#2dkaps gitadora

oughhh.... god i desperately needed a break from rhythm gaming after that all-nighter the day before, and i guess i sorta got it by not playing for the rest of the day after getting back home and crashing in bed? but of course, there's never any rest for the wicked, and my time arcade rhythm gaming for the year wasn't up just yet... for a certain event was ending soon -- SDVX EG's final ARENA season, in time for the imminent release of SDVX NABLA!!! i've never really cared for arena in my time playing the game, but this particular season drew me in... namely for Nana. i wanted the Nana navigator . i needed the Nana navigator . and i was GONNA get the Nana navigator no matter what it took . so off i was once again to the arcade, ready to game and claim my fame... right after this quick drummania credit i stole to clear Setsuna Trip [EXT 5.70]!!!

alright alright, but after that came the REAL grind... the ARENA grind!! ...ngl i was expecting a lot more people at least online since, y'know, final arena season of the version and all that . but nope... got put up against bots the whole time and didn't get to show off my Sick Voltex Skillz to anyone except the cold, indifferent, glowing rasis silhouettes . but no matter... i was getting 1st in every match because the bots all SUCK, and more victories meant more Arena Points which meant quicker progress towards claiming Nana in the shop!!!

ah right, i guess i picked up some cool scores along the way, but nothing awfully significant towards my VF or best scores . all that changed, however, when a random near-Crimson VF player joined me in arena and started beating the shit out of me in almost every single song... except for waxing and wanding [MXM-18], where i ALMOST secured an AAA+!!! ...i think that was enough for VF, but i don't think arena displays that sort of thing on the results screen??? disappointing, but hey! you can still see the Number Go Up

finally, after a billion years of grind and torture and nonstop arena matches, i finally had her... Nana!!! She!!! Her!!! La creatura!!! WOO!!!!!!!! i was finally free from arena,,,, but i was still here and didn't wanna end my session slaving away at unlocks, so i kept the momentum going by playing normal mode and goofing off with random song picks (like a VF up from an AAA on STEEL NEEDLE [MXM-18]) + unlocks (near-AAA sightread on Re:miniscence [EXH-18]!!!

but ough... as much as i wanted to play more voltex, arena knocked the wind out of me and i wasn't able to set any other good scores besides those three . so i moved onto another hand game... maimai!!! didn't really expect to see anyone here this late on a weekday (even if it was the holidays) but i did play with someone else... and we eventually matched ratings too!!! t'was a very funny moment indeed

and just when i thought i was done and ready to leave... the newest update for PIU 2024 PHOENIX dropped!!! i was super torn, as i was already exhausted from grinding the hell out of SDVX, but i remember seeing the Huge, Massive, Incredible chart reveals of new higher difficulty for All I Want for X-Mas, and i HAD to play those!!! so i returned from walking to the bus stop and played a credit... but the cab required a restart to play the update, someone else was playing as well, and it just wasn't worth it . all that for nithing... but hey!! got an upscore on ENERGY SYNERGY MATRIX D19 and an AAA clear on Deca Dance D20, so i guess it wasn't all bad :p now, at long last, i can leave and relax at home...

a new weekend has (almost) arrived, so you know what that means... ANOTHER SOLSTICE ARENA GRIND SESH!!! this time, it's the very last round of the team tournament, and i need to get grinding and submitting NOW!!! for a very special occasion awaits me later this weekend... not much else to talk about until i reach that point tho, so let's GET INTO IT!!! ...right after these extra few random scores on Crystallium's Open Beta after showing it off to some friends... eghhh still dunno how to feel about it, though i guess it's pretty neat

starting with chunithm because i had just talked with a friend about accuracy habits and learning to build it without fully deciating to uppers, and i wanted to back my statements up with at least a little bit of evidence so i wouldn't appear as a nonsense fraud talking about myself!! found an abandoned credit of chunithm to do just that, and... i ended up appearing as a nonsensical fraud . i swear i'm better than this i'm promise sorry sorry sorry i don't know what happened

continuing forth! iirc i saw a free credit after talking with a friend who was playing and didn't wanna hop on the DDR grind just yet, so here's a little set of DrumMania where i cleared both I'm so Happy (Rockin' ver.) [ADVANCED 6.25] and Sand Blow [ADVANCED 4.85]!! the latter being less impressive... i really need to play this game more :p

okay NOW it's ddr time!! and the preparation proved Extremely true... because after a sorta lackluster warmup set (with the only notable score being a 14 flag), i proceeded to kick off the next set with a GFC on DDR MEGAMIX [CSP-16] and... CHAOS [CSP-16]????? no idea how, why, or what, or asldkjflkdsajflksda i don't even know, but this was INSANE and suuuper promising for the rest of the session... so long as i kept up the momentum, that is. and then to end off the session, i also massively upscored my Healing-D-Vision [CSP-18] from 871k to... 963k????? how??????? i'll take it tho, hooooly

aaand since it's only one score, i'll upload my first attempt on the first of the trial songs... an unprecedented, already-insane 994k on Tokyo Shinwa [ESP-17] and a 94.37% EX% to boot!!! and since the average EX% requirement this time around was only 92%, my score was already super solid enough to submit!!! figuring i could get a better score later on though (since this was first try of the day) i put a pin in it to revisit later...)

