Beatmania IIDX 29 Cast Hour Controversial Feature - Paid Loot Box Feature for Random Patterns

Indeed, I wrote the blog articles about the new features of Beatmania IIDX such as the Lightning Model and the controversial video-capture saving feature in Beatmania IIDX Bistrover which is present in Lightning Model cabinets only. The upcoming sequel comes with another minor controversy, a paid lootbox feature for Random patterns. It's controversial but not as controversial as the paid lootbox for character card feature in Sega's Ongeki.

At least, in Sega's Ongeki, you're going to need character cards or something as part of the gameplay in which you'll move the characters left and right and dodging projectiles coming at them in addition to the notes. It's basically a rhythm game with additional gameplay features but it comes with its own controversy I already mentioned such as a paid lootbox feature for character cards. Why the need for physical character cards for a rhythm game in the arcades?

At the current time, the upcoming sequel to Beatmania IIDX 28 already had a location test last week and it's theme this time is video livestreaming. Overall, that's like two minor controversial features present in Beatmania IIDX 29 when it comes out in the arcades sometime this year. So about the paid lootbox for Random patterns, it is exclusive to Lightning Model cabinets just like the Pay-To-Screen-Capture feature from Beatmania IIDX 28.

Beat Arena VR

Beat Arena is the VR spinoff entry by Konami that is part of the Bemani franchise and the first in the franchise to be released in VR for both Oculus Quest 1 and 2 which require Facebook account authentication if you want to play it. Sure, the reputation of Facebook isn't that great nowadays when it comes to privacy and especially for the past controversies they had caused upon the users. One thing you should not worry is the fact that Beat Games, the developers of Beat Saber were acquired by Facebook via Oculus Studios as there will still be new content on multiple VR headsets including Oculus Quest series of headsets. For PS VR version, there's seems to be some technical limitation but that's not what we're here for.

What we're here for is the news regarding Beat Arena. It was recently released and contains tons of songs to choose from and play with other in-game band members in front of the crowd no matter which game mode you choose. There's also other instrument to choose, something Rock Band VR lacks. And what's a rhythm game without the playfield with notes coming at you? Both Beat Arena and Rock Band VR have that but Rock Band VR seems to be going steps backwards with Freestyle type gameplay for Story Mode while retaining the actual playfield in Classic Mode although the Classic Mode looks more like a practice mode since you're not playing in front of the in-game crowd.

For comparison below:

Rock Band VR

• Classic Mode: Traditional playfield present with blank background and there are tons of songs to play.
• Story Mode: Free-style gameplay with the band and crowd. Features several venues.
• Lack of other instruments and online multiplayers.

Beat Arena

• Multiple instruments to choose from.
• Tons of songs to play with other band members in front of the crowd.
• You get to wave your hand or something as a way of making a gratitude to other members before you start the song. I don't know if this is the case for real-life band performances or not as I'm no musician.
  
• You also get to do some feedback to other band members at the end of the song.
• Regardless of the game mode, you get to play in front of the crowd and the playfield is present on top of the live scene in the background.
  

It's basically Konami's answer to Rock Band VR and what Rock Band VR should have been. I'm glad that there's a display of sufficient competence from Konami but there's still no guarantee that this alone can restore Konami's reputation. There's even a Yu-Gi-Oh VR game but I have no interest in blogging about it whatsoever.

OK, it seems that I made a close comparison of Beat Arena to Rock Band VR as Rock Band VR came out a few years earlier which is the opposite of many Bemani rhythm game franchises coming out earlier like DDR, Beatmania, Guitarfreaks/Drummania and Pop'n Music coming out in the 90s for instance. Beat Arena seems new and is not part of whatever game series whatsoever. It's similar to other Bemani games that came out in the 2010s as standalones starting from Future Tom Tom, Beatstream, Dance Evolution, Dance Rush Stardom, Nostalgia and Museca although Museca had its own controversy for a lack of originality in which it had the layout similar to the one from Neon.FM arcade cabinet. Nostalgia series seems like an answer to Deemo and the same gameplay elements are in Beat Arena as well in addition to the gameplay from Guitarfreaks and Drummania series.

