IndyDDR.com

I am very interested in getting DJMAX Trilogy, but the price ($65 after shipping cause it's in a decent sized box) kind of makes me hesitant. Also, there have been a few horror stories of people with USB keys that stop working for reasons they can't figure out which is bad cause without the key the game can't even be played.

So far, I haven't had any problems with it. The main problem I have w/ the game is that you have only a handful of songs to start off with. You reeeeeally have to grind for the rest.

I know that the grinding process is a bit of a pain, but I can understand the reasoning as they are using the DJMAX/o2Jam leveling system. The issue I'm worried about is the usb key crapping out as some people have had that problem.

Riot wrote:Which mission are you at?

The one that I have to get 100% on like, 4 songs. I got 2 songs (Ready Now, and some easier one). Can't get the other 2. I would always end up getting like 99.9% or 99.8%.....grrr...

dr88

Yeah that club is annoying, and the one like 2 or 3 mission clubs after that is annoying too where you have to get really high scores. I haven't played in a few months now I forget the names.

Great, now I fear what I'll have to face when I get Black Square.

Trilogy: The Memory of the Wind sounds really good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTsJTAfzzE

And there are several other songs that really gave me an urge to buy this game. Hope I have filthy load of money so I won't have to worry about spending too much to by Trilogy....

dr88

I got to play the PSP version for the first time last week and I'll list my pros and cons about the game.

Pros:
- Well done graphical engine
- Good notecharts for a handheld console which can only use thumbs
- Pretty well done sync from what I played.
- Decent sized songlists for the releases given the UMD format.

Cons:
- Fever multiplier is a pain in the ass due to it requiring manual activation.
- Thumbstick hits feel gimmicky at best and really have no logical reason to exist.
- 8 button mode is tedious given the awkward placing of shoulder buttons.

I am very intrigued by the release of Trilogy which will probably be how I play the series (If I can get it cheaper than $65) since I do not own a PSP.

There are auto-fever mods you can unlock eventually. But yes the thumb sticks can be annoying aside from 1 or 2 good uses of it, and 8-button is very hard.

Yea. For those people who are familar with games from Harmonix then they will probably adapt to this pretty easily and I do recommend people who already have a PSP to check out the series in this form. However, speaking as somebody who did get to check out DJMAX in it's original online form (Before the whole Fever mechanic was introduced) I strongly prefer it in that form as there is so much more they were able to do with it than what can be done to the PSP just cause of how limited the platform is which is not Pentavisions fault at all. If anything they deserve credit for the PSP releases being much better than some other rhythm games that have appeared. (Beat'N Groovy, nuff said.)

Riot wrote:There are auto-fever mods you can unlock eventually. But yes the thumb sticks can be annoying aside from 1 or 2 good uses of it, and 8-button is very hard.

Auto-fever....It barely does any jobs, according to my experience of playing Clazziquai edition.

dr88

Last night I played DJ Max Trilogy for the first time last night (HUGE thanks to WhiteDragon and dr88 for making this happen) so this is gonna be a brief review of that.

Positive:
- 120 songs for $50 is a very awesome deal compared to most other games in this vein.
- Implements a new version of the fever system. While Portable's fever system uses a time limit, this one has a 'note limit' and penalizes the amount of fever left when the notes are MAX 70% or less. Personally, I feel this is a better system as it further pushes accuracy.
- Patches are cumulative which makes life easy for updates.
- Also uses quite possibly the smartest method of copy protection on a PC I've seen courtesy of the USB dongle.
- Unlocking songs is mostly level based (11 songs are unlocked by mission), so it doesn't take too long to get them all. (Full unlocks list is at http://www.bemanistyle.com/djmaxtr/unlock.html)
- Has a widescreen mode which unlike the PSP series, keeps BGAs in their native 4:3 format.
- Is based on the Portable series in terms of style so it's not hard to switch to.

Negative: (Only 1 I can think of really.)
- Various songs from Online, Portable 1, and Portable 2 are not in this release so it may feel incomplete despite having around 120 songs.
- Those used to DJ Max Online may be alienated by this release as the scrolling speeds are different, the 5 key and 7 key schemes are no longer the 'sdf spacebar jkl' and instead follow homerow with f and j both function as the middle button. In addition, many of the charts from online do not appear. (I was actually disappointed as I really wanted to play the Phantom of Sky 7k hard chart from Online cause it was difficult, but uniquely awesome at the same time.)
- The fever system imposes an unnecessary double jeopardy on speeds as not only does speed increase by 0.5x on Fever x 4, but it increases by another 0.5x on Fever x 5.
- Some unlocks rely on network mode, which are problematic for people in North American timezones as most players are on between 11 PM - 8 AM Eastern.
- Some missions are STILL broken to a level that would make even Nexcade go WTF.

Other Notes:
- The graphics for the lanes and notes get smaller when more notes are added. While this isn't a negative thing, on smaller monitors this could make life miserable for people like me who suffer from myopia.
- As Forte Escape left Pentavision eariler this year, there may not be any further updates and the future of PC releases may very well be in jeopardy even though it was successful despite it's very low key release. (On Play Asia's PC category, Trilogy has been #1 on the bestseller list until the end of October 2009 due to several major PC releases including Modern Warfare 2 finally overtaking it.)

Note: A thread that will help alot with this game is on http://www.bemanistyle.com/forum/f140/d ... ead-36664/

Empress CS is coming out in 11 days

Oh dang I totally forgot about this

DJ Max Trilogy get!

The main issue I have is that the game is designed to hit right before the line on notes which took a bit of time to get used to. (On most music games the timing offset is set to be later.) This game would probably have benefit from a timing offset option since LCD monitors are the standard now. Aside from that, this is a huge and pretty awesome game.

DJ Max? On Cell Phones?



It's more likely than you think.....