Harmonix vs. Bemani

**deathrazor** · Joined: 11 Mar 2008 Posts: 56

God for a second there I thought I was on bemanistyle...

The main problem with this is that it comes down to a simple thing: opinion. Musically I enjoy just about anything that has a good sound to it. As far as notecharts are concerned, that too is down to opinion. I like the majority of GH charts, I like the majority of the Bemani charts.

The other problem is that you are comparing a brand that covers more than the guitar/drums (Bemani) to something that is a lot more straightforward. Unless you want to throw Frequency/Amplitude in the mix :>

**FreQman** · Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 926

Whilst I was on holiday I was playing Drummania a lot, and I was more than pleased with it. The songs were pretty fun, and I was pretty good at it (Advanced w/ Auto Bass at least). It's too bad arcades where I live are a pile of dog shit and don't have Drummania (one used to but it got stashed away in the back for some reason).

By the way, Drummania V4 RockxRock has an atrociously horrid yet laughable Engrish cover of Fat Lip.

**animekid3515** · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 247

I recently started getting into bemani (local arcade has IIDX happy sky and drummania V4) and for the sake of proper argument, drummania has a MASSIVE variety of music. (IIDX music is very "samey" I've noticed)
you get the heavy metal that you find whored-out in guitar hero (master track of nemesis!! yes!) but it's not just rock and metal.
it's guitar and drum music, any song that contains drums and guitar is eligible to be on guitar freaks, and by god they'll shove it in there, you find metal, jazz, soft rock, even techno, trance and electronica-style music that has drums and guitar in it (e.g kagonotori)
I was 4-starring most songs on guitar hero on expert and then I moved onto DJMAX portable 2, it was REALLY hard picking it up, I could barely do level 5 songs, but I had just started out and my timing was fine.
then I was getting good scores on level 8-9 songs, full comboing most.
then I realized: I was on easy mode! all this time I thought I had great timing I was on easy mode, so I switched over to normal and back down to beginner songs I went ;_; now 6 months after my initial purchase I A'ing and A+'ing level 10 and 11 songs, games that have timing and accuracy as well as combo's are a lot harder to get up to top level on, but this increases longevity, I finished expert on guitar hero 2 a month after I first got it, versus 6 months, and all the songs are very enjoyable to me, I play about 6-7 different songs actively on it, as opposed to the 3-4 I was actively playing when I beat guitar hero 2 on expert.

I've matured from guitar hero, but some people's stuck-up attitude about bemani gets in the way and they stay ignorant of it their whole lives because guitarfreaks/drummania fans have been total dicks about how similar GH and GF are.

even though konami are starting to make slightly different ripoffs of other games now (see: jubeat vs. EBA/ouendan)

**MilkChan** · Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 78 Location: Las Vegas, NV

**animekid3515** · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 247

Well, the J-pop really only infested 12 happy sky, distorted was more filled with more hardcore and heavier stuff, I mean in general it's all electronica stuff, 'tis why I prefer pop'n music as a non-themed rhythm game.

**KrakenEater** · Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 1053 Location: Seattle, WA

Songs: I would say that Harmonix chooses fun songs in rock, and bemania chooses fun songs in all genres. I'd have to side with Bemania on this one, you get much more diversity.

Scoring systems: I think that harmonix wins, hands down. I don't like timing values; they take away from the fun of the game. I think that they force the player to concentrate more than in enjoyable. In short DDR songs this is no big deal, but who really wants to play 10 minutes of Freebird hardly blinking? This would also cause major problems with wireless controllers. The timing window for Stepmania is .0225 seconds (22 milliseconds) for a marvelous (I don't know the number for other versions). If your wireless guitar (like my LP) has more than 11 ms of lag, then you wouldn't get the marvelous. It doesn't seem that bad, but a 22 ms timing window vs. a 150 ms timing window - 150 is a lot more fun to me. Also, I think grinding for an FC is a lot more fun than grinding for a AAA.

charts: Definitely harmonix. Bemania has a totally skewed difficulty system: in DDR, you have some charts like 'Genie in a Bottle' and others like 'PSMO'. I don't think that anything in GH has that much of a difference. Also, GH charts are just more enjoyable to me. Though Bemania does have more speed mods, which is a good thing.

