Harmonix vs. Bemani

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

When it comes to music games, which company do you prefer?

I prefer Harmonix. Here's my reasons:

- Better scoring systems e.g. not always focusing on accuracy, using stars/bars for classifying ranking instead of those tacky letters etc.

- Better soundtracks. I'd rather play a game chock-filled with memorable and classic songs other than some weird anime songs or insanely-fast D'n'B mixes from Japan.

- Harmonix notecharts are FRIENDLY. Whilst Jordan or Hangar 18 may create slight nausea within some people, and Neversoft charts such as TTFAF or TDWDTG can make players throw up, some of the notecharts you'd find on DDR or such are able to make so many gamers' eyes and legs vaporize into thin air its not even funny. Even on an intermediate difficulty.

- More generous timing window. Love it or hate it, GH3's timing window is pretty generous to many, especially on insane HO/PO crazy solos. On a game like Guitar Freaks, a song like Hypnotica looks easy, but the ghey timing window is such a bastard you'd fail just like that.

- It's easier to survive. Bemani games require you to get your bar to a certain level, so even when you're just one bar away from passing, the game will fail you, and it would make some want to scream 'FUCK!' out loud in the arcade, causing security to escort you out and all because 'THERE ARE CHILDREN IN HERE ASSHOLE.' Harmonix games actually give you a chance. They don't really give a shit if your life-meter is in the orange or red, as long as you still have it, and you only lose if your life depletes completely.

- Harmonix doesn't always require you to be a perfectionist. For Bemani, it's either a perfect (or near-perfect, at least) score, or GTFO.

- They're different. Back then, Konami ruled the music video games industry, so you'd always find a Japanese music game in an arcade. I kinda god sick of it. I think Harmonix is possibly one of the only great, or perhaps THE only, music game companies in America, so when games such as FreQuency and Amplitude were created, America had a fighting chance against Japan in the music games industry.

So yeah, what do you guys think?

**pwndike** · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 169 Location: Eastern Mass

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

Ah, my bad. Fact must have slipped my mind. I'mma edit that.

**xxspinthediscxx** · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Bradenton FL

.....you like harmonix cause they make things easier T_T, this is why I hate America... bemani makes ACCURATE grading systems and has some what challenging charts, guitar hero HMMM ILL USE STAR POWERZZZ!! I R WIN, I got a 99% on my song! Well I got a 97% note hit and used star powerzz so you lose! MAKES NO SENSE! Star power is dumb, they need more accuracy and a better grading system thats why there are so many people so close to each other on the rankings, and I agree sometimes the music gets annoying, mostly for DDR but on IIDX or Pop'n they have some decent music...thats all master tracks because they flipping made it >.>. They ripped guitar hero from guitar freaks cause the US was to lazy to learn it cause it was actually difficult >.>. And now Dj hero WTF IS THAT BULLCRAP. If you want a challenge go pick up IIDX and dont get ADD with it actually play , instead of going "I give up this is to hard bemani sucks.." It took me no less than 2 weeks to beat Guitar hero 2 on expert when I hadnt even played the 1st one -_-.

**Fly1ngV** · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:51 pm Post subject:

I'm going to side with the Bemani factor of this one. heres why

Songs: a lot of the songs in bemani games are jsut plain more fun than Harmonix games. They aer also very incredibly diverse as opposed to the simple rock music in those games. I'm well rounded when it comes to music but some of the harder songs in bemani games are much better for me to listen to than in harmonix/activision games (Nageki No Ki vs Run to the Hills)

Scoring systems: the systems in bemani games don't make sense right away (mostly the money scores), but are better in the long run because you always know when you have a perfect score as opposed to GH/RB where you never quite know if that score is perfect or not. and the problem with only having one timing window in GH/RB is that the player is not rewarded for hitting a note perfectly every time. Hell as a matter of fact in GH you're rewarded by "Great Attacking" because of squeezing.

charts: though some are unfriendly (Holic [A]), they are overall more fun that GH/RB. and you can't use DDR as an example because thats like comparing apples and oranges. IIDX/popn or GF is better to compare. for the most part the charts in IIDX and popn follow what you would expect to see with a song like that (ie. Mei has a lot of drills, Vanessa has a lot of scales, etc). the only thing taht i will concede in respect to charts is that IIDX endings are almost always bullshit compared to the rest of the chart.

Timing windows: a more generous timing window makes the game a lot less fun because it quickly gets to a point where everyone is FCing/AAAing everything under the sun. at least with IIDX timing, only the best of the best will get a AAA on a song (which in theory isn't even that hard, you only need 90% of the maximum score)

Survivability: The only bemani games that have passmarks in them are IIDX and Popn. As far as the rest of the games go, the charts are done in a way where you have to be consistent through the whole song and the only way to fail near the end is to just be struggling the whole time and then finally run out of steam (the exception being IIDX, which was discussed in a previous section.)

perfectionist: it's not harmonix that requires you to be a perfectionist, it's the community that requires perfection out of its elite. and GH/RB is no exception. why even have a site like this if we don't want to stare in awe at the perfect players.

and the only justification that i can find for your last argument is that you're using a very Amerocentric view on your entire argument. You also neglect Andamiro with Pump It Up and Roxor (another american company) with In The Groove. And now with Andamiro making it's claim here in the United States, you'll be hard pressed to say that harmonix is the only great music game developer in this country.

I love both Bemani and GH/RB a whole hell of a lot. But for the sake of this argument, i'll have to pledge my allegiance to Konami.

**Backspace** · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 451

**Grimnir** · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:38 pm Post subject:

I agree with everything FlyingV said. I side with Bemoni. Although I'm not dropping GH over my preference lol, I can play multipul games ^_^ And I"m considering buying rock band too.

On a personal note, I'm not, and have never been a fan of the rock genre at all. I had never heard most of these songs before Guitar Hero brought them to me. And often I avoid songs because they sound retarded to me. I only return to these for the score (I'm highly competative lol) and would otherwise never play them at all.

However the drum n bass, and techno that bemoni brings are much more enjoyable to me. Songs like Nofia, butterfly, sakura, trip machine, those are all great ^_^

I haven't played a betmania game in a long ass time... I wonder if I should get a iidx controler and some discs instead of rock band ^_^ lol.

PS and to stress, as the scoreing system goes, I strongly prefer konami's perfect, great, good, miss system which shows not just that you hit it, but how exactly you hit it. This seperates players who can just pass a song, from ones who really nail it. I always wondered why harmonix went with a hit / miss rather than scaling your accuracy <_<
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**Matt** · Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 3780 Location: Bethel, Vermont

If you do not think that Bemani has diverse music, see Popn' music. I dare you to name a genre not in Popn' Music.
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**MilkChan** · Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 78 Location: Las Vegas, NV

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

Ah, you guys provide some good points. Makes me want to reconsider my decision a bit.

Forgot all about Pop'n'Music, stupid me.

Christ, I really need to rephrase my arguments.

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

**Grimnir** · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:05 am Post subject:

**Shift** · Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Posts: 562

I saw some Guitar Freaks videos. At first I thought it was cool. Then I realized that every song was Misirlou.

**adzicents** · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:44 am Post subject:

**xxspinthediscxx** · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Bradenton FL

Backspace: No its not that, its the fact that they don't want to spend time with it they just want to be good.
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