Bracket 4 - Rating and Discussion

Experimental judging, high quality files and FUN!

by t7r » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:25 pm

Raf wrote:How come every IIDX song in this competition is from 15th style? The 15th style OST is not out yet, guys. So now we have a bunch of simfiles with low quality mp3's floating around. There's still some good IIDX songs from 14th and below that haven't been done yet.


The competitors have a boner for DJT songs, so they decided to step them. I think oratio in B1 has the best quality among the DJT songs entered. The author must have touched bme2wav.
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by Hainaut » Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:05 pm

ARTILLERY:

STEPS: (9/10)
This was pretty cool actually. Full-on, but I think the steps were daring and unafraid to reinvent the wheel. Overall they flowed well with the chart, not much to complain about. Not quite my favorite, but a lot better than I expected.

PRESENTATION: (3.75/5)
Tries very hard with BPM gimmicks. Some of them are actually nice surprises, but others (especially the negative bpm's) were unnecessary and irritated me. Graphics are good, except the text is overbevelled - the effect would work, but I think it should be less shaded. The background effects were an interesting addition.

FINAL SCORE: (12.75/15)


BUTTERFLY (DELACTION REMIX)

STEPS: (10/10)
Really captures that authentic feel of the better stepcharts of Dance Dance Revolution. The placement was smooth and well-rounded, while the patterns kept a great variation going the whole time without losing a constant flow. I don't really have any gripes about it!

PRESENTATION: (4.5/5)
Smooth and cleanly set-up, that's for sure. Graphics aren't the most interesting, but I can't fault their cleanliness at all. Overall really nice!

FINAL SCORE: (14.5/15)


DAZZLIN' DARLIN'

STEPS: (8.5/10)
Very, very different from So Fabulous from CM4, but definitely far better. I loved the simple step patterns because they fit the song really smoothly and play far more authentically than if you decided to go full-on. There are a few gripes though - I thought the 2 freeze-jumps were just silly gimmicks that didn't fit, while the verse suffered a tendency to shift between long streams and then sparse gaps almost immediately, which I thought to be a bit jagged and uncomfortable. The chorus was okay, but didn't grab me because it felt like too many different ideas were samwhiched into one and didn't really have any central theme going on. Other than that, very nice!

PRESENTATION: (4.25/5)
Good overall, but the graphics are really only centered around one solid color and thus have trouble standing out. The video was a fair addition, and the song cut + syncing are both spot-on.

FINAL SCORE: (12.75/15)


EE-LA-K

STEPS: (6.75/10)
Far too dependent on the synth melody when it's present - placement is pretty good, but the steps tended to irk me a bit because I didn't always enjoy the way the karaoke 16ths and jumps tied with everything else - the forced shifting around generally flowed quite oddly. Predictable chart overall, nothing bad, but I thought better ideas could've been used at the right time.

PRESENTATION: (4.5/5)
Video is nice, but the graphics are a bit overworked imo. Cut and syncing are both good.

FINAL SCORE: (11.25/15)


EVERGREEN

STEPS: (6/10)
Pretty basic stepchart, it has some nice areas, but nothing stood out vastly. Some placement is a little messy, while I thought the buildup around the middle was overstepped because there was no beat to drive the complex movement. It was alright, nothing particularly special.

PRESENTATION: (2.5/5)
Graphics are fine enough, except for that jagged text. The readme absence is a bit lazy imo, and the gap seems to be set slightly early.

FINAL SCORE: (8.75/15)


FENTANEST

STEPS: (8/10)
This was pretty nice. It shows plenty of spirit and is authentically DDR-like. The chaos sequence around the beginning fit the song quite well, although I would've used slight fewer crossovers + moving 3-note 16th sets because they go just a bit over the top. The middle dragged for me because there wasn't much pattern variation, and I wasn't a tremendous fan of the jackhammers out of the final segment - they seemed to flow a bit erratically compared to everything else, which was a lot smoother. Overall though, great job!

PRESENTATION: (4.75/5)
Graphics are decent enough, and the video is a nice addition. Syncing is solid and the length is appropriate.

FINAL SCORE: (12.75/15)


WITH YOUR SMILE

STEPS: (8.5/10)
Placement faced right a little too much during the bridge and slightly into the chorus. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with this. It doesn't really grab me immediately, but the note rhythms were laid out perfectly, with just the right amount of foot movement and variation.