Region-wise, Beat Arena was recently released in Japan and Asia so the players in the western regions are out of luck as of this time.

Beatmania IIDX 28 Bistrover's Controversial Video Saving Feature?

Really? Charging players a fee to video capture in video games? Is there a place where you can book a video filming session to get yourself filmed? Sure, holding a phone or camera alone will not look professional enough that such professional video filming equipment will be needed there and you'll need to pay a fee for a session like that and then you can do whatever you want there while you're being filmed.

Imagination-aside, there's a understanding that filming in the arcades is not allowed and prior to Konami planning this feature, many arcades in Japan and Korea have the opportunity to allow the players to screen capture whatever game they've played. I don't know if that will cost additional money or not. In case of Konami's new plan, this feature is useful for players to video capture the game in the arcades provided that they're playing the game on the Lightning Model cabinet running Beatmania IIDX 28. I do get the feeling that the E-Amusement Pass and E-Amusement account are needed for this and the video capture feature charges players a credit-per-song/quarter-per-song. It's basically a Pay-To-Showoff method besides the Pay-To-Print feature Konami had implemented in various modern arcade games.

Once the video is saved to the server at the price of another quarter, you can eventually download it to your computer or phone so you can post it to video sharing site or social media. The difference is that you won't see the Paseli and Credit counters when compared to standard video capture method that shows everything.

So it shows that Konami has regards for profits by charging players additional credits for various features in arcade games including paid loot-box features as if the Mobile and Pachinko businesses didn't anger people enough. Then again, there were recent comebacks starting with Super Bomberman R on consoles and PC but there were other controversies Konami stirred like charging players additional fees for the save slots in Metal Gear Survive, a new medal game that takes place in a casino with some Virtual YouTuber-like characters and of course, Armored Princess Battle Conductor which has the shady loot-box feature.

Man, imagine being a shill enough to put in additional quarters for such greedy features in arcade games today and especially if you want to show off your Beatmania IIDX skills. This is it, the first gaming controversy Konami stirred of this year!

Beatmania IIDX Lightning Model

At the time of writing this blog post, support for Windows 7 recently ended for consumers with paid extended support lasting 3 more years for business users. The Embedded Standard edition has until this October with Embedded POSReady 7 having until next year before the OSes go EOL. In case of Beatmania IIDX Lightning Model machine, it uses Windows 10 IOT which might be a smart move.
The machine has an additional screen which is a touchscreen replacement for the effector sliders, LCD Marquee and Keypads. It has Sound, Settings and even News menu with the latter being added recently.
You can adjust the turntable resistance and even adjust the headphone and effector volumes on the touchscreen area as well as to bring up the Keypad area as physical keypads are removed. The same removal goes for the physical effector sliders. The physical buttons for Start, Effector and VEFX are arranged due to the introduction of the touchscreen. Other exclusives for the Lightning Model include its exclusive songs and Eisei Dan which is a bigger challenge.
Another unique thing is the usage of 120Hz monitor for Beatmania IIDX Lightning Model which may pose another difference in timing but you do get a smoother gaming experience. I don't know how smooth 120FPS is compared to 60FPS when it comes to rhythm games.
One more thing, if you try to look up "Rhythm Games in 120Hz" online, you can see the information about Razar Phone 1 & 2 having the official list of games supporting 120Hz/120FPS and Groove Coaster 2 is one of the rhythm games to have that. The other smartphones will have 120FPS but there's no way to know if the games will have 120Hz native support or not. I don't know what the experience is like since most of us have the devices that run at 60FPS but if I see the Lightning Model cabinet in the local arcades, that is the closest way I can experience 120FPS.
Lastly, the headphone jack is officially available in Beatmania IIDX Lightning Model and that should be in every Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX cabinets in the first place in my opinion. Also, someone had the guts to use the VEFX feature on the Lightning Model to turn on and off the effects while playing the game like he's DJing or something so maybe the touchscreen feature is the improvement. It might seem fun that way but it can increase difficulty that way. Your best bet to do what that person did will be to play the songs in lower difficulties while turning on/off the effects at the appropriate time