Timing windows: a more generous timing window makes the game a lot more fun for me, because instead of worrying about getting perfect on every step, I simple have to hit them. This is way more fun for me: instead of playing a long, preparing for a hard solo, and I accidentally get a great and have to restart. That isn't very much fun. Also, does it really matter if everyone is getting FCs? There still aren't that many ties on the leaderboard for most songs. Oh yeah, and squeezing FTW. I say that squeezing is harder that perfect attacking. Which do you think is easier: FCing Yes We Can on the GH1 engine, or hitting the squeezes in the GH2 engine? For a bemania example, is it easier to get a AAA with all perfects, or a A with all greats? I think that squeezing adds a great new spin on rhythm games.

Survivability: Idunnolol. I hate that in bemania games, one hard section can kill you super fast. In harmonix games, one hard section can kill you kind of fast (jordan).

perfectionist: Harmonix games give a lot more room for error. I might pass Jordan with 75% - 1500 notes hit, 500 notes missed. I might fail Paranoia Survivor with 100 perfects, 50 greats, 5 goods, 10 almosts and 10 boos. This doesn't affect the higher level players (FC/AAA is still there) but harmonix makes it easier for low level players.

Just my 2 cents.
_________________

My GH3 Scores - Your GH3 Scores
Useful links: Ewiggen's Google Search - GH1 - GH3 paths - PathHero - RB G/B paths - RB Drum paths - Signature Size Checker

**MethodMan** · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 29

Harmonix made Frequency and Amplitude therefore all of you who said Bemani are retarded.

**Matt** · Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 3780 Location: Bethel, Vermont

**BemaniAK** · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 73

**Dreminem** · Joined: 21 Mar 2008 Posts: 505 Location: Raleigh NC

I prefer Bemani and their scoring system completely. I hate how close together everyone is on skill levels because of the current scoring system.

Either make the timing window smaller or use a better scoring system. I haven't played about 60 of the songs on GH3 because they are too easy to FC and are basically boring to play. I hate squeezing and liked going for AA or AAA a lot more than trying to get perfect squeezes for some reason.

Maybe the rank just felt better than a few thousand points added onto your score.

Oops, compared Bemani to Neversoft.

Harmonix is alright but I would still prefer a different grading system although their song difficulty, timing window, and huge song selection (all rock, I know) make it better.

I still like Bemani better though. I love Drummania and really need to play Beatmania and popnmusic but I haven't had much time to get to those yet.
_________________

Goals for GH3:
Score 800,000 on TTFAF [x] (833,000)
Score 650,000 on TDWDTG [x] (652k)
Get 100% on 60 songs on expert [x] (64)
Get good at fast strumming [x]
Stay top 5 in RevDS and HooT [x]

**BemaniAK** · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 73

**agenttaco91** · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:02 pm Post subject:

this is a pretty old thread but I think I'm going to add my opinions. I prefer Harmonix, and mostly because of what the OP said.

People are saying the easy timing window makes it easy. However, there's ALWAYS a harder song, just move up. No one can say that DWDTG is easy. If it weren't for the easy window, I'd be playing like TWIE at best, and DWDTG would be no fun (which, btw, is EXTREMELY fun.)

And I'd like to add that I'm not just saying this because I'm bad at konami games. I can pass 10s on ddr, 38s on pop'n, and 11s on beatmania. Pretty good record, eh?

/my 2 cents
_________________

WT friend code
4167-7695-8535

rb2: 84/84 5 stars, 82/84 gold 5 stars (STTP and visions left)

**lordhardware** · Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 1

Have to say Bemani

rock revolution failed as a game yes... but the drums = better then rock band 1 and GHWTs

the song editor = WAY better then GHtunes...

putting that attrocity aside

DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN on GuitarFreaks/DrumMania V3

YOU CANT BEAT THAT!

3 buttons on guitar freaks and it was still hard as all hell.

and the drumming on drummania totally kicks arse.

Plus you ALL have to agree that no matter how big guitar hero or rock band gets. DDR will ALWAYS outlive it.

**BemaniAK** · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 73