R1 - Actual Song Difficulties (game is inaccurate)

[User6773]

An old thread, but with R2 coming out, I think it's necessary to revive and sticky it.
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As everyone knows, the song difficulties are extremely messed up. So much so that according to the game, Lethal Injection is easier than Bubbleman. The primary problem is that there have been no standards for stepfile difficulty ratings. Think about it. Isn't it odd that no song in the game is easier than 2 foot? If Mario is 2 foot, then how easy would a 1 foot song be? So easy it's not even worth putting in the game? Was FFR Special Mix (when it existed) 1 foot?

We must eliminate the use of an arbitrary numerical system to rate stepfile difficulties. It is meaningless for a stepfile maker to assign a difficulty to his stepfile when he is not comparing it to anything else already in the game in doing so.

What I have devised is a standard for sorting songs into difficulty levels. It uses only 6 levels, not 10+, so it should be easier for stepfile artists to put their songs in the proper difficulty levels.

The levels are broken down as such:

Beginner: Very simple step patterns, nothing more complicated than quarter notes (except maybe a short pattern of eighths here or there.) Jumps are kept to a minimum.

Easy: Streams of quarter notes and streams of slow eighths. Jumps may be slightly more frequent. Sixteenth notes are practically nonexistant.

Intermediate: Fast streams of quarters and eighths, some with jumps in the stream. Sixteenth notes begin to show up more frequently, as well as awkward rhythms. Some songs may have similar step patterns as Easy songs, but Intermediate songs are usually faster.

Advanced: Requires very fast fingerwork, but still not too uncomplicated for most people to do. Fast streams of sixteenth notes are common, as are extremely awkward rhythms.

Expert: Difficult to read songs that are still doable, though not FC'able, by most good people without keysmashing. May contain very fast streams of sixteenth notes, and some 32nd notes in moderation. Requires far more skill than Advanced to rack up a sizeable combo.

Master: The hardest of the hardest - songs for folks like Reach, Nima, Arch0wl, etc. Hard to clear and even harder to score well on.

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That being said, I have sorted every song in the game into these new difficulty brackets. I hope they will soon be adopted, as it is a very accurate representation of difficulty, and is far more informative than the current system.


The letter before the name corresponds to the genre the song can be found in. This list took many hours to create, and I hope it is seriously considered.

Beginner
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(A) Mario 8Bit Eighties Remix
(D) Trip To The Moon
(D) Activity Unbroken
(D) SkellyBones
(D) Computer Dreams
(D) Dance 2 This
(D) Halcyon
(D) The Color of Battle
(H) Love You Anymore
(H) Seattle's Finest
(H) 100 Bar Blackout
(H) This Beat Is For Tha Streets
(H) Freak Out
(R) Stay With Me
(R) For Who I Am


Easy
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(A) Bubbleman Stage Theme
(C) Moonlight Sonata
(D) 136.6
(D) Soul Shift
(D) Get on The Move
(D) Story of Snowman and Sunshine Girl
(D) Falling Into You
(D) Spontaneous Hydroxide
(D) Raindrops
(D) Euphoria
(D) Salad For Your Tuesday
(D) Terror From Beyond
(F) Cat Walk 2
(F) Too Tight
(F) Funk In G
(H) Return F Superdouble
(R) Resistance


Intermediate
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(?) Burnout
(?) Secret Zombie Room
(?) La Luna Caida
(?) Ingenuity
(A) Boss Machine
(A) One Last Battle
(A) Megaman 2 Dr. Wily theme
(A) Crystalis House Leaves
(A) Metalman Goes Clubbing
(A) Legend of Zelda Remix
(A) 4FT3R M3
(D) Dendrite
(D) Alpha Helix
(D) Emotions
(D) Life Goes On
(D) Massive
(D) Breaking The Common
(F) Slap Guitar 2
(H) The Essential
(H) Shag
(M) Ball of Malt
(M) She Bangs William Hung Version
(P) Stay With Me v2
(R) Until The End


Advanced
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(?) Fett's Vette
(?) Abtrusity
(?) Green Twilight
(?) Water Like Pudding
(?) Synesthetic
(A) Final Fantasy 7 Battle
(D) Beethoven Virus
(D) Blank Knowing
(D) Contra-distinction
(D) Stalled Out & Sushi Bars
(P) NeoMAX
(R) Last Firstborn


Expert
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(?) For FFR
(?) Lethal Injection
(A) Chrono Trigger Boss Theme
(C) Rondo Alla Turca
(D) CIA Rave
(D) Uber Rave
(P) Party 4u 'holy nite mix'


Master
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(C) Revolutionary Etude
(C) Flight of the Bumblebee
(C) One Minute Waltz
(C) Caprice
(C) Molto Vivace
(D) HELLBEAT
(D) RunnyMorning (SGX Mix)
(P) AIM Anthem
(P) Silence


Thoughts? Suggestions? Everything is welcome.

EDIT: Moved Uber Rave because I was thinking about doing what Fusi0n suggested, and his suggestion sealed the deal.

EDIT: Blank Knowing was accidentally in Beginner. Thanks to aperson for pointing it out.

[fusi0n]

in my opinion, Uber Rave would be in expert, not master.

nice work though, we do need a new system.

[User6773]

Done.

[VxDx]

I didn't read all of it, but hellbeat should be expert not master IMO. I can pass it easily.

[Blox]

Eh, 4F73R M3 may not be that difficult of a song but it has some odd points and a nice mix of various step patterns. Plus the ending and a small portion of the middle are relatively fast. On the other hand, I don't think it would be right on the next list with the other songs in that division. Making this paragraph irrelevant.

Right.

Well, what I was trying to lead to is the FF7 theme. 4F73R M3 is DEFINITELY more difficult in all aspects to FF7, and it is on the easier list. However, as I said above, 4F73R M3 does not fit with the harder songs. My suggestion would be to put FF7 in the slightly easier difficulty rating.

[ImEric12]

I definately agree.. I'm around the difficulty level of 'Difficult', but I started playing some Very Difficult songs the other day, and realized I can pass most of them, whereas there are quite a few difficults I can't pass.

[Freak83]

Lethal Injection is not meant to be in the catagory that you have it in right now.
Acording to the way you listed it, the way I made it I had thought it to be much closer to advanced songs than expert ones.

I did a similer thing for the FFR League. Going over every song in the game (at the time I made it), except I sorted it into beginner, average, advanced, and expert, and then assigned it 1-3 stars depending on how it fit into that difficulty.

[User6773]

Actually, Freak, this difficulty system was inspired by the groupings in the FFR League.

[Moogy]

The only classical song that counts for anything is Molto Vivace... the others are retarded and don't go to the music...

[Freak83]

Actually, Freak, this difficulty system was inspired by the groupings in the FFR League.

Ah, I see

The only classical song that counts for anything is Molto Vivace... the others are retarded and don't go to the music...

Doesn't mean they're not fun to play still


[/quote]

[wildman]

Thanx! This will make it much easier to determine what kind of song we would be playing.....cuz you got to admit, Lethal Injection is an expert song and not just "tricky"!

[aperson]

Blank Knowing isn't really a beginner song, more like advanced.

[Privateer]

With speed mods available, nothing should be too hard to read. If it is, that means it's retarded.

[User6773]

Blank Knowing isn't really a beginner song, more like advanced.

Don't know how I missed that, must have been a mistake. Fixed.

[User6773]

Added more recent songs to the list.