DanceDanceRevolution GRAND PRIX (PC)

Looking at the music list again, the Challenge only songs are in fact playable on Grand Prix free mode. They're only excluded for free and trial standard.

Yeah this really sucks. Especially with super accurate SM5 themes out there like Curilang's which supports 3D dancers, and then you have all the songs and stuff like the Xbox exclusive challenge charts for songs like Maximizer. Like they have to know they're competing directly with Stepmania at this point right? There are 6 songs in the DDR Max folder, and I have 48 in mine (since I have both US and AC DDR Max in one folder). The game isn't on the eamusement website either so you can't adjust the screen filter, set your dancer, see fast/slow, or anything. It's as bare bones as possible and already light on content, plus performance issues (I can max out Horizon Zero Dawn and Resident Evil Village but apparently 720p DDR is just too much for my rig), and they have this absurd pricing model? Yeah, this is really disappointing. I'm gonna use it while I have it and see if I can get used to arcade timing again, but I'm not going to keep paying for this crap.

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Should we start a "Grand Prix simfile Beta Thread" or do we post here?

Only for 6 new licences and newer songs. AC songs can be extracted from AC folders of origin.

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Omg I just realized trying to keyboard FC Pluto Relinquish Expert that the judgement and combo are over the notes with no way to change it. I was wondering why I got it after a couple tries on SM but after like 15 tries I still couldn't read the middle slowdown or the ending speed up and then it just stood out to me and it was all I could see. This game is such a piece of shit. I can't believe Konami released this game in this state, even the Wii games got this right.

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Why can't Konami just keep it simple and just put it on steam for a like 60 bucks with the stuff you see on the arcades? Any extra stuff like revival songs they could put as dlc since its konami and they stingy like that. other non konami rhythm aren't this convoluted to buy and and their non bemani stuff is on steam without needing some weird subscription service to use.

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Yeah, this is disappointing. I can't believe how complex they made this + skipping such basic features.

The payment model is curious. Perhaps their licensing changed to a per-play model after SN2? But even if so, it feels like they could have incentivized people to use both subscription and tickets by offering a discount to subscribers instead, e.g.,

* subscription = content up to SN2
* tickets = full content (e.g., 6 with no subscription, 3 with subscription)

As for the feature set, was it really necessary to lock saved scores behind a subscription? Are the rest of the features going to be hidden behind yet another subscription?

I'm not holding my breath, but I really hope Konami changes course and simplifies things...

Because Steam = lost profits. The way their PC games work is brilliant for them because it’s catered specifically for a small amount of players who are willing to spend money to subscribe and pay for every song pack they sell. Infinitas, SDVX 3 Cloud, pop’n Lively, GITADORA, Nostalgia, now this they don’t need to put them on Steam when they have their own launcher where they fully control how you pay without Steam getting a cut. These games are not meant to cater to Joe Schmoes for mass consumption.

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Unless they change the subscription and ticket model I think a lot will just give this a pass. I’m usually one that blindly supports anything DDR related as I want to keep it alive but I’m having a hard time convincing myself to subscribe and then pay extra for anything recent to the series. While I wouldn’t mind a steam release, or even a paid in full release, I don’t mind the subscription but I absolutely despise the idea of paying monthly and then some to play something. If I subscribe for a year they are getting almost $180 USD out of me already, why do I need to pay per play that’s more than I’ve spent in the arcade in the last couple of years put together.

"Why can't Konami not be bastards" is basically the tldr. The answer is that if they have to choose between goodwill and more money, they're a shitty company, so it's draining extra cash every single time.

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Yeah we all know that. But if they’re insisting on only putting legacy content in the subscription the least they could do is use the remastered Extreme interface from DDR selection and sell a Konamix 2 on PS4/XB1/Switch with like 80 legacy KOs or some shit. This is the same company that just released the Castlevania Advance Collection, they know how to use their old IPs for nostalgia.

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Yeah, but a bad pricing model = lost profits too.

Personally, I don't want to use tickets alone because it's an incomplete gameplay experience (I can't save my scores???). I don't want to sign up for the subscription because I don't know if it's worth it. Paying for both feels doubly bad (+greedy).

But if they really want to keep both a subscription and tickets, they could structure it to feel better. For example, assuming that every mode has at least the same gameplay features (saving, mods, etc.), imagine the following:

- Premium: $1 (or $0.50 with subscription) - access to "all" songs.
- Subscription: $15/month - access up to SN2.

For casual users, it could be pay-as-you-go, $1/game without a subscription. Once you're playing 30 premium games / month, it would make sense to add the subscription, and then you essentially have a volume discount (which feels better). And then maybe there are "classic" players who only care about songs up to SN2 that could use the subscription alone.

