DanceDanceRevolution A (AC)

Starting Wednesday at 10am JST, playing Endymion on difficult now allows access to Ace for Aces. Announcement doesn't specify whether you need 950k+ like on Expert but it seems safe to assume it'll be the same. The three vocaloid songs will also be released at that time as well, though still no word on if they'll be available on US cabinets.

Yep, it's confirmed - with the update, you can now access ACE FOR ACES by playing on DIFFICULT now. My Japanese isn't very good, but I think this is what it's saying. The part where some of it is still in English helps.

I think this says that they've made timing fixes for ACE FOR ACES. I can't confirm (you'd want somebody who's actually learned the language), but that means hopefully the PFC thing will be easier.

Wait, if the timing is broken on the EES, how the hell did Fungah! actually pass the damn thing?

EDIT: How do people update the front page so fast the news came out literally like maybe a few hours at most ago
EDIT #2: Nah, it's not actually that fast.

what even is the front page

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Because the version at the bottom of the announcement doesn't give a specific region, I'm assuming they will for now.

No doubt a lot of practice and a little luck (especially on the last stop which is a different length than every other stop in the song). There's at least one video where he got a Great on an easy step solely due to offsync. iamchris4life also posted on Twitter about the sync being terrible when he passed it. (He's going for the WR on Endymion before attempting Endymion.)

Hoping the timing fix finally lets us see a pass from FEFEMZ; on his Twitter you can see two fails in the past ~3 days and he also implies he's sick of playing Endymion after already PFCing it multiple times.

On another note, I wonder whether the update means "You can now AA+ Endymion to try Ace For Aces" (what I'm expecting), or whether it actually means "You can now AA+ Endymion to try Ace For Aces" which would give us a look at Ace For Aces. We'll find out soon.

It's "broken" in two ways:

1) The sync is suuuuper drifty; starts late, kind of gets early around the meteor part, then is kind of on, then back to late for the end? Really messed up.
2) There are a couple notes that are just straight up wrong. There are a few notes that should be 12ths but aren't, and at least one note that is a 16th when it should be an 8th. Stuff like that.

Nothing is insurmountable regarding getting a PFC, but I'm glad they're addressing it. Though I don't know which of the two issues (or both) they're going to fix.

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Oh...

Well this is certainly going to be interesting..
Can't wait to see what they've done to that one 16 foot challenge chart, the groove radar does not look remotely like a 16 tbh

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Can't wait for more news on Ace For Aces now that the update's out.

Doesn't seem to be available to US players.

Friends are playing and they aren't seeing them.

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If you guys scroll back through this video, you can see that playing ENDYMION on will allow you to access ACE FOR ACES

You can also see the charts for two of the new songs. (the 16 and the 14)

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RETOREE just became the third person in the world to pass Ace For Aces a few seconds ago. Congrats!

edit: And it seems to have been WR too.

The new licensed songs were not mentioned in the announcement unless I was logged into my JP account, so I can only surmise that they are Asia-only. Which doesn't surprise me, I get the impression that the NA version isn't part of the eAmusement participation system (and thus does not need to be online to boot up), but if this is true, there's not really any way (that I can think of) that new licenses can be added.

Huh, that's not what I expected at all. So can we look forward to a glimpse at Ace For Aces soon?

(And unless this update secretly added in a chart for Ace For Aces or something, it's a slight bummer that now the end of Phase 2 won't unlock anything special past the Extra Stage. Then again that's probably for the best; the number of people in the world who are able to Extra Stage AA+ a 19 followed immediately by PFCing a 15 is probably, like, two at most.)

EDIT: So RETOREE just confirmed 60 seconds ago that you cannot unlock Phase 2 (i.e. Endymion) by going through Endymion -> Ace For Aces. It seems like you must go through Endymion (and presumably what is now Ace For Aces). Which if true, means that unlocking Phase 2 just got harder for everyone except Fungah! and iamchris4life, including FEFEMZ.

Well that was fast.

Anyways, can anyone confirm how exactly the timing on ACE FOR ACES has been fixed? I don't think 'watching through somebody else's stream' is of high enough quality to personally confirm any changes, especially since I've never played ACE FOR ACES myself.

Timing is too different with before, but quite doable. I had to step earlier than before.

If this is the case, then why did Konami even waste their fucking time bringing the game over here and building up hype for functional eAmuse if they were just going to gimp it like that?

Oh wait, I know why they would do something like that.

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Cool that we're finally getting some new non-Extra Exclusive charts. Not cool that we don't get them, not that I really care that much for Vocaloid, admittedly. ...So I guess the chance of other regions getting a downloadable patch for the next game but not the US is now more apparent, with Konami pulling stuff like this? Or am I just overreacting again?

I'd say that I'm disappointed that I'll have to deal with a higher level if I were to play AFA. I would, if I had the time in a day to reach full heat capacity. I would, if I was good enough to clear Endymion on a high enough level. I would, if [insert rant about the non-existence of arcades in Oregon here].

This isn't the first time something like this has happened this mix. There were 3 songs that came out around the time of astrogazer that are JP exclusive. I don't think it means anything if we don't get them. In fact, I believe one of the songs from the first exclusive batch was straight up blocked on the us youtube, so I'm sure they have a reason for not porting this batch over.

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For those of you that are still awake, FEFEMZ just beat A4A so now he is gunning for ENDYMION live right now:

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