Useful references:
https://www.androidauthority.com/razer-phone-120-hz-games-827605/
https://remywiki.com/AC_HEROIC_VERSE
https://twitter.com/smallghostK/status/1209502233772969984

Beatmania IIDX Heroic Verse First Play

The objective of attempting the remaining songs from IIDX Sinobuz and Cannon Ballers isn't over yet and I already attempted various Hardstyle, Hardcore and Trance related songs from those folders even before IIDX Heroic Verse came out. The menu where you select Single Play/Double Play was taken out as you can toggle between them in Music Select screen. Another good thing is the inclusion of language selection in Entry screen, similar to how Bishi Bashi Channel has when you start the game. As I was suggested to explore other music genres, I sort of did the same for Beatmania IIDX when browsing the song list. Needless to say, the weaknesses I have when it comes to Beatmania IIDX are still with me like I ended up failing various Level 8/9 songs.

Beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage First Play

Sure, the Hi-Speed settings are changed in Beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage but it probably meant that I had to get used to this new impression. The good thing about the new Hi-Speed setting is that you get to see how fast or slow the note goes down in the preview pane, similar to the one in Pop'n Music before the music starts. It's quite useful although the songs with multiple BPMs are little challenges to the adjustment plans of the Hi-Speed settings. There's even the Hi-Speed value at the bottom with decimal places and the sufficient speed ever since having played the previous Beatmania IIDX games will take place at higher value. Normally by default, you get the range of numbers to choose from in the Hi-Speed settings and they have decimal values but there's also another way to adjust the speed. This is changed in Beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage where the range of numbers is now 0 to 10 and having selected 2, 3 or 4 doesn't probably mean sufficient note falling speed or the speed of the scrolling chart.
Pressing 0 key at the Game Over will show the legal info related to the QR code implementation. You have 60 seconds to read it and can scroll up and down with the turntable but I suppose that reading it is irrelevant in the first place. You can also press 5 key during the Results screen.
The HD* in the Definition Type is removed in which the machines using this previously to cause the offset increase to +1.0. So, if the machine uses the 42" monitor ever since the introduction of that monitor a few years ago, it will have the offset increased.
There are remixes of the licensed songs ever since Beatmania IIDX Gold although one of them, U.S.A., remixed by Phquase is ruined with the muffled auto-tuned vocal but somehow, some player by the name of DDX had the guts to show off the gameplay videos of him dancing to that song. In theory, it's already quite impossible to play the game and dance at the same time when the song is attempted in higher difficulty. It is possible to do what the original Beatmania player, ITOH, did, when it comes to that song, U.S.A. It is hard enough in Hyper difficulty and it's going to be even harder in Another difficulty. However, I won't do what ITOH or DDX did in the arcades even when attempting songs like U.S.A. or other licensed songs. Speaking of licensed songs for IIDX Rootage, it may seems that Particle Arts and U.S.A. are like my favorites or some sort.

Sound Voltex Gameplay Report (September 15)

At the recent time, I already had the policy on trying out the electronic music in Sound Voltex series provided that the tracks are originals or something. The number of remixes of Touhou Project songs has been growing way too quick like it is way too outnumbering and it can be boring trying to listen to endless amounts of remixes of the same song. Not to mention that the tracklist of Sound Voltex IV has been like shoehorned with some weird songs, songs from Tokimeki Idol which obviously fit right in Bemani games, as well as more Touhou related arranges disguised as Sound Voltex Floor tracks and even tracks taken from Beatstream series which was already discontinued in favor of Nostalgia.
Well, I guess that this may be the last time playing Sound Voltex but I still have yet to attempt the remaining songs in Beatmania IIDX and Groove Coaster.

