Z-I-v Summer Contest 2015 [Back to school, kiddies, the contest is over.]

I'm going to go through all the charts this time around. I'm starting early enough to give feedback.

Boyfriend A GoGo
Personally, I feel that Basic charts should primarily be 4th notes. Inexperienced players, especially those without a great sense of rhythm, would have trouble stepping the offbeats in the song that you went to. Yes, I understand they went to the song and stood out a bit, but offbeats are hard to time for some people.
The 8ths here were more fitting in general since this is a difficult chart. Some offbeat 8th streams felt a bit awkward though.
Not sure if some of the rhythms should have been stepped. For example, starting measure 29, you have these Freeze Arrows seemingly going to the vocals, but then during the second freeze, you switch your focus to the bass, while I'm expecting to go the the vocals still. Measure 47: i think the 8th-16th pattern should be changed to 8th-4th to continue a stream with the following notes. I think it would flow better that way. This would then carry over to the next instance this occurs in the song, too. Measure 53, I feel should have had more 8th notes and less focus on on-beat (4th note) stuff. The 4th jumps didn't really fit that well, in my opnion. I'm not exactly sure what's going on in measure 60 (beat3)-61 (whole measure). Wow this turned out somewhat lengthy. Hopefully this helps a bit.

Change of Coast - This isn't the most interesting song tbh
There were quite a few doublesteps here. Normally, doublesteps don't affect me too badly, but there were a decent amount of them that could be revised a bit. Rhythms were alright for the most part. I'd have to go back another time to get more specific as to where things coul dbe improved.
These charts definitely play like keyboard charts. I only play with two fingers: index from each hand, meant to imitate actual pad play. (I don't understand how people play with one hand). Also, I feel like there weren't very many right arrows, lol. I don't know what happened there. The rhythms don't really flow together well especially at the beginning. They get a bit better at the end, but they could use some work. I just don't think this song is catchy or steppable to be completely honest.
I'm still sticking with my assertion that this isn't a great song to step. There aren't very many rhythms to step. Patterns still need a lot of work; there's still a lot of doublesteps or awkward turns that need to be made if one decides not to doublestep. Also, again, I noticed that the end of the song had very few right arrows as well, I'm not sure why that is.

Dialga's Fight to the Finish - The second half of the song kinda reminds me of "Enter Bowser Jr." lol. Not sure if this is the best song choice though; the song isn't that great
I felt that this could have used a bit more Freeze Arrows, but other than that the steps were fine.
The chart was pretty good. The only minor problem would be the Freeze Arrows with 4th note endings (if that makes sense). It's not exactly clear if you're supposed to double-step or not after each one. Even so, it's not too big a deal at this speed.
Great chart, but again, the song isn't very interesting or catchy.

DJ Sona -Kinetic- - Nice bg video
Whoa, why are there so many 8th notes (that death run especially!) Personally, I feel that this chart would be more appropiate as a chart. I don't see any real reason why the chart is so difficult.
:dif: This also seems overly difficult for a . I'm wondering what made you want to make a chart with this level of difficulty, for a song that isn't really screaming for hard charts.
To be honest with you, I liked better than The beginning of was good, but as you got to the "exciting" part (for lack of a better term), the rhythms really didn't flow together well.

Express Love
I liked it. Good rhythm choices, they weren't erratic or anything. A couple things: at combo 70 (when jumps count as one combo) that Freeze Arrow was unnecessarily long. The song was still going, backbeat going strong, and then you're just standing there. Also, immediately after that long freeze, there were 3 arrows at once. Not sure if this was intentional or not, I'm guessing it probably wasn't.
Huh, there's a stop here, that didn't exist in I guess we don't want to trip up beginners. Rhythm selections were good for the most part. There were a few points during the chorus where you almost randomly, stepped the vocals (the 8th parts). I think these rhythms could have been integrated a bit better and smoother.
Nice chart and rhythm choices! I liked this one. You did a good job. I noticed that there are a few doublesteps that are necessary when transitioning between long streams. They're not too bad though. Probably worth a point or two.

