#2dkaps 2025

snow's out, moon's out, and the new year is almost here... a day like this is one to celebrate for sure, but those are personal matters i don't see fit nor entertaining to discuss here, so i'll instead talk about the last-minute grinding i did across my last few rhythm games of the year... namely in vivid/stasis!! it's mostly just trying to boost my rating little by little with how the new rating system values completion% of the game, and i decided to catch up on all the content that's released so far by getting MAX (VS) scores on all the lower difficulty charts, including Stellar Sky [FINALE 12], Prismatic Vortex [FINALE 11+], and Stellaria [FINALE 12]!

also got a MAX-4 sightread AC on :D (vivid/stasis edit) [FINALE 13] thanks to those damn gimmicks, finally, closed out the V-rank on STARGAZERS [FINALE 17] (huge rating boost), and clutched out a 2-great FC on hotline_ophiucus [FINALE 12+] to cap off the year with 100% completion across everything in Betweenspace!!! (for now)

ohyeah, and the true final score of the operation: a sightread SS on the very funny and silly Angelstar [SHATTER 0] after figuring out how to unlock it at long last

with all that out of the way, i was off to celebrate and ring in the new year with my family over at another house! you'd think this mean no rhythm gaming at all during that time, but i still got my fix in by playing in the new Arcaea event and exhausting my world mode stamina in the process... though with admittedly poor scores . still, i guess i got a PM upscore on Ikazuchi (FTR-10, MAX-39 -> MAX-36), so not a terribly bad way to end off the year! but alas... let's hope to do better and give it our all in the next . Until Then...

...but yeah haha, takumi cubic is an awesome game and i'm glad it got a fresh new makeover to kick off the upcoming year! i really need to play it more often...

...

I REALLY NEED TO PLAY IT

i wouldn't say it had completely slipped my mind or anything, but i'd been slacking a lot in accomplishing my end-of-year rhythm gaming goals (thanks to the nightmares that my classes have been), and yet the end of the year was in TWO DAYS . and i hadn't made ANY progress towards my goal of achieving rainbow rating in TAKUMI despite my insistence on returning to the game this year . even despite how rusty i was, there was no time to spare; if i wanted to become a TAKUMI Cubic rainbow player, i had to do it Now or Never (or until next year, but that'd be one more end-of-year rhythm gaming goal failed... and i already have too many of those to willingly give one up like this)

so with nothing better to do for the day and a ticking time bomb of a goal in my head, i reluctantly opened up the game and began my road to the rainbow 19 rating up from the decently-close rating of 18.846... with absolutely no idea what i was doing . i kinda just played whatever 15 and 15+ came to mind to start, and i got a few upscores as a result (including a 980k on DENGEKI Tube [MASTER 15+]!!), bujt for my current intent this was a Very rough start to what should be a more ambitious session

that was until i got This score... a MAX-3 AJ on the extremely funny skill difference song, Squall - TAKUMIX - [MASTER 14+], and probably my best score in the game accuracy-wise (i already had a few MAX-1 AJs, but this was waaay above those difficulty wise) . and while hindsight is 20/20 (especially writing this almost 7 months later), i think This is where i locked in and made this session into the behemoth it ended up being .

immediately after this, i started hunting down 15s in the like that i had yet to even try (or at least try in a while) . the hunt began with a sightread 980 on 琴音 [INSANITY 15] that only sightly boosted my rating, but the Real good stuff came with S-ranks and insane plays on Sephirah×ClusteR [MASTER 15], RESURRECTION WORLD [MASTER 15], and Bright Star Tactics [INSANITY 15], pushing me all the way up to 18.920 rating!

took a quick break to goof off and play sillier charts in between the grind . none of these gave me any rating, but they were really fun to play and i got some mildly impressive scores out of them (like an A rank followed by a 964k on NOTES RUSH! [MASTER 16]!!)

Got back into the groove with a solid 987k on Moksha [INSANITY 15] (albeit with a relatively dismal rating increase), then with back-to-back 987ks on Eat.Wav [MASTER 15+] somehow (turns out it's only 15.5 tho, rip, should be higher imo)... then i tackled the 15.7s with a 981k on volcanic [MASTER 15+] and From Nought [INSANITY 15+]!!

and to conclude the grind once and for all... i got this massive bump up to 986k on VEZZELiX [INSANITY 15+], giving me the rating push i needed to reach 19.000 on the dot!!!

