DDR FROM STAFF Translations

Snow Storm in X2 could be a good transplant.

Suddenly, I got this feeling that the 3rd unlock code for DDR X will be released sometime soon.

It would be nice, but unfortunately, things don't generally change much between location tests. It's a miracle that we got three songs added during the first one and that there was a difficulty change in the second.

DDR MUSICFIT Official Website Opened!

Hello, this is Rena!

At long last, the official website for has opened!

http://www.konami.jp/products/ddrmf_wii/

*clap clap clap*

There is a songlist posted which boasts many original songs made by the BEMANI sound team as well as many popular licensed tunes.

Everyone please check it out!

Rena@ DDRMF

Additional Location Test Announcement!

We have another location test to announce!

From January 22nd to January 28th at THE THIRD PLANET BiVi store in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.

For more information, go to:
http://www.konami.jp/am/locationtest/ddrx2/

Please look forward to it!

-U@Arcade DDR.

Location Test. Ah, Location Test, Location Test

I went to the 3RD PLANET BiVi store at the end of the week to check out the location test there. This is also a place where we held one of our area fan meetings some time ago. It's been a while since I'd been there!

I saw many people playing on the machine. I got a feeling that the world truly is a vast place. Everyone, thanks for coming!

We started off in Tokyo and have gone to many, many places, but we are planning to settle down after this test.

You can still play until Thursday, so please come and play!

-U@Arcade DDR



DanceDanceRevolution Music Fit is Released Tomorrow!

Hello, this is Rena.

Finally, tomorrow is the day that will be released.

*clap clap clap clap clap*

Although I think people who read this blog already knew about this! You guys know the basics already, right? Well, this is full of new songs, so dance the night away!



You can also play with your balance board. Please try this new mode where you can to shake your hips!

You can also play this mode during the night time and not have to worry about disturbing others!

This game's licenses are full of Japanese songs, so its easy to jump right into.



Please introduce your family and friends to the game so they can enjoy it too!

-Rena@

Appearing at AOU 2010!

Today, the Konami Special Site for AOU2010 has opened! Have you already taken a look?

It's announced, DDR X2 will make an appearance! Ah~ How wonderful!

I want to show everyone that we've taken a few more steps and we're really exerting ourselves. I'm going to really surprise you with this AOU show version!

Now then, the location test at THE 3RD PLANET BiVi will be ending in a few hours. Better go and play quick! Then you can wait while playing DDR Music Fit.

-U@Arcade DDR.

AOU Show Event!

A few days ago, the AOU 2010 Special Site was updated with some event information.

And of course, there will be a BEMANI corner on the stage this year.

Waaaai~

And of course, DanceDanceRevolution will make an appearance there as well.
Please wait for Feb. 20th, when this event will be held. Come take a look!

The event details are in progress right now.
We can announce some more details later...maybe?
Look forward to it!

-U@Arcade DDR.

Reena, you makes me anxious...

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AOU Stage Event -DDR Edition-

The BEMANI events at the AOU 2010 show have been announced.

Unfortunately, I can't give a lot of information, but on Feb. 19th, the Business day, there will be a presentation by dj TAKA and Oota-p regarding DDR X2. And then of course, the big stage event on Feb. 20th for everyone to enjoy.

~DDR; The Real Revolution, TAG and dj TAKA Tagmatch+Emergency Press Conference and Signing Ceremony~

dj TAKA and TAG were already announced as guests, but Makino from Pink Turbo and game idol Anno Haruna will also be there!

There will be a question and answer session at the press conference, so please sent questions to:

-This blog, by commenting on this entry
-Using the i-revo scoop function
-Or by mailing TAG and dj TAKA from the BEMANI Music Foundation website.

I really think this is going to be a HOT event!

Well then, I'll see you at the BEMANI corner at 1PM on Feb. 20th!

-U@Arcade DDR

I haven't used "Scoop" function on i-revo.

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Installed

It's very windy and cold at the AOU center right now...

Anyways, the preparations for installing DanceDanceRevolution X2 have been completed. We also performed our first rehearsal for the stage event. When we finished and still had some time left, Anno Haruna decided to play a little DDR! She had a little trouble adapting to the arcade machine from the soft mat, but she eventually got it and played harder and harder songs!

It was even documented in Konami's AOU twitter...That's right, a twitter account had been opened for this! You can see real time updates from the Konami booth:

http://twitter.com/konami_aou2010

I'd like to write some updates too...I'll try to make some time to write something!

Looking at all that, it's almost like you'll be there with us!

-U@Arcade DDR.

AOU2010 Backstage Part 1

AOU2010 has ended.
To those of you that could come, did you have a good time?
I'm kind of recuperating at the moment, but I had a great time.

The machines basically had to be installed for three days: the day it was actually installed, the business day, and then the public day. Would you like to see some stuff from the installation day?



This is the BEMANI booth here, the construction site for it anyways. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but this is where the stage events took place.



This is the logo that was used at the show. It's kind of an oblong version of it.



The stage was kind of still being put together, but we rehearsed a bit.
The person you see on the screen is OotaP.
We were practicing for the business day presentation.



