#benama

The 7th KONAMI Arcade Championships (KAC) was just announced on this week’s BEnama Live Stream, to everyone’s surprise:

While the omission of MUSECA was _somewhat_ expected, REFLEC BEAT is also not listed.

The official KAC Twitter followed up with this tweet, further confirming that this is not a mistake:

アーケードゲームプレーヤーの頂点を決めるKONAMI公式大会「The 7th KONAMI Arcade Championship」が開催決定！ 今年も熱い戦いが繰り広げられる！！#7thKAC #BE生 pic.twitter.com/JzT4LTOsH1

— KONAMI KACスタッフ (@konami_kac) October 18, 2017

Nostalgia, of course, is in the line-up for this year after killing the short-lived BeatStream series.

To see two series disappear from this event is quite a shock, regardless of how much you like or don’t like either game.

Now, the speculation begins. Will these games actually die? REFLEC BEAT’s touchscreen cabinet could be easily repurposed into another new game, should Konami decide to go that route. But MUSECA might be a bit of a challenge.

It’s been quite a while since the last BEnama live broadcast, but here we are, back again with a ton of new info! Tonight’s first two guests, Yuki Nakashima and DOLCE., joined a new MC, Fukushima-san:

            Up first was the lucky number drawing for the beatmania IIDX “BUZZ 5” Lottery!

The winning numbers are below! To claim your prize, check the official webpage here.

We won 77000BUZZ! How about you?

A new Ninnin Shichikenden School will also be added to SINOBUZ on 7/20! We’ll be there to unlock all the new songs ASAP.

  Up next, finally, the announcement of Nostalgia FORTE, releasing tomorrow!

New features include Local Matching with a linked “Ensemble Combo”…

…plus, the addition of Pianist Ranks in the new “Grade System”…

A new “NEAR” (Almost/Good) judgement has been added, as well as the option to AUTOPLAY either Left or Right-hand notes:

The next event was a special Exhibition Match between tonight’s 2 main guests, but…

Yuki called her friend and fellow member of idol unit “Earth Star Dream” in — Maria Tanijiri:

Together, they faced off against DOLCE., each one playing a different part on 2 cabinets:

DOLCE. also had a VERY slight handicap with this makeshift HIDDEN+ board…

But still managed to nearly Full Combo the song, and rank up to Pianist Grade 20:

FORTE’s Local Matching shows if people are playing a song on the Select Music screen:

…and also has a waiting lobby which shows before starting a song:

The linked combo is displayed in the center in gold, with your own combo smaller, in white:

Unfortunately for the girls, they couldn’t beat DOLCE’s meaty score:

FORTE will also add many new songs, at least 6 of which are coming tomorrow as defaults, with a potential 5 hidden songs, and 3 new Konami Originals on 7/27 and a license on 8/3:

Some of these songs might also cross over to other BEMANI games, with more details coming soon:

Finally, jubeat plus will also get a “Nostalgia Pack” with 4 popular songs tomorrow, 7/19 around 4pm JST:

  Next up was the SOUND VOLTEX segment, with guests BlackY, Yooh (by phone), and MAD CHILD!

  A brand new SUPER RARE Goods Campaign is starting soon, “VOLTE FACTORY”

Prizes include Mini Soundtrack CDs…

Double-sided A4-size File Folders….

And, IC card stickers (lottery/random)

VoltePieces (VP) are used to exchange for these items. You can earn 10VP per play, with a +1 bonus for PASELI use, +1 for Online Matching, and +2 for Friend/Local matching. Roughly, 70+ plays for a CD, or 13+ for a file:

  Of course, they had to do it again this year….MAD CHILD CAN’T GO HOME 2017! (Until he PUCs a 13)

This time, a few extra contestants were added into the mix…

To join the event, you can tweet your date/time and song choice with #勝手に帰れない2017夏 to participate! Maybe you’ll be able to match against one of the contestants. In addition, if the artists PUC a song, they’ll have a new song added into the game. DOLCE asked to be able to Effect a song, so that seems to be his reward!