Feel a Thrill
Nice moderate chart. Good rhythms
Pretty good too.
Well stepped as well. Only minor thing is during the 8th-16th-4th-16th-8th runs. Maybe every other set of five arrows, you could add another 4th note inbetween the consecutive 8ths. I feel it would be a bit more fun to play that way. Other than that, this was good.
The only real thing that's going against this file is the repetitive nature of the song.

Final Boss (Squid Sisters Ver.)
Nice!
Good too! This chart seems somewhat difficult (more of a 7 than a 6) for the song, so I'm expecting the :Hea: to be pretty difficult.
Love this too! Personally, I didn't do (or wouldn't have actually done) the spins but those were a pretty nice touch.
Probably getting some points

Gasei Sozai Sono 1 - Personally, I don't know if 200 BPm is appropriate for this song. It's not screaming for such a high BPM. I think 100 would have sufficed.
at this 200 BPM, your rhythms and patterns are fine. If this were stepped at 100 BPM, I would've probably lightened up the patterns and rhythms, but it's not, sooo....idk.
I liked the rhythms, but I felt the patterning could have been toned down a bit. There's a lot of twisting (i.e. switching between facing left and right), that seems a bit too difficult for this difficulty level. L-()-D-()-U-R-()-U-R or something like that for the beginning and the end. Overall, this chart is good.
nice rhythm choices overall. I felt that there could have been a 4th note or two in some of those empty spaces in the charts. I can be a bit more specific if you'd like to know more.

Get Jinxed - decent song.
Good!
:dif: Everything was great until the last few triplets of 8ths. The patterning got kinda weird and awkward and required either doublestepping or footswtiches or both to stay facing forward.
Well, this seemed a lot like Difficult, and maybe even easier than it at times, until the ending "death run" and that one 16th burst.

Go Shanghai - The audio from this song was kind of wierd to me. It wasn't that loud, but it hurt my eardrums for some reason. The song isn't that bad, but there was definitely some surround sound going on there.
Not too hard of a Basic chart. Most of the time, I advocate for Basic charts to have too many 8th notes. I am still backing this. The song didn't call too much at all for 8ths in an easy chart.
good chart, but this totally could have been Expert (:hea You rated this a 5: this should be at least a 6, possibly even a 7.
This is only slightly harder than The only real difference were the 16th trills. I think this is an 8. It's pretty good though.
I didn't think you'd be able to make something harder than the that would still be good. but I guess I was wrong. Good job. I liked the patterns on some of the 8th triplets.

Ice Crusher
Pretty difficult for a Basic chart. well, at least the 4th-16th-8th parts. Other easier to follow patterns could have been done so newer, less-experienced players could enjoy these section.
Rhythms for individual sections of the song were nice, but I think the transitions between them could use some work. You would start with one pattern and then awkwardly switch your focus after a non-convential amount of measure or repitions of that pattern. At least it felt awkward to me.
Pretty much the same comments as for this chart. Maybe this cut just has an awkward number of repetitions of rhythms (not 4 or 8 altogether). also, were the Shock Arrows/Mines meant as a distraction?
Personally, I felt this chart was unnecessary. This song isn't particularly intense, nor does it have a consistent amount of difficult rhythms.

INTERCEPTION - Town in Upheaval--- the charts also started a bit early, IMO I feel like you should have waited a bit to start all the charts.
Could use a lot of fixing up. There's some awkward patterning that could be fixed up and some of the chosen rhythms are not the easiest for newer players to follow. For example, the first portion of steps were relatively simple (but could still use some work), then after a long freeze jump, there's a pretty massive difficulty spike (for a Basic chart at least). I think most of the rhythms should be on what theoretically would be 4ths at 90 BPM and the occasional "8th" at 90 BPM. The difficulty could be much more balanced.
Rhythms you chose were better in general, but there were some empty spaces between rhythms that could have some 4th notes in between as filler. Patterns again cause doublestepping if you play on pad. I can point some out if you want via PM. (Do you play keyboard? Do you play pad at all?)
It seems very evident that you don't play pad DDR. Many of these patterns here are atrocious for pad players to play. This is probably one of the reasons that your files haven't been getting any points. When stepping charts for pad players (which virtually all of us are), you should try "ghost-stepping" under the table, imagine that there's an imaginary dance pad under your table or desk where you step (or just use your index fingers on the desk/table). Try to make it so that you don't have to step on two different arrows with the same foot/finger.
Rhythm choices don't fit together well as a whole, nor individually really. i can try to give an example of how I would step this song, if you'd like, but that's only if you want to see what a chart that flows better looks like.

