Z-I-v: Tower of Eight Panels

Explosive - ???
My own file, so you know it’s hot flaming dynamite.

Initiation – 3/10
To start off with the good, I liked the consistent theme you had in putting those one-sided shock arrow dodges with the middle two arrows. The rhythms are also on point. That said, your chart unfortunately suffers from several flow and momentum issues, making it extremely uncomfortable to play in general. At m12, I do not quite understand why there’s a large stretch into a 16th cluster but it really breaks a player’s momentum coming from what you were doing immediately before. The measure immediately after has a lower down arrow crossover after hitting 1R with your right foot, which is not only an uncomfortable movement on its own, but you threw a 16th cluster to top it off followed by shocks immediately… ouch. And it happens again on the next measure. At measure 31, you have a situation where you have your left foot on 1L and right foot on 1U, and then being forced to hit 2U with your left foot and then jump twice. Ouch. Upon entering measure 35, there’s a flow break among the 16th clusters, and because it involves the middle two arrows, it’s that much more likely to trip the player. At the slowdown, there’s also a doublestep among the freeze arrows, making it really unclear whether you’re supposed to spin or hold two arrows with one foot or switch on a freeze. And then I think you tried to implement something akin to the freeze switch section in 海神 S- but made the transitions between the two pads incredibly wide and in a way that really breaks one’s momentum. Also, because of your rhythm choices, it’s not immediately clear that your intention is to switch feet on the freeze (as it would if you shifted the gallops 1/16 earlier). There’s another doublestep at m68, again involving the two middle arrows before going into those freeze switches again. And right before the end, you want the player to cross the center on 16ths while facing the other way, sandwiched between two stretch jumps?! That does not work well in actual gameplay. Overall, I feel like you had a few ideas but then tried to make a chart in under an hour without taking enough time to look it over afterwards. Better luck next time!

Jump – 8/10
CDP – This is an incredibly fun-looking chart with a consistent shock arrow set going to the lyric “Jump!” to force the player to hop off the side of the pad they’re on. All your movements are very fluid as always. However, I’m mildly disappointed that while you worked to meet the requirements for the theme itself, you didn’t attempt to take advantage of the fact that all of your shocks were one-sided (by putting a step on the other pad to make the player either run or jump around the middle while avoiding the traps while still timing to things in the song). You had the perfect opportunity to do so as well, when you brought the player to the center to hit single arrows on the side the shocks appeared.
EDP – I see that this has the same ordeal as CDP minus the 24th bursts.

Ponyboy – 5/10
In DDR, players are normally expected to treat shock arrows as one step with one foot on any silver panel. This chart does flow otherwise for the most part, although at m24 before the yellow and blue steps, you’d have to take another step during the shock arrow set. But wait, why are there three quads on a 12? Not a bad thing, just a questionable choice, a stretch jump might have sufficed. The choices of arrows for the yellow and blue parts could have been more interesting than this, and I’m equally confused as to why there are more down arrows than anything else (and no right arrows at all) during that part. Like Jump (see above), I haven’t seen any instance of using the trap requirement to your advantage, which could have much enhanced your file. The lack of doubles transitions also makes me wonder if you really wanted to give your chart an identity over whatever this would have been like on single.

RG04 – 4/10
Not sure if you understood the round’s requirements, but you were to use one-sided shock arrows at least 8 times throughout your chart. Also, like I wrote for the previous file, in DDR, players are normally expected to treat shock arrows as one step with one foot on any silver panel, rather than jump to avoid with both feet. Unfortunately, this automatically means that I can’t evaluate your chart on the basis of how well it worked to take advantage of the theme, as the full shocks you added in your chart serve as little more than decoration. Now, to disregard the shock arrows and to look at the rest of your chart… did you try playtesting this at all? This is not a 12. This is easily at least a middle 13, with your numerous transitions and even 3-panel stretches and your jumps, all at 200 BPM. There’s a very uncalled-for jump right at the start of m18 that reminds me of the final jump that was added as a typo in Arrabbiata D-, and anyone who played that chart will tell you how much that jump has ruined things for them.

Something Real – 9/10
Way to go for making full difficulties! Love that gimmick too in the middle.
CDP – Almost a flawless chart; the one nitpick I have for this is at m33 where the hold and the down arrow on P2 end on the same beat and the next arrow is a 2U, meant to be hit with the left foot – it’s not clear that it should be the left foot that hits it because of the hold length before and the down arrow is closer to that arrow than the 1R which had the hold – if entered wrong, the next part is a doublestep.
EDP – A very good chart as well. The part around m30 with the traps could have been arranged a little differently since you’re facing left all the way and the first and third traps require a slight stretch with the right leg to the P1 side first while the left leg avoids a trap, which would be more comfortable if the 1R arrows were 2L instead. But at 110 BPM 8ths, it’s really not that bad to do I suppose.

がっつり陰キャ!?怪盗いいんちょの億劫^^ - 7/10
Way to go for making full difficulties! I’ll limit my review to CDP since it’s the only chart with any shock arrows at all.
CDP – Overall a solid chart but do you really need that many 24th bursts at 185 BPM on a stamina double 17 chart? They’re more of a pain to handle than on single especially during/after 16th streams that require you to transition from pad to pad. The rest of the chart is enjoyable minus those freeze arrow 8th jackhammer into forced doublesteps that are sometimes 2 panels wide. I also wish along with most of the other entries that the chart involved some taking advantage of one-sided shock arrows, instead of merely using them as decoration on one side of the pad or the other.

Explosive
8
Felt like it had too much air time after some of the shock arrows. Also had some ambiguous foot placement on landing, especially leading up to "spin" patterns. However, it seemed well-designed otherwise.

Initiation
6
A lot of places I felt were overextended or didn't respect foot alternation, especially during left/right side transitions. How are you meant to do the gallops during holds?

Jump
N/A
Mine.

Ponyboy
8
Some creative patterning, but foot alternation was a bit fishy in some places.

RG04
10
Really nice patterning. Not complex, but doesn't have to be at that speed.

Something Real
9
I liked it, didn't have any standout places though. 16th vs 24th patterns were a bit awkward though

tl;dr dempa
6
[CDP 17] Too spammy.
[EDP 15] Not as spammy but didn't stand out as very fun to play.