The official EDP Twitter account will also be live-tweeting BlackY and Yooh’s tries, with a chance to win some cool signed CDs from their new major albums:

Speaking of those – an “EDP presents ΩMEGA ROAD” Release Party was announced for 8/20 in Tokyo, at Shibuya’s CircusTokyo:

An EDP Creators Book will also be released on 8/18, with 128 pages(!) of interviews, pictures, and more! Preorders are on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4845630796/

  After the SDVX crew left, it was finally time for some jubeat clan info:

Of course, there are 4 different cities where you can live in, but some new info was shown tonight:

Greenesia has a pentagon-shaped city boundary with 5 areas. Your address is randomly selected from an area, and street:

At some point in the game, you’ll be able to call the Meaty Movers to help you move to another city:

As teased last time, you’ll be able to unlock different songs in each city though Online Matching:

The artist category folders will also indicate your clear status:

Composer OSTER project also joined the stream, to preview her new song in clan,「Candy☆Pop Showcase」

Yuki Nakashima’s new song with Akhuta has also had its jacket design revealed:

6 more default licenses were also detailed:

One final, interesting thing – there will be 4 City Keychains available for purchase at some point in the future, to show off your residency. More details coming soon:

  Some NEW GAME!! (Season 2) songs are also being added into both jubeat clan (on release) and REFLEC BEAT (tomorrow, 7/20)

The GITADORA Matixx 2nd Location Test was held last weekend with a few new features and a new song. Some pictures were also shown:

In pop’n music news, 4 BEMANI crossovers will be added to the game in a new OOPARTS NaviTravel Map on 7/20:

REFLEC BEAT will also have a new WHITE HARD Quest for ZETA, which will also have a new song included, “The Treasure of Reflesia”

From Konamistyle, the EDP×beatnation summit 2017 -beatnation 10th Anniversary- Blu-Ray Release was finally confirmed! The site mentions a 2nd DVD disc that includes various backstage/rehearsal shots and more. A commentary audio track will also be available:

The SOUND VOLTEX CONSOLE -NEMSYS- Ultimate Model’s Production amount was also finally reached! It’s still available for pre-order until 7/23 @ 11:59pm!

  And that’s it!! Unfortunately, no date was given for the next BEnama, but when it happens, we’ll have a summary available here, so check back often!

Make sure to follow us on Twitter too, for the latest news as it happens live.

See you!

After a 2 week break, BEnama is back, and it delivered a bunch of juicy information on the latest update to jubeat, as well as Sound Voltex 3’s upcoming PC release!

First up, the location test announcement for jubeat Clan! It will be held this weekend at two locations in both Tokyo and Osaka!

Tokyo Leisure Land Akihabara #2 (tllakihabara2)

ROUND1 Umeda (r1_umeda)

On to new features – jubility will return as the Player Ranking system in Clan, and offer some benefits at each level:

Jubility will not decrease – it can only go up. In addition, each chart has its own value, and higher ranks can be reached by using HARD MODE:

Your city will grow based on your jubility. More on that later:

2 new songs have been revealed – “Sulk” and “Jazz is Rad”

Welcome!! is a crossover from the unreleased Otoiroha, while Yunomi’s track is from MUSECA.

Two popular Touhou Arranges from circle NekoHiroki:

The first new feature was also revealed – the city where you will “live” for a certain amount of time. Each one combines a color with a real-life city, and your residency is decided randomly:

Another much-requested feature has been added, folders for Versions and Artists! No more searching for the song you want and running out of time:

One more interesting and useful feature – Category/Folder “Clear Lamps”! Details can be seen by holding down each icon:

Finally, the system voice/announcer was revealed to be tonight’s guest, Yuki Nakashima, a popular singer and voice actress:

She treated the viewers to the first-ever playthrough of the new game:

After finishing her first song, she was given :Cyanttle” as her city to live in:

The interface is quite refined, and changes accent colors based on the location you’re currently in:

Here we can see a closeup of the “kors k” Clear Lamp:

Music selection is of course, unchanged:

In other news, jubeat plus will soon get a “Qubell pack 5” including 4 new songs. REFLEC BEAT plus will also receive 4 songs in the BEMANI MUSIC FOCUS PACK 06!

Both games will also soon have a SOUND HOLIC Touhou Arrange Pack, coming soon:

  On to the SDVX news, the e-Amusement Cloud release is planned for this year, and Alpha Testing will start soon!