Beatmania IIDX Cannon Ballers First Play

About the disturbing player name that I mentioned in some previous Beatmania IIDX related blog post, it turns out that the Terms & Conditions against inappropriate player names HAVE BEEN THERE in many Bemani games although the shameful thing is that they're not translated to English in many Bemani games and this is one of them so it's a shame on me for not knowing the Terms & Conditions earlier. They're there in Beatmania IIDX but they aren't translated whatsoever. And by the way, turning off the machine or disconnecting it from the network as a way of ragequitting or mischievous act is one sure way to get you banned from or kicked out of the arcade. It doesn't matter which genre you're playing but I'm sure that this warning has been there against such misbehaviors.
Good thing is that the camera option has been turned off by default but even then, I still have yet to figure out some of the patterns in the notechart so that I can do things usually like other players do. However, I still have to figure out the balance to get my timing right like 2.20 of Hi-Speed for 170-190 BPM or something for instance.

Dance Rush Stardom (Updated)

Another spinoff of DDR which makes use of your legs like the DDR franchise as if the improvement is quite little when compared to realistic dance games. However, this is another fun game and a great new step to know a new type of dance which is shuffle dance. During the location test phase, the dance platform isn't that wide and those who played the game knew what the gameplay was like. It's like a DDR version of TapSonic in terms of gameplay visually except that the game is centered around on shuffle dance which is one dance to mix with EDM music. That surely makes things energetic although there are already other types of dances that have yet to be implemented in dance games.
This is one positive spinoff when compared to other spinoffs that shoehorned the classic franchises in a disturbing way. Dance Evolution is another positive spinoff of DDR which makes use of Kinect for realistic dancing but that's not the only Kinect dance game out there when it first came out on Xbox 360.
Furthermore, like Maimai series, the machine also supports video filming of the players playing the game.

Beatmania IIDX 25 Cannon Ballers

OK, there may be positive impressions as well as the negative ones. One positive impression includes the change to the arcade hardware which no longer runs Windows XP Embedded along with the fact that it has better audio hardware and drivers. There's even the internal camera for top-down video recording of yourself playing the game like you're trying to show off the fingering or some kind but that is more or less an official addon for the machine unlike Maimai series where the entirely of you can be seen in the video playing the game although there's no official video capturing stuff of the game's screen. I'm not sure if the in-game audio will be recorded through the Stereo Mix or not just like Maimai series does although there won't be so much sound effects going on during the recording.
The location test took place 3 months ago but some trouble cropped up there that Konami had to pull back the machine off the arcades quickly probably due to some threat going on as stated on Twitter. The story according to Bemanistyle is that someone wanted to go to the arcades where the game was being location tested to harm the hell out of those people there. At least, he apologized but I don't know the reason on why did he do this.
My guesses for that person who made the threat were like:

• There were still nerds supporting the game or whatnot?
• Heavy obsession with Metal Gear/Castlevania/Silent Hill?
• It's probably due to something else

Perhaps, the third guess in the list is the more accurate one as the fans of those games stated in the second guess are already smart enough to drift away from Konami for good in favor of other stuffs. Even if Konami makes a comeback with various reboots like Super Bomberman R, Bishi Bashi Channel and of course, DDR in the west, there's still no guarantee that those fans will make a comeback as well.
Last thing is that the style name of Beatmania IIDX 25 refers to the illegal cross-country races organized in America in the 1970s. Illegal events are unforgivable and I bet that I had seen some before.
The game will be out sometime in December and with the new hardware, it should keep the series going like Gitadora does ever since 4 years ago. The others still have outdated arcade system to be frank like Jubeat, Pop'n Music, DDR, Sound Voltex, Reflec Beat, etc.

