Warning: What follows is aimed solely at the DDR community. If you have no idea what DDR is, reading this will get you nowhere.
There’s been a trend for the past few months that’s gotten gradually louder and louder on the DDR boards – the deification of two Japanese DDR players, Take and Yasu. Two brothers who are among the few remaining DDR players in Japan, Take and Yasu have had a sudden rise in popularity because they’re friends with an American who moved to Japan by the name of Aaron.
THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED. PLEASE SEE APRIL THE 14TH FOR AN APPENDED ENTRY.
Now, Aaron provides a number of little sub sites, include his AAA page. AAAing, for those who don’t play, means you get a Perfect rating on each step. Getting a AAA is a reasonably high accomplishment, so you get a bunch of pictures of people posing in front of DDR machines, like this one of Take and Yasu.
If you look down the page, you’ll notice that nearly every song has an entry for Take, Yasu, or Aaron. So, essentially, they’re very good players. Highly ranked in the Internet Ranking competitions. A lot of people consider them the best in the world.
Watch this video of Yasu getting a AAA on Max300. This is, for what it’s worth, the most famous video on Aaron’s site. People mark out immensely for a AAA on what’s considered one of the hardest songs.
Sure, it’s impressive, but…isn’t there more to the game than this? Aren’t we supposed to be “dancing” or whatever?
But herein lies the problem; the DDR community has raised these guys to such a level that “everyone” (obviously not everyone, since I’m writing this) wants to be like them. So “fun songs” lose out to “hard songs”, and any attempt to have flow while you play is overruled by people trying to get a few more perfects in a song while looking like a gimp. Perfect Attack tournaments run far longer than Freestyle tournaments. No one plays doubles. A game which can easily have a large creative aspect and on occasion be really fun to watch has been replaced by a clinical desire to know who is better than who.
Aaron’s defense of the bar rape (which is the official term within the community) is:
People have seen Yasu do that all over Japan and they don’t laugh or mock him at all; they bow to his ability to do that. In the worst case, people say “Oh look, he’s using the bar…heh [a minute and a half later]…Oh my God! He AAAd it!”
And this has become the rallying cry for bar rape in the US – “it impresses people”. Yeah, people within the community. Not the people who pass by in the arcade and form those crowds that everyone loves to have while they play. Those people aren’t watching the screen, they’re watching you.
There used to be an anecdote here about me at Hershey Park. It was pointless. It’s gone now.
So my only advice to you, dear reader, is to stop trying to impress other people in the community. Sure, we’ve all done it – I’ve taken hard sets just because I wanted to challenge myself. But try impressing someone who doesn’t play. Try to leave the arcade at night without smelling like ass and breathing like you’re about to die. Throw in a spin or two – they’ve almost become NOT played out because I don’t see anyone do them anymore. Move your arms. Slide. Try smiling. Be intentionally goofy – para while you play Hold On Me, especially if you don’t know how to para. Play on something other than Heavy.
Stop trying to be like Take or Yasu. Start trying to be yourself.
Make the kids who are only in it for the PA realize that games are supposed to be fun.
10 replies on “Enough Take/Yasu Wanking, Folks”
bahahahah that’s the dumbest thing i’ve read yet…. XD, just leave it be.
Ha ha ha ha ha. [applauds] So many issues to cover, and so little space…aw screw it.
Take/Yasu/PA
Eh, yes they’re good at PA. But honestly, PA gets boring to me after a while. That’s probably why when I went to the CSA Albany, I kept on leaving during the PA part. Yes, it’s entertaining to see a 500 combo, or a AA/AAA. But it’s only entertaining for me for about 20 seconds at the end. Just watching people PA gets me quite bored, quite fast.
Playing PA is in my opinion simply a way to set yourself up for disappointment. There’s always gonna be someone better, or one good, or whatever. I’ve definitely gotten better during the past year in PA, but honestly, when I get into that PA mode, I’m never happy because I’m taking it too seriously, and there’s always one or two mess ups.
Bar raping
Honestly, I personally think it’s stupid. This is probably reinforced more by the fact that at CU DDR, we’ve never had a bar in the first place. However, I’m not gonna diss someone who uses it. It’s their choice. I just tend to frown on it, and then move on.
Drawing a crowd/Freestyling
I love to draw a crowd at the arcade. It’s quite amusing, and Ed and I tend to do a freestyle round on north every now and then to draw in people. Also, it’s probably the sole reason why I’m still playing, because honestly, I think the whole point of freestyle is to have fun, be silly, and enjoy the game (which has kept me coming back for more when I’ve been disappointed with my PA).
