Freestyling on In The Groove

[Obsessive]

So I am a PA (FA?)-er who wants to get into freestyling, but so far NO one has done any recent ITG freestyles. I have video after video of DDR, which I am using, but it would be nice to have a place to figure out how Hands, rolls, and even your personal Edits now play a part in a freestlye routine.

The biggest change I suppose, would be adding mods to the arrows to make your freestyle look better. For example, If you were going to make a Freestyle to Solina, you might want to add Beat and Drift, to amke the arrows look like they are floating around to the bass of the song. Of course, as a dancer, you won't be looking at the screen, but the arrows can be there for an added effect. If one was to do pandemonium, one would pick mods that make the arrows look completely chaotic. (plenty of those).

Second, would be adding hands/complicated freezes. One look at Bend Your Mind, Oasis, Twilight, or Funk Factory, you can see that this game encourages you to let go of the bar at times. How this relates to freestyles...I don't know yet, heh. But arranging your freestyle on a song like those opens new doors in terms of creativity. Twilight Mirror, for example has a lot of down-arrow hitting in the midst of the freezes. One could create a breakdance around that. Also with hands, The traditional Freestlye of simply "dancing to the music" is thrown to the wayside. Being required to bend down/hold complicated freezes changes (raises?) the skill and showmanship needed to freestyle. You will have to take these into account and perhaps disable them. IMO, Freezes and hands can only improve the quality of freestlyes for now, until we start seeing the same moves repeated...but we don't even know those moves ecept some freeze patterns from DDR MAX/MAX2/Extreme/Ultramix. And those aren't nealry as bad as Baby Don't You Want Me.

Third, A lot of the songs in ITG2 seem built for freestyles. Most of DJ Zombie's stuff (Ride the Bass, Wake Up, etc) is doable in classic freestyle, and Jason Creasy (Reactor, Psalm Pilot) are deliberately easy(?) for the purpose of dancing. There are a lot of note patterns that encourage free movement in the game (Hillbilly Hardcore hard steps) as opposed to ITG1 steps, which are really more suited for Stepping.

Well...I am still working on my first freestyle, so This info might just be BS, but I wanted to see what other Freestylers think about the possibilities in ITG/2.
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Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/crufix

[Obsessive]

Also, why does freestyle seem to be dead?
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Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/crufix

[DDR_KiD_1]

I don't know why freestyling seems to be dying. It really bugs me though. I know for a fact that there's more PIU freestylers than steppers though. I'm working on a Dawn freestyle right now, it's coming out decent.
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Wait, what's a D.D.R?

I love that question.

[JimTheFly]

Champions of the Coast, about a month or so ago at 8 on the Break: 6 entrants in FS, all 6 used ITG for at least one of their two songs. (Using DDR was an option, but it was used only for some routines).

As for videos.... well, here's mine from it. There's a few things on-screen at parts that the camera didn't pick up, though. I'll comment about those later... it's late and I've got work in the morning.

http://www.giantvat.com/ddr/video/cotc3_jtf.mpg


Enjoy.
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Co-Host: Video Game Zombies Podcast

[RadMooseKiller]

that is one sweet FS video. i like how the actions went with the lyrics. very original.
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ITG>DDR

[PedanticOmbudsman]

As much as I love ITG, I do have to admit that it's helped to speed up a trend that's been going on for years: the trend of ignoring dancing/artistry/creativity and focusing only on arrow-smashing/scores/song-passing/PA. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with the things on the second list, but it's sad to see the things on the first list being neglected. The two lists don't have to be mutually exclusive. You don't have to choose one and completely ignore the other. A little balance never hurt anybody.
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[JimTheFly]

I have to echo the above sentiment. There is one thing that I find very interesting, though: For the tournament that my video was taken at, originally there were a good number of people who talked about entering freeestyle, but when it came time for the tournament, there were only 6 entrants, 4 of which are known mainly as freestylers, 1 who was entering his first FS tournament, and 1 who did well, but is known mainly as a techie. Conversely, the ITG tech division had over 40 entrants, and the DDR tech division had about 30.

