I wish I kept myself more reserved while mapping this, so it would have a chance of being rankable. However, I've given up and just made what it is. I probably won't even make lower diffs lol
The use of kiai and other stylistic effects is subjective. Using it for the highlighted instrumental section in the beginning of the song and the flashes in the chorus that reflect strong notes reflects contemporary usage of such stylistic effects (from what I have observed) and, if not distracting to the core gameplay, is not really an issue to the player.
While I have done my best to ensure that emphasised 1/2 beats are visually different from typical DS 1/1 beats, feel free to point out where else I have overlooked them. For now these two are fine in my opinion.
I find the spacing emphasis in the current arrangement to make more sense, but I believe that applying CTRL+G to 00:41:048 (4) - will flow better, and it would also work if the spacing of 00:41:571 (1,2) - was reduced slightly. I'll apply this suggestion so let me know.
What would your suggestion be here? The only thing I could think of is mapping to the hi-hat but the other objects aren't either - bear in mind that I made this 4 years ago so I would love to update the style, but at this moment I'm open to suggestions that don't introduce too much rhythm density at this part.
Ditto with SV and for rhythm change I will replace 00:24:182 (2) - 00:26:777 (2) - with a circle. (The 1-sliders are on held piano, so will keep those.)
Keeping the vocal representation is of course the intention but once again, the snare in my humble opinion absolutely has to be mapped to prevent jarring from a passive rhythm or even no rhythm being mapped to it. Admittedly, the rhythm is on the denser side for this small section, although it poses little gameplay issue. However, I have no viable alternative that gives the same effect of managing song representation and gameplay.
Response was with regards to song representation, but on the subject of strain, it really should not be an issue when players have experienced longer sliders on easier difficulties. That's also what I indicated in my reply. (I only check mods when mapset host tells me to so please PM if you need urgent replies.)
I believe the increase in rhythm density is justified as this section is clearly more intense than the first verse - most notably the second verse has an active guitar playing that was not present earlier. Furthermore, it would be jarring to skip the loud snare on 00:32:066 and I would be more inclined to remove the circle on 00:32:229 (3) - instead. Either way, this is currently kept as it is.
Not really an issue in my opinion, these are pretty simple objects and the player should be able to follow them just fine if they can do easy difficulties. As for intensity wise, there is differentiation between seconds through active clicking density - again, the music is represented here with a less intense rhythm. Overall, I don't think it's a major issue.
Doing so would force all of similar sliders to be 1/2 reverse as well. I think I will keep this for now since it would help lower the density for this part
00:19:726 (3,4,1,2,3) - Changed to exactly as you have suggested
00:31:726 (2,3) - I may want to change this but I would need further advice. (It has not been changed at the time of this post)
00:34:483 (2,3) - 00:37:077 (2,3) - Change to 2 circles with 3/2 gap
00:42:104 (2,3) - Change to circle, 1/1 rest, 1/2 slider
00:46:807 (2) - I want to continue with vocals so I will change this to 1/1 then 1/2 instead of your suggestion, but thanks anyway
00:49:402 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1) - As you have suggested, but I will do it twice since the rhythm is exactly the same. Apply similarly to 00:59:780 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1) -
This was similar to the rhythm that I mapped originally but was changed due to https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/1521290/discussion/3142069/timeline#/2520494. I will probably need some further elaboration for this.
Yeaaa I don't map normals that often so I will try it out. Please do follow up when I push an update for this, but take your time. I will see if the timeline suggestions will help with this issue, thank you.
I hear a double vocal sound for the first one and just an extended vocal for the second one. The rest of this section follows the vocals (except filler rhythm when there are no vocals for two or more beats) so I think it makes more sense to leave these for now.
The density is fine at for the first and second points. For the third point, I'd prefer to keep the rhythm consistent with 01:11:132 (4) - since it's probably more intuitive for normal difficulty players.