楽園 (Rakuen)
(#8 in the D-A-I Series)

Stepped by Xythar for DDRExtreme.co.uk ReVisited

This has for a long time been one of my favourite DAI songs, and I think also one of their best selling (it peaked at #2 on the Oricon charts, higher than any other DAI single). It was also compiled on their final album, "Need Your Love". Although the song is slow in tempo throughout, I like the contrast between the quiet verse and energetic chorus.

And so, I also sought to reflect this contrast in the steps. Heavy is a 9, and people are definitely going to complain that it is too hard and should have been challenge... but honestly, if I wanted it to be the challenge chart, I'd have made it the challenge chart. This is the heavy chart I've been planning to give it since like last year, and I personally think it fits pretty well. I decided to begin with simple easy steps, then change to much more complicated and difficult steps in the chorus, ending with easy steps again. Objectively, since the song is 95 bpm the 16th runs are only about the same speed as the 8th runs in Seduction expert on Supernova. Seduction is an 8 (and has similar patterns) so I think adding one foot to it to account for the slow speed is fair. Oh well, if you like it then that's great, and if you don't... well I won once already, so I don't care :P

I could have used stops on all the brief pauses in the music early on, but I decided instead to fill the vocal portions of the verse with 8th stream *except* at the parts where the song pauses briefly, thus highlighting those pauses by the absence of steps. Likewise, rather than doing something like doubling the BPM at the chorus, the steps simply get twice as hard. I think it's an interesting way of greatly contrasting two areas of the chart without resorting to gimmicks, and hopefully you will too!

Standard and Light follow a similar kind of pattern with easier steps during the verse, harder steps during the chorus. Standard has a lot of 8th step jumps (instead of the consecutive 8th jumps like in Heavy) and reduced but still apparent 16th use (gallops and the like, instead of outright runs). Light just has a big 4th stream all through the chorus with stepjumps, and some easier steps that include offbeats during the verse. Beginner is... well, it's Beginner.

The graphics are based on screencaps and such, nothing too much else to say about them. As usual, the lyrics are from We Are For The Future:
http://www.globemoon.net/dai/lyrics/dai-rakuen_trans.html

I guess that's about all I wanted to say!
--Xythar