Sound Voltex Gameplay Report - November 3

I guess that was enough for the tracks from Sound Voltex III as I have a more current policy in seeking more decent music than before. Most of the music will be electronical kind, the kind of music that is played in nightclubs and it may be the same for Beatmania IIDX. Weird-ass ones, no, I'm not gonna waste anymore credits on those as some of the music genres are epic mistakes in the present time.
One interesting thing is that NOMA, one of the third-party DJ/producers for Bemani games, had terminated the contract with Konami that his songs would have to be taken down completely so that he would have the full rights to them as if Konami no longer holds the copyright to those songs. It would be funny if the other DJ/producers would do the same in favor of other music games. I guess that I was messed with by weird-ass tracks and especially for those produced by IOSYS, Cool & Create, etc. The professional DJ/producers had a good time producing songs for rhythm games but it seemed that certain of those like Naoki Maeda, NOMA, etc. had to part with Konami in favor of producing music for other rhythm games which might seem to be a good direction.
Then, I eventually attempted the ones from Sound Voltex IV and I got a triple A for one of the Level 12 tracks in Exhaust difficulty through Sound Voltex IV standard of course.
In the past time that I played Sound Voltex again, I made a big mistake in drawing out summer-themed character Appeal Cards and certain of those were outright disgusting from what I saw. Maybe I should focus more on attempting songs because grinding on games at the arcades is seriously expensive. I don't know which one is more dangerous to be frank like getting hundreds/thousands of runs in the same arcade game or maybe spending too much real money on premium currency for mobile games.
Needless to say on the day I went to the arcades at Bugis+, some of the machines were moved or whatnot and I couldn't see the Groove Coaster machines as they were moved out or some kind but I had some event to attend at night after this trip.

Nostalgia and Nostalgia Forte

As if Keyboardmania and Rocksmith are seriously hard enough, how about you try the REAL PIANO/GUITAR yourself? If real drums are manageable enough compared to Guitar, Bass or Piano which may seem to be harder, other challenges may probably include the cordination with other stuffs as part of the band. In fact, it may look like the DJ-simulation rhythm games have been going in the opposite direction even today compared to some of the dance games which actually make use of the entire body, pose and motion thanks to Kinect but the technology still isn't perfect as most of the dances are suited for individuals or duos depending on the song.
In fact, I should feel ostracized by how Beatmania IIDX series goes nowadays with irrelevant themes which don't belong to DJ land that well and especially that Nostalgia decreases the difficulty Keyboardmania series has. Sure, there may be tons of keys but to repair/replace them will be tough in case of hardware damage. That is one proper complaint, unlike the complaint about how hard the game is.
Nostalgia is trying to be like Deemo in terms of gameplay. Although the design of the controller may look like mini piano keys, the way you tap the keys to the corresponding notes is akin to Sega's Chunithm series. Sure, that also has the elements of Deemo but it has more than that like air notes which make use of sensors to see if your hand is in the air or not.
Well, at least Konami has rebooted Keyboardmania but in a weird but less difficult way. The game may be fun but extreme difficulty of playing a real piano is still there. One better thing is that Marasy has become more famous than before for being involved in Nostalgia due to his piano cover videos. He's also famous for playing Bemani songs on a piano as well. You can check out his YouTube channel if you're interested.

Sound Voltex III E-Amusement Cloud First Impressions

Like other E-Amusement Cloud games, it is likely that this will be in Japan only as the features for this service probably make use of Paseli, Tickets or other stuffs required. For Beatmania IIDX Infinitas, it uses the monthly subscription model by credit card or Paseli. You may probably think that it is a PC game but this actually uses Cloud Gaming in a different way. The game data is stored locally with the player data being stored on servers similar to MMO games you play on the PC or consoles but the trick is that this sort of cloud gaming uses Paseli, Tickets or some other stuffs to start the game. To release this service outside of Japan is like Konami extorting you online through your credit cards to play their E-Amusement Cloud games but don't be fooled, it's still cloud gaming unless you're ignorant on what it means.
Like Beatmania IIDX Infinitas, Sound Voltex III had gone alpha-testing before getting finalized. Unfortunately, unlike Beatmania IIDX Infinitas, a controller for Sound Voltex III is highly recommended as it is painful and weird to play with the keyboard. Your skills feel crippled when playing with the keyboard so a Sound Voltex controller is a better experience you can get. One cool thing is that you can synchronize your play data between Sound Voltex III E-Amusement Cloud version and Sound Voltex IV for the arcades but that is when Sound Voltex III on E-Amusement Cloud has gone gold. As the game has gone alpha phase, YOUR PLAY DATA is NOT linked to the arcade version of Sound Voltex. It will be gone at the end of the alpha-testing.
Then, there was the legal warning message saying that the game is to be used in Japan only and yet, there are people outside of Japan who managed to play it. In theory, the service should be region-blocked. However, they can bypass that with VPN and who knows if there will be a lawsuit or not as that technically tells lies that you are from that country which I find it bad ever since I told the shopkeepers that concern about buying games from foreign digital stores. Sure, the company behind the services or digital stores won't find out about this but I think it's best that you buy from your local digital store and you're safe that way. Better yet, there should be Asian/US release of Beatmania IIDX Infinitas and Sound Voltex III but it won't be the same without cloud gaming stuffs and the way to start the game sounds fraudulent. Perhaps, the monthly subscription is the only way for Asian/US release of E-Amusement Cloud since there's no Paseli support. I told Bemanistyle on Twitter about these and region-locking this service may mean more disgusting cussing from those non-Japanese Bemani players. Sure, the arcades were revived in modern form in US thanks to Round 1 in which you get to play Bemani games there but to see future releases of Konami games on consumer systems is a difficult bet and especially that Beatmania IIDX Infinitas and Sound Voltex III are parts of cloud gaming platform, NOT consumer systems.
Lastly, like Beatmania IIDX Infinitas, Sound Voltex III for E-Amusement Cloud will have its own official controller but that will be out sometime in Autumn this year.