Granted, FS has never been the biggest of things around here, (I think the most entries we've had for a FS competiton at the Break has been about 10), but I've seen it make a gradual decline over time as well, to the point where you don't really see anything at all now. The part that's surprising is that, with how easy it is to make edits for freestyle on ITG, it just seems that most people aren't taking advantage of that. :-\

Can't speak more... off to work. Take care.
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Co-Host: Video Game Zombies Podcast

[J. S. Mill]

I think a major factor has to be that technical players get better in easily quantifiable steps. It's easy for me to see my 99.78% on Birdie is better then my 99.62%. It's much harder to see if my FS-ing skills have improved over the last few weeks, at least, as far as I can tell.
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[DDR_KiD_1]

You know what really bugs me? Alot of the DDR/ITG players/freestylers don't know what an actual freestyle is. Look at PIU freestyle, that's what freestyle is meant to be. I mean, these people see me doing handstands/groundflips/bar jumps and stuff, and they laugh. I don't get it. Most DDR/ITG players/freestylers think just putting dance moves and memorizing the song is a freestyle. WTF? That's not all there is to it. I'm working on a Dawn Expert Freestyle right now, i'll post it up when it's done.
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Wait, what's a D.D.R?

I love that question.

[JimTheFly]

Okay... First off, I used to do all those things: handstands, bar tricks, etc. If you can make them look like they belong in the routine, then fine. However, if it looks like they're just thrown in for flash value (kind of a "look, I can do a handstand!" deal). then they actually detract from a routine.

Also: Expert Freestyle. We've seen this around a lot. Most of it, honestly, is bad. Really bad. Think of the winning routine from the Road Rally and add in more arrows and fewer moves. Granted, some has been quite good. 123 Kid from NY (now CT, I believe) was responsible for some of the best high-difficulty freestyles I've ever seen. I Believe In Miracles, Enter The Dragon, Dead End, and others were all things he was able to do and do well. And one thing that was constant: He never used a bar trick, handstand, flip, or anything, as far as I've seen.

Most high-acrobatic routines for DDR/ITG wore out their welcome about 2001 on the east coast, earlier on the west coast (that's where people get phrases like "1998 called. It wants its routine back.")

The biggest thing is flow. If it looks like tech with a few big stunts/tricks, it's probably not going to be considered "good freestyle" by general standards. However, if one can flow smoothly into and out of those moves, then it can look much more presentable. The major issue I'm having with what you're planning on doing is that, unless you use Simple or other mods, you'll have 1/16th notes at 138 BPM to worry about. Flow with that is hard to achieve, IMO. However, if you post your vid, I and a few others will make sure to give honest reactions and criticisms after seeing it.

And Kiba, I think you hit a MAJOR thing with tech and FS. Tech is hard numbers and instant feedback. You can't really tell if you're doing well with a FS until and unless there's a competition, I think. And even then it's kinda questionable at times. (and I know that my FS skills haven't improved in the last few weeks... but that's because I haven't been playing. :-P )
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Co-Host: Video Game Zombies Podcast

[Houou Don't You Want Me]

I was kinda wondering what's so great about Jim The Fly's Torn FS, considering he stole it almost exactly (except when the song starts and he does the gradual getting-up thing) from that American comedian, I don't know his name (don't live in the States, saw it in a video). I'm guessing everyone around you also were familiar with that video... but what's the point really?

[DDR_KiD_1]

I didn't even think that was a freestyle. I thought it was just memorizing a song and standing around hitting the buttons, while looking and talking to people.

And actually, expert freestyles arn't that difficult, it's just the people that do them think they are. And yea, I know the tricks and stuff were cut out of DDR/ITG (for some odd reason). So I don't even know why I bother, because that's not freestyling, it's dancing. There's a difference. The reason the so-called "freestyling" on DDR/ITG looks so good, is because people are doing what was meant to do. Dance. I guess that's why I like PIU so much though, you actually have to move around the pad, which sims for a more realistic "dancing" experience. DDR/ITG isn't like that. IMO, the pads are more simulated for stepping on the arrows and passing a song.
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Wait, what's a D.D.R?

I love that question.

[Jing]

Oh, the idiocy of that statement amuses me. Here's the part that really gets me:

[DJX]

[claw]

[Mr. Wendell]

I wonder what a husky hiphopper freestyler would choose for an ITG freestyle...

Any recommendations?
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Our formula for winning:
1. We go out, we hit people in the mouth.
2. We are not a charity. We cannot give them the game.
3. We execute, from the very start of the game to the very end of the game.

[Kyrandian]

[IamMe]

[DJTyrant]

I'll be doing a routine to Wake Up soon.
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[DDR_KiD_1]