Installation complete.
Now we just wait for the opening tomorrow!

To be continued...

-U@Arcade DDR.

AOU2010 Backstage Part 2

Last time I wrote about the things going on backstage on the installation day of AOU2010.
Today we'll be looking at the business day...kind of.

You see, I was so busy working that day that I couldn't really document much. There was lots of to do with talking to foreign media and just people who wanted to come and check out the game. We also had to field some questions from arcade operators and all that.

The business day is a day where only businesses and media come in and we held a separate DDR event for that day. I was in the back while that was going on, so I couldn't hear it very well, but it seemed that dj TAKA and Oota-P had to adlib a bit. And with that, the business day ended.

And with that ended two days of preparation for the public day.

On the public day, DDR's event started at 1:00PM. After the last event ended at noon, there was a bit of construction going on at the stage and I could see everyone in the audience going "Huh? What's going on?".

It was this.


A pro-wresting ring, complete with a red corner, black corner, and rope! These are the preparations you see here.

You can also see dj TAKA's smiling face in the corner there. As the event was approaching, tensions were getting very high.



Here the staff is calculating where to screw things in to keep the pole from falling.

After this was all done, we started the event rehearsal

To be continued...

U@Arcade DDR.

AOU Backstage: Last Edition

How are you.........!

I'll be doing the final edition of AOU Backstage today, although a bit late.

There were many people who came on the public day, so there are many AOU reports out for this day already. I wanted make sure mine was written perfectly and included pictures that could only be taken from backstage.

First off, here's how it looked before the day started



Specifically, this is the BEMANI booth 30 minutes before opening. With the preparations completed and the systems at the ready, they were just waiting to be played. By the way, I was wearing one of those red "KONAMI" shirts too, at least while the preparations were underway.

Now then



Here we are 10 minutes before opening.

Those are shutters you see there, they were only lifted right before the event started. The BEMANI booth was right near this entrance.

At about this point, I was trying to contribute as much as possible to the Twitter page we had set up for the event.

Because...



of this. Many people got tickets for this event. Thank you so much for coming everyone!

After we distributed the tickets to everyone, we began setting up the stage as people looked on in amazement.

Setup began after we had lunch. I peeked in where dj TAKA and TAG were hanging out and then I went back to the show floor. When I returned to the BEMANI corner, I took this picture. This was probably about 20 minutes before the DDR stage event.



Bum-bum!
There was still 20 minutes to go, but already so many people had begun to show up. At this point the pro-wrestling rink had already been set up.

I went and watched people play DDR for a bit and then I returned backstage. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show it, so I'll just give you a tiny picture.



The event started with an announcement by one of the KONAMI employees and I was handed the microphone. There were many people gathered and I thanked them for coming.

As TAKA and TAG entered the stage, I became the "Ring Announcer", I even had the clothes to match. There was lots of excitement in the air as the artists came onto the stage and there was thunderous applause. A very nice feeling.

However, I could tell that TAKA and TAG were getting drunk on this feeling as well, and I thought to myself that they should wait a few hours before returning home.

"Ah, what're they doing?!"
Said a voice inside of me. But let's just keep that between us.

Anyways, with this, I was no longer needed on the stage. I returned the microphone and headed backstage and when Makino from Pink Turbo and Anno Haruna came out, I headed back out with my red KONAMI shirt on.



Here you can see Anno Haruna in the middle. Makino was also on the stage, but you can't really see her in this picture.

There were various BEMANI events at the AOU show this year and I think they all had their own distinct "flavor". Did you have a good time?

Being a ring announcer was quite fun and I recommend everyone try it out at least once.



I took this home.

And with that, the AOU show ended. After thanking everyone involved, I was gone like the wind.

And that's how this year's AOU show went!

P.S. When returning home on the Keiyo line, I wonder why I slept so well? I think I might have been making weird noises while I was sleeping too...

-U@Arcade DDR

MUSIC FIT Star

Hello, this is Rena.

Are you all still enjoying ?

For those that are, I have a challenge.

Have you noticed while playing the song "You are a Star" that the DDR mat appears below the Dancer's feet?



Usually this only happens with the "LESSON BY DJ" series of songs, right?



Well...
Try playing You are a Star on beginner of basic with gimmicks on. And make sure to use the dance view function in Training Mode to study the dancer's moves.

That's right, you can copy the dance moves and still hit the arrows!

There's this really cool part that looks cool...


Oh dear, I can't show freeze arrows on the blog, can I.

-Rena@MF

Location Test
We apologize for the long period of silence.
We were almost going to have no entries for the entire month of April!

It's a bit sudden, but there will be a location test from April 30th to May 2nd at AM Pia in Kawasaki. Surprisingly, jubeat knit will also be location testing there at the same time!

This time the location test is using the PASELI e-cash system. By the way, for more information on PASELI, see here:

http://paseli.konami.jp/

For those who would like to play with PASELI, please read the explanation above and come prepared to use it. You'll only be able to use it a little bit at the test though.

Pay careful attention to "Step 4" on the PASELI website. PASELI is not enabled on your e-amusement card by default, you much manually turn it on.

Well then, please come to Kawasaki this weekend! If you do, you'll be able to see a nice dance.

