DanceDanceRevolution A3 (AC)

I feel like they missed an opportunity to make this into an unlock event - have all of these new songs as extra stages and then give you BREAKING THE FUTURE as a reward for clearing all of them.

But of course, this is Konami, so you have to buy $50 in packs for GRAND PRIX instead...

I would have much rather had a hype unlock event, even though it would have cost about the same (or more).

It feels so anticlimactic to release new level 18 and 19 songs without fanfare. Way different from the boss events of the past.

EDIT: That said, I think all of the new songs sound amazing, so I'll probably shill out for them over the next couple of weeks.

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Because this way, the money goes directly to Konami instead of the arcade.

Exactly. I've seen YouTube comments get dunked on for pointing this out but it's pretty noticeable. The variety, in my opinion, is nowhere near the same as past DDR mixes. Musically, it all blends together and a lot of these songs sound so similar to me.
Everything now has to have a slow-down with electro wub-wub in it, tons of awkward and fast crossovers, and lots of green arrows or jackhammers.

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Exactly. Konami is just cutting out the middleman. I have mixed opinions about this practice but let's be real, not many people can pass BREAKING THE FUTURE on ESP, let alone CSP.

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I've heard the same complaints about a couple other BEMANI games like IIDX too, that they sound too homogenous now. I can't tell if it's true or just nostalgia, I know DDR's had periods with tons of one genre (tons of fast eurodance, or tons of trance, or the weeb/TAG era when every hard song used the exact same synth, you know the one).

What do yall think, and is it a BEMANI-wide issue?

(also i feel like they're gonna do a big boss event for the 25th anniversary in a few months, so it'd be an overload to do 2 in a row, if i'm wrong you're right this is worse).

I feel it might not be just a BEMANI thing but music games as a whole, it always ends up being hardcore music that sounds way too homogenous even between franchises (except some cases I think, at least I don't think DRS is similar to those but you can tell most of its song share a certain style)

Maybe it's what players like or something, they really should try to be more experimental with the music. IIDX used to be like this back in the day a lot and it still does nowadays but maybe not as much as how it used to be?

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Pop'n is really the only Bemani game I'd say has a signature sound, which is more like, child friendly, world music, chill pop. It's rare there's a hardcore headbanging electronic song, and it's usually a crossover

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I mean there is the whole rock side of music gaming, ie. western rhythm games. And I do still feel like there' identity between Bemani series. Play me a random selection of 10 songs from Resident and a random selection of 10 songs from Exceed Gear, and I would feel pretty confidant guessing which list came from which game, the latter being considerably more... idk, "anime-sounding." I'm not fluent enough in genre labels to characterize it better.

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I can’t necessarily say that it’s a BEMANI-wide issue, but I’ll include both DDR and IIDX in this conversation. In my personal opinion, for around 10 years now, both series have been failing when it comes to variety. Yes, I still follow both series as they are my favorites out of the BEMANI world, but it’s more so out of curiosity as opposed to being genuinely happy and excited when new installments/songs are announced. Why? Because I know that the majority of the music is going to blend into one another.

When I play DDR now, I always go back to the pre-X era of songs. Part of it is because of nostalgia, yes, but it’s mostly because I really feel like those songs are waaaay more interesting to listen to. That era of DDR will always have a special place in my heart because it began to expand my taste in music, thanks to most of the tracks not sounding like anything I’d ever heard before. Now? A lot of the newer songs just sound like other songs they’re released with in the game, as well as lots of other electronic music outside of BEMANI. There’s nothing special about it. The only DDR-specific songs in the current era I can think of that I have a desire to play are STEP MACHINE and waiting. I can skip everything else and know that I’m not missing much at all.

With IIDX, it’s just about the same. tricoro was the last style that genuinely piqued my interest. SPADA will forever be the worst style to me, and since that installment, there’s only a handful of songs new to that installment that I care for. With Lincle and before, there would legit be about 30 or more songs I could get down with. Now it’s only like 8 to 10. Just like with DDR, the majority of the artists contributing to IIDX are just using the same generic tricks with electronic music over and over. Plus it almost feels like a lot of them are trying really hard to make some cool EDM, but….it’s not cool when most of them are composing their tracks in a very similar way. There’s almost no surprise anymore.

The thing is, the current variety of the songs are the more popular one nowadays. People actually liked these kind of musics in rhythm game, so more and more contributors starts to adapt with the current style of otoge music. Especially when all the things that people keeps complaining are the lack of hard content, these kind of otoge-centric music will always fit as a hard content material.

And speaking of variety from older mixes, I'm sorry to throw a wrench on the gears. But I also think the variety of older mixes are just as homogenous as current mixes, albeit with different genre of musics. I can't tell which Dancemania license is which, because they sounds similar with each other. Apart from a select few which are widely known, the electronic musics also sounds same-y. (This opinion also applies with IIDX as well, but this is DDR thread so I'll just talk about DDR)

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As someone who doesn't follow or play IIDX, what do you feel like the signature music styles of various IIDX installments are? I know Spada was like, medieval war themed or something, but how did that reflect in the music?


I agree with this. Early DDR was either Naoki-core, R&B + Hip hop (mostly 1st-3rd mix), and lots of eurodance. There was a lot of variety in Extreme (due to GFDM, Popn, and IIDX being crossed over) but 1st-3rd and 4th-Max2 were interchangeable.

