Oops.. yeah, I meant Hard.

Yeah.. hmm.  I wonder if it's even possible to get anything below an A on that level?

-Mike

Oh god.

I can't stop playing whenever I get the chance, and I managed to get to RSG on insane, which I am working on. However, there are still pieces of me on the road from where Shanghai Honey bulldozed me something like 100 times...*cries*. They pulled out all the stops...super super fast, crazy patterns on the last segment, INSANELY fast health drain. I was getting strings of 300, had 200+ hit combo, background is an inferno, yet the cheergirls were hanging their heads in shame at my (apparently) pathetic attempt. Then the next few 100s I get, I'm dead before I know what happened. That happened so many times. The time I won I had 200 something 300s, 14 100s and 0 50s. I only got an A though (which is probably the "worst" you can do there anyhow and still finish). I thought I would get S with those scores, but I missed the spinner, so that probably killed it. After many tries I was frustrated trying to beat it so I went back to hard mode for a while...and it seemed SO slow. I couldn't imagine that I once had had just as much trouble on hard mode. (Well nothing on the order of insane Shanghai Honey...and weirdly it didn't give me much trouble at all on normal or hard)

As for characters I still love the cat..there's something about its looks plus the meow that is adorable. I think my favorite failure scene too is the one on One Night Carnival, which I saw my fair share of times as well ... Over the Distance has a soothing effect on me. Sometimes I play it just to sink into the experience. I love failing Cleopatra and seeing people shrivel up/drown because I was so inept and Cleopatra did the opposite of what she should've. Also I crack up on that one part of RSG where you fail and it shows a duck and ducklings. I have no idea what it says but it's hilarious to me.

This is the most fun I've had with a game ina long time though. I love DS and Ouendan However after playing for long periods and am tired, I see imaginary circles close in around words while I'm reading.. sheesh

Told ya.  ;)  Shanghai Honey on Cheergirls made me its prison bitch for the longest time.  Just when I was nailing all the 300 markers, then came that crazy new off-beat pattern for the last segment.  I think the most relieving part of the song is that there's no spinner to deal with at the end.

How are the rest of you faring at Cheergirls?

He's both at once cute and mischievous.   You'll want to pick up Elite Beat Agents for his new cameo, too.  ^_^

Apparently, "MHK" is a parody play on Tokyo's own TV station, “NHK.” I can't verify if NHK uses ducks for its "We're experiencing technical difficulties" message, but that's what it basically says in the Ouendan sequence.

Happy One Year Ouendan Anniversary!  ^_~  CRG.com has a sweet and sincere write-up of the game, which should make any Ouendan faithful proud:

http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/ouendan/one-year/

Plus, a brief message from director/producer Keiichi Yano:

The staff at iNiS really appreciates everyone's support of our
games. Ouendan and EBA are very special games for us and
we are currently working very hard to make sure it can meet
everyone's high expectations. We'll be featuring great stories,
great music and great gameplay so stay tuned for Nov. 6th !!

Until then...
Ossu! and GO!

Keiichi Yano @ iNiS

Beat hard mode tonight!  RSG was, in fact, easier than on normal mode because the beat actually made sense.  I tried out cheergirls and don't think I'll really do much of that, if any.  It seems far too based on memorization rather than on getting into a zone with the rhythm, and I just don't have the time to devote that much to this game.  Still, incredibly awesome and one of the best games on a system that has a ton of real gems.  I'm glad you guys all started playing it, which influenced me to get back into it.  ^_^

So, lemme get this straight..... you let a couple of GIRLS beat you?

Sigh, I really didn't want to unleash Kai's fury, but you leave me no choice.....

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6429/kaifuryak8.jpg

I had the same issues with Insane mode at first. When I got to insane the first time I hated it, it seemed like I wasn't being shown where the notes would pop up until they were practically gone. However, after playing it for a loooong time I don't even really notice that anymore, and now insane is my favorite mode for its intensity. It's just getting accustomed to the new speed. Trust me, keep trying! (Also the insane stages are for the most part a mirror of the hard stages. You can turn the DS upside down to make them like the hard stages. I actually didn't realize this for quite some time )

I also find RSG normal to make NO sense in some points, mostly those blue notes from 1~5 or so...I swear I cannot place them with the music whatsoever. I have to use the circle to gauge them. Both hard and insane are much easier to me because every note seems to mesh with the music.

Ahh, that's the spirit.  I think Cheergirls does tend to turn off a lot of people at first.  When I started, I too was like, "There's no way I'm going to be able to do this," and, "This is SO not fun.... Hard Mode is fine, so I'll just stick with that." But persistence springs eternal, things began to click with every consecutive play-through, and now, there's not a chance in heck that I'd go back to Hard Mode.  Not on a regular basis, anyway. 

Playing it upside down is a viable alternative, but it can be difficult if you're dependent on the numbers.  I'd only recommend trying that once you've mastered it the true way first.

As my slow death march through Cheer Girls mode continues, I  thought I'd post a little update.  I cleared Cleopatra and Over the Distance last night, so now I'm down to the last three stages.  I put over an hour into Robots vs. Policemen and I came damn close, but fatigue was setting in and my hand could barely hold the styus upright, so it was time to quit.  I love the game, but at this stage, it's become quite a masochistic experience.  I want to finish Robots vs. Policeman, but the last two stages are my two least favorite stages in the game and I'm definitely not looking forward to them.

