Arcade Station (English Version) Episode 10

Episode 10: Let’s Go to the Anime Convention! -Dadadadadadadadadada-

MOVEMENT RHYTHM COMMUNITY (90)

(5:35 PM) Are there any licensed songs on IIDX?

(5:35 PM) I heard IIDX has no regular J-Pop at all

Hans Taggart

Nope (5:36 PM)

Mostly IIDX has original songs (5:36 PM)

There’s no rhythm game gimmicks like vocaloid and touhou (5:37 PM)

Toshiyuki Ryuzaki

Man, so that’s why I didn’t find any songs of IIDX really interesting (5:38 PM)

Ed

Most of the IIDX songs are great! (5:39 PM)

Hans Taggart

^  (5:40 PM)

In IIDX, original songs are its’ vision (5:40 PM)

Mostly from both BEMANI and commissioned artists (5:41 PM)

Don Parrish

So, who’s going to AnimeCon tomorrow? (5:42 PM)

Norcross Adamson

Me! (5:43 PM)

Finally can try SDVX! (5:43 PM)

Aishiro Daichi

Me too (5:44 PM)

Toshiyuki Ryuzaki

Me! (5:44 PM)

Better see AnimeCon! (5:45 PM)

I’ll try SDVX for real (5:45 PM)

Amy Kavanagh

I wanna see the cosplayers there! (5:45 PM)

Dave Scott

I can play SDVX until I’m satisfied (5:46 PM)

Don Parrish

It won’t be that easy (5:46 PM)

Dave Scott

You’re right (5:46 PM)

Hans Taggart

There must be more people from across the country want to try SDVX too (5:47 PM)

Expect the long line (5:47 PM)

(5:47 PM) Damn, I want to watch the concert…

(5:47 PM) I didn’t win any tickets at all

(5:48 PM) T_T

***

“Morning, guys!” Amy greeted as she brought her breakfast from the convenience store.

Ed parked his car next to the convenience store, while most of the passengers who was about to leave for AnimeCon also entered the store to buy some stuffs. Ward, Dave, Aishiro, and Toshi looked around for some snacks.

While Hans, Don, Ian, and Norcross each took a glass of slushy frozen carbonated beverage for a drink while on trip to AnimeCon. The drink was poured from the slushy dispensing machine to the glass.

“Morning!” Ward greeted as he took his favorite potato chips. “Hans, it’s still morning, you sure want some cold drinks like that?”

“It’s already hot outside,” replied Ian.

“I need some hot coffee,” said Toshi. “Onii-chan, please.”

“No,” Dave quickly denied.

Hans commented as he closed the lid on the slushy glass, “It’s been less than two months after Sound Voltex location test. It’s already summer after all!”

“School break, college break, everyone is having a vacation!” added Dave as he took two glasses of hot coffee.

“Hopefully we’re getting Sound Voltex and IIDX in the end of summer, and Museca too.”

“Of course people, especially who adore anime and Japanese related culture, are going to AnimeCon in the town next door,” Don said.

“I’m not sure if we’re going to arrive in time for earlier play Sound Voltex and Museca,” said Ian.

Amy continued, “And IIDX too.”

“I’m skipping IIDX,” said Aishiro.

***

“Here we are! We have arrived!” shouted Toshi.

“Toshi, we’re not actually arrived, we’re still in outside,” Ian replied.

The group eventually stood up few meters away from the convention building where AnimeCon was held. They saw the crowd one by one entering the building after lining up and showing the ticket bracelet to the security guards.

“So, how much is it?” asked Ward.

“It’s *price censored*,” Hans replied. “Better hurry! So, one, two, three, four, five, six, eight, eleven.”

“Have any of you been to AnimeCon before?” asked Ward curious.

“Not me,” Ian and Norcross replied at the same time.

“I have.” Xephyr rose her hand.

“You have?” asked Aishiro.

“Let me guess, you attend the concert as well?” asked Ward.