SDVX friend was still playing SDVX so i decided to take a breather from DDR and join him for a teensy bit to get some upscores of my own... resulting in a 978 on Shakunetsu Beach Side Bunny [EXH 18], my third(?) 18 S-rank on Innocent Azure [MXM 18] (with a 992 too!!), and to end it off... getting my 2nd ever 19 clear on the very funny Sasoribi [MXM-19]!!

stepmaniax break!! i've been DYING to play this game since my last visit and i finally had the chance... for it is UNBEATABLE MONTH and i haven't played this game since prior to its release (+ needing to warm back up for DDR), i started off with Worn Out Tapes [FULL+ 22] and got... a 57p PFC as my first 22 PFC??? i don't even remember if i have a 21 or 20 PFC... but nevertheless i'll take it LOL . also played the original Tidal Wave geometry dash song, Shiawase [FULL 23], as well as the great, big, glorious recent addition... London Bridge, on FULL+ 23, WILD 21, and FULL 14!!!

per oomf's (sorta) request and suggestions, here's a bit of IIDX after a bit of a lunch break so i don't instantly jump into dancing -- HCs on I Was The One [SPA-4, lol] and KAMIKAZE [SPA-10, damn] + EXHCs on Broken My Heart [SPA-9] and NEO GENERATOR SEVEN [SPH-9]!!! still kinda lost on what to do in this game...

once i felt good enough though, i headed back to the DDR cab to grind out the last few scores for the event. lo and behold, a friend from a rival team happened to have the same idea of grinding their scores on the same team... except we weren't really rivals because we were actually allied and relying on each other for the last team trial in a weird series of events!!! since we had similar target songs and weak points to work out, we decided to do some Friendship Training a la Umamusume to get some banger scores in for each of our teams... and for each other!!!

starting with the boss song we were both struggling with, ACE FOR ACES [ESP-15] with an insane first play upscore from 812k to 982k!!!! tbf i did study it while eating beforehand (and also hadn't played it since... 2021?), but still insane just how much one can improve in such time... and it didn't even stop there, because i then upscored it to a solid 995k!!! come to find out a few minutes later that my team actually needed one more person to do the CSP-18, so after a few goofy song picks (incl. a sightread AAA on CUE CUE RESCUE [CSP-17])... i tried it and got an INSANE first-try ever FC on it??? my second ever 18 FC and it's on ACE FOR ACES of all things??? what the fuck?????? in fairness, this has become a lot easier to do with the advent of CONSTANT in DDR WORLD, but it nonetheless is an incredible feat to pull off... especially for my team, since it put me on par with (if not better than) most others who had to play the chart!!! and so, after that and finally getting a PFC on Aka to ao no rampage [ESP-14, 24p], the session came to a very satisfying close and i submitted my scores to help bring the team average up and boost us to near-victory!!! (save for a few teammates that still needed to submit their own scores... and the team average still not being sufficient... but that don't concern me anymore!!)

aaand to truly end the post: random ass AP on Memoria [Expert Lv.31] that i got before going to sleep . whatevs, 'least that's another Expert 31 down

Impromptu arcade visit for two important reasons that I'll get to later, but one reason involved DDR so that's how we're kicking off the visit right now!!! got a solid first score in my first set, then a PFC on Silly Love (ESP-14, 42p) as 14 PFC #44 (that's a lotta 4's), then choking on beanball... before redeeming myself on extra stage with a sudden, insane PFC on Night of Knights (Ryu Remix) (ESP-16, 38p) as 16 PFC #8!!!!