This really needs to be put in here...apparently we have some actual Ouendan cheerleader-types in the real world.  I have no words.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/24/real- … ve-in-you/

Hmm... maybe it's just because I've lived over here for a while, but yes, ouendan is a real thing and it doesn't seem that out of place to me...  >_<

And for the record, I couldn't help myself and played through cheergirls....... up to RSG, which I only have the patience to try a few times at a time because I can't take it when the stupid opening part lasts longer than my actual attempt to get through any of the song... :\

Wow.  I had no idea.

A bit late to the party, but I thought I'd offer a different perspective on Ouendan since I happened to play EBA before getting it (thanks again, Angela! ^_^).

First of all, Ouendan has made me greatly appreciate all of the changes and additions that I took for granted in EBA. What I missed the most wasn't even the ability to skip song intros. Instead, not being able to save replay data and the lack of detailed score reports in the options menu were what really bugged me. Without those, it's difficult to know exactly how and where you messed up in a song, so once I got my S ranks I tended to not bother trying to increase my score. No replay data also meant no multiplayer for me, so I guess I'll have to seek Youtube to find clips of the scenarios.

As for difficulty, I thought EBA was more difficult overall, although that may have to do with my playing it first. However, I do think that Ouendan had a tendency to be more "tricky." The timing on quite a few of the songs took a long time to deduce, mostly because the markers seemed to correspond less to the vocals and more to the rhythm. Additionally, marker placement was more difficult than it was in EBA. There were numerous instances where a marker would be on the far left side on the screen, and then the next marker would be on the far right, obscured by my hand. All that said, the patterns were a bit more repetitive (particularly in RSG), and I don't think anything in Ouendan compares to the nonstop onslaught of hit markers known as "Survivor."

Interestingly, I had heard of the difficulty of "Shanghai Honey" and "Ready, Steady, Go!" on Insane and made it my goal to get my S ranks on those first to get the hard stuff out of the way. Surprisingly, it only took about 10-15 tries each. In fact, while it took me many times to even get to the final section of "Shanghai Honey," once I finally did I was able to get the timing down my second time through. Similarly, the only part of RSG that gave me trouble was the beginning of the second section, which happened to have the aforementioned markers obscured by my hand.

For me, the true challenge was "Koi no Dance Site," which had no discernable timing whatsoever. I'm exaggerating, of course, but I had a surprisingly tough time with the song on Hard (though it was a tad easier on Insane). Ironically, I "accidentally" S-ranked the song on Easy my first time through it >_>

I loved the entire final scenario. Everyone teaming up for a little world saving never fails to get my heart racing.

I also found "Over the Distance" to somehow be even more touching than it's EBA equivalent.

Favorite failure scene? Definitely the first section of RSG. I love seeing Cinderella secretary be crushed. That'll teach you for putting me through "Koi no Dance Site"!!

The funniest part about that was the stereotypical representation of Americans as having blonde hair and big noses.

Gah, I just realized I'm suffering from a severe case of Ouendan/EBA withdrawal. Give me EBA 2, stat!

Would you consider someone to be hardcore nuts if they spent an hour and a half playing and unlocking all the songs in every mode from Cruisin' on up on the DS kiosk in Circuit City?  That's exactly what I did last Sunday at my local store.  I mean, they've had this kiosk up since November, and they only got up to "La La."  Bugged me out.  Of course, now that I left it on "Hard Rock!" mode, I don't know if the difficulty is more likely to encourage or deter people from actually buying the game. 

Maybe I should travel to CCs all around the country, doing the exact same thing.  Call it "EBANGIE TOUR 2007." 

Know what you mean, especially on the first few stages. As you say, the emphasis is less on vocals and more on the rhythm; it took me a long time to get into the proper groove with Cheer Girls because of Loop & Loop and Koi no Dance Site.  After that, the later sets do tend to follow the vocals quite a bit more.  I agree with your assessment on the overall difficulty; Ouendan actually seems a tad more lenient on the timing, as far as precision goes.  Your life groove meter also fills up faster per 300 hit combo and sliders than EBA.

I dunno, "The Sun Burns" comes pretty close.  Incidentally, it and Survivor are two of my most favorite songs; I just love the ones that pile on the hit markers.  Sorta like this.

That section was problematic because I kept missing that ninth hit marker on the circular patterns, which then immediately shifts over to the other side of the screen for the slider. That part was always enough to throw my rhythm off, and I saw many fails from that section alone.  Keep in mind that back then I was using the original DS with the original shorty toothpick stylus, and the visibility with your hand in the way was even worse.  It wasn't by coincidence that I was able to succeed on those tricky parts after investing in a longer stylus. Hori's Comfortable Touch Pen to this day continues to be my trusty sidekick when it comes to EBA/Ouendan rounds.

Ah, Koi no Dance Site... Those stationary multi-hits always killed me, along with the chorus where the marker would immediately shift over to the top screen.  This was one of the very last song I was able to S-rank on any mode; that and Gutz Daze.  The low number of notes means having to net a much higher ratio of 300s over 100s and 50s.

I do like "You're The Inspiration" more, but you've gotta admit the fail scenes on both are priceless.  I can never get enough of "buff daddy" and laptop key chaos.  ^_^

It would certainly be a mildstone for iNiS, to create an actual sequel for one of their games.  It's all about the sales, though; recall Reggie's comment from two months ago.  A franchise?  I'd hit that ten times over. 

I'm looking forward to Yano's speech presentation at the Game Developers Conference in March.  The guy's pretty much my hero in the gaming industry by now. :)

Don't know if you saw it yet or not, but Yano spoke today at DICE.  Check GameLife for Kohler's summary.

Yep, I already saw the DICE transcript.  It's more or less an iteration of 1up.com's spread from last year, but it's still a good read.