Sound Voltex Gameplay Report - May 22

Seems that I was already done with Beatmania IIDX in 2 days ago before this after attempting most of the songs from Lincle, Tricoro, Pendual and even Sinobuz that I eventually continued on Sound Voltex again. Needless to say, each run has already cost $2 for 4 credits like I already mentioned before or some sort although I was already making closer progress into attempting remaining songs from Sound Voltex IV that were never locked. Initially, all the intial songs from Sound Voltex IV were locked and you have to unlock them yourself in Music Select screen but sometime later, the newer songs were added and already unlocked for you you can save the amount of in-game currency for song unlocks. Also, at the end of the run, there are songs in higher difficulties being unlocked along with other items like the Sub-Crews. Obviously, there was a point in Crew Select stuff for the prequel as required for Battle Sequence System in later chapters of the story but that was grindy in the prequel and pointless in this game.
Spoilers: Things have not been relaxing for me on regular basis and that idiotic trash from my home had the elder manipulation on-going to continue their disrespect on me. Unlike the past days way back in 2009, this attitude weakness will be difficult to solve if they continue their ignorance. And going on an eating spree isn't the excusable reason on why I go to the shopping malls with them but they continue to underestimate my knowledge and mature-ness through their bad influence. Even worse is that the house renovation is still on-going until May 30 and even if my home is upgraded, it's not over for the others' renovation. Lastly, I have a bad feeling like I have the anxiety disorder/panic attack come back to me on a regular basis ever since last month. It is worse than the amount of panics I had back in 2008. I ended up panicking over whatever trouble I would land on for whatever I did but in fact, I wasn't in any sort of trouble by then. I guess that that isn't the only present-time situation I may panic over but still, doing the right thing is the key as a responsible adult.

Sound Voltex Gameplay Report - May 19-20

Note that this post is linked to my gameplay report of Beatmania IIDX on the same days. Blog post to that is right here.

Okay, the difference between those two Sound Voltex machines is that one of them has the coin slot in addition to game card reader for credits. Somehow in May 19, some player forgot to bring his own game card so I guess that it was his turn after going through but I was already finished with the game by then.
The remaining goal will be to attempt the songs from Sound Voltex IV.