Xephyr laughed. “Ha ha, not, silly. The concert ticket is too expensive for me. Last year when I visited AnimeCon, there’s not much, only few booths offering anime-related merchandise. Even last year, I bought LiSA’s latest album.”

“They’re pretty expensive too I guess,” said Amy.

“No food?” asked Toshi.

“Don’t worry, there’s a maid café in AnimeCon, but don’t ask the price, how much.”

“Dammit!” shouted Aishiro. “At least they’re some food booths as well?”

“Guys! Here you go!” Hans arrived bringing the purchased eleven tickets. “Here you go, wear it like you’re wearing a wristband.”

“Wow, it’s awesome!” shouted Dave wore his wristband ticket.

“Once we wore it, we can’t put it off unless cutting it,” Ed said.

“Stay wearing the wristband during our time inside. There are security guards who want to look at your ticket before exiting,” Xephyr added.

Toshi looked at everyone wore the same orange wristband tickets on their left hand. “Looks awesome! We should take selfie!”

“Not before you pay for the tickets,” Hans demanded.

“Onii-chan,”

Dave quickly denied Toshi’s request, “No!”

***

Once the group finally entered through entrance to convention building after passing the security guards, they immediately saw crowds walking around and taking the photos around AnimeCon.

There were several anime character inspired cosplayers who also walked around to show off their hard works on working on costumes and even get invited to take pictures together with other visitors.

Xephyr, who had visited the previous year’s AnimeCon, got shocked upon realizing that the crowd was truly exceeded her expectation, that year’s AnimeCon ended up crowded than expected.

They walked slowly just almost stopped due to the traffic between booths. Hans looked at the convention map to locate the Arcade Station’s booth in AnimeCon. He pointed on the map that BEMANI booth was located between the autograph session’s location and mini-stage.

Passing through the crowd who stand by to watch some scheduled events on mini-stage, they finally arrived at Arcade Station’s booth, where most people were lining up for their turn playing Sound Voltex and Beatmania IIDX.

“Oh crap …,” Aishiro swore.

“It’s totally full in here!” shouted Ian.

“So, guys, you can line up for the games whatever you wanted to play. I’m going to play IIDX,” Hans said.

“I’m trying IIDX too!” shouted Ed walked following Hans.

“So, who’s trying Museca?” asked Xephyr.

Aishiro, Amy, Ian, and Norcross answered by raising their hand before lining up to wait for their turn playing Museca with Xephyr. The line in front of Museca cabinet was not long, but it took few minutes for each player to finish three stages of the game.

Ward looked at Dave, Don, and Toshi before joining the line in front of Sound Voltex cabinet, which consisted of less than five players waiting. Beatmania IIDX cabinet has more players waiting around to play.

“Wanna try, Toshi?” asked Don.

“Absolutely. I changed my mind once I’ve seen more videos playing Sound Voltex.”

Ward took a picture of the line in front of Sound Voltex cabinet before sending it to the LINE group. “Done. It’s already crowded than expected!”

“I bet more people will come here tomorrow!” shouted Dave.

“Oh, I got many replies!” shouted Ward.

***

MOVEMENT RHYTHM COMMUNITY (90)

(12:32 PM) So crowded!

Zeke

Coming there tomorrow (12:33 PM)

Damn… (12:34 PM)

Tomorrow will be more crowded than this (12:34 PM)

Raven

No wonder why most players want this game already (12:34 PM)

Ken Williams

It’s AnimeCon (12:35 PM)

Don’t expect it won’t be crowded more than this tomorrow (12:36 PM)

Neal Harrow

I would rather wait for the official release (12:37 PM)

Xephyr

Museca is less crowded! (12:38 PM)

Gavin Booth

I’ll probably skip the games tomorrow in AnimeCon (12:39 PM)

Ray Anderson

Going to Japan next week possibly (12:40 PM)

Toshiyuki Ryuzaki

What? You’re gonna play Chunithm and Sound Voltex there again? (12:41 PM)

Neal Harrow

Our friend in this group going to Japan (12:42 PM)

Of course they’re going to arcades (12:43 PM)

Aishiro Daichi

Of course (12:43 PM)

***

Welcome to Museca 1+½!