-U@Arcade DDR

PASELI Location Test Connection
Good evening.
The PASELI location test will be starting soon, but before that I'll talk a little about it here.

First off, you need an e-amusement pass to be able to use PASELI and PASELI will appear as a separate mode in the game. Also, I'm sorry to report that for the location test, PASELI will only be able to used with SINGLE mode, not VERSUS or DOUBLE.

PASELI will have an exclusive mode where you pay one song at a time. So, you pay for your first song and when it is over, you can choose to continue and pay for another song or simply end your play there. At the location test, you can play up to five songs with this mode.

Now then, e-amusement will be used at the location test but please note that your location test scores will not save.

Of course, you don't have to use PASELI, you can pay with coins as well. You'll be able to play SINGLES, VERSUS, and DOUBLES this way and the game will be set for three songs.

Well then, I'm waiting for everyone!

-U@Arcade DDR

Wow, I'm liking the idea of PASELI already, shame we'll never see it here.

So PASELI will give the option of playing song by song instead of the default* 3 stages that a machine gives. Sounds interesting, but the only question I'm thinking of is the price.

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I wonder how FINAL STAGE works in that regard then? Are you forced to play 5 songs on PASELI if you want EXTRA STAGE? That doesn't seem to make sense. There probably won't be EXTRA STAGE at the location test, as usual, but I'm interested to see how they resolve this at launch, if this is how PASELI is going to work.

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Maybe if you do well enough on 3 songs, they'll give a bonus song, like normal? Maybe without the forced mods.

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Althouh the PASELI system looks nice to have in jubeat, there could be a few problems having this system on DDR. Although i would love to see how this works out come location test day

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Music Fit Secret Video

Hello to all the fans of DDR. I am YAFU K (alias), a member of the production staff for the Wii DDR series. Nice to meet you.

Rena has been pretty busy lately, so I will be writing this blog today.

I hope you are all enjoying MUSIC FIT. I haven't brought what you could really call "new information".

But, BUT! There is something only I have, not even the staff knows. Up until now, I had kept it hidden...

It's a treasured offshot animation of Rena's dance choreography!

I had the chance to upload it, so I took it upon myself to do it. I took it with my own digital camera, so please pardon the video and audio quality.

There is usually almost no chance to see a DDR in preproduction, so I thought it would be a nice thing to share.

You can see some rare expressions from Rena as well as the times when she couldn't dance well. Do your best, Rena!

Well, I have to go now before I get caught. Please continue enjoying DDR and DDR Music Fit!

Goodbye!

-YAFU K (Alias)

(note: the video can be viewed here)



A Little More Until Its Birth...
Good afternoon.
Once again, my time has freed up a little.
I don't know if you've noticed, but its the season for the sickness called "May Sickness" (Translator note: "Gogatsu Byou" or "May Sickness" is a name for a mental disease in which people have trouble adjusting to new situations and accumulate stress. It is called "May Sickness" because the Japanese school year starts in April, thus allowing several weeks for the stress to build up, and the end of "Golden Week", a week-long vacation time in Japan, occurs in May and many people have May Sickness when trying to adjust back to their work).
There has been many worries about the release date for the arcade edition of DDR X2 and many rumors have been flying around.

I can tell you that the day of its birth is coming nearer and nearer and there are still many secret hidden gems. I invite you to wait a little bit longer and raise your expectations.
See you.

-U@Arcade DDR

wait, wait, wait... we will get June Sickness, because we are waiting DDRX2.
-
Rena's video is cute. Its good to see Rena in all her condition ♥

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Raise our expectations? Careful what you wish for, U. The BEMANI community can be a vicious mistress

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Announcement! Announcement!!

Everyone, we're ready to reveal the release date of the arcade version of DanceDanceRevolution X2!

That "X Day", no that "X2 Day" is July 7th!

That day the game will be available at amusement centers across the country.

Thank you for waiting! There's still a little bit of time before July 7th, so please wait a little longer!

-U@Arcade DDR.

IN 2 WEEKS!

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Road Fighters

Tomorrow, June 25th, the 3D monitor driving game "Road Fighters" will begin location testing.

http://www.konami.jp/am/locationtest/roadfighters/?ref=am

I got to play it a little while ago...I have to say, the 3D is just wonderful!

Playing the game is like being in the middle of a dream, the way it absorbs you into the game.

And the game actually uses DDR songs as background music! Even on this location test edition,there are many stages that use songs from DDR X! If you can, you should go experience it for yourself right away!

And don't miss the newest BEMANI game, REFLEC BEAT!

And that's all for today's news!

-U@Arcade DDR.

I don't really know where to post this, but Naoki just said this on facebook:

Maeda Naoki The DanceMasters, BEMANI different series, the first title and Konami's new music game series.

Next year, that surprise you, I would like to announce a new music game.
We are currently considering the concept of the project.
Please tell us if you have opinions and needs something! (^ ^)/

NM



here's his profile

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100000072496208

..so Naoki's making MORE music games? Man, the guy's unstoppable! *insert rock on emoticon here*

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Why do I imagine that Tracers will be included in here?

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