(But that only works if all paid game modes have access to all gameplay features and subscription is optional -- otherwise, it feels like both are required, which feels bad.)

Anyway, I'm sure there are a hundred ways Konami could improve on this model. Just dreaming of what could have been...

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So I decided to try out the subscription for a month.

On the plus side...

- It feels like the game has a lot of potential. It distinctly feels like a DDR arcade experience, and it's incredible to have that at home.
- The subscription does have a quite a wide selection of songs, and is certainly nostalgic.
- Even though I have a very old PC, the game is remarkably smooth.

However...

- The subscription has very few songs in the 15-18 range.
- Personally, I find it really difficult to read the arrows without the screen filtering. (Combo behind arrows and fast/slow would be really nice too.)
- Song loading is sort of slow. I wish I could just skip the background videos and load the songs faster.
- The announcer seriously interferes with the music.
- Renewing subscriptions of the first of the month makes no sense to me.

It was fun trying it for a month, but that's probably it for me. I'll probably try the tickets a couple times just to see what that looks like (though I still don't understand the difference between normal/premium).

I think Nobody cares songs from games which were in PS, PS2 or Wii. We are hoping years to be able playing songs since X3 vs 2nd Mix until now, and making suscription to play songs until SuperNova 2 is stupid and unfair. Konami is comitting the same error that made in DDR 2010 ps3, which is paying to play old songs.

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The worst part about this game is the laziness, in my opinion. I know the DDR team at Konami is relatively small, but all they've done is take the arcade build, change the logo, and wall off vast chunks of content. We used to complain that DDR CS releases were lazy, but the lack of effort is glaring:

- Same build as the alpha test. The DDR team just added new songs and activated the pay structure.
- No way to auto-sync the game. You have to do it manually through trial-and-error like the PS2 versions. Come on. Even Rock Band had this figured out over a decade ago.
- No way to change gameplay options previously locked to the e-amusement website. (like screen filter, fast/slow, etc.)
- No added gameplay modes; they just dump all of the songs on you at once. At least the PS2 games had missions, unlocks, and edit mode for replayability's sake.
- No new Konami original songs or revivals, just recycled licenses and covers
- Long load times when playing a song for the first time, despite requiring a 15GB download even to launch the game
- No offline play

It seems like this is just a play to keep people spending credits from home while arcades start closing down. Even the arcade pricing is there. But now, you don't get the experience of playing on a quality metal platform, interacting with other players, or participating in events like Golden League or Course Trials. I just don't see the upside of playing this.

I could go on and on, but my main gripe is this: if Konami wants to release a home version of DDR, why not make it an enjoyable game that stands on its own? What they are offering pales in comparison to the old console versions in terms of gameplay, and it costs way more if you plan to play it a lot.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

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^counterpoint, having to unlock songs is as archaic as having to unlock characters in a fighting game. Extra modes are great and this absolutely should have them but song unlocks are bad.

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The upside I see is: for anyone who is completely new to DDR, the amount of content that this game gives you for free is honestly not bad at all, so the only barrier of entry to start playing is the pad itself (any pad, really). The free song list is, while a bit small, good enough for beginners, I think (and you don't want to overwhelm them with too many options either). And whenever they feel like they've improved enough and want to take their skills to the next level (which can take a while), that's what the credits are for.

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That is damn good.

This game isn't made for the people who can actually go to the arcade. It's made for the people who are miles and miles away from the nearest online cab so they can experience the arcade at home. Obviously you'd need a decent enough pad, but the people serious enough about the game would make the investment. Yes the pricing is awful, I do agree that it's pretty scummy, but looking past that this seems like a great game for those who want to get into the modern DDR mixes without actually having access to a cab running the latest version.

Obviously StepMania exists, and everyone knows that, but yet there's still a good reason for some people to own this. I just hope they change their pricing because at the moment it's horrible.

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Scores don't save between GRAND PRIX and the arcade for one simple reason; keyboard arrows/game controllers would make pretty much anything below a 15 a joke for people even half-decent at StepMania. It's the only thing I'll give Konami credit for.

That aside, the scummy pay model (PLUS tickets), lack of real licenses, and boarding off gold-exclusive content personally killed for me anything interesting about this game. Plus I really don't feel like playing another round of "find the minute files needed to start the game" bullshit like I did for INFINITAS, SDVX III CS, AND pop'n music lively.

It's still sad that even after all these years later, Konami can't give us a better DDR experience than than the old PS2 games/StepMania do.

But you're not understanding the point here, it's not for us. I don't know how many times I've seen people say this game is garbage when they don't understand that we are not the target audience here. This is literally just like the other eAmuse Cloud games, I have no idea what anyone expected from this. The point is to have the arcade experience at home. That's it. That's all these games were made for. Not to have a full fledged home version.

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