Mugen no Hikari (夢幻ノ光) and a brief discussion of DDR charts

Mugen no Hikari (夢幻ノ光), featured in DDR SuperNova, has what is probably my favorite expert chart for BOTH singles and doubles play overall so far.  This is a song that was originally featured in Pop'n Music and was then ported over to DDR.

Video of the expert singles chart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlc8NhiBhWo

Video of the expert doubles chart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2t_OGbdx3o

If you are a DDR player and have not checked out this song, I'd highly recommend it.  This is not the most difficult song: it's rated at an 8 on the "old" scale and an 11 on the "new" scale.  If you are comfortable with most expert songs you should have no problems with this one.  It does feature crossover patterns, but the tempo is slow enough that you can get away with doublestepping them as well.

The relatively "moderate" difficulty (which of course is completely relative) is probably the only "downside" I really have with this chart.  But it speaks volumes that even though this is quite an easy song for me to pass and doesn't have much for me in the "challenge" department, it's still extremely enjoyable to play.

This chart nails it for me on several different axes:

1) The song itself is tasteful and enjoyable to listen to, and features several different sections.  The fusion of traditional Japanese instrumentation riffs with guitars and vocals is done very well here and even the keychange for the last section of the song feels very natural and not forced at all.  There is actually a lot to listen to in this track -- on first listen you'll probably gravitate towards the vocals, but on a second listen, you'll notice that there is a lot of other stuff to absorb with the traditional wind and plucked instruments in the background.  The fact that the song has several distinct "sections" really helps with the step variety.  Speaking of which...

2) The stepchart features a variety of different enjoyable rhythms and "sections".  There's some sections with a lot of syncopations, there's some sections with more jumps, there's some sections with freeze arrows, and even some triplet fills, not to mention the crossover patterns sprinkled about here and there.  While I'm OK with a mindless stream-based chart from time to time, the most enjoyable charts tend to be those that really change it up in terms of what they offer from section to section.  DDR charts are usually pretty ok with this, but this chart I feel like is a step above the rest.  It's always fresh, since it keeps on changing the pace.  Guitar Hero and Rock Band charts on the other hand are probably the antithesis of this and is part of the reason why those charts can get so goddamn boring to play even the first or second time around.

3) The stepchart also features some interesting footwork and crossover patterns.  The footwork is intricate enough to provide a point of interest, without forcing you to do anything that is awkward or complex.  This is difficult to describe to anyone who is not familiar with DDR and I admit that even I am probably not the best person to talk about it due to my lack of experience (especially with doubles).  The best example I can give of "interesting crossover patterns" is in AA where you go directly from a crossover pattern pivoting on one foot to a different crossover pattern where you pivot on the opposite foot.  Mugen no Hikari doesn't have a ton of difficult crossovers or anything, but it has enough to make things interesting, the simple act of doing a crossover and then uncrossing has a satisfying feel in terms of body mechanics.  There are no awkward double-steps here in the entire chart UNLESS you misread the crossover patterns, and even then, it's not particularly punishing because of the tempo.  The freeze notes here are very enjoyable too, even though they are not very difficult to read.

4) The stepchart rhythms fit together with the song in a satisfying way.  This is maybe the most subjective point here but I feel like it is actually one of the most important.  DDR is an interesting beast when compared to something like IIDX and Pop'n music because generally speaking, the steps are not charted to directly match the notes in the music.  There are several reasons for this:

A: Trying to place a step on every significant hit on the music results in too many steps.  IIDX and Pop'n music can get away with this because your fingers and hands can hit many more notes than your feet.  In DDR the steps must be simplified compared to the rhythms of the songs.

B: Even if you =could= place a step on every significant hit on the music, often that results in a very awkward and unsatisfying chart.  You see this all the time in fan-made stepcharts where ev-ery sin-gle vo-cal syll-a-ble is a step.  It's actually less satisfying to play charts of this type because they feature very unnatural rhythms.  It's simply awkward to step in very irregular ways, which is why the vast majority of stepcharts (and good stepcharts) don't feature lots of 16th notes everywhere.  They rely on simple red and blue notes -- 8th note streams, and syncopations, with occassionally some 16th note-based rhythms or triplets here and there to fill things out.

The best stepchart rhythms are the ones that synchronize with the music in a meaningful way, but do not correlate =directly= to the notes of the music.  This is because the rhythm of your feet then BECOMES ANOTHER INSTRUMENT in the arrangement of the song.  It feels as if you are "drumming with your feet" and thus are actually playing along with the song as if you were a member of the "band".  Mugen no Hikari does this very well, in my opinion.  The syncopation of the rhythms is very distinct and matches the song well, but the accents of the steps don't match up directly with any particular instrument.

Ironically, songs like The Legend of Max and Maxx Unlimited are also very good at this sort of "using your feet as another rhythmic layer" feeling.  I think this is because these songs are getting into the territory where your feet are actually stepping fast enough to actually make something that feels like percussive drum rhythms, but despite that, these songs throw in enough syncopations and rhythmic variations that you aren't just streaming 8th notes all the time.

Anyways, yeah, this has to be my favorite DDR song right now.