[Ascendance’s Rain]
00:12:575 (2) – remove reverse Why? There's a vocal there
00:13:587 (2) – remove Why? There's a sound there
00:25:216 (1,2,3,4) – Decide on one type of movement here since music require nor support change in movement. 00:26:564 (3,4) – This movement is fine for both. The short, accentuated syllables are kinda neat and just doing a back-forth movement here would be incredibly boring. It's also to emphasize a change in vocals from 00:19:823 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2) - and to create a lead-in to the next section.
00:29:935 (5) – Both slider head & tail hits on low decibel sounds. If you’re trying to emphasize the FX it’s very strange to have such a wide spacing and changing direction with the slider, nothing really supports such movement. Hitsounds does not really support this as well for obv reasons. I could also make the argument that a low decibel sound like that shouldn’t that similar movement to previous notes which are actually ‘high decibel’. Two alternatives are to adjust both hitsounds and movement to fit the audio level of the FX or change previous circle (4) into a longer slider. I'm just following the same emphasis pattern I've been doing for the entire map, with things like 00:32:632 (2,3) - , 00:35:328 (4,5) - etc. It's weird to only be pointing this one out.
00:31:283 (3) – You could make the argument for this being simplified rhythm, but I digress.
This part is probably the most controversial part because this is the only diff in the set that uses this choice of rhythm, both standard and ctb. This uses apart from the other difficulties puts focus on adding movement to very low decibel sounds. Quick examples are: 00:31:283 (3) - 00:33:980 (2) - 00:35:328 (4). The reason this both sounds and plays strange is because the use of two rhythms. Let me break this down.
00:30:609 (1,2) – These two hits on drum respectively synth. When starting a new segment like this you create the expectation that moving forward these two sounds will be played. Then (3) hits on a white tick, too late for a drum and too early for a vocal. One could already conclude that something is wrong when second drum is missed and the first vocal comes in the form of a slider body. Slider body ends (3) on a synth and vocal which is then followed up by two vocals in the form off a 1/4 circle and a white tick slider. The synth is now a passive sound and we’re introduced to two active vocals, both in terms of timeline and placement on the grid. A new assessment can be made which is that vocals will be focused next. Moving on, the white tick slider 00:31:957 (1) – which ends on a red tick and is not followed up with a 1/4 vocal continues into a new white tick slider which is followed up with a 1/4 circle 00:33:137 (3). Pattern breaks once again and vocal loses some of its emphasize. Next up is a vocal that is represented with a white tick slider 00:33:306 (1) – but this time ends on a passive synth with no vocal attached to the end and vocal at 00:33:811 is left non-emphasized. General pattern and expectation disappears and a new ‘rhythm’ is introduced which are the 1/2 sliders that start on an empty beat 00:33:980 (2,3,4).
To conclude this/tl;dr it’s clearly shown that there is lacking a consistent rhythm. A lack of consistent rhythm makes it uncomfortable to play because expectations is changed constantly. This of course alters how the map plays and together with copy and pasted hitsounding it makes for a messy section. I have no idea how rhythm can be inconsistent when I've pretty much copypasted my rhythms throughout the map lol. It's almost impossible to emphasize vocals due to snapping issues, and because I want to create contrast with Spec's diff, this is the result. I see no issues with the simplification of the rhythm throughout this section.
00:47:295 – misses a 1/4 that has been consistently placed throughout the current section it’s in. This 1/4 is being left out to emphasize upcoming vocals 00:47:463 (2,3) – which is fine. Expectation is made that vocals are going to be the focused but upcoming sliders 00:48:137 (4,5,1) – are underemphasizing the vocals and miss leaves key vocal sounds out. This is pretty much the same issue as previous point and something that is important to note is that this is a rain; it does not have to be this oversimplified and standard difficulties such as easy, normal, hard uses more advanced rhythm in multiple places than this difficulty which is a rain (approximately an Insane). This one is my mistake, so I re-added the 1/4.
Kiai times and general high tempo sections are done way better than the slow parts. The slow parts that are after kiai’s and high tempos sections which I have not mentioned ‘suffers’ from the same thing which is inconsistent rhythm.
So, what I’m trying to mediate if you don’t get it already is that a lot of rhythm choices are questionable and are very inconsistent especially in slower parts. I would highly suggest a revisit and create a more structured rhythm which will both satisfy more people musically but also in gameplay since that too will feel more structured and thought-out. And you know I won’t accept my style argument if it’s not very well backed up. Also, for god’s sake adjust the hitsounds so it fits your rhythm, I don’t mean to be an ass but I can’t see how copy-pasted hitsounds that are not modified are getting qualified to begin with. :P