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Ive always had a strange opinion on the newer Bemani games. Classic Bemani used to sounds like Video Game music, and newer Bemani sounds more like real life DJ sets, at least thats how I can explain it. Something has definitely changed, and while I still like most of it, I miss things like Wild Rush, Afronova, Paranoia, Sakura, etc. Me and my friends have occasionally heard some songs and said that they remind us of classic Bemani, but its few and far between.

For me, DDR lost it's "soul" when Noaki left. That's when they stopped designing deeper charts are started doing more basic bitch stuff. Part of why MAX 300 and so many other older songs stood out is because they were uniquely built for DDR, they weren't *just* cool songs or badass beats to dance to, they were made with the steps in mind when creating the melodies and rythym. Think about the coordination behind that. The songs rythym was written to give it 573 steps, a combo referencing the system it ran on, it has 8 Jump steps, The "8 Spikes" in the BG video. It's just little details like that missing from current titles that makes A3 seems soulless to me.

Now sure, we still had TAG and a few other artists carrying the torch during the SuperNova/X years, but then Konami went full corporate bastard and gutted the development team, replacing them with "Bemani Sound Team", whoever the fuck they are or whatever that means. I literally have no idea who makes the charts or music for DDR anymore. I could probably find their names, if I dig around through the wikis, but I mean c'mon man.

It's weird because, honestly, the charts they've made for A3 are actually pretty good and I like them, but the music variety is weak and I miss the Konami Originals.

"Why do you need Konami original songs?"

Because Naoki, they were the soul of DDR. And a dance game without soul? Well, that's no music at all.



That's because it *was* video game music. Go back to Extreme and realize just how many songs are video game remixes and Konami originals compared to now. Most of the new songs from A and up are real life DJ licenses.

My thing is, music and these games needed to evolve, evolve with the times and tastes in music, or else no one would play them because stuff from dancemania is outdated and cheesy, a lot has changed since the days of old that we remember, sometimes for the better. And I completely disagree with NEMEsetup here. There is a LOT of good music in the current mixes, a lot better than the music of old, and don't get me wrong, I also am attached to some songs in the older days, but my tastes have evolved past the nostalgic times, and I embraced and loved a lot of the newer bemani music and new faces and I feel like a lot don't because they're too attached to the older stuff, which let's be real here, isn't as good as we all thought it was. And as far as IIDX goes, I love a lot of the new stuff, and I disagree about Spada being the worst, there are FAR worst IIDX mixes than that, Spada had a lot of good original content and it's up there in my favorites. And NEMESetup have you even played any of the newer IIDX mixes because I feel like judging by how harsh you're being with newer music in Bemani, you haven't even given anything new from the new faces or new stuff from the legacy artists a listen and just tossing it off because you hate a few songs, and I feel like you should at least be a little more open minded to the new stuff because not all of it is garbage but hey that's just me. To each their own.

I'd like to go on record and say even though I pointed out recent DDR mixes sound homogenous (which at times IS a bummer, especially on higher difficulties where the songs used to stick out more) that I actually PREFER the new sound of DDR over pre-SuperNOVA stuff. So many of my favorite songs in DDR have come out in just the past few years.

Of course, I would prefer to have the best of both worlds and have DDR include music that sounds both modern and nostalgic.

I mostly agree with CLOUDIO that the first few years of DDR was also way too samey with the genres that were included at the time. But even so, there was always weirder shit like AFRONOVA, Sexy Planet, and Exotic Ethnic that sounded like video game music that the current series is lacking. Every blue moon, modern mixes will get something memorable and weird like Persian Land and Jucunda Memoria, but not nearly enough anymore without NAOKI on the sound team.

Extreme through X2 I think is that sweet spot in the series when there was plenty of variety in the music styles.

The only rhythm game I play regularly is DDR, but with my limited knowledge of other games, they also sound like they might have the same problem of sounding all alike. The only exception that's stuck out to me being DanceRush, which is different enough from other series, but to cater to it's gameplay style, the majority of it's songlist is all electro house.

I don't know if I had a point to all this, but anyway, more DanceRush crossovers in DDR, please.

I have, and hardly any of it is interesting to me. I’m very open minded when it comes to music, and what’s being showcased in that series isn’t resonating with me. Also note that I clearly stated that I still follow the series, which means I do still play the game and have listened to the songs, hence why I said there’s only a handful of songs I can call favorites now. Please also note that my opinions were personal ones, which also was clearly stated. I wasn’t trying to speak for others in any way. If you love SPADA and like a lot of the newer stuff, that’s fine. I, however, don’t. Understand?

I have to admit, I do have to go back on what I said about old school DDR music based on recent responses. It is true; a lot of the older songs were pretty interchangeable as well. I had to remind myself that a lot of my favorite songs from that era were actually BEMANI crossovers, and not Konami Originals made for DDR. Still, though…I just don’t vibe with a lot of the newer stuff. I think what would help is if they really get brave with embracing more musical genres associated with other dance styles. They’re slowing embracing Juke/Footwork, which is great (I’m surprised it even took them this long to do so) but they can go even further by bringing in more sounds from other cultures without heavily relying on the wubwub.

I guess it went over my head and I apologize for that. Ehh I'm keen on a lot of the new stuff and like I said, to each their own, not everyone is gonna like things and have things resonate with them, which I respect, and that's alright, we all have our own tastes. I also agree about older stuff being interchangeable you're right about that. And while I do like the wubwub stuff, I think they're embracing it a little too much causing reliance on it and maybe it could stand to be a little more diverse.

I ain't reading none of dat. The new Numb'n'dub tune whips.

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I'm still interested in knowing the difference in musical styles across IIDX titles lol

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