...only, my rating color still wasn't rainbow despite reaching the required rank threshold. was it changed recently? was 19 no longer the minimum? or perhaps... was it because of a rounding error with the rating? it would've been funnier if i got stuck on it being the former, but i quickly deduced it was the latter based on past experience with rating systems of this sort, and went for one more score that would truly push me over to the rainbow border...

Igallta [INSANITY 15+] 982k. Operation RAINBOW Complete.

and so ended the grind to rainbow rating...! a little wonky and honestly pretty quick relative to the grind i thought it'd be, but it worked out nicely and satisfactorily! doing this made me realize just how fun this game really was, and i look forward to playing it more regularly next year if i can...! (clueless) . but to close this off, here's a random multi AP i got on WAVE [Master Lv.28] in ProSeka as Master AP #121!!!

as if we hadn't already had enough major rhythm game versions/updates released over the past few weeks... here comes TAKUMI Cubic with its all-new menu revamp and revision, Reincarnation! it's pretty much just a big version update to the main takumi game, but it looks cool! and to celebrate, i got 1 (one) score on the game for the first time in ages (and not anywhere near a good one either) (in my defense it was 2 AM) . more to come tomorrow... hopefully...

didn't really intendo make this follow-up post, but i felt kinda sad about having to leave out a few pump scores from the original post and wanted to include them here to make up for it (and to truly make this a score archive) . it really ain't much, but behold my farming for PGs on All I Want for X-Mas S3, D8, and D16!!

oh also, this fail on A Lasting Promise [MXM 19.4] that i excluded from the original post because i already had a clear to show for it

At long last, the date has finally arrived. After what felt like an eternity of this being the newest version... questions about whether there was even going to be another entry... and despair even amidst the constant flow of content... SOUND VOLTEX has finally upgraded from the EXCEED GEAR we've all known and loved, to...

...NABLA!!!!!!!!!

this was a most unexpected release and sudden release given the window between now and its announcement. after over 4 and a half years since exceed gear's release, we got the announcement in the middle of another sudden/random BEMANI LIVE last month (the first since 2017 i think?) that the big new version would be coming... sometime soon . little did we know that "soon" meant THIS YEAR, even with only a month and a half to go before the new version!!! and on christmas, no less!!!! truly a major shock, especially with the new pop'n cab and version releasing just a few weeks prior . what is konami on this year to make such insane back-to-back releases???

of course, it being held on christmas meant i was preoccupied with family festivities and wasn't able to make it for the grand release of the version... nor for the day after its release... nor for the day after the day after its release... until NOW!!! i was finally free from family festivities and gifting, and had all the time in the world to head on up to round 1 and indulge in the next evolution of the SOUND VOLTEX series...

(yes i did pull for nabla rasis before i even got to play, look at her!! a beautiful character in a beautiful outfit, and with such big... nevermind)

but before that! what better way to start the new version the same way we ended the old one; an AAA+ on Typhoon Craaash!! [GRV 18.3]!!! ah right, and since this version introduces chart constants for charts rated 17 and higher, i'll be listing said constants in text wherever i can! (though i won't be going back and editing any of the constants in the past posts for preservation purposes, go figure those out yourself)

NOW THEN, FOR THE REAL DEAL!!! to be honest, i genuinely had no idea how i wanted to kick off my journey this version, so i consulted some friends of the Full Combo team for songs to play and did a few of those... but in the process, i did get a solid near-S on Dyscontrolled Galaxy [EXH 17.5], an INSANE sightread 998 on the all-new Synthesis. [EXH 17], and the biggest shock of all... i finally got an S rank on Lachryma(Re:Queen'M) [EXH 18.5]!!! my hardest S-rank thus far!!!!!! finally to wrap up the sesh for now, a few other random songs (did you guess the theme of the recommendations yet? that's right, it's "songs that have appeared in robeats!"!), including my second-ever 19 clear in... A Lasting Promise [MXM 19.4]!!!

