Cytus (by Rayark Inc.) - Musical Rhythm

[nicoga3000]

So I went through and cleared everything on Easy and then Entrance on Hard (since I gathered it was the hardest song?). There's been a few gripes I've read in this thread so far, so I'll try and address the ones I can and make light of the game for those on the fence!

1) Timing is a bit off, but not so much that you can't pass songs. The black bar that passes over the note seems to be a bit early on a few songs. If the dev can adjust those songs a bit, things will be fine.

2) Song selection is good. It's hard to pin which music game this is most similar to (IIDX vs Pop'n vs Jubeat vs other stuff), but it's definitely more along the electronic side. The website for the game has a demo of the tracks I think, but if you're into the music game genre, you'll enjoy the music, no doubt.

3) The slider going up/down timing issues - you get the hang of this quick. If you wait for the bar to switch direction to time your hit, you're going to be off. Treat those notes like the streams they are and you won't have problems!

4) The difficulty isn't as high as I think some of us "Bemani veterans" would like, no. But this is definitely a step in the right direction. There's no rule that says 9 or 10 has to be the highest. If the dev supports DLC/IAP/new songs, he can take the difficulty up as high as he'd like (Pop'n uses a scale up to like 50 or so). So I think there's room for it. Mastering a song with 1 million points takes a bit of work (timing issues aside, ha).

5) Visually, the game is simple and effective - clean and minimal. This is something the devs DEFINITELY got right. Keeping the interface simple is awesome. Improvements here would be on the notes - give us the option to scale them down a bit. Sometimes, on the harder songs, the notes tend to clump together and make it slightly difficult to read.

Overall, for the asking price (be it $0.99 or $1.99 or whatever it goes up to), it would be a shame to pass this up. Easily one of the best music games on the platform.

[November's Chopin]

Originally Posted by metalcasket

Here you go Gabrien.

YouTube: video

Also, here's a link to previews of all the songs in the game: http://www.rayark.com/g/cytus/pv.html

I'd appreciate it if that link to YouTube and perhaps the preview link could be added to the OP. Thanks.

Done. Thanks for link. This is more similar to JuBeat I think than DDR.
I'm surprised little attention this is getting as well. But at this point probaby JuBeat is better as it's well-known and has more tracks.

[metalcasket]

Originally Posted by November's Chopin

Done. Thanks for link. This is more similar to JuBeat I think than DDR.
I'm surprised little attention this is getting as well. But at this point probaby JuBeat is better as it's well-known and has more tracks.

You totally didn't have to give me credit for providing the links. Truth be told, it's amusing how YouTube just assumes you're searching for "cyrus iphone" and links you to Miley Cyrus videos and then asks "Search instead for cytus iphone." If I didn't visit the official website, I would have assumed there wasn't even a video for this.

[Appletini]

IAP is fine; I'd have no qualms about paying a dollar for a pack of ten new songs, for example, but the devs should release them separately in their respective genres if they go this route.

While I like most of the music in the game, particularly the J-pop and gothic/instrumental works, there are one or two truly generic and outdated DDR-style techno tracks that I only played in order to unlock the next song, and wouldn't personally want to hear more of.

Holds should be reworked a bit, as at the moment timing doesn't really matter with them: as long as you're pressing down on the screen for the duration you'll still get a perfect even if you start pressing well before the bar even reaches the start of the hold. Hard mode should still provide some level of challenge for most casual gamers, but there could be an Insane mode for rhythm game veterans.

Crashes are also common on my 4th gen iPod Touch even after rebooting, and this doesn't appear to be an isolated case.

[airdan]

Lol this game is crazy. In a good way.

[tecwrtr]

Originally Posted by EightRooks

From a quick play through several songs on Easy, the timing seems okay to me - I'd rather have the hits a little loose. A couple of the note strings seem a bit arbitrary, in that I keep thinking they could have picked a more dramatic part of the music to match with, but it's nothing too annoying.

I also love rhythm games, but I'm not that good at them. I really like that the hits are a little loose. I appreciate that I can get by on Easy. I'm not getting perfect scores, but it's enjoyable and I keep advancing. Thanks for a great game!!

[EightRooks]

Although I prefer the timing loose (I did most of my DDRing on Stepmania, and I know some purists hate the timing on that) -

Originally Posted by Appletini

Holds should be reworked a bit, as at the moment timing doesn't really matter with them: as long as you're pressing down on the screen for the duration you'll still get a perfect even if you start pressing well before the bar even reaches the start of the hold.

- I definitely agree with this. It's a little frustrating when these are so lenient yet the fast runs will screw up if you're even slightly out (memories of running on the spot on a dance mat like an idiot, heh).

[tops2]

Wow! The video reminds me of Osu Tatakae Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, minus the annoying (to me) spinners. I may have to pick this up too, but the crashes are worry me. Damn ipod touch 4 with half of the memory..hopefully ipod touch 5 will have at least 512 megs of memory...

[justln]

Originally Posted by tops2

Wow! The video reminds me of Osu Tatakae Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, minus the annoying (to me) spinners. I may have to pick this up too, but the crashes are worry me. Damn ipod touch 4 with half of the memory..hopefully ipod touch 5 will have at least 512 megs of memory...

Lol I still remember the crazy spinning in Elite Beat Agent, scratched the hell out of my NDS screen protector. My friends thought I was crazy when I played that game. Good times, good times.

For those who never played Elite Beat Agent, it's similar to Cytus with the beat appearing on random spots of the screen. However, you are required to use the stylus and draw circles on the NDS to get points. The faster you spin, the more points you get.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4PEayCDtMQ
Around 1:50, the crazy spinning starts.

Come to think of it, EBA would really do well if it was released on iTunes. They would have to tweak the crazy spinning mechanism though.

[EightRooks]

Ouendan/EBA's spinners might actually be a lot better with a finger on a capacitive screen. It's a shame they couldn't release the originals overseas... the L'Arc En Ciel level is one of my favourite stages on a rhythm action game ever, even with the terrible cover version of Ready Steady Go they were using.

Cytus could really do with some tweaking to give a better idea of what order notes are coming in, though. On the more complex patterns it's pretty confusing, sometimes just a mess - you can get them with practice and general trial and error, which isn't so bad. Music games kind of need you to hear the song at least once to start doing well, after all. But the way it works at the moment could certainly be improved.