However, after freestyling/having fun, I still tend to leave “…smelling like ass and breathing like you’re about to die.” What can I say? Freestyling is tiring! :-)
I know this is a bit nit-picky, but Aaron is actually from Canada, not the US, although personally I think the following quote from Phrekwenci sums him up best: “you can’t be white”
Anyway, IMHO, the bar-raping issue is something that has been done to death, and it’s something that I’ve stopped caring about months ago. The guys in Japan obviously don’t care that much about how they look . . . To each his own, I say.
I do agree when people say that part of the reason why the popularity of DDR is fading somewhat is because the game has become more tech-heavy — partly due to an increase in difficulty (with the Maxes, Onis, and the like), and partly due to player preference (freestyle is almost nonexistent in Japan now).
I also agree that Yasu and Take are receiving a bit too much attention; there are plenty of other players out there with amazing performances, but these two are under the spotlight because Aaron has so many pictures of their AAAs.
But personally, having dabbled in both freestyle and PA, I actually feel like I’m more of a PAer. The most exciting moment for me was when I got my first AAA (at home); at that moment I felt like I had something to be proud of, something to set me apart. Sure, I have done some freestyle moves and received attention for them (though not nearly as much as Pete or Ed), but I find myself enjoying the Oni courses and the AAA attempts more. I feel like I’m trying too hard to impress people when I’m in public places like DDR club, but when I’m at Play or at home, I feel like I have time to myself — something that I often long for, especially in the busiest of times.
Like I said, to each his own . . .
They look dumb while playing it, sure, but not everyone is playing DDR to impress strangers. Take and Yasu are playing DDR to get high scores, while you play to have people gather around the machine and watch you. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, I do both; I only use the bar on 10-footers. What you’re doing is called “player hating”. Don’t player hate. Player appreciate.
Trying to look good, much less looking good, while you’re playing Max 300 or Maxx Unlimited on Heavy is damn near impossible. Yasu and Take look better than most people who play either of those. And there’s nothing wrong with using the bar. But having fun is good.
What the hell? You’re comparing Take and Yasu to a bunch of Korean kids who apparantely suck at DDR? That’s like comparing a person who flips their rice in a frying pan and getting it all over the place to a person who flips their rice in a frying pan to turn it over. One is good. The other is not. Also, PA is very exciting when there are two equally matched players who are competing in a high-stakes tournament – the results are always close and there’s always the possibility of an upset. I don’t know why you have to insult these people to increase the size of your internet penis, but pick on someone your own size – telling everyone you look better than they do isn’t the best way to compare it when no one’s seen you play and you don’t have any recognition in the DDR world, like they do.
To this I say…it’s a video game. Where I’m from I don’t even have to freestyle to draw a big crowd, and when I’m done people are usually just awing and asking me annoying questions.
It doesn’t make sense that you would try and put people down because they play the game for a different reason. If you walk away from a game knowing you pleased more people than the guy after you who just bar-raped through a few 10-footers, then great. No need to go online and talk about how much better you are because you don’t look ‘dumb’ (which is NEVER a reaction I get after playing for score). Just stop hating and do your own thing while we do ours.
this is the most useless opinion i’ve ever read. some people like you don’t understand what playing DDR for tech is. it means going for the best score possible. it by no means involves looking good at all. some people care more for seeing the AAA than peoples’ opinion as to how they look on the stage. i play ddr for tech, and i don’t try to look good. yes i do bar rape when i need to. i’ve gotten a few AAA’s, does that make me a Yasu/Take wannabe? does it? huh? simple question, simple answer, and what you wrote up there gives the wrong answer. zero points for you, you lose.
one last thing, though i could be wrong on this. have YOU gotten any heavy AAA’s? a lot of tech players look up to Yasu and Take and do their best to do as well as they do. my point is that should you have achieved a respective AAA, there would be a lot less hate in what you wrote.
oooh a sudden rush of new people posting here… hmmm, could it be the seattle suckups to the rescue?! OH THE POSSIBLITIES! you all need to get a life, and leave remy to having his own opinion about you tards. if all you do is play the electric hopscotch just to be all “DANSUDANSUKAKUMEISHUN NO TATSUJIN” then you’re all bigger losers than you make yourself out to be by flaming someone on their own blog.
I’m closing comments here because obviously people are getting the wrong idea.
See the new entry on the front page for the 14th.