The game is an updated version of the previous “SOUND VOLTEX III GRAVITY WARS” with various enhancements, such as the rating and ranking systems matching SDVX 4:

MAD CHILD, tonight’s secret special guest, quickly went to his “home” to introduce the game to viewers:

(It’s actually in the BEnama studio, but MAD CHILD is a funny dude)

The game has options for customizing your display to either windowed or full-screen modes, and supports all rotations:

One interesting thing we noticed tonight: The game will use a “TICKET” system to play. Hopefully this replaces the subscription system that beatmania IIDX INFINITAS uses. It seems to be 3 tickets for a Light Start, 4 for Standard, and 6 (lol) for Blaster Start:

  In GITADORA news, the latest Monthly Ranking for May is now in effect:

The Golden Triple Festival also brought another revival – good cool’s “5-10” (on 5/10!!)

  As March is finished, the Final SUKI Music Ranking for the month was announced:

  Of note, this was the first ranking with Nostalgia songs, and the top 2 songs are both Nostalgia originals! Congrats to everyone!

  The next BEnama is in two weeks – on 5/24! We’ll see you back then! But make sure you’re following us on both Twitter and Facebook for all the latest.

See you~

On 2016’s final BEMANI Namahousou, a.k.a. BEnama (BE生) plenty of guest composers were on hand, including (left to right)…

PON, DJ TOTTO, U1-ASAMi, Nekomata Master, (Tanaka-san), L.E.D., wac, Gekidan Record(!), and Sota Fujimori:

  Up first was the quick announcement of a new REFLEC BEAT Quest song, which will appear on Jan 1st:

MUSECA will also get 3 new songs and matching Graficas soon (no date revealed)

YATSUZAKI HARDCORE, friends of RoughSketch, got a jubeat and REFLEC BEAT plus pack as well this week:

In other jubeat plus news, Hold Notes have been added to the game, along with two charts featuring them. The 3 jukebeat free songs have also been ported to the Japanese version as a free download:

Finally, CHALLENGE SCRATCH 44 will debut on 12/30, with a new transplant song, PHQUASE’s RHYZING BEAT (from Qubell) :

The eAMUSEMENT App’s 3rd Anniversary has also brought a special present: Card Stickers! Available to download here:

  Finally, Sound Voltex’s qualifiers have started today, which means all BEMANI games have now started. Quiz Magic Academy has not, surprisingly…

As we already know, there are some bonuses available in IIDX, DDR, and GITADORA for participants:

A quick look back at the year’s past major events and releases:

Next up, everyone wrote their kanji-of-the-year:

L.E.D.: 忍 (shinobu) – ninja

Nekomata Master: 服 (fuku) – clothes

And, nyan…

wac: 鬱 (utsu) – depressed

DJ TOTTO: 初 (hatsu) – first

Gekidan Record: 水 (mizu) – water

U1-ASAMi: 挑 (idomu) – try/challenge

PON: 参 (san) – join/arrive

Sota: 失 (shitsu) – loss

  And up to the year’s main event, the BEMANI MUSIC AWARDS 2016!

First up: User ranking (from the eAMUSEMENT App)

3rd place was a tie – but congrats to ARM and Attack The Music vocalist Nicole Curry!!!

Triple Counter took the 1st place spot, but there was no one to receive the award!

Next up was Konami/BEMANI staff’s ranking:

Wait a sec, 1st place again?! Congrats!

Due to the surprise result, PON instead sang a karaoke version of Good bye, Summer!

Finally, the SUKI MUSIC Ranking TOP 30 for the entire year:

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Before the #1 spot was revealed, a quick PICK UP! was announced:

AND THEN AKHUTA DID A THING:

Congrats to him for his 2nd PICKUP! award:

Finally, the top spot went to the 5th KAC REFLEC BEAT Boss song, Rebellio!

DJ TOTTO proudly accepted the award…

…and then treated viewers to an interesting freestyle rap version of the song:

As a surprise, Tanaka-san got the “BEnama Staff Choice – Best MC” Award:

Of course, he had to sing, and there’s only one song that it could possibly be…

FLOWER:

Finally, the whole crew performed 恋歌疾風！かるたクイーンいろは from pop’n music:

  And that’s all for this year!

If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for following our news, BEMANI, and BEnama coverage this year. It’s been a pleasure! 2017 will be even better, so check back regularly! And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest updates!

