Challenge Round - First Impressions & Predictions

#Infinity · 08-29-2006, 11:13 PM

Stepping in front of Neko, BlueSS., etc., I've decided to make this thread for the OSC 5 Solo Bracket. As we near the finals, it seems that the competition is really getting quite intense.

At a first glance, probably my favorites so far include Identity and Disco Dog, both of which use excellent stream patterns throughout. I didn't really care too much about Together, which felt a bit overdone and had lots of overly-dense minefields. Radio Star was good, but I liked the original graphics better. 24 was okay, but it's a bit bland and seems to be playing it safe, probably because the stepchart author is not used to creating solo steps. I haven't played all the stepfiles yet, but I intend to finish sightreading them tonight and should be ready to review them once I get my StepMania pad setup back up again.

discovolante · 08-30-2006, 12:58 AM

My picks: 24, Domino, Radio Star and High School Love. Together was very good too.

I liked my file also but no one has said anything yet...

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 01:06 AM

Discovolante:

Pssst, there was a reason I largely emphasized streams in fffff. That's the feelling the song takes. I tried to ensure the patterns were interesting enough that they weren't repetitive but rather unique, and not even all of the song is stream, as there are also several sections that thrown in chaos or jumps instead.

About your simfile, it showed a promising attempt at making the song fun, but I unfortunately found it to be rather overdone in several places. There are some hands thrown in that just don't work, not to mention the chaos can get pretty hard. I also wish you had found a way to redesign the graphics, as well.

discovolante · 08-30-2006, 01:24 AM

Sorry, I still found your file kinda repetetive.

I was surprised that no one else had the hands that I did (as in both corners and L+R... just treat it as a jump).

And about the art, I thought it was fine...

pokecapn · 08-30-2006, 01:28 AM

Here's a convenient analogy for why we re-did the graphics

is to

as

is to

we wanted to make the graphics as solo-authentic as possible, which in turn required them to be slightly quirky if you know that i mean

edit: by the way, the guy's head in our background is DJ Miko himself :3

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 01:35 AM

Discovolante: I hate to break it to you, but I disagree with several of your ratings. It seems that you gave several songs "perfect" scores, perhaps because you were intrigued by unique solo patterns that you aren't used to. I personally found stepcharts such as 24 to be okay, but rather bland, yet you still give it an extremely high rating. I also thought you could've rated stuff such as Gasolina higher. While it might have doublestepping (though maybe you'll discover it to not have it if you play a few more times), I believe it should be essential to appreciate the uniqueness of simfiles such as it. In my defense, I believe the same applies with my entry.

Don't worry though, you put it all together in one night. If you change your mind after discovering more bad things and realize how interesting some of your lower-rated simfiles are, you may change your review.

pokecapn: Ah, I now see your point in redesigning Radio Star's graphics. You truly made it look like something that came right out of a DDR Solo mix. Very clever. Expect an extremely high rating from me once I complete my review.

discovolante · 08-30-2006, 01:35 AM

Solo is basically Bizarro DDR.

Infinity: ho boy if you think I'm playing through those files again you've got another thing coming. Honestly when I look at solo charts I just get a huuuge headache.

And yeah, 24 was kind of on the sparse side but I found it to be really fun. Like, I would enjoy playing it. Wheras with the songs I didn't give 20/20, I wouldn't enjoy playing them as much. That's pretty much my biggest sway, as usual.

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by discovolante

Infinity: ho boy if you think I'm playing through those files again you've got another thing coming. Honestly when I look at solo charts I just get a huuuge headache.

Yeah, well that's basically my point from the second paragraph of my previous post. When you put together a review of solo stepcharts in one night, it's probably not going to be horribly accurate. Judging solo simfiles requires significantly more thought than judging regular 4-panel simfiles.

discovolante · 08-30-2006, 01:44 AM

We'll see. I tried to finish it tonight because school starts very soon for me and I'm not going to have a hell of a lot of time... if any at all within the next week.

I'm sorry we don't quite see eye-to-eye on this, but I'm gonna stand by my ratings all the way.

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 01:49 AM

Oh well, I then excuse you. Hopefully the majority of the rest of the reviews will view my simfile as a standout, and not having "repetitive" 8th streams in the beginning. At least you still gave me a high rating - a rating that is technically an 8.5 by the standards of the previous public reviews.

discovolante · 08-30-2006, 10:39 AM

Yeah, I mean, shit, I didn't HATE your file, or even dislike it, I just think it could've used some improvement.

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 01:33 PM

For my bracket, I automatically predict Radio Star to win hands down. Hopefully, my file will rank 2nd, just enough to ensure Samba Brazil will make finals. High School Love is good, but I'm not sure if it's interesting enough to deserve one of the top spots. Zeh's Samba Brazil stepchart was extremely interesting, with lots of great patterns that only solo stepcharts can achieve, but I unfortunately found it to get too inconsistent around the end. Thank you so much for stepping my entry though, Zeh, and I still enjoy it. I predict my simfile to rank 2nd in its bracket mainly because of how different and unique I intended it to be, but if people just end up agreeing with Discovolante in the end, it'll fall short. Yeah, High School Love and Samba Brazil are the two simfiles that to me have a chance in ranking higher than my own simfile, but Radio Star is definitely the best.

I really just hope my DDR entry makes finals. Had it not been for that bogus Challenge stepchart, it probably would've skipped to the finals. Even with it, Jesterline was the only person who didn't like my entry, and his review appeared to apparently be focusing on the Challenge stepchart based on his comments, not to mention he took off 2 points for having the percussion section in the beginning. Ugh.

TakeWalker · 08-30-2006, 06:55 PM

Dude... There's a public review thread for a reason.

#Infinity · 08-30-2006, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakeWalker

Dude... There's a public review thread for a reason.

What?

TakeWalker · 08-31-2006, 08:42 AM

You're just talking about all the various stepfiles, in great detail on occasion. Save it for your public reviews.

I'm just sayin'.