After waiting for less than forty minutes, Ian finally got his turn playing Museca in AnimeCon, with Amy, Aishiro, Xephyr, and Norcross watching behind him. Ian immediately looked at the song list.

After looking for several songs, Ian decided to play Night of Knights with ORANGE difficulty for the first stage. As expected from a huge fan of Touhou Project, choosing Touhou Project songs to start playing the game.

As the song started, Ian got focused on the game and pressing corresponding spinners and pedals shown on screen, immediately showing that Ian began mastering the game. Aishiro looked at Museca’s cabinet screen in shock, confused with the falling notes appearing so fast.

“Oh man …,” said Aishiro. “I don’t know whether I wanna play this game ….”

“Just try the easiest first. Maybe try level 1 to 3 maybe?” offered Xephyr.

Norcross looked at both lines in front of Beatmania IIDX and Sound Voltex cabinet. “Seriously, IIDX has lots of players waiting. I guess Ward’s gonna play soon.”

Ward talked to Dave, Don, and Toshi upon hearing the song he’d been hearing, “Wow, I think I’m going to add this to my YouTube playlist.”

“It’s damn beautiful!” said Dave.

Don read the song title that the current player played during his final stage. “Preserved Valkyria.”

“What song you’re going to play, Ward?” asked Toshi.

“Me? I don’t know yet. I guess I can play level 11 already since I passed a level 10 track,” Ward replied. “Or maybe level 12.”

“What the? Ultimate Chain already!” shouted Dave pointed on the screen showing the current player getting all combo.

“Wow. That was unexpected,” said Don.

“I’m trying level 12 at the first stage,” Ward revealed.

“What? Already?” asked Dave.

“Dave, remember when you fall in love with Hoshi no Utsuwa after playing it with level 9 ADVANCED? You even didn’t play any of level 8 songs before it.”

“Ward, your turn,” Don said as the current player let Ward to start playing.

Ward immediately tapped his eAmuse ID card and inserted his PIN as the staff member giving him 6 credits like he requested. Ward picked Standard Start mode before choosing his appeal card to start the game.

He looked around the Touhou Project folder to choose the song. It was shown that he already cleared Silent Story EXHAUST level 11 with A+ rank. He also cleared Runway Drive EXHAUST level 11 with A rank.

He looked forward for the level 12 songs with EXHAUST difficulty inside Touhou Project folder. The songs that he found included Bad Apple!!, Hail Storm, Starlight Vision, Iro Wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo, and Blue Fire.

He finally ended up playing Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo with EXHAUST difficulty level 12. He adjusted the speed to 4.7x just before the song started.

“Isn’t it just too fast?” asked the previous player who looked at Ward playing the game.

Ward started the first stage fairly well, he pressed corresponding buttons and spinning the knob just as shown on screen in time, even though he missed several. Eventually, he began to struggle with the knob part during the chorus.

Even worse, he was shocked upon he needed to press two large effectors buttons and spinning the right knob at the same time in the end of the song. He freaked out when he struggled with them until he ended up reaching 0% effective rate. Clearly, he didn’t reach 70% effective rate as he ended up failing the song.

TRACK CRASH

“Ah!!” shouted Ward.

“Damn!” shouted Toshi.

“My first track crash!” shouted Ward.

“Wow,” Dave got speechless.

***

“Finally!” Hans finally got his turn playing Beatmania IIDX.

Beatmania IIDX was actually a spin-off to Beatmania, the first ever Konami’s rhythm game the revolutionized games forever. Both Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX cabinet resembled DJ table complete with turntables. The difference, Beatmania had only 5 keys, while Beatmania IIDX had 7 keys, both resembled piano keys and were color coded in the same fashion.

Hans finally stood up in front of the screen and controller before tapping his eAmuse ID card and inserting his PIN. Afterwards, he was offered with two modes, Single Play and Double Play. He chose Single Play since he was only going to use the left player side.