  See you!~

Tonight on BEnama：SDVX IV Special! Guests: 5thKAC Champion Boll、cosMo@暴走P、MAD CHILD、水沢柚乃、Cody and more!

Cody sported the VolteNavy costume live on air~

Hinabita and Coconatsu new albums coming this Spring! Preorder the set until 1/15, and get a special tapestry on konamistyle. With that, the final 6thKAC song for REFLEC BEAT is Daily Lunch Special WHITEHARD. The game is also getting 23 song revivals

(Thank You Merry Christmas / VENUS) is headed to pop’n music!

MUSECA 1-year anniversary fan art was also demonstrated.

Jubeat Qubell append announced! Coming soon… New Licenses and EXPERT Options return! Schroeder-Headz Pack coming to jubeat plus and REFLEC BEAT plus 12/16, tomorrow!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to the eAMUSEMENT App! e~Amu Report coming 12/19

SDVX IV new difficulty has been renamed 「MAXIMUM」

Features, same as Location Test:

・Track Select Unlocking

・Folder Renewal

・Level Expansion

AAA+ rank added as midway between AAA and S (PERFECT) Also, Track Memorial Cards printable.

SDVX IV New tracks revealed and 6 new Ryu* Remix Contest Songs revealed

IV PV – Opening Theme: 「HEAVENLY SMILE」/ VALLEYSTONE feat. 紫崎 雪

Clear ALL story episodes in SDVX III, and get a Special Rasis-IV Navigator in SDVX IV!!

SDVX IV New Options: MIRROR & RANDOM!

Today’s BEnama was focused on popn UsaNeko news and release date, GITADORA Re:EVOLVE new songs announced and release date, DDR A news and more! Guests included PON, Yoshihiko Koezuka, TAG, & Rio Hiiragi!

Hopeful / 柊木りお featured by SOTAG TAG vs. SotaFujimori × HiiragiRio! New Song, Coming Soon to DDR A! Also, Thank You Merry Christmas / VENUS -REVIVAL!!- Coming tomorrow to DDR A

MUSECA 1-year Anniversary – New song and Grafica available soon! MUSECA also gets Local Matching, finally!

BEMANI ruins songs and Grafica are headed to MUSECA tomorrow, 12/8 through 1/9

REFLECT BEAT plus and jubeat plus getting Qubell pack 2 and BEMANI MUSIC FOCUS PACK 03 on 12/9!

pop’n music × BEMANI NEW FACE Contest artists have been posted with their song characters! The songs will be added in future updates.

GITADORA Tri-Boost Re:EVOLVE SKILL UP features below. The game will have 26 new songs – 860 total for the game. Arcade release is set for 12/14.

pop’n music うさぎと猫と少年の夢 releases also on 12/14! New characters include REO-kun, Dave, Mary, and a secret character not yet revealed!

The 6th KAC Opening Ceremony @ Yokohama ROUND1 12/10 1pm – guests: DJ YOSHITAKA, Cody, DJ TOTTO, L.E.D., PON, U1-ASAMi, and 5th KAC Champs!

Huge Reflet Beat:  The Reflesia of Eternity update today on BEnama as well as the 6th KAC qualifying songs for both DDR A and MUSECA.

First, Congrats to Yuki Nakashim for completing her 100-person jubeat Qubell matching challenge! This went highly noted on today’s stream.

jubeat plus and REFLEC BEAT plus get an IOSYS Touhou Pack soon!

Reflect Beat: The Reflesia of Eternity new features were announced!

BIG BANG Objects

Switch-Long Objects

White-Hard Charts!

New options

Hi-Speed renewal

Just Collection

Object Color Select

PUZZLE COMMENTS Return!

Also REFLESIA MODE has been announced! Challenge quests, fight battles, clear dungeons, and level up! The mode is a hybrid between HARD HP gauge and story mode.

  The 6th KAC entry for GITADORA, REFLECBEAT, and jubeat will start 12/8! The 6th KAC Opening Ceremony will be held at Round 1 Yokohama on 12/10 @ 1pm.

DDR A qualifiers for The 6th KAC have been listed! Player with the highest EX Score by the end of the qualifying period will have a chance to compete in Japan!

MUSECA qualification songs:

We’ll see you next week for our roundup!