while undoubtedly a huge part of why i wanted to visit round 1 today, sound voltex nabla wasn't the only reason... rather, my second big reason was for what would be the final content update to PUMP IT UP 2024 PHOENIX as we neared the confirmed and imminent release of PHOENIX2. sure, they added two songs from CHRONO CIRCLE as new content, but I didn't really care for them; I cared about the LOAD of new charts added to legacy songs to finish the version off strong . so after a quick warmup on Stardream -Eurobeat Remix- S19 and SWEET WONDERLAND S17 with my good buddy Shoopa, i was ready to get to work...

...on playing the new charts given to perhaps the greatest song to ever be added into the game, and probably the song that got me into being a hardcore pump player...

ALL I WANT FOR X-MAS!!!!

not to be confused with the Mariah Carey song of a similar name, this is a classic from Perfect Collection whose hardest chart up until now was an extremely janky D15 locked behind PRIME's Mission Mode. but now that it's christmas (x2), this song got two charts each for singles and doubles to celebrate... and being the #1 fan of this song, i HAD to tackle them all... and after two credits worth of plays, i came out of it with a PG on the S15, and two tragic flags on the S17 and D16... Fuck

well... as much as i wanted to stick around and replay the charts for better scores, i had to get going somewhere soon . so to bid farewell to Round 1 for what was likely the last time this year, i played a single credit DDR and SDVX back-to-back... which resulted in getting 15 PFC #46 on Rabbit Hole (ESP-15, 36p) and an AAA+ on the extremely-overrated-but-much-appreciated L (SDVX ver.) [MXM 18.6] respectively

now, where exactly was this "somewhere" i was in a hurry to visit? home? work? school? nope, it was actually The Nest for their Freeplay Fridays!!! i know i know, jumping from one arcade to another is a little questionable, but it really had been a while since my last visit and i wanted to check it out one last time before the end of the year... so i hopped on the bus there and made my last(?) arcade visit of 2025 .

despite The Nest being way more known for their dance games, i was feeling in more of a wacca mood and thought "hmmmm . i really need to grind this game after all" . and so i did in an effort to recover my stamina before re-tackling the dance games . it went swell, and i got quite a bit of rating from scores like an SSS on Overdrive [Expert 13], an SSS+ on MAGENTA POTION [Expert 12], SS+s on PUPA and BUCHiGiRE Berserker [both Expert 13+]... then to group the images and save on space later in this post, i also got a few more scores across new version songs and whatnot, including Boku no Yume, Mecha Kuso Mugen Waki (Nanahira ver.) [Expert 13+], Chronomia [Expert 13+], and a bit more minmaxxing in the old version songs with an SSS on JINGLE DEATH [Expert 13] and a bunch of rando 12s that gave me rating for whatever reason

finally, i'm hitting the 30 image limit here and am too lazy to make a new post, so i'll just attach the most important scores i got that weren't just getting PGs on all of the All I Want for X-Mas difficulties; i managed to upscore Nostalgia D21 up to an AAA+!

and to wrap up this hell of a final session.... i got my FIRST EVER D22 CLEAR on ENERGY SYNERGY MATRIX D22!!!! WITH AN AAA+ AT THAT!!!!!! GRAAAAAAAAAAAGH I'M DA FUCKIN GOATTTTTT

MEEEERRY CHRIIISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! "but aren't you writing this in mar-"shhhhhh . just pretend it's the holiday season, right? everyone likes the holiday season, even outside the season .

buuut anyways, big vivid/stasis christmas update dropped that shook up the rating system and started the final rush party fashionably late . i was at home with nothing better to do, so i indulged in it a bit and filled out my EX score slots while going down the list of songs i had yet to play to fill out my completion rating too . t'was still a notable day though, because i got sweet new FCs on both execution_program and Rafflesia (both [FINALE 16+]) in the process !!! oh also a really funny near-V rank on SUPERNOVA [ENCORE 17] with no greats LOL, i just wanted the plat EX rank after all

ok NOW i'm on an arcade rhythm break for real this time, but it wasn't exactly the complete end of my rhythm game run... for i still had my home PC and mobile rhythm games to play!!! since i was gonna be away from home pretty much all day today, you'd think i'd be playing all the mobile rhythm games today... but nope!! it's just platina lab . and for good reason, because i challenged myself today to play the sasakure.UK song pack!!!

