Crazy crazy dancers / ビートまりお+あまね(COOL&CREATE)

"Hopefully next week won't be as much of a mess for me" yeah as if dude. It gets worse!

Though thankfully I had no health complications this week, this was still an extremely frustrating and annoying process for me to create a file for what should have been a comfortable, easy-going, "walk in the park" theme for me. The theme is not what gave me problems, it was coming up with a file that satisfies the expectations that everyone, including myself, has of my files. The original plan I had for this week was to step the song "驪駒早鬼は馬並み☆プロテイン" from SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR, originating from the BEMANI presents 東方ULTIMATE WEAPON released last year. It was a song I had my sights on for a longer time, having made a skeleton for the song in late January (it was one of the songs I was considering entering in BR2022 when the contest started, but nothing came of it obviously), and starting from Monday I went as far with the plan as already having finished ALL charts (including Challenge charts, so 9 full charts!) as well as full graphics, and even already having the YouTube video for the file recorded and edited. But being reminded by the humiliating placing of my Week 2 file (at least compared to what I was expecting) that I have to aim higher in this contest due to the very harsh competition, I was ultimately not satisfied with the final product. It did not meet the high standards that I feel everyone, including myself, has with regards to my charts. So Friday night I made the decision to scrap my file for now. This meant that I effectively poured ~20 hours of work in the last few days down the drain for virtually nothing - at least in the context of this contest, as I do think I will end up putting that file in my pack in the near future as a "bonus". So I had to start over!

This song is also one that I've had as a reserve song pick for a long time, it's what I would call "weird" in terms of the song itself, but it obviously lends itself very well for charting. It's yet another Touhou arrangement, this time from a more recent game. I enjoy when the songs they pick to arrange are the lesser known ones, kinda nice to hear something else than the usual ~10 songs.

Aiming for a similar strategy as I did with my Week 1 file, I went for a "everyone can enjoy this" approach with regards to the chart difficulties. You have your usual "hard 15" Challenge chart (though I'd say this chart is somewhat unique with regards to my usual charts within that difficulty range as it's more of a stamina killer and less footspeed reliant), and right below that the Expert 13 with the streamy 8ths, stronger focus on movement, and more distinct jump usage. The notecount for the ESP is absolutely massive (578!!, if counting jumps as 1) but this is more to blame on the relatively long chart length and large quantity of 8th streams, which also applies to the lowers and their respective high notecounts. The combination of CSP and ESP is kind of like a compromise between my Week 2 and Week 3 file.

No doubles in this file right now as I am uploading it, I will add them tomorrow before the deadline. I simply do not have the energy to write another 4 charts right now. I'm happy enough already that I even managed to upload a file in this week at all. UPDATE: No doubles this time, I don't have enough time left. Shame...

The graphics are the usual stuff, once again me experimenting around with rotated text but the effects are more my usual this time compared to 00 HEAVEN. Original graphics made by/full credits to https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/80905205.

To be honest I've never felt this uncertain finishing a file... I don't think it's necessarily just the recent results but right now my confidence feels like it's the lowest it's been in a pretty long time. Maybe I've lost "the magic touch" who knows. Probably it's just the long week making me doubt myself in my head. I'm worried I sound like I'm whining around right now but it's just how I feel.