Plaidophile

This entry will probably not make any sense to anyone else because I am basically drunk on music.

IIDX 6th Style (henceforth IIDX-6) came out in 2001 in Japan, and is actually a little older than the previous mix I'd played extensively (Beatmania 6th+Core Remix which came out in 2002 for the PS1, henceforth 6+CR), but it's interesting how even though this is technically older, it feels like a much newer game, probably because it's on the PS2 and in the IIDX series and Konami were experimenting with things a lot more. In retrospect, 6th+Core Remix feels like a PS1 backport and simplification of this one. In any case the series numbering is pretty complex since there isn't any one single series; Beatmania I, IIDX, and III are all numbered separately, and within them there's a split between the arcade series and the home series.

IIDX 6 has a bunch of game modes, each with different rules about which songs are available and at which difficulties. It's kind of confusing, and it doesn't help that all of the explanatory text is in Japanese. What I've found so far is that "beginner" mode is basically like "free" mode except most of the songs are unlocked at the outset (yay!), but the difficulty level ramps up pretty quickly (boo!). Arcade mode has 7key (where you can select difficulty on a per-song basis), 7key Light (where you're fixed to the beginner difficulty — I think, although some of the songs in 7key Light seemed more difficult than I remember them being in beginner), 5key (like 7key except that the top two keys automatically play for you), expert (same concept as in all previous mixes, with multiple courses like in 6+CR), and a couple of modes that need unlocking.

There's also a "drill" mode, like the tutorial modes in DDR MAX and the like, which give you lessons in playing. All the text is in Japanese but it's pretty obvious what's being trained in each one.

There's also "music clip" mode which is basically free mode except with an emphasis on the music video (and apparently you can have it turn the game engine off entirely and just show you the video with the music on auto-play) and a bunch of unlockable artwork, movies (expert players playing expert songs way better than I could ever hope to, where on a bad day they get one "great" instead of a perfect streak of "just great"), and probably a few other things I haven't discovered yet.

The song selection is excellent. A lot of it feels redundant with Beatmania US (which is ostensibly based on IIDX 9, except with a lot of the songs replaced with bland American mainstream music) but even the songs in common with US are a lot more difficult in the Japan version.

On the plus side, I finally set up my controller to put the turntable on the left and am finally getting used to that. I was used to the turntable on the right from Beatmania I (where it wasn't an option) and I think that was a big part of why the game was so hard on my left wrist (which I've always had more trouble with than my right). I was able to play it much longer than usual before having wrist pain. It probably also helps that the IIDX controller uses the arcade key spacing (unlike my knockoff DJ MAN controllers which are spaced more like a traditional synthesizer) so my hands have to move around a lot more.

Beatmania US was pretty good practice to get familiar with the IIDX controller, but still not enough for the amazing level of HOLY COW that IIDX 6 brings. It is clearly not a game for people new to Beatmania. Even in beginner mode, the difficulty ramps up very quickly. I seriously doubt I'll ever be able to clear a good chunk of the songs here, although oddly enough I did manage to full combo a bunch of songs on my first time playing them (and not 1* ones, either).

Also, having collected a lot of BEMANI soundtracks over the years (even without access to the games themselves) it was a lot of fun to finally play the songs I'd heard so many times. That also helped a lot since I knew a lot of the weirder rhythms beforehand.

Anyway, this will definitely tide me over until my backordered copy of IIDX 16 (Empress+Premium Best) arrives. When I finally get that I'm sure I'll have to gush a bunch about how much things have changed again. Or maybe I'll be mad because IIDX 16 will be well after all of the old-guard musicians had left Konami and all the music is completely different than what I'm used to. IIDX 6 has a really good mix of the old-ish and new-ish styles (pretty much the same style mix as 6+CR, really, although there aren't many songs in common between them) but who knows what 16 is like.

Also, IIDX 16 is the last PS2 one, but there's plenty of other PS2 mixes I can get to justify getting the PS2 Slim (and anyway I got it just as much to replace my dying PS1 as for everything else). Fortunately, when PS3 Beatmania comes out, I'll be able to play it on my US PS3, as PS3 games aren't region-locked. Hopefully it'll be possible to find a decent controller adapter when that happens, though (or maybe there'll be PS3-specific controllers that aren't too horrifically expensive). Actually, that would also make it so that I could play my DDR games on the PS3, which is also handy since it seems like my US PS2 is starting to die as well.

Oh, a word of caution for people who import a Japanese PS2: Japan's power outlet is different from the US (which I knew), and the US PS2 power cable doesn't fit into the Japan PS2 (which I didn't know). Fortunately, I happened to have another power cable around which did fit (from a charger for a Samsung camera I haven't used in years) so I was able to get going without any socket adapters. (The PS2 itself has a multi-voltage power supply built in, so you only need the right cable. No voltage converter or anything is necessary.)

The actual power plug on the Japanese PS2 is interesting; it's actually a European plug that's screwed into a EUR→JP adapter, with an extra fuse inside the adapter. So if you want to import a Japanese PS2 to Europe, you don't have to worry about plugs (although you do have to worry about video formats, obviously).