been really into DJMAX Respect lately, on PS4
i put like a thousand hours into DJMAX Emotional Sense on PC back in the day and at least dabbled in Portable 1, Portable 2, and Black Square, though some of the magic was lost for me when Emotional Sense shut down
Respect is amazing. it’s kind of an anthology game, with every single Portable 1 & 2 track (which is basically most of Emotional Sense’s original track list) plus 40 more new ones. you can get clazziquai, portable 3, black square, trilogy, technika 1, 2, and 3 as DLC but like, if you want to get everything it’s expensive as hell just fyi
they also make a really really cool but suuuuuuuper expensive controller for Respect, with the trademark two turntables and something like 12 buttons. but it’s like over three hundred bucks so that’s probably not happening for me any time soon lol. in any case the game is very playable and fun on a regular controller, and people play it at the very highest level that way. (see:
)
the game has some really fantastic music. the new tracks for Respect are far and away some of the best in the series and that’s coming from someone with HEAVY nostalgia for the old classic stuff lol.
here’s a few samples
tok! tok! tok! (technically from tapsonic top, neowiz’s mobile rhythm game)
bullet, wanted!
killer bee
lift you up
people basically only post themselves playing it on the highest difficulties but the game is extremely accessible, way more than its closest equivalent, Beatmania IIDX. the game scales all the way down to 4 button mode and all the way up to 8 button, then two more hidden modes above that, 10 and 12 button. though the note charts are set up in a way that respects the PS4 controller’s limitations. for instance, you’ll never be asked to press left and right at the same time
here’s a 4B song, “let’s go baby”. this is one from the original game, though here it’s credited as being from Portable 1. also showcased here is DJMAX’s obsession with lesbians. seriously like every other song’s video is about gay girls lol it’s great
“let’s go baby” on 4B normal is a 2-star song. stars go from 1 to 15, with generally pretty big jumps in difficulty at 6 and 11 stars. any song can be played on any button mode, and usually there will be at least two difficulties available within that mode. so like, let’s go baby can be played on normal or hard in 4B, normal or hard in 5B, 6B, etc. sometimes there’s also a “Maximum” difficulty of a particular chart, sometimes there’s ONLY a “normal”, it varies. but there’s a looooooooooot of songs and difficulties and button modes. anyone can start getting into it somewhere
oh! and that reminds me. a lot of the older videos were in like, 240p resolution lmao. that’s how old Emotional Sense (the original game) is. so they went through and painstakingly redrew literally every old video
also distinct from IIDX is a “freestyle combo system” where basically you’re allowed to hit buttons that aren’t coming in as notes, and it doesn’t break your combo. the timing window is also fairly generous in that you can hit stuff wide to either side on the note’s proper timing and it won’t technically break your combo. however, it does sharply curtail your score unless you hit the notes dead on. so you can generally jump in really easily but there’s lots of room to get really really good
fuckin game owns. like, it’s just really good
