Elite Beat Agents

[MiaBocca]

The game gets better when the difficulty ramps up because then the music actually seems relevant to the actions on screen.

I agree with that... I've unlocked 'Hard', and I'm finding it easier than Normal, especially on stages like the Casino level and a couple of the teen-punk tracks (now I've played through it a while, it feels like there are a couple too many of these..... made me want for a 'UK Ouendan', maybe then we wouldn't be subjected to Ashlee Simpson and whoever the others are originally). -- YMCA might be cheesy, but it makes more sense than all the teen-punk stuff.

I've played it over the w/end, and I still went back to Ouendan to see if I could do Ready Steady Go on 'Hard' (no luck )....... I think I'll say I prefer Ouendan, for the songs and stories, but EBA is a damn good game in it's own right and a shining example of how Americanisation can be done well.

[Bleeders]

I don't know why, but I'm not feeling this at the moment. For a Westernised version of the game, the developers have done a decent job of it to be fair and I loved Ouendan, but I'm struggling to get into this.

Perhaps, I think it's because the "hits" and the music doesn't seem to sync up correctly to my ears and it's really putting me off at the moment.

[Dazzla]

Yep, in the earlier difficulties the timing was all over the place and it's really off putting. The Divas and the step below seem better. I've noticed YMCA is the best for timing, as such it's a piece of piss to S rank every difficulty level on it.

[Miguel007]

Yep, in the earlier difficulties the timing was all over the place and it's really off putting. The Divas and the step below seem better. I've noticed YMCA is the best for timing, as such it's a piece of piss to S rank every difficulty level on it.

Completley agree.

I'm struggling on Medium Difficulty at the minute and is driving me nuts, I'm glad you can skip straight to the songs on on EBA, I put Ouendan on yesterday and played the last level and you have to sit and watch the lengthy intro scene on the last level. ft:

[MiaBocca]

I'm finding 'Canned Heat' on 'Hard' insanely difficult, it seems to be completely off when you first start playing it..... I actually turned down the sound to see if I could play it any better, and I got past the 2nd cut-scene, where as with the sound on I couldn't even make it to the first!!

[jim g]

It might be my imagination but this doesn't play as well as Ouendan. I have played both tonight and EBA seems a little out now ang again and I hate the last track on normal!

[toythatkills]

RSG on normal went entirely out of time at one point (twice) too, so it's not like it's just an EBA problem!

[Dazzla]

I've just finished it up on the Diva difficulty so all that's left is the S ranks for the lot. Canned Heat and Survivor on Diva are another few where it seems completely random in places. Tracks like that on Diva took more attempts then Jumping Jack Flash!

[Mayhem]

Guess I'll see on that when I get to it. I spent more time trying to beat Material Girl on hard than I did JJF on hard! So far on the Diva levels, I've not actually had to replay any so far and I'm halfway through. Sure I've only been getting B grades (apart from YMCA where I got an S) but they are there to be improved upon in due course. Not reached the ninja level or unlocked Survivor yet.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I got this yesterday and had a good play with it. I could sum up my feelings with one word - disappointment.

It has various problems, chiefly the music which is mostly terrible. Sometimes the track selection works, and you get something catchy and it's able to recapture some of that Ouendan magic. Mostly though it's awful, unmusical, and also crucially has no real tune to follow and tap along with.

The other major problem is that some of the songs are simply out of time with the on screen beats, meaning you have to play purely from the on screen circles instead of the music. It's off putting and just plain wrong.

Other gripes - the character design is pretty weak and the stories nowhere near as fun as the Japanese ones. Again, sometimes they work and the magic comes back, but mostly they fall flat.

This really isn't the Ouendan sequel we were all hoping for. It's more like a pale immitation which while still a very solid game simply isn't fit to be compared to the masterpiece that is Ouendan.

It's also ridiculously easy and I finished every song on my first go on normal until I got bored and went away to play something with less awful audio. (think it was FF5 on GBA, which is a nice conversion)

[Bleeders]

I got this yesterday and had a good play with it. I could sum up my feelings with one word - disappointment.

It has various problems, chiefly the music which is mostly terrible. Sometimes the track selection works, and you get something catchy and it's able to recapture some of that Ouendan magic. Mostly though it's awful, unmusical, and also crucially has no real tune to follow and tap along with.

The other major problem is that some of the songs are simply out of time with the on screen beats, meaning you have to play purely from the on screen circles instead of the music. It's off putting and just plain wrong.

Other gripes - the character design is pretty weak and the stories nowhere near as fun as the Japanese ones. Again, sometimes they work and the magic comes back, but mostly they fall flat.

This really isn't the Ouendan sequel we were all hoping for. It's more like a pale immitation which while still a very solid game simply isn't fit to be compared to the masterpiece that is Ouendan.

It's also ridiculously easy and I finished every song on my first go on normal until I got bored and went away to play something with less awful audio. (think it was FF5 on GBA, which is a nice conversion)

Sums up my thoughts on it. In short, not fit to lick the boots of Ouendan, IMO.

[Dogg Thang]

I haven't played it yet but, if you've played through Ouendan, can you really criticise it for being easy in 'normal' mode? Of course normal is going to be easy to you. I can't imagine that normal on Ouendan would present much of a challenge to you now either.

How are the harder modes?

[Julio III]

I've been enjoying the game but also see where its not as good as Ouendan. It does seem like its trying to be pretty much the same. Yes, Material Girl and Canned Heat on hard do seem all over the place and are a right headache. The problem with this Western version was always going to be the songs. I particularly don't like not having the correct singer on some songs and other songs I just plain don't like. Here's hoping ABC is awesome

[Mayhem]

Canned Heat on hard made perfect sense to me playing through, because there are a number of "off beats" to the rhythm and these are picked up when playing through. It took me only two attempts to beat it, so I guess I was blessed with JK timing

I will agree on a few combos being a little "off", it's probably what took me a while to beat the Material Girl track on hard. As said, I had less pain trying to do JJF on hard! Because the beats fit the rhythm more.

Now I've not played Ouendan on insane (stuck on RSG on hard!) so I can't compare the two on the top level, but the Divas levels so far haven't been hard to complete. It's just hard to get a good score because the timing needs to be perfect and you don't see the "drag the stylus across" bits until the circle actually hits the target, meaning you need to learn the songs to know when they crop up.

I think some people are just being a little Japanophilically picky

I am really enjoying EBA and yes, you may think the music is cheesy but hey, so were most of Ouendan's tracks as well when you look at it.

[Strider]

I don't think it's nowhere near as bad as a few people are suggesting. Sure some of the tunes aren't great, but what's to say that Japanese gamers didn't say the same when Ouendan came out.

I reckon the real problem here is that certain people are peed off that one of their exclusive import titles has now been bought overseas and they don't like it because it doesn't make them feel special anymore