PolarisChord (AC)

Okay, now that's just even crazier. It's even unpopular in Japan? Woah

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Yep. And considering the state of the game and with everything I stated above and seeing a lot of unrest about it, it's only a matter of time before it's either quietly shut down, or updates stop and it remains online in a limbo state and gets no more content. Seriously it's not a good game in the slightest from everything I've seen and heard about it from those who've played it lol it's just not a lasting experience rhythm game players will play or stick with, Konami messed up with this one. And not all Bemani games make it, not every rhythm game is popular enough to last. Future Tom Tom, Museca, Para Para Paradise, Keyboardmania, Otoiroha(didn't even get a chance to release, it flopped during it's show period), DanceRush Stardom isn't looking too good right now popularity is waning, Nostalgia isn't looking good either another Bemani game with popularity waning rapidly, Reflec beat is dead but still online, DANCE aROUND is getting very few songs at this point and is looking to be a flop due to it's broken mechanics and camera and casual nature, Chrono Circle from Andamiro got the axe recently, I can go on and on, but it's not uncommon for rhythm games to flop and get no attention anymore and get the axe, and PolarisChord may very well join the music game graveyard in due time, sooner than you think if this keeps up.

Why are so many arcade rhythm games discontinuing now? Is it poor management and unnecessary game play changes, or is the arcade rhythm game scene just dying? I mean, even WACCA shut down, and that game was amazing. It might've been the long term after effects of the mandatory COVID quarantine, but I'm not too sure. (I guess it could've been the reason WACCA shut down?)

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Yes. WACCA shut down because it came out during the pandemic and didn't have a chance to grow as it should have. it hurt because it's a good rhythm game falling victim to a time when no one could go anywhere or do anything, it's unfortunate. As for other rhythm games shutting down, some just don't grab the intended audience, and cases like Reflec Beat, Konami made too many changes in a short period of time to the gameplay mechanics, and also removed and changed all the original charts from all past songs to accommodate the new mechanics and players hated it, and the game suffered for it and now it's dead. The arcade rhythm game scene isn't dead because games like DDR, IIDX, Pop'n music, jubeat and SDVX are still doing VERY well all across Japan and the US it's only growing as of late, just certain games like I said, did not grab their audience as intended and they didn't last long, and with otoiroha and games of the like that didn't make it past trade show stuff, it didn't test well and they didn't move forward with it. Chrono Circle is another victim like Reflec Beat, Andamiro tried to be too ambitious early on with it's gameplay mechanics and caused outrage, and even when they tried to fix the game and lessen the gameplay a bit, it was too late, and players abandoned the game in droves. Also i wouldn't call it so many rhythm games dying in a short period, this is over the course of a 2 decade long scene of rhythm games. A lot of rhythm games are still thriving today and are in no danger of being terminated and the rhythm game scene is alive and well, just some games don't last as long as others, it's the nature of the beast that is rhythm games. it is what it is.

Wow, you are very smart. Thanks for answering my question! I think Polaris Chord will only be good if Konami stops trying to be like O.N.G.E.K.I. and Chunithm and does its own thing. If people want to play Chunithm, maimai, or O.N.G.E.K.I., they're gonna play those games. (Do you think the Polaris Chord characters look a little too much like Geki-Chu-Mai's or is it just me?)

(Also they really didn't do Rasis any justice in my opinion although Grace looks absolutely fire )

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I think they both look good I love their designs they had to soften them a little because of PolarisChords soft design philosophy so it's understandable why they look the way they do. And you're welcome, I've been in this community for a long time so i know a fair bit about life cycles of rhythm games and why things happen the way they do. Not everything can be a winner sadly which bums me out because some games I think deserved more of a chance, but that's at the mercy of the players, if no one plays the game, or if no one sticks with it, or if the companies alienate players by changing gameplay mechanics too much too quickly, it's not gonna last. With PolarisChord, if they removed the currency system around the harder charts and made charts that also cater to the hardcore crowd that actually gave players incentive to stick around and knock off the live service elements of a mobile game, then this game would be miles better in the long run.

I respect your opinion! And yeah, most of the videos I saw never had original songs so maybe that’s why?

