For what it is, Respect is basically perfect. Being what amounts to a soft reboot of a series which has barely touched western shores, for most people, this amalagmation of 20 years of music games will simply be a 200+ song behemoth of almost entirely original, unique content + some cool crossover stuff.
And DJmax's original music content is absolutely fantastic. DJmax's original music (+the guilty gear, groove coaster, and girls frontline packs) are all keysounded, meaning that keystrokes and presses actually form a note of the music itself rather than having a generic ping (see: cytus, etc.). Its something I feel improves the experience so much it's hard to go back to rhythm games without it. DJmax isn't he only series to do this (EZ2ON, Beatmania), but it's also easily the most accessible, and with Respect, the most polished.
And the tracks themselves are strong. It might be because i've got a bit of a taste for the sheer mid-2000s energy which a lot of the music embodies, but there's an awful lot of songs I frankly really like here - and perhaps more importantly, I think there's frankly very few outright duds. With the whole 400-ish songs that the game+dlc packs has, I could probably enjoy myself going through them all alphabetically, just vibing in it all.
And since the music is good, for me the true strength of Respect really kicks in - the modularity. This is a game that will facilitate almost any player, however casual, however they want to play the game. 4 different core methods of play (number of note tracks), a comprehensive mission mode, online competitive ladders, free open lobbies, freeplay, sitting in air mode with the god-tier koreans spamming hearts, delving through mountains of art and material - Respect has so many ways to play that all feel legitimate and not an afterthought, and the quality of life features are astounding. Respect's sheer amount of content, and the quality of which that content is presented, and the options with which you can play and vibe, makes the rhythm games i used to play - say, Guitar hero, Theatrhtythm, Osu Almost anything licensed - look absolutely pathetic in contrast.
And fortunately, Respect makes it really easy to get into as well. Note timing is extremely lenient compared to other "premium" rhythm games, there's a very smooth difficulty curve thanks to the sheer amount of patterns available, and even in online, you can play the same songs as everyone else just on easier difficulties - which sounds obvious but is honestly one of my favourite things to do in the game - vibe with others just going for our own individual goals.
The only really obvious problem in the gameplay itself is that the game's a PS4 port, and was designed for controller - which makes charts have a little bit less potential for variance and unique stuff than other rhythm games outside of the PC port exclusive "SC" patterns, as tracks 1 and 3/4 and 6 can't be pressed simultaneously in the default controller control scheme and the game is designed around that.
There's also that this game is basically a huge DLC platform now, and going in with just the default package, whilst still giving you a lot of music, means you miss out on a lot, which can get aggravating as it means you'll be forced to observe in open play and get songs you can normally not play on ranked ladder matches. This isn't really to take anything away from the DLC itself - most of the packs are fantastic, and I reccomend all of them at their common sale prices - but fact is to buy all the game, even on sale, is going to cost you about $60+. Now that totals about 5 times the amount of content in the most recent Hatsune Miku game, but I can definetly see how having so much stuff locked off from the off would put people off from Respect, in the same way seeing a gazillion characters locked off in rainbow six siege would do.
Aside from that, the only real other complaint i have is that the game has some stupidly heavy always-online DRM. You can't play it offline at all which is kinda wack. But frankly, it's something that you'll probably barely notice and me even saying it comes out of me trying to come up with more bad things to say more than it actually bothering me - Because frankly, Respect, as a music game platform, is basically as good as it could be.
Whilst I'm here I'll do a quick DLC ranking for any curious people interested.
- Clazziquai: Ridiculously good pack, large amount of extremely high quality songs. Great Mid-2000s energy.
- Technika 1: Basically on par with Clazziquai, with the songs being a bit more contemporary and varied. Has the series' arguably most popular song (I want You). Also comes with unique missions which completely change up the gameplay.
- Portable 3: Great bunch of tracks, including some amazing remixes. Nothing really that special here other than the tracks having some absolutely fantastic hooks that carries that pack on its own.
- V Extension: The most modern and high-production value pack with some great tracks, though not quite as strong as the other packs overall.
- Black Square: The pokemon silver to Clazziquai's gold, a great pack, but not quite as good. Similar vibes.
- Cytus: Songs sadly not keysounded, but the overall track quality is incredibly strong, and has great aesthetic.
- Chunithm: Same as Cytus, but penguins. Sadly has relatively few pattern difficulties, which gives it a heavy jump in difficulty.
- Trilogy: Consists largely of remixes, but extremely good ones. Get if you like the Portable 1 and 2 music in the base game
- Emotional Sense: Arguably overpriced, and also probably should have just been songs in the base game, but a nice little pack.
- Technika 3: Kinda middling overall, but bolstered by about 4 fantastic tracks.
- Girl's Frontline: Weirdly good and surprisingly keysounded, but limited in scope and definetly the most niche pack.
- Deemo: Much weaker pack than Cytus (also from rayark), but bolstered by one absolutely amazing song, Magnolia.
- Groove Coaster: Keysounded, but actually has no good songs, which is just weird.
- Technika 2: Has one great song. But seeing as the Technika Packs are double the cost of most other packs, not good enough.