realized i needed a water bottle and stopped my session to pick one up at a nearby store, but i was Back in Business soon after!!! mainly just upscored and AAA'ed a few old scores of mine (some new ones too), then tried training my gimmick senses with random plays of CHAOS [ESP-14] leading to a Really bad barely-Flare-EX FC on it followed by a much better 4gr 1g FC on it later!!! (wish i could've gotten the GFC though... maybe some other time) . oh also random FC on fluctus [ESP-16] right after... quite the tricky one indeed

alright, that's enough miscellaneous warmup now!! i need to lock in on the reason i came here to grind... and that, of course, is for my Solstice Around The World team!!! it's a unique kind of team event hosted by the Solstice Arena team, where we're grouped into teams with members of every skill levels, attempting to score high on assigned songs of our skill levels and allow our team to survive each round!! the first round was concluding the next day, so i was kinda admittedly playing last-minute despite the mounds of homework i still had to deal with... but for the sake of my team, i couldn't just leave them without a submission!!

played some extra charts i had really low scores on and wanted to upscore for LIFE4 goals (with VERY close Flare EX clears, mind you), but as soon as we started the next set... BOOM, Prey [DSP-15], the first of two songs i needed to challenge and score high on this round... and already honestly did pretty solid!!! this was indeed a passable score -- an upscore from 965k to a 996k GFC, and a solid 96.81% EX that could very well pass the stage requirement!!! but no... i knew i could do better... and my body agreed, because i was Famished at this point and really needed to eat something before proceeding with DDR (and because person i was grinding with was grinding unlocks that kinda bored me so i wanted to wait until they were done before i committed again) . and so, after an actually Huge upscore on Hi-Tech Tokio [CSP-18] from 923k to 968k and an abandoned GITADORA credit i spotted before leaving, i was on my way to get my grub on...

back from getting my grub on, reenergized and revitalized, said player was still on the grind and seemingly wasn't letting up... so i turned to the second big thing i wanted to check out here today... MUSIC DIVER SEASON 3!!!! SHE'S CRYSTAL FOR AN AMAZING REASON!!! GOD IT LOOKS SO BEAUTIFUL WAHOOOOOO!!! it was awesome to see, and i was really hype to try it out... but unbeknownst to me (since i hadn't played the game in Ages)... the cabs here were Really, REALLY poor to play on . every hit felt like it was double inputting, there was no guarantee with the registration, and it was utterly soul crushing since i was Really looking forward to playing the game after so long, and i thought i was doing something wrong, but nope... both cabs were plagued with this issue, and shortly after i moved on :[

good news is though -- after playing those sets of music diver, the cab was freed up and i could get back to the team grind!!! having watched a chartview of Prey [DSP-15] while eating, i knew everything i had to do and got straight to the grind... though it seems my preparation went against me, because i felt heavy like a Stone after my meal (i guess eating and adding weight to yourself will do that, to be fair...) . still, i pushed on, and got a tragic flag (though a very slight EX upscore) before moving on to the other song i was practicing...

MUTEKI BUFFALO [CSP-17]!!! this was the boss song/chart i had to play in addition to my assigned chart, and it was a very tricky, very difficult jump-heavy chart i had a pretty bad score on before . but a few attempts and GFCs later, i pulled through... and i managed to secure both a Flare EX and a 994k GFC to set a solid score for the team!!! really proud of this one actually, that came out of nowhere LOL even despite my drowsiness/heaviness

reinvigorated, i went back to Prey in the next set in hopes i could get a much higher, much better score... but i walked away instead with good news and bad news: i managed to close out the PFC i was seeking on this chart with 46p as 15 PFC #42!!! ...only to find that this was the exact same EX score as the score above... which was in turn only 1 EX better than my initial play on the chart (39p, 4g, -47) . truly this game is unjust, but nevertheless... we carry on . (oh also 1116 became free this week, so i retried the CSP-18 and brought it up to just barely a 950k!!! that ending is Brutal though, i seriously underestimated it because of how easy the rest of the chart is)

with my two song targets done and my goals achieved, i was ready to head back out . but recalling the mech i flagged down to reset the music diver cabs, i wanted to see if they were fixed or improved at all by the reset!! ...nope, still badly double inputting . ah well, can't say i didn't try... maybe next sesh . until then, peace out!!

alright, time for all the remaining banger scores!!!! i wasn't expecting much from this session either given i thought all my scoring ability went to IIDX earlier, but surprisingly... i still had quite a bit in me!! and i used it to get a 986k on Emera [CSP-17], a massive upscore and 995k GFC on Rampage Hero [ESP-16], at last a Flare II clear on HyperTwist [CSP-18]... then a few other recommendation scores leading to AAA GFCs on Crystarium [ESP-15], Black Emperor [ESP-17], BLACK JACKAL [ESP-15], Dance wiz the Rhythm [ESP-14, GFC only], and CyberConnect [CSP-17, neither AAA nor GFC]

