat machine an hour away from my place but it doesn't have e-amuse nor update songs... I've already full comboed + got SS on all default songs on every difficulty but it's still fun.

[nVGDlm_zk]

The new interface reminds me of the Wii, casual-fied but in a good way. I prefer it over the 'cyber' theme of Jubeat.

Makes things alot easier to see, feels alot more relaxed too.

I heard Natsu Matsuri is the most played song currently? Seems true here, it was just released in Singapore today, and everyone I saw converting their cards, played Natsu Matsuri as their first tune.

[Ryujin]

It really does feel so much more polished than before. Aside the huge number of licenses, Eyes, Good-bye Chalon, and Coming True are all pretty great.

Great article and information by the way.

[Blackraven]

Anyways, I saw a video of some dude in Korea play on it. Looks real neat and from what I can see there is some live video feeds (possibly from other players connected on LAN or thru online internet where you can see them playing the same song as well).

So yeah, here it is: ("something merry-go-round" or whatever its title is)
YouTube - [jubeat ripples] ??????????

Originally Posted by nVGDlm_zk

The new interface reminds me of the Wii, casual-fied but in a good way. I prefer it over the 'cyber' theme of Jubeat.

Makes things alot easier to see, feels alot more relaxed too.

I heard Natsu Matsuri is the most played song currently? Seems true here, it was just released in Singapore today, and everyone I saw converting their cards, played Natsu Matsuri as their first tune.

I agree with this as well.

Granted, the first version already had interface and graphics that appeal to me. For this version though, it feels more natural and smooth (and thus relaxing to my eyes as if it is something "lighter"). That's just how I see it.......

[deathfisaro]

The video features a song called "Koi no Merry Go Round" which means "Merry-Go-Round of love"
That's probably internet play given the delay at the beginning. Local play starts more quickly.

I like the green but I think it's a bit too white everywhere.
People's chart-making skills seem vastly improved, note charts are way more unique to each song compared to jubeat original.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by deathfisaro

The video features a song called "Koi no Merry Go Round" which means "Merry-Go-Round of love"
That's probably internet play given the delay at the beginning. Local play starts more quickly.

I like the green but I think it's a bit too white everywhere.
People's chart-making skills seem vastly improved, note charts are way more unique to each song compared to jubeat original.

I see.

Well in any case, I did notice that long-delay as well whenever I selected online play (it took around 30 secs to a minute) before I could get to play my song. Though isn't it because it's waiting for entry from the other cabinets that are linked to it (i.e. where I played in Kwun Tong in Hong Kong, they had four machines connected to each other).

Well I dunno that much really hehe.........

[deathfisaro]

Hehe
If you choose local play at the same time as someone else, you're forcefully put together. When one person chooses a song, the game begins.
(So when matched with a stranger, it's common to give the newer player 2 songs and the better player picking the last song)
If you start single player, you can't be matched with someone else in the middle.
So songs will always start immediately in Local Play mode.

I don't like getting matched with strangers, the first time I was accidentally matched it was my second day of playing jubeat and the other guy picked Evans EXT lol and I scored 220k. (I was playing level 4 songs then =P)

[DAZ-Y3]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

Well in any case, I did notice that long-delay as well whenever I selected online play (it took around 30 secs to a minute) before I could get to play my song. Though isn't it because it's waiting for entry from the other cabinets that are linked to it (i.e. where I played in Kwun Tong in Hong Kong, they had four machines connected to each other).

Just in response to this, the way online works is when you start a game it attempts to join other players (not in the same arcade as you) in an online game. If there is already someone else waiting then you join their game. If nobody else is waiting to play that song it creates a new session for you and starts a countdown (and yeah it's 30 seconds to a minute like you said) -- if other players join the countdown doesn't reset. When the 30 seconds is up the song starts.

If someone else is waiting and you join them then your countdown synchronises with theirs (eg if they have only 5 seconds left to wait then you only have to wait 5 seconds for the song to start)

On Jubeat you couldn't join an online game with someone in the same arcade as you. If you tried to it forces their countdown to zero and starts their song, then it creates a new one for you. I'm not sure whether this has changed or not in Ripples...