La Danse Macabre
Good chart
Good chart, too!
Pretty good, but some of the transitions between your chosen rhythms didn't work too great in my opinion.

Let Mom Sleep
Good chart for the most part. The 8ths made sense, but I guess this chart is a bit on the harder side in terms of Basic charts, so I guesss it's all right.
Pretty good too. the first time the lyrics go "would you stop" etc. I felt that the continuous 8th streams for the duration of the "vocals" was a bit off. It just didn't feel right.
Generally good.
I liked this the best of the rest of them.

Northern Desert - Again, song choice isn't the best...I do remember this song from the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series. Also, what is it with you and non 4/4 time signatures?
Nicely done
Good rhythms.
Flawless

Piano Sonata D No 4
This should be a 5. Some of the rhythms are a bit hard to follow for a 4, imo
This should probably be a 7 in DDR terms (old-scale, of course). This was good aside from the potential underrating.
This chart felt kinda awkward to play. The rhythms in this song seem so irregular and they're a bit hard to follow.

Pursuit (Wanting To Find The Truth)
Something was definitely wrong in this chart. For some reason there was a slowdown, (I don't know if that was supposed to be there) and every after the slowdown didn't make sense at all, especially the 8ths, which I also felt should have been reserved for and up.
this was decent. I think it went well with the song. I'm still wondering how you got a 12 out of this song
decent, too. The streams didn't feel completely necessary. Maybe they could've been broken down into streams of 15, maybe?
totally unneeded, imo

Reach out to the Truth
This was so weird. From the beginning, it felt like this song had blue note syndrome and that the 4ths were technically 8th notes "offbeat". Then the chart turned on beat. I don't know if I was teh only one who noticed this. The chart was good, assuming I misheard the song.
Why is this song so weird?!?!?! It still feels like 8th note syndrome. I felt the same way with that Asaki song from the BEMANI Stadium event. I was honestly as confused at this as I was then. Other than that, this was good.
Still confused a bit. Chart was good though. Maybe it has to do with the song cut...

Shapeshifter
(y)
Great!
Dammit, Great on the last step. Great chart!
Good too

Special Stage (Sonic)
The song is very noticeably offsync. Chart was decent. A bit monotonous, but decent otherwise, I guess
Decent too.
there could have been a couple more steps between following the main synths
Actually was pretty good. The rhythms were good and patterns weren't bad, but they could use a little more flavoring (i.e. not facing the same direction for too long.)

Techno Syndrome
Pretty decent. It should probably be rated a 4, though
This was extremely similar to in terms of difficulty. i think you should find a way to make stand out a bit from a bit more. What you have is good, but I think it should be upped in difficulty just a bit. I noticed this with your "A Sky Full of Stars" file as well.
This was good, too. I felt like this could've used a bit more in a possibly.

The Bionicle Music
Pretty decent chart. It seems like you made this boss-ish. This might not have needed the 8ths but, I guess it's all right.
First thing: this should be rated an 8. Probably around halfway through the song, the patterns started getting uncomfortable to play (i.e. awkward turns of the body) especially with those crossover 16ths followed by 2 ups or 2 downs. It seems evident that you may be a keyboard player and not a pad player.
There was a lot going on here. some of these patterns, were a bit awkward; I wasn't sure whether to foot switch them or just keep stepping with the same foot. I ended up having to doublestep uncomfortably.

The Next Door
Wow. Unbelievably easy...Good, but unbelievably easy.
I like it
Great! Only thing is that I felt that som eof th estreams should have been continuous instead of leaving breaks to mirror the breaks in the vocals.

Zip - Not sure I like this song. It's a bit boring, imo.
good
Only weird thing I saw were the 8th streams of 8 notes. Otherwise, I liked it.
more of an 8 in my opinion. It wasn't bad, but it didn't stand out as great either.