Beatmania IIDX Gameplay Report - May 19-20

Things were like in cramped shape at the arcades as if there were small spaces in between the music game machines. It looked like I was finished with Beatmania IIDX after having attempted most of the songs from IIDX Lincle, Tricoro, Pendual and Sinobuz but I have additional criterias, the song genre and the decency of the song. If the song is quite decent enough, the chance of it being manageable is good or great depending on the difficulty.
One great news was that I managed to clear Sweet Clapper in Another difficulty although the song level can be misleading to other players at times. However, I didn't know if I could clear it like that so I set the Groove Gauge to Assist Easy just in case I won't be able to clear the song with Easy Groove Gauge but it turned out that the Groove Gauge didn't drop that much.
The reason for this revisit is to make sure that the arcade machines aren't infected by the global cyber attack in the form of some ransomware everyone knows of. Indeed, the machines are still working fine although one of the Groove Coaster machines didn't start at all and it was stuck at "Starting Game" screen. Patching embedded systems like those machines is no easy task
One off-topic thing to note, the house renovation, needless to say, already started in May 19 so going back to my home in these renovation days is like seeking self-trouble as nearly everything was filled with dust but that is something I shouldn't worry about if I know what I'm doing. Furthermore, I already ran out of money inside my EZ-Link card and the left side of my earpiece is missing the cover as if I can't get clear hearing without it. I do have a backup one received from my niece's mother but I should learn to safeguard my earpiece and it may mean that I have to go back to my home to retrieve it. Needless to say, the relocation due to renovation isn't comfortable enough as the Home Improvement Program there is still on-going just like my home's and if I have to do some DJ practice for instance, I'm already out of luck. Not to mention that the idiotic trash from my home staying over with me has been causing irritations everywhere. I thought I caused some trouble because of her bad influence and going back to my home for check but I didn't as if I couldn't feel anything unusual when checking my stuffs and the machines I played in May 19. However, I have a bad feeling that this worry will come back again because of her stupidity. Also, the outer part of the fader for Filter part of IIDX machine had gone off. Whoever caused that might have done caused it to fall off accidentally so the amount of worries might not be that big. I don't know who did that when I saw the outer part fallen off. Lastly, who the hell came to the arcades with the scooter in May 20? That would pose a threat to the shopping mall if ridden around but at least they got escorted out.

Beatmania IIDX Gameplay Report (March 18)

I guess that I had already done additional music arrangements that can be viewed on my YouTube and Soundcloud accounts and it looked like it was the time to go to the arcades again. This update included the existence of the Expert Mode in Beatmania IIDX Sinobuz along with its Classic Class feature as well as the new song playable in this period, Crew, as part of Beatnation 10th Anniversary. For Beatnation 10th Anniversary, the campaign is said to be for Japan only which you have to play Beatmania IIDX 30 times with your E-Amusement pass to proof that you have done that 30 times during the campaign period according to the campaign's official website. Next, you have to proof that to the game center staff with your E-Amusement pass if you want to get the CD of the song. One thing to bear in mind that each Beatmania IIDX cabinet has 4 copies of the CDs.
Since the campaign is like for Japan only, I don't think this is going to count for overseas Bemani players no matter how many times you have played Beatmania IIDX or perhaps the song, Crew, during this campaign period so that you overseas players DON'T NEED to play the game like 30 times. It's like asking for SGD60 for 30 credits in which each coin out of 4 for a credit costs $0.50. So that is like $60 for 120 credits in total for this campaign. Do you want to contribute to those in-game events for arcade games to the core?