For every pack wait for a sale - they come about once every two months, there's no point rushing.
And DJmax's original music content is absolutely fantastic. DJmax's original music (+the guilty gear, groove coaster, and girls frontline packs) are all keysounded, meaning that keystrokes and presses actually form a note of the music itself rather than having a generic ping (see: cytus, etc.). Its something I feel improves the experience so much it's hard to go back to rhythm games without it. DJmax isn't he only series to do this (EZ2ON, Beatmania), but it's also easily the most accessible, and with Respect, the most polished.
And the tracks themselves are strong. It might be because i've got a bit of a taste for the sheer mid-2000s energy which a lot of the music embodies, but there's an awful lot of songs I frankly really like here - and perhaps more importantly, I think there's frankly very few outright duds. With the whole 400-ish songs that the game+dlc packs has, I could probably enjoy myself going through them all alphabetically, just vibing in it all.
And since the music is good, for me the true strength of Respect really kicks in - the modularity. This is a game that will facilitate almost any player, however casual, however they want to play the game. 4 different core methods of play (number of note tracks), a comprehensive mission mode, online competitive ladders, free open lobbies, freeplay, sitting in air mode with the god-tier koreans spamming hearts, delving through mountains of art and material - Respect has so many ways to play that all feel legitimate and not an afterthought, and the quality of life features are astounding. Respect's sheer amount of content, and the quality of which that content is presented, and the options with which you can play and vibe, makes the rhythm games i used to play - say, Guitar hero, Theatrhtythm, Osu Almost anything licensed - look absolutely pathetic in contrast.
And fortunately, Respect makes it really easy to get into as well. Note timing is extremely lenient compared to other "premium" rhythm games, there's a very smooth difficulty curve thanks to the sheer amount of patterns available, and even in online, you can play the same songs as everyone else just on easier difficulties - which sounds obvious but is honestly one of my favourite things to do in the game - vibe with others just going for our own individual goals.
The only really obvious problem in the gameplay itself is that the game's a PS4 port, and was designed for controller - which makes charts have a little bit less potential for variance and unique stuff than other rhythm games outside of the PC port exclusive "SC" patterns, as tracks 1 and 3/4 and 6 can't be pressed simultaneously in the default controller control scheme and the game is designed around that.
There's also that this game is basically a huge DLC platform now, and going in with just the default package, whilst still giving you a lot of music, means you miss out on a lot, which can get aggravating as it means you'll be forced to observe in open play and get songs you can normally not play on ranked ladder matches. This isn't really to take anything away from the DLC itself - most of the packs are fantastic, and I reccomend all of them at their common sale prices - but fact is to buy all the game, even on sale, is going to cost you about $60+. Now that totals about 5 times the amount of content in the most recent Hatsune Miku game, but I can definetly see how having so much stuff locked off from the off would put people off from Respect, in the same way seeing a gazillion characters locked off in rainbow six siege would do.
Aside from that, the only real other complaint i have is that the game has some stupidly heavy always-online DRM. You can't play it offline at all which is kinda wack. But frankly, it's something that you'll probably barely notice and me even saying it comes out of me trying to come up with more bad things to say more than it actually bothering me - Because frankly, Respect, as a music game platform, is basically as good as it could be.
Whilst I'm here I'll do a quick DLC ranking for any curious people interested.
- Clazziquai: Ridiculously good pack, large amount of extremely high quality songs. Great Mid-2000s energy.
- Technika 1: Basically on par with Clazziquai, with the songs being a bit more contemporary and varied. Has the series' arguably most popular song (I want You). Also comes with unique missions which completely change up the gameplay.
- Portable 3: Great bunch of tracks, including some amazing remixes. Nothing really that special here other than the tracks having some absolutely fantastic hooks that carries that pack on its own.
- V Extension: The most modern and high-production value pack with some great tracks, though not quite as strong as the other packs overall.
- Black Square: The pokemon silver to Clazziquai's gold, a great pack, but not quite as good. Similar vibes.
- Cytus: Songs sadly not keysounded, but the overall track quality is incredibly strong, and has great aesthetic.
- Chunithm: Same as Cytus, but penguins. Sadly has relatively few pattern difficulties, which gives it a heavy jump in difficulty.
- Trilogy: Consists largely of remixes, but extremely good ones. Get if you like the Portable 1 and 2 music in the base game
- Emotional Sense: Arguably overpriced, and also probably should have just been songs in the base game, but a nice little pack.
- Technika 3: Kinda middling overall, but bolstered by about 4 fantastic tracks.
- Girl's Frontline: Weirdly good and surprisingly keysounded, but limited in scope and definetly the most niche pack.
- Deemo: Much weaker pack than Cytus (also from rayark), but bolstered by one absolutely amazing song, Magnolia.
- Groove Coaster: Keysounded, but actually has no good songs, which is just weird.
- Technika 2: Has one great song. But seeing as the Technika Packs are double the cost of most other packs, not good enough.
For every pack wait for a sale - they come about once every two months, there's no point rushing.