Discussion video: Konami: It's Time to Fix DDR

Excellent discussion video by Etienne on the flaws of DDR. It's also a large part of why I prefer to play at home rather than drive out to an arcade and spend a bunch of money.

Yeah, this is a good video. I also don't understand why Konami is so hesitant to re-chart or fix some of their more questionable charts, considering they're far more willing to perform QoL like this in their other series (like IIDX).

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I'm pretty sure a subscription type deal as detailed in that video is a no-go.

I feel like the section on the chart quality came off the same as the arguments in the DDR A20 thread recently about songs being undercharted. Personally, I think that Life is beautiful re-chart he showed as "better" looked pretty bad. Not just the super fast streams (which feel totally out of place for DDR), but at some points the rhythms seemed really strange. Just because those rhythms might be in the song doesn't mean they need to be charted IMO. That argument came off as "if it doesn't follow every single rhythm in the song EXACTLY, it's bad. and also crossovers are bad".

ITG and DDR have massively different charting styles at this point, and asking DDR to be more like ITG seems silly to me. If you want more ITG charts, then just... play ITG. If you don't like what DDR is doing, then don't play it. We all know Konami isn't going to hear or listen to any of these arguments.


I agree. It would be a good idea in theory, but comparing a subscription to a home game with a subscription to an arcade game is a bad comparison. Does Konami even set the prices for DDR machines? I'm sure they have recommended pricing, but at the end of the day it's the arcades who set the price, right? And it's the arcades who make money off of the machines, right? So complaining to Konami about pricing seems misguided.

Anyway, that's my two cents that no one asked for. Time to go lurk for another 8 months

Well, it's a good thing I'm still hunting for a few of the Japanese home releases for the PS2. Regarding the quality of the stepcharts, it would be nice if the people who wrote the Expert and Oni charts for the majority of the songs featured in UNIVERSE3 took over, but that's just me. Oh, and above all, there needs to be a new (way less annoying) announcer who's just as good as Taz (DDRMAX-SuperNOVA2) or Radio Active (ULTRAMIX3-ULTRAMIX4).

Something else I want to mention: I play DDR II for Wii which is the latest console release to date and it was released in 2011! If Konami made a game for Switch and it came with either a free soft pad like the Wii version or a $200 good quality metal pad I'm sure they could've capitalized on lots of people staying at home in the past year. Konami has the capability and scale to make metal pads and they wouldn't even have to be that cheap for them to sell well, just decent quality.

Honestly, I wouldn't even care about the dance pad at this point. The Switch is lacking in good rhythm games. Voez is alright but borderline unplayable with the physical controls, it pretty much needs the touch screen. And at that point I'd rather play something like Cytus on Vita. Superbeat Xonic almost works but I really hate when rhythm games try to use the analog stick. DDR works great on a standard controller, and it's the one thing I feel the Switch is lacking at this point.

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I'd heartily recommend Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun if you haven't explored. While I primarily play it using touch-screen controls, and you seem to prefer docked play, from playing it with friends before the lockdown, I can affirm both first and secondhand that the button controls work rather nicely, and it's the one Taiko console release that's still getting support to this day, sporting hundreds of songs including a bounty of licenses.

Not necessarily docked, I just want buttons. I assumed this one had a special controller like the PS2 games, so never really looked. I'll check it out though.

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I've got the PS4 version and the button controls definitely work well if you don't feel like splashing out on an actual drum. I've heard the motion controls on the Switch version are terrible, but the button controls are just as good as the PS4 version.

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Outside of gyro aiming, motion controls rarely work as advertised. But I added it to my wish list. $50 is a bit steep for a series I haven't played since PS2 (and as such don't already know the songs) but once I can snag it for like $25 I'll give it a go.

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Definitely snag it on a sale, it is NOT worth full price imo. Considering on Playstation I just got Guilty Gear Xrd Rev.2 for £1.04 and FF7 Remake for free, it really puts how expensive rhythm games tend to be into perspective.

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Is that the game with the Hori taiko controller? I thought about buying the taiko controller just to play taiko on pc in osu.

I was so sad when I saw Xrd wasn’t $1 here. I already have it on PC but it would have been nice to have when I finally get a PS5.

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