along the way, i ranked up to TERA P.A.T.C.H rank in 4 Lines and set some... admittedly mediocre sightreads on both the original Kamui [4L OVER 27] and the big secret Kamui (PLATiNA :: LAB Remix) [4L OVER 28] at the end!! also played a bit more random stuff and got APs on Mrs. Jacqueline's Melancholy [4L OVER 26, MAX-67 (lol)] and AO-Infinity [4L OVER 25, MAX-41]!! i can def raise those some other time, but not today... it's off to da christmas party for me!!!

...huh? we're back so soon? but i thought... i thought yesterday was the grind day...

...well, it was! yesterday was the last day i wanted to go for the year, as the arena season was about to end and i wanted to enjoy the rest of the holidays with my family before i went back into action and grind . BUT!!! i had to do some christmas gift shopping for my parents before all the stores either closed or got packed, and word on the street was that the once-mythical SDVX 7 (NABLA) was set to release not next year, not next week, not tomorrow, but TODAY (12/24 in Japan) . i didn't believe it, i thought it wouldn't come out here at the same time, but every one of my worries before had already been disproven... what's to say this wouldn't be the same? so in a bit of a dizzied state and in the worst of conditions to attend, i bussed up to round 1 and hopped on the cab to play my final few sets of Exceed Gear before it went away...

didn't really get a lot of scores in, all things considered, but they were pretty good for my final set of the update!! got me a MAX-11 (wtf) PUC on Tomorrow Perfume (tpz Despair Remix) [EXH-13], and ended with my final play, of both the day and of Exceed Gear, on Typhoon Craaaash!! [GRV-18]. it's been a good 4-and-a-half-year run, Exceed Gear. i'll certainly miss you... uh... some other time i guess? probably not for a year or so; you Did last 4x that amount, after all . but eventually i will... just you wait!

...huh, that's funny . playing my last exceed gear set of the night didn't magically cause the cabs to update . how could this be?

i'm kidding, buuut even as arcades in Korea and Japan started getting the updates, we were still stuck with no sign of them for the time being . maybe i was right after all... maybe we wouldn't get it for another few days, kinda like how our iidx updates are always delayed or messed up one way or another until they magically get fixed a few days later . but since i already declared my farewells and wasn't about to wait around a cab for a few hours for an update i wasn't even sure was gonna happen, i went to the next best cab and update from yesterday... PUMP IT UP!!! specifically to Only Play the New All I Want for X-Mas Charts and Nothing Else . dude i've been so hyped to play these ever since they were announced samfjsadj;l it alone was a supplementary reason to go to round 1 yesterday even if i wasn't sure the update was releasing that day either . but it's here... it's beautiful... it's all i ever wanted... for x-mas

(bonus note: all of these were played back-to-back across two sets, as evident by the credit result breakdowns below . i am fucking HOOKED on this song)

even with those plays however, the update for SDVX still wasn't here, and i lost hope that it'd release today . so with my head semi-low yet still on the high from playing All I Want for X-mas, i shifted to the other dance game to do a little bit of stamina draining before i went home . a good choice too, as i managed two 17 Flare EX FCs on Step This Way [CSP-17] and Plain Asia -PHQ remix- [CSP-17] - Both sightreads, too!!!

soooo that was the end of the visit for me, and i went home satisfied with at least having played my last few sets of Exceed Gear with honor before the rollover into the next version . yet what do i see a few hours later but the update happening at my arcade and sdvx nabla being released... if only i had stayed until closing!!! buuuuut i really was exhausted, and i was also carrying a bunch of bags full of presents that definitely wouldn't have survived the night had i stuck around . so ah well... maybe next time . here's a random sightread PFC on PLATiNUM DRIVE [4L OVER 27, MAX-70] from today on PLATiNA :: LAB i got out of spite (just kidding, it was before i even went to the mall, but ehhh still counts)