and now, for the moment you've all been waiting for... the great big return to SDVX now that cabs in the US were finally up to date!!! there's been a Ton of really good stuff added to Standard Start and the game in general lately, and i'm so excited to try it all out... if only they LET US!!! they really just held the updates back so they could take stuff away from us as if we don't already pay ridiculous amounts to play this game in the first place . Whatever ,, i'm not good enough to play whatever content they removed anyways . but it does still really suck for the local sdvx scene... 'least we got to keep guaranteed extra stage despite them saying it'd be reverted :]

oh also, Ichika is here this time too!!! after way more pulls on her premium gen than i'd like to disclose, i finally got her as a navigator and look super forward to having her as my main LMFAO, even if i might stray away from using her alt outfits... (the jiggle even with the hoodie is Insane what tha hell konami) . anywayssss i got a bit of cool stuff like an AA+ on Shakunetsu Beach Side Bunny [EXH-18], an AAA on BLACK or WHITE? [EXH-18], a sweet sightread 995 S on Tomorrow Perfume (C-Show Remix) [EXH-16], and a sightread near-AA+ on CO5M1C R4ILR0AD [MXM-18]!!!! very good charts, though i had no idea what i was doing on many of them :]

and lastly -- i found a free credit on the GITADORA Drummania cab, so as much as i hated this model in particular... i hopped on and configured a few settings to hopefully make it Less unbearable . i guess it worked...? but nothing's gonna change just how botched and unresponsive the drumkit was made to be compared to the old white cabs :[

decided to start shortening the titles of certain games as they were getting quite big... but i just don't know where to draw the line like with CHUNITHM LUMINOUS and stuff like that . ah well, i'll figure it out eventually

but for now, after a light breakfast near the mall with my family and them leaving me to my arcade devices, i headed back to Round 1 to celebrate my freedom from calc and play more of the games that i couldn't play as much before!!! tinkered a bit more with GITADORA settings to see if i could fix the input lag that was bothering me so much, and i kinda made some progress...? still feels terrible to play though, mannnn what a disappointing launch

nabbed an abandoned SDVX credit, the usual, nothing too big... honestly just waiting for the update to come back so i can splurge on ichika and play more Kamui...

then it was back to IIDX gaming!!! set a few good scores to start and started feeling confident in how today would play out, but then the fails started coming in one by one... and i realized just how washed i was feeling in general today, as least compared to the energetic and accurate high i was feeling last night. guess they can't all be winners..

and so, disappointed by my results for the day, i gave up and got myself a sweet treat at the mall before heading back home. there i did a bit of rhythm gaming on my phone and PC to make up for the disappointment today, but still... not much success was found apart from a raise from 9901 -> 9916 on ALTER EGO [ETR-11], along with slight rating boosts with an upscore on BEDLAM [4S SHD-19] and a MAX-71 AC on Storm Chaser [4S SHD-17] in the EZ2ON department...

aaaand we're back! how was the break! not very long! yeah,,, the final was super late and i had to spend all day up until 5 P.M. studying for it, so once it finally ended at like 9 P.M., i just waddled around full of starvation and cloudy post-exam brain until i got myself a sweet treat and took the long, long light rail route back home . but rather than just going straight home while beating myself up over the test, i decided to stay at one of my designated stops and get a little bit of celebration gaming in before it became 21+ only at midnight... and that certain stop was Round 1!!!

i hadn't been to Round 1 for a very long while (at least a month), so revisiting it was a nostalgia trip for sure (even if not the longest) . but!!! there was actually one other reason i wanted to visit Round 1 now, and that was the wonderful, mystical, beautiful introduction... of the GITADORA ARENA MODEL!!!

LOOK AT IT!!! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!! and now it's MINE for the gaming!!! so setting down my backpack and trying to figure out the controls on this thing (it's . honestly REALLY hard lmfao), i played a few songs and had a ball of a time! ...granted, it wasn't without its issues . keysound sync felt really off, and i felt there was a lot more input lag than on the old white cabs that used to live on this surface . more over, the drums just didn't feel as satisfying to hit, and i couldn't tell when i was and wasn't hitting them. the extra flair and freshness of the new cab is nice, but combined with the lack of 120hz support and the current 2-credit standard play debacle, this does kinda feel like a downgrade and disappointment of a model . wonder if any others feel the same across both here and asia...

