DanceDanceRevolution A20 (AC)

You're not wrong, but Super Samurai is quite a bit different from the rest.

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Super Samurai is pretty different from the rest, but I will agree with you on Silver Dream and everything after that.
You can also expand this argument to jun's Crossbeats songs (Dazzling Season, Emerald Kiss, Honey Sunrise).

jun has made literally the exact same song her entire career, HADES being the exception

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yeah i guess super samurai doesn't sound like the rest and yeah even her crossbeats stuff sounds identical to her late ddr stuff.

Been a long minute since I posted (though I do visit fairly often to skim), but I am loving this conversation. As someone who started playing DDR around 2002, I too was a bit annoyed in the beginning with some of Naoki's songs (under his actual name) sounding very, very, very similar; but I eventually came to appreciate them more for the steps than anything -- and don't get me started on Paula Terry...(cough)I still don't think she's a great vocalist....at....all...(cough).

Other artists fell victim to the "sound similar" plague as well, and it got to the point where I, and probably all of us could guess who the artist was, or say "that sounds like a so-and-so song, with Naoki, TaQ, good-cool, and even dj TAKA being the ones I could pick out easily... Confession...for the first year of me getting into DDR, I actually hated NAOKI and dj TAKA songs....yeah, I'm embarrassed about that. LOL

I actually preferred Naoki songs under his other handles, and I agree that jun songs ALL sound the same with the exception of Super Samurai (which I didn't care for). It was kinda apparent when Naoki was starting to step back his role in DDR as I noticed the song selections were a bit more diverse (debatable if for the better), but during that period, it seemed his compositions were getting better. After he left Konami, I actually found myself liking some of the songs he put in CROSSxBEATS as they were him, but felt a bit different somehow.

I didn't observe the Yoshitaka hate period, but I can attest to my issue with TAG songs during his DDRX3 thru DDR 2013 period. While I found myself really liking his stuff, it was more hit-or-miss and him being way more guilty of his stuff sounding WAAAAY too damn similar and the step charts didn't save it enough for me to care. Regardless, this is a good conversation, and enlightening for things I didn't know, and I'm sure I'll learn more from more of what y'all share about the artists, or correct me and my ignorance of stuff.

I honestly didn't know Yoshitaka was hated at all, I'm surprised there was a time where people hated his music. Also I have to agree with you Saotome, I like Naoki's music but I too feel some songs sounded really similar (specially stuff like B2U and B4U even though they're actually related to each other). I kinda feel a few songs by him that actually sound a bit different didn't receive enough attention from the fans (granted, most people would obviously prefer the most popular songs).

I'm kinda bummed DOUBLE TORNARD wasn't added in X3 and birdman was never even added to a DDR game. Even hypnotheque could've been added to DDR at some point

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Yoshitaka sounding the same mostly isn't a phenomenon in DDR. DDR only got Flower and Jomanda from the bunch of songs all trying to recreate Evans.

And the thing is, on some small level, [we] may be digging in this a bit too much. Maybe the point of songs by NAOKI, jun, TaQ, DJ YOSHITAKA, TAG mostly blended together and sounded similar for that exact purpose -- to prove that it was actually them, dictated by their signature sound(s). I mean, all of the handles that Naoki used for different genres, so the man was absolutely diverse, but when it came to songs that fell into a formula by him, he used his own name; maybe that was by design.

That's one thing I will give to TAG, despite my nailing him to the wall for most of his contributions between X3 and 2014 -- even though he used his own TAG name for many songs, many sounded the same, but a lot were quite different. SABER WING and Heatstroke were the first 2 songs by TAG that I was introduced to, and from the jump, I was impressed because it was labeled the same artist, but the songs sounded nothing alike -- you'd never know it was the same guy. But later, when you hear Another Phase then hear Cosmic Hurricane you know it's the same, and the biggest offense is hearing London wa Yoru 8 Ji (LON 8PM - TYO 4AM) and then PRANA. You're like come ON, dude!

But he had redemption with Chronos and HEART BEAT FORMULA as again, he used TAG as the name, but they sound nothing alike. It's kinda odd. But we could be overlooking that them using their actual name for songs that sound the same could very well be intentional...even if it does make you fold your arms and roll your eyes (which I've done...especially after the London and PRANA thing)...

TAG seemed to have more freedom in the CS DDR games prior to his becoming an arcade sound director (Heatstroke was one of those songs), like a lot of artists did in the later PS2/Wii games (Tomosuke's Seasons and D-crew's hiphop-ish Crazy Control were two other noticeable examples of songs you'd never hear for an arcade DDR mix). The first warning sign for me with TAG was POSSESSION basically just being SABER WING 2, only with a rather irritating gimmick. It was all downhill from there. (Funny enough, I dig most of his GITADORA songs, but only because 96 really helped shape his melodies into something more awesome with his awesome guitar skills. Once 96 left Konami, though...)

TAG's best of his piano trance-ish songs to me is still Alstroemeria. He never ever topped that.

And yeah, birdman is very underrated. Surprised that never made it to an Ultramix DLC pack honestly.

some songs are in a series and essentially related or are sequels to them, which would explain the similarities between them, along with some of the songs falling in the same genre too, alot of trance songs sound alike tbh, goes for any songs falling in the same specific genre but i digress

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https://www.reddit.com/r/DaveAndBusters/comments/bw222i/ddr_a20_as_software_upgrade/

Dave & Buster's confirmed that A20 WILL be a software upgrade at some point in the future.

Sure, we already knew that, but it's nice to have official confirmation.

mmm yes love to hear that uwu

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Speaking of artists sounding themselves, what's the point of DJ TAKA using increasing amount of various throwaway aliases lately for Siberite, good night , mommy and Blue Spring Express for example, but then proceeding to produce the same old taka sound that you can't mistake after hearing it for couple of measures?

Kevin's replies in that thread also strongly hint at D&B ordering additional DDR machines which is awesome.

eternal summer's credits list taka as captain king for the composition credits and drastic dramatic uses part of the captain king alias as well

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https://twitter.com/BROSONI/status/1135495654682157056

I knew that the American gold cabs were running the Japanese version, but it also seems that they (or at least the one Chris plays on) are actually linked to the Osaka area for area records? Can anyone else confirm if their area networks are also linked to Japan?

When you set up the machine, it asks you to pick a location. Since its a Japanese release, all the locations available are in Japan. So all the American cabs are registered to random Japanese regions.

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As far as Round1's JP eAmuse set up for US cabs (except Ace and Tsum Tsum), all machines are "located" in Osaka.

They couldn't have just slapped on "other" in the selection? What a bizzare fucky wucky.

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"Well, DDR players in Japan are VERY over-protective of their machine records. Especially on lower level songs."

Well RIP to them lmao

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