PRESENTATION: (4.25/5)
Graphics are good, but the bg's backdrop image is tremendously stretched. Song length + quality is solid, but the gap was a bit early. The video improves this file's vision.

FINAL SCORE: (12.75/15)


FINAL RANKINGS:

7th - EVERGREEN (8.75)
6th - EE-LA-K (11.25)
2nd (tie) - ARTILLERY (12.75)
2nd (tie) - DAZZLIN' DARLIN' (12.75)
2nd (tie) - FENTANEST (12.75)
2nd (tie) - WITH YOUR SMILE (12.75)
1st - BUTTERFLY (DELACTION REMIX) (14.5)

Yeah, the 4-way tie for 2nd place is quite odd, but that's just how it all went for me!
Last edited by Hainaut on Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Sir.Rendr » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:32 pm

I just wanted to say that Artillery's cd-title is amazing.

Truely.

Amazing.
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by Lilina » Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:51 am

Raf wrote:How come every IIDX song in this competition is from 15th style? The 15th style OST is not out yet, guys. So now we have a bunch of simfiles with low quality mp3's floating around. There's still some good IIDX songs from 14th and below that haven't been done yet.


Probably because these authors used bme2wav to convert the BME file rips to near-OST quality mp3s. Checked it myself, comparing a ripped switch from BME and switch from SN2 OST-- negligible difference, unless you have a heavy-duty sound system.
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by hellrazor » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:31 pm

hellrazor wrote:So, do we all agree that the winner of Best Mix 1 is behind Artillery?

I almost deleted it just due to the -BPM's but I played it first, I have never EVER seen -BPM's used this tastefully... But alas SM 4.0 will still crap it up... And then I saw a .SM file for me, I love Chmurek ALOT!!


I spoke too soon. I was finally going through Artillery with the hopes that it would be good to go, well the 4.0 file is broken. The Standard and Light charts have STEPS during the 100000000 BPM section (yeah I'd love to see someone hit those) and then there were random STOPS that attempted to get the beat back. I ended up deleting this file since it won't work in SM4.0.
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by BLueSS » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:58 pm

hellrazor wrote:Stepmania 4.0 is broken.

Fixed. :wink:
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by the_ditz » Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:08 am

#Infinity - just before people start flaming you, I don't your review follows the format set out by BlueSS in the first post, so I doubt they'll be included. It should be:

Light - /5
Standard - /5
Heavy - /10
Presentation / 5
Tilt (+5)
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by BLueSS » Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:18 am

the_ditz, he's just doing a partial review (Heavy & Presentation)... So that's why there's just the 10 and 5.

It's actually ok. :)
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by the_ditz » Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:20 am

BLueSS wrote:the_ditz, he's just doing a partial review (Heavy & Presentation)... So that's why there's just the 10 and 5.

It's actually ok. :)


Really? If I knew that was okay, I would have done reviews. I thought everyone had to do L/S/H plus presentation, and I just don't have the time for that... :?
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by Xythar » Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:16 am

the_ditz wrote:
BLueSS wrote:the_ditz, he's just doing a partial review (Heavy & Presentation)... So that's why there's just the 10 and 5.

It's actually ok. :)


Really? If I knew that was okay, I would have done reviews. I thought everyone had to do L/S/H plus presentation, and I just don't have the time for that... :?


Yeah, me neither. There's a word for people who have time to play L/S/H of every single file. It's "judge" :P
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by DGJ » Fri Mar 28, 2008 6:05 am

yeah, but no one is asking you to play L/S/H of every file, and that was the whole reason things were broken into smaller brackets.
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by the_ditz » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:00 am

DGJ wrote:yeah, but no one is asking you to play L/S/H of every file, and that was the whole reason things were broken into smaller brackets.


But I'm not going to pick a choose a single bracket to review as I feel it is unfair to those I don't review. It's all or nothing for me...
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by BLueSS » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:04 am

Well you guys still have the chance to do reviews (including the partial review if you want), as round 1 won't end until each bracket at least gets 4 or 5 reviews.
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by hellrazor » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:49 am

BLueSS wrote:
hellrazor wrote:Stepmania 4.0 is broken.

Fixed. :wink:


That's a common misconception, and the newer builds of SM4.0 have some bad flaws, but the version and theme in SM4.0 that I play on is far superior to any other SM build.
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by BLueSS » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:56 pm

hellrazor wrote:but the version and theme in SM4.0 that I play on is far superior to any other SM build.

Well, what magical version do you have (that still doesn't play Artillery properly)?
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