Once again, he was offered with four modes: Step Up, Standard, and Class. Step Up mode was perfect for beginners, Standard was for the usual way to play IIDX like in other rhythm games, and Class was for benchmark the player’s skill by playing the course of four songs without failing. Hans decided to choose Standard mode.

Afterwards, he had to choose the song for the first stage. There were more than 900 songs to choose from, mostly original songs. For the song select, the turntable was used for scrolling through the songs. White buttons for begin playing the song and open the folder, black button to close the folder.

Hans chose to play Dadadadadadadadadada with NORMAL level 5 difficulty for the first stage, much to Ed’s shock. Ed didn’t expect that Hans would play some kind of memetic song for the first stage.

There were 8 columns on Beatmania IIDX’s cabinet screen, corresponding to each of the keys and the turntable. While playing, small horizontal bars fell straight through each of these columns, and the player had press the right key (or play the scratch) when the bar touches the bottom of the column, no sooner and no later. The correct timings for the notes would follow the beat of the music, so the player had to have a very keen sense of rhythm.

Every time a key was pressed or the scratch was played, an instrument was played to complement the song. So, in order to hear the song correctly, the player had to get the bars on the right timing. Additionally, the game showed a rating (flashing GREAT, GREAT, GOOD, BAD or POOR) for each falling bar that's played by the user. If the gauge reached 80%, the player would clear the stage.

Aishiro got distracted by hearing the song that Hans played on the first stage of his turn playing Beatmania IIDX. He got shocked to hear Dadadadadadadadadada part at the beginning of the song. He and Ed both focused on hearing the lyrics.

hirari, harari to midare mai

koyoi sakimasu ichirin no hana

kiite kudasai

dadadadadadadadadada

tobikau shisen ROCK shite henbou

ayashii emi de uchinuite shoudou

sono kan, wazuka reitenni~sanbyou

hamukau sube wa nai masani senkou

isso

hana ni natte chou ni natte yoru ni natte odore

hana ni natte chou ni natte yoru ni natte odore

hana ni natte chou ni natte yoru ni natte odore

hana ni natte chou ni natte yoru ni natte

daitai, nandakanda kuru zecchou

hadome wa kikazu koufun to nekkyou

buttobu yatsu kakete yo DJ

me no mae kyuu ni jigoku no DANCEHALL

hirari, hirari, kokoro ga hirari

yoru no BEAT ni mi wo makase

harari, harari, midarete harari

kurueru RHYTHM saa, ute!

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadadadada

kokoro ni karada ni kizamu kimi no BEAT

hana ni natte chou ni natte

ashita wa docchi dadada

“Wow!” said Hans upon finishing the first stage.

“That was cool!” shouted Ed.

“Aishiro, your turn!” said Amy.

“Oh! Okay,” Aishiro replied.

***

“That was awesome!” shouted Ian upon exiting the convention with the gang.

“Did anyone of you visit one of the booths?” asked Amy.

“I did, so did Dave and Aishiro. We looked at Aniplex, Sony Music, and Banpresto. Banpresto has cool Gunplas (Gundam Plastic)!” said Toshi.

“We also took some pictures in the photo booth,” Aishiro added.

“Check out what I’ve just bought!” Norcross showed the Beatmania IIDX 23 Copula Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 CD to everyone.

“What? You already bought something?”

“It’s from EXIT TUNES’s booth, right in front of Arcade Station’s. You can also buy some Vocaloid CDs there,” Hans added.

“YES! YES!” shouted Ward.

“Ward?” Aishiro got curious.

“Gavin will come here tomorrow! And he will give me his concert ticket!” shouted Ward. “Gavin actually bought two, but since his friend couldn’t make it to AnimeCon, he offered me to watch the concert with him instead.”

“Are we going to stay in the hotel tonight? We’re going to AnimeCon too tomorrow,” asked Xephyr.

“Lots of people will come tomorrow, we have to arrive by 7 o’clock,” Hans suggested as they walked away from the convention building.