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That and the other factors. The lack of originals is really concerning IMO.

Apologies for the necro but this game's been on my mind lately—in the end this game is Konami doing the classic AAA industry trope of copying what's popular instead of doing their own thing, when doing their own thing was what got them where they are now, and then going Surprised Pikachu Face when they find out they just released a bland clone into a saturated market and it's selling like sand in a desert. Even if this game actually had sauce and wasn't designed by throwing darts at a board, it would've struggled because Chunithm had a near-decade head start on it, and people aren't going to just drop all the effort they put into Chunithm to play a game so similar—the concept of making a "Chunithm competitor" is inherently flawed, because when it comes to arcade rhythm games there is only room for one game that executes on that particular control scheme.

It's kind of mystifying how much money Konami is still pouring into the game though—every time someone posts a Twitter link in my local rhythm game Discord announcing even more licensed Vtuber songs for Polarischord, we wonder in collective bewilderment why Konami are still digging themselves deeper into this hole... And also why they didn't bother licensing those songs for the other Bemani games. I guess the answer is the executives were absolutely sure this was going to work and are still delusional, and so they sunk-cost-fallacied themselves into this position.

Overall the game just reeks so much of being designed by committee. It's not labelled Bemani for some reason, presumably to avoid scaring off casuals who know Bemani for their hardcore rhythm game experiences. But they also include two characters from a Bemani game, presumably to attract Bemani fans. But then they don't include any SDVX songs, or any existing Bemani songs for that matter, or even any originals (meaning that when this game dies its legacy won't even live on in other games through its music like other dead rhythm games, because it has none). Since when did Konami care so much about maintaining a theme with a songlist? They should've learned when Reflec Beat was murdered by its songlist getting cut to a third that songlists make or break games, and quantity always wins. And the fact you have to pay in-game currency to unlock higher difficulties... Of all the things they copied from Sega, why didn't they copy Ongeki's system of getting an S on expert or a small extra fee to play without unlocking? And then they have all these mechanics like what you'd find in a mobile rhythm game, when it's an arcade rhythm game, and those two platforms are so fundamentally different that it is insane Konami would even consider putting one's mechanics into the other... Ugh, it's just such a mess of a game; it feels like they chose "whatever is popular in the industry right now" and "whatever is the most profitable" at every turn without any regard for how these elements are supposed to work with one another. It's a real Murphy's Law of a rhythm game; everything about it went wrong, short of it actually being buggy and/or broken.

On the plus side, I think Grace's outfit is adorable. Konami, if you happen to be reading this for some reason, I would 100% buy a replica of her hoodie and wear it everyday. Or at least make her wearing it a new Navigator to throw into a Premium Generator—that way you can recoup some of money you lost on this game.

I can't help but think PC is the result of Konami just straight up going full competitor mode against other rhythm games, like why even copy mechanics from other games and doing it in a very poor way? That's just crazy. Though besides that, I guess this is also the result of all the whole BST fiasco as well as cutting all ties with HARDCORE TANO*C after they created Wacca.

Definitely they should've licensed all of these licenses for other games, perhaps add some of them to the CS releases instead of spending all of their budget on an arcade game not many people are playing? Shit it's just crazy they added PUPA to PolarisChord and not some other game like, I don't know, IIDX or DDR?

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I think Konami was at least self-aware enough that they couldn't just make Chunithm Again, but they clearly didn't have any good ideas on how to make something similar enough to Chunithm while still having a unique draw—and again, a big part of that is because those concepts are inherently at odds with each other.

Also, I think Konami fell into the other AAA studio trap of assuming that hardcore players are an inconvenience or that they can be ignored in situations like this—it's us Bemani fans who learned about this game well before its intended target demographic ever did, and usually it's us spreading the word about these games, or even just publicly playing them, that get them their traction. There's a lot of value to having hardcore players spread the word to others who don't know, but they'll only do so if they're happy with the game. Otherwise, it leaves a bad impression on casuals and random visitors to see rows upon rows of completely untouched cabs that they've never heard of before, while all the other games in the arcade have players.

Edit: Somebody made a plushie which further reinforces my belief that the outfit designs for Rasis and Grace were the best things to come out of this game.