(update: just checked the account and wow, everyone HATES this model . even the japanese side!!! really depressing to see such a fun game go down like this, but i guess it is on them for dropping such a shite first impression i guess...)

so yeah, the cab did indeed suck so much that i ended up playing iidx for the rest of the mini-session . but somehow, i seriously locked in during said session and got some really impressive scores, both sightreads and upscores (and rival challenges teehee) across the board!! even almost cleared my next lv.11, only to tragically lose it at the ending stairs... ueueue

(real quick edit as i forgot to add this score to the post: first custom proseka chart play in a while!!! old proseka friend's 100th chart ever released, so i just had to play it www // now back to the post!!!)

haven't had an arcade sesh like this in a while, eh? welll, this one's more of a special exception than a return to rhythm gaming form, as i was only able to do this since i was temporarily done with finals and had to get back to 'em after this... the "special exception" part being emphasized more by me going almost exclusively to play the new Porter Robinson SMILE! :D songs added to DDR WORLD!!!! YEAHHHHHHH (tho i didn't take any photos of the songs, there's a few other neat scores here like Remember Remember (ESP-11, 19p) PFC, Night of Knights (ESP-15, 30p) as 15 PFC #29, and a sightread near-PFC on Chocolate Planet [ESP-16]!!!)

oh right, and a bit of drummania too :] banger upscores and new clears...

riding off the high of my proseka movie experience, i played my favorite of the movie's songs and closed out a PM on it -- Fire Dance [Master Lv.29] as Master AP #111!!!

but no matter, the treat of today was actually the arcade gaming session i had later tonight (instead of going to my classes like a normal upstanding citizen)!!! i'd say this was almost a mandatory session however, as they'd recently revived the MYSTICAL Re:UNION event between DDR and SDVX for players who didn't get the chance to unlock the songs during its original run! i was one such player, only unlocking Bloody Concerto before going on semi-hiatus, and so i took this opportunity of skipping my class to grind out the event and see if i can unlock perhaps my favorite bemani song of 2024... REINCARNATION!!!

starting strong with DDR (saving the voltex gaming for later), i pulled off some really sick PFCs on Surrender (PureFocus remix) (ESP-15, 39p), HyperTwist (ESP-15, 46p), Qwerty (ESP-14, 42p), LOVE EAST (ESP-15, 31p), Racing with Time (NAOKI's 999 remix) (ESP-15, 28p), and even running back Take A Step Forward (CSP-15, 29p) to close out 15 PFCs #21, #22, #23, #24, and #25, plus 14 PFC #28 !!! what an insane run!!! (also some doubles gaming with Four Leaves [EDP-13], first time in a while :])

ohyeah, and i also sabotaged an abandoned drummania credit to play a few new charts, including Ego rock [EXT 5.70] and innocent world [EXT 4.40]!!! nawt bad at all :]

but alas... now it was time to retire myself to the Great Evil. as you might already know, this is a collaboration/cooperation event between DDR and SDVX, and so all the time & credits i put into DDR had to be echoed almost twofold with SDVX . i was hype about it at first, actually! my timing had never felt better, so i was looking forward to what cool SDVX scores i could set...

what i failed to realize, however, was that accuracy only really got you anywhere if you knew how to control and read the game . and unfortunately for me, i didn't! i was flying blind! all i wanted was to rack up points for the event and finish playing as soon as i could! and yet, as much i love the occasional sdvx set -- i can't lie, playing this shit without any goals, reccs, or prior chart knowledge makes me want to gouge my eyes out i'm sorry LMFAO

(omitted a few irrelevant scores as i was running out of image space, but in short? played a ton of 17s, then a ton of 18s, and slowly gained rating from a few songs (but only the AAAs) to achieve 17.500 VF earlier in the session!)

but finally, after hours and hours of aimless and depressing voltex grind, i'd finally racked up enough points in the SDVX gauge (and the DDR gauge by extension) to unlock the beautiful, coveted, legendary... REINCARNATION. i IMMEDIATELY played it in DDR and had a ball of a time with this beautiful song and chart that i'd only managed to play by proxy before, leading to an AAA on the DSP-15!! not only that, but an AAA on roppongi EVOLVED ver.D [ESP-15] and a Flare II clear on PARANOIA EVOLUTION [CSP-18] all in the same set!!! and all to close out the extra points required to unlock the last event song -- Re:RHYZE. the journey had finally come to an end, i was free to return home after all my grinding, and i could enjoy these songs without being mocked by my friend for not owning them :]

but before i left, IIDX!!! just a sightread AAA- on Kyukurarin [SPA-10], a chart i've really been wanting to play since its inclusion in a recent license update, but i also recorded a video that i'll add to this post once i cut it up and optimize it for tumblr's sake . but until then, i'll see you all in hopefully more fired-up and passionate posts in the future! sorry for all the doom and gloom with SDVX here, but that is genuinely how i felt and how i wanted to express the session www