Tapsonic Bold Review (pinktmochi)
I've been eyeballing BOLD since its release and finally decided to get it. I'm really satisfied. I think it's the most new-comer-friendly of all NEOWIZ games so far. I have been a fan of NEOWIZ games since DJMAX Online (like 2004?), and have followed the studio on and off. The music is their own (I assume?) so they do re-use songs, but I don't mind cause it's nice to bring some familiarity/nostalgia forward into their new games and helps to differentiate NEOWIZ games from ones like OSU/Guitar Hero stuff.
Games I have played from the studio (DJMAX series): Online, Portable & Portable2, Blacksquare, Clazziquai, Technika, Respect, & for TAPSONIC TOP for mobile.
My Likes:
- The menu music is so enjoyable. Really love it, but only accessible at the start screen for this game, sadly.
- As always, visual design is on point. Beautiful game to play.
- The song selection that they have is not bad, I'm willing to try almost all of the songs they have to offer.
- Controls were easy to adapt to, even though I have not played keyboard style in more than 5 years (but I have been playing their other music games in between, so I don't know if that helps).
- It is incredibly difficult to fail/die in any song regardless of difficulty. Example: I can achieve more than 40+ missed notes and get back to full health by the end of the song
- Everything you need to have under control can be seen and adjusted on the screen somewhere with little instruction (eg. speed of notes & bpm)
My dislikes:
- Currently (NOV 2019), the song selection is a lot smaller than I am used to seeing, especially since they're pulling from their other games. That's my major con.
- Because of the small music selection, playing Arcade/Mission does not feel rewarding, as there is nothing to unlock. I think most/all of the playable songs are already available in Solo Play. Mission mode seems more of refining skills, where as Arcade seems to be aiming for like a score-based competition with others that play BOLD. Both of which are neither explicitly stated, but more implied.
- You need determination: If you're new to falling-note style music games and/or you have trouble when it comes to different coordination for each hand, there's not exactly like a guideline or explicit way to progressively get better... you're kind of on your own for that
- If you're a "I like the story" person, a story does not exist for BOLD. It is purely a music game, and it is executed well. Therefore, no half-hearted story exists to complain about later (A good decision, in my eyes).
- Something a little less fix-able, as it would require alteration of the whole note-scoring process: After finishing a song, you get a review as per usual, but it kinda hurts that in the highlighted summary there is only "Full combo/Full perfect" which kind of go hand-in hand.... and if you don't get it then it just says "FAILED". It is consistent with TAPSONIC TOP's reflection page, but personally I really liked it when Portable 2 would give out those CDs for like "only missed 1 note!!" or something like that, and those would show up on the preview-summary as well. However, Portable 2 notes were based on percentage of accuracy (10-100) rather than Good/Perfect/Perfect+ notes
A few songs that I hope will come in the future, but unsure how often they'll update BOLD as they are maintaining their other releases: Space of Soul, End of the Moonlight, Miles, Ask to wind (& live mix), Proposed flower wolf pt 1 & 2, Blythe, Only for you, Cosmic elevator.