00 HEAVEN / SOUND HOLIC Vs. Eurobeat Union feat. Nana Takahashi & 709sec.

Hey everyone!

This file, or rather this week was a wild ride. Usually I try to work on my files as soon as the theme is released so that I don't have to hurry up in the weekend, but a combination of both a very busy week in real life as well as a pretty bad ear infection (my third in 18 months...) that I am still recovering from left me with no choice but to delay working on this file over and over again. Honestly I am glad I was able to finish it at all given what I went through. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy this contest so much thanks to everyone who is participating. Hopefully next week won't be as much of a mess for me.

This song is from the EUROBEAT HOLIC -THE ARCADE- album and it's artists are SOUND HOLIC, Eurobeat Union (which one of the members is DJ Command), Nana Takahashi and 709sec., all of which have been featured in several BEMANI songs across different series. Especially the pairing of SOUND HOLIC and Nana Takahashi is one that I have stepped many songs of, so choosing the artists was really easy for me. I had thought about maybe going for some Ryu or kors k songs from their albums but even those have been stepped a lot actually, whereas the SH EUROBEAT songs are generally ignored when it comes to making files.

Still, creating this file was more of a struggle than I would have imagined. Cutting of course took some time, but the chart creating process was really not easy this time. The initial plan was to go with a 15/16 featuring longer 16th bursts going to the usual eurobeat music, but after pouring many hours into what ultimately ended up as a mid-16 with weird difficulty curve balance problems, I was not able to create a chart that I was personally satisfied with. It was actually a very frustrating situation for myself because usually the charting process goes much smoother for myself (not quicker, just less trial & error) but I ended up just moving the chart to the EDIT difficulty, so the hardest chart for this song is an easier 14, which means that this is the easiest file I've put in a zenius contest since Freestyle Showcase 2021 - 8 months ago.

The process of finishing this file up in addition to the recent dialogue that has been held with regard to easy/hard files on the contest Discord made me reconsider if I really *have* or even want to create a minimum 15 for every file I submit in a contest, and I feel like the answer is a decisive no. I don't just play 15s or 16s. In fact I play a lot below that. A lot of files I did in earlier contests were 12s-14s. So I'll try to not limit myself to only harder files from now on. Easier files can and will be performing well in the contest, and I want to be contributing to that. I don't have to be "Mr. 15.9" all the time.

The Expert chart (which I had rated as a 13 right until 15 minutes before uploading btw) is what you expect from an eurobeat song, but maybe slightly streamier in terms of 8ths in chorus. It's a little bit of "oldschool spice" mixed with a modern DDR 13/14, should be appealing to a lot of people hopefully. Lowers are more safe than usual.

Source for the background image is https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84746298 - shoutouts to Ben Speirs for helping me choose this image. The character you are looking at in the image is Yuyuko Saigyouji ((西行寺　幽々子) as the song is a remix of her boss theme. The process of choosing an image of these characters is always pretty fun as there is a lot of fanmade material for all things touhou.