レビュー

Notes:

- This song is beautiful! The base game contains a little bit too much of fast and dizzy Vocaloid songs (Mesmerizer, Boogie, Override, ...) and need more like this. The guitars, synths, sprinkle of woodwinds, and everythings are so dreamy. (I didn't know the existence of this artist before this point and apparently this has 18M views on YouTube, I'm not very in the loop regarding Vocaloids...) That out of the way, this song is more than it appears when you are trying to perfect attack it.

- 0:05 : Every time you see a line highlighting a note like this, the note is quantized to triplet grid. (1 beat divided to 3 or 6 instead of the usual 2 or 4.) It is a lone note, so play it slightly delayed from the usual 16th note beat. Song will utilize this throughout so try go get the feel of it.

- 0:16 : You will see some use of single side colored notes in the verse section, and nowhere else. They are likely a nod to the MV introducing two characters of the story.

- 0:28 : Circular rail is deceptively hard to time and this is also the first 3-note pattern, you might get bad judgement when you are not yet warmed up. Try to reset to your dominant hand on each of the first note in each set. The pattern is 1-1-3-3-1 along the circular rail. I'm right handed, so I use : R-R-RLR-RLR-R

- 0:32 : You will find gentle 8th streams with either left or right arrow along the way repeated for a while. They can be alternated hand nicely, but you have to decide for yourself when to swap to the other side while alternating. For me I change the direction exactly on the arrow note that goes the opposite way. But you may prefer doing it somewhere earlier while it was a circle note. Most of the time the arrow landed on my dominant hand (right) nicely and it was intuitive. (Because there are odd number of notes in-between the arrows, technically said.)

- 0:44 : Except in this set, despite starting on my dominant hand, you will see that half way suddenly arrows are lining up on my non-dominant hand instead (left) if I alternated everything. I'm fine with it, but I remembered it was weird when I just started out in Wai Wai Party. You can use the same hand 2 times to "fix" the issue if you felt weird fully alternating here.

- 0:50 : Note on the middle of each curve is a 16th note. They might be using a curve to help the player see that it has equal distance from the previous and the next note, but the fact that it is on 16th beat might throw you off still!

- 0:56 : This is a very problematic part! Let's get the 1-5-1 note sets out of the way first. Reset dominant hand to maintain accuracy. I'm right handed so I'm supposed to do R-RLRLR-R here, but instead I did R-RLRLR-L. The reason for the last L is because I want to start the next pattern with my left hand instead (explained next) and I want an extra emphasis to not forget that.

- 0:58 : First, the 4 notes flying in is quite cruel as they only slowly closing in when you are almost there instead of coming in fast from far away like other songs. (And also has no lines to mark their destination!) So you will be startled for quite a few times until you realize that the resulting pattern is 5 circles + 1 square, all spaced equally 16th apart.

- Then, you might mysteriously getting some Perfect or Great here despite knowing that. The reason is because the first circle is not on a downbeat, but rather a 16th note before. If the pattern starts on downbeat there would be just 4 circles + 1 square. (Because one beat fits four 16th notes, and the square is on the next new beat.) They are trying to send a wink on you by making this first note already there and not flying in with the rest. You can also try clapping to the BPM and you will notice you are clapping to the 2nd note of these 5 circles instead of the 1st note.

- And what is messing with your timing might be that you started this 5 circles + 1 square with your dominant hand like you used to. The reason that this tactics worked was because you want your dominant hand to be in-sync with a strong beat (to the downbeat preferably, or at least the up beat.) Here because the first note is a bit before downbeat, you get opposite effect where your non-dominant hand all lines up to the downbeat. You can try "going in with a non-dominant hand" to restore your accuracy. You can see in the video I press the first circle (which is not flying in) with my left hand instead. It is slightly uncomfortable, but will restore accuracy of the rest of the pattern. It also gives you a bonus of being able to use your dominant hand's index finger to hit the ending square.

- If you want more songs to practice "going in with non-dominant hand", try Heart Pie Dancehall. It's on the one of the verse's circular rail section : https://youtu.be/lCdTUHy-Qbg?t=36 It also similarly ends with a square.

- 0:59 : If you were overly conscious of executing the flying circles earlier, you might forgot that there are tons of 3-note patterns coming next without any rest. I still forgot pressing these every time I come back to this song after a while of not playing.

- 1:01 : The chorus vocal and many places after this point will feature a set of 3-note 16ths like this. But they are quite challenging : the first note of each set is on the up beat, and ends on the downbeat. (If you try clapping your hand to the BPM, you will clap to the final note of each 3-note set.) This is a big deal because casual players unfortunately are more optimized to do anything starting on the downbeat. They might mysteriously get some FAST and SLOW here not knowing why. If your FAST / SLOW appears often on the first note of any 3-note set in this song, this might be the problem. Keep practicing is the only way!

- 1:08 : Same deal with before, the first note starting on the up beat. Except this one is extra long. But after remembering that the problem was how the pattern starts on the up beat, it should be no problem for you from the 3rd notes onwards as that is the first downbeat since the start of the pattern, you should regain the sync there and keep going.

- 1:13 : Circular rail combine with the up beat problem from before, and some notes turning to arrows. I think I had problem with that one arrow 16th note before the line note the most, since not only it appears jumbled together due to the rail's shape, it is in the opposite direction of the prior and the next arrow. You might try add some ad-libbing in the 2 empty downbeats here if you want. (The empty spots on 12 and 6 o'clock of this circle.)

- 1:19 : If the circle is not enough here's a snake rail. This is the hardest one, and you are supposed to do the up beat onset 3-note patterns by ear at this point. I find looking very closely at the avatar while it hit the first note of the 3-note helped. Don't forget the square combination note which didn't get used for a while until this point. You may fill in the blank with some ad-lib taps to make the up-beat a bit easier to time.

- 1:26 : You still have to use your up beat timing skill in the solo section here, but now combined with the triplet timing you tasted in the beginning section. You will see pair of arrows or circles that has lines coming from them to mark the triplet, slightly swingy feel. I suggest using your dominant hand consecutively for every notes with such highlight lines, so the swingy feel kind of "sticks" to purely one hand. I'm right hander and you can see I use my right side controller for every triplet grid notes. Also extra observation that almost all arrows are ups or downs, but there are a pair of left that is also a triplet. I need to use the left button of my right controller there if I want to keep using my dominant hand, which might be a bit off-putting to some? Good luck!

- 1:39 : The ending of the solo section ends with two sets of 3-note 16ths. If you are a bit zoned out you might be expecting other patterns? At least it was several times for me.

- 1:40 : This is supposed to be some rest but because the beat disappeared, it is actually quite hard to metronome yourself throughout this section. Utilize how the rail is straight here and look at around your avatar more.

- 2:07 : After repeating the chorus, they are trying to throw a curve ball by having the some 3-note set that's not ending in either up or down. They now come in left and right, according to the rail shape. Ready both your hands for those buttons as you go around the rail.

- 2:18 : Before you can congratulate, they are trying to throw you off one last time by turning the last note of this long 16th stream into an up circle, where it was all neutral circles in the first chorus, and some up and down arrows after. Should not be a problem given that the prior arrow at the line note's tail was an up.