6th KAC Live Stream

Thanks to Round 1 reviving some arcade scenes in the US in the modern way, it seems that DDR is back there with DDR A and DDR A is said to be the first DDR game to have the E-Amusement support. The success of the location testing of DDR 2014 in the US might have led to the official availability of the sequel, DDR A and it looks like the players from US were welcome to take part in 6th KAC.
At first, the competitors from Japan and Korea have been quite fierce that they had a higher chance of winning in 6th KAC but a surprising miracle came from the US KAC finalists for DDR in which one of the finalists had won the championship by surprise. Another interesting thing about that finalist from US, Chris, was that he had the legendary skills in Guitar Hero as well.
What I don't like about the live stream is the misbehaviors from the nerds in the chat session on YouTube. They had been spamming it with political, cursing and even other disgusting stuffs. And someone had the guts to comment about the characters from Sound Voltex at the *****graphical level. *Sigh* That person should be kicked out of YouTube or even better, the Internet for this. Such stuffs I saw were no jokes nor trolls. Another stupid thing people had been spamming the chat was the simulators of the official rhythm games. For me, I don't think such topics like that are pretty much allowed. Why the hell do you want to play those simulators when you're actually interested in the official and actual rhythm games, then?
Unfortunately, even if the KAC finalist from the US had won the first place along with DDR A being in the US thanks to Round 1, it is already too late to undo the damage for other parts of Konami when they announced Bombergirl for the arcades that was being location tested in this year's JAEPO. I already fear that there's no such thing as cancellation of such arcade games like Bombergirl which is the controversial spinoff of Bomberman. At first, the announcement of Super Bomberman R had people think that Konami is making a comeback but no, it's not a clean comeback all along when Bombergirl for the arcades was announced. It's so controversial because of unacceptable contents although Bomberman is the kids-friendly franchise. To explain this further damage Konami has done in detail is a different tale.
Also, Nostalgia, the spiritual successor to Keyboardmania, was shown at this year's JAEPO with improvements to the physical controller design in which the gameplay is made less difficult thanks to the controller's less realism. Things in Keyboardmania were realistic but as realistic they were, the game was extremely difficult and trying out a real piano is much tougher than that. I have also seen Marasy, the genius pianist involved in this year's JAEPO in which he played various songs from Bemani franchise in the real piano in front of the KAC attendees.
Lastly, besides KAC taking place, there's the similar competition involving rhythm games from multiple developers and it's not the first time crossover songs were made playable. Also, it marked the great end of the Lunar New Year celebration for Bemani fans.

Sound Voltex IV Gameplay Report - February 5

To a surprise, the Skill Analyzer Mode is integrated into the Music Select screen in which you have to select Skill Analyzer folder and then the specific Skill Level. This is different than in SDVX II and III where you can select Skill Analyzer from the Game Mode Select screen. Like the previous Sound Voltex games, once you select a course from Skill Analyzer, that's it, you're already in Skill Analyzer Mode for sure. Unfortunately, while I was playing the game, the other machine on the right received an error before going into reboot mode. And by the way, I had already seen the bootup process of those machines running the Bemani arcade games and they're still using Windows XP Embedded to this day despite the loss of support. It might leave many of arcade machines running that OS vulnerable but then, Taito already had a solution all along like announcing Nesica X Live 2 service for instance. New Bemani games on the other hand like Nostalgia, Museca, Beatstream, Future Tom Tom, Dance Evolution Arcade, etc. for instance, are already using Windows Embedded Standard 7 although the shameful thing is that Dance Evolution Arcade already ended the E-Amusement support last year that it could be played offline.
Eventually, the player who encountered the problem told the staff but damn, the whole thing was spoken in Chinese like I couldn't even translate certain English words into that and it was embarrassing. Perhaps, I use English way too much or something. Or maybe, this year's Lunar New Year was a bad start for me and things were like getting worse probably due to those imbeciles at home who were obviously my former family being stupider than before in making false rumors about my actions. I was so pissed off during the celebration time that I unexpectedly got the edge of the bottom shelf smashed. Their chain of offenses is starting to get worse from what I fear with no signs of admittance and realization as if they can think that I have a problem. Not to mention that their presence already made things uncomfortable for me ever since.

Beatmania IIDX Gameplay Report - December 24

Well, it looked like Konami implemented another mobile gaming element to one of Bemani games this year, this time with Beatmania IIDX Sinobuz's castle intrusion event. What this does is to increase the amount of riceballs by 1 per 10 minutes of not playing the game. The maximum you can get is 2000 riceballs but bear in mind that you don't migrate the riceballs over to the next castle so the remaining ones will be lost by the time you've completed the previous one. I believe that it will take estimated two weeks to get 2000 riceballs which you can gain with the Replenish command. There's also the Skills command where you can reduce the enemy's strength, increase your strength, reduce the consumption of riceballs, etc. Choosing Search will search the castle for treasures, gates and enemies to deal with and then choose Event to begin battle. You get to choose Event Cards to deal with which may look like a virtual card battle you will have in mobile games, not the arcade games.
Once the whole castle is like 100% searched and raided, all is left is the boss character to deal with to conquer the castle. Like always, events like this can be grindy and Konami has already gone to the deeper bullshit level with the Ninja theme for Beatmania IIDX after the Train one.