Pop'n Music time!

After some time playing Beatmania IIDX it was time to hook up my Pop'n Music Controller and try to see if I can clear at least some songs. Quite a while ago, the last time I played, I realized that I can hardly clear some level 30 songs. Since I was able to clear some level 40 songs the when I stopped playing PNM it was quite depressing.

This time I decided to play more often than once in a few years so I can possibly get back to my previous level or at least be able to play songs I like in the 30-40 level range.

The first day I played PNM after very long pause I encountered the same problem as with IIDX. My arms ached terribly when trying to play a level 30 song. So I had to fallback to lower level songs. I settled with 28. In few days I could start playing harder songs but obviously there are songs I can hardly read and my previous results were in 99k range. Not they were more like 72-89k, which may also have something to do with my clear rate. I also realized that I haven't played too many EX songs, so I started clearing those from level 27-30 on PNM17 and cleared them all. To my surprise they seemed easier than some of the hyper songs in the vicinity. I cleared the EX songs on my first try compared to some hyper songs I had to actually replay and some I didn't clear even after a 5th attempt. There is one song I managed to fail 5 times in a row by missing the last few notes!

Last time I got confident enough to try some 35 level songs. I came close to clearing them but failed and the score was also nowhere near the previous score saved. But I played the whole song without the need to stop mid-song and I could still move my arms after it^_~.

To see how my hands/arms move when I play I recorded few videos but uploaded just one (or rather two because I also got a song request by Cynthia Wijaya.). Here's the first video I recorded (凛として咲く花の如く hyper 33).

Honestly after spending few days playing Beatmania IIDX quite a lot I expected the transition to PNM to be smoother, but I was so wrong. Obviously part of the problem why I can't clear some songs in my reading ability. Sometimes I just can't read all the colorful pop-kuns. I tried switching to beat-kun and realized that I can actually read those and see patterns in that. I probably need to develop speed and strength as well before I can play songs I was used to playing and clearing.

Anyway I had fun and that's why I made this post. I'll try to get better! If you have a song challenge, send it my way! (for either PNM or IIDX)