Games worth discovering
405 View2023-10-17
Letme start with some short context. I've been playing rhythm games practically my entire life. I started with DDR when I was 10 or so and haven't stopped loving rhythm games ever since - over 20 years of play at this point. As a rhythm game enthusiast, I'm keenly aware of the honestly dire position the genre is in at present. As far as English language rhythm games go, we see only a few releases per year in the genre. It kills me to have to shit all over someone's hard work and passion, especially when doing so might very well contribute to the decrease in new, innovative, and unique rhythm games.
However... this game is just really not fun. The control scheme is irritating at best and the concept itself is just... dull, uninteresting. There's a very good reason why we don't see many rhythm games using orchestral pieces and attempting to adhere to the exact structure of those pieces: rhythm gameplay is nothing like actually playing music. Certainly some skills can transfer, for example finger dexterity in BMS/4K/5K+ can transfer to piano/keyboard style instruments, but at the end of the day rhythm games are more akin to tapping to the beat of your favourite song rather than actually playing an instrument or making music. Beyond the timing of any given action, there's often only jminimal correlation between the action you take in a rhythm game and the action you take when playing an instrument. I suppose drums might be the only exception, for example the drum gameplay in the Rock Band series is practically identical to actual drums. That makes a degree of sense though, as drums are one of very few instruments which are focused almost entirely on the patterns of a small number of available sounds. Don't get me wrong, drums are incredibly important and difficult instruments to play, I'm not attempting to say they're any less complex than any other, just that they match most closely with what we're doing when we play rhythm games.
With that said, Concerta is an incredibly dull, un-fun game that feels like someone, perhaps a musician, who's never really played a rhythm game said, "Let's make a rhythm game that uses orchestral music and has a piano roll style view," and only after spending far too much money, time, and energy developing it did they begin to realize exactly why such games don't really exist. The control scheme feels like the developers only realized after committing to the project that you can't make a very fun rhythm game with strict adherence to sheet music, and had to then compromise in order to make it even remotely playable.
In fact, much of this game seems to fit that word: compromise. Not once during my gameplay did any of the game systems stand out to me as new, exciting additions to the genre. It felt just like any other half-baked cash-grab trying to ultimately con a starving fan base out of their cash. High quality rhythm games are released so infrequently, making any new rhythm game released seem much more attractive than it is. But what exactly does Concerta bring to the table that's new and exciting? This genre, in my opinion, is one of the most underdeveloped game genres out there. There are so many new and exciting ways to play rhythm games that just haven't ever been explored. Take a look at Rotaeno for a good example of a rhythm game which brings something new to the table. Even games like Kalpa, a standard 5-key rhythm game, manage to bring new ideas to the genre. Take a good look at Phigros, notice how every new update manages to push the genre forward further. I don't see that happening with Concerta, and it genuinely makes me sad to say it. I wish I could've given this game rave reviews, because we desperately need more developers in this space. In order to do that though, I'd need to actually enjoy the game itself, and I sadly don't find anything fun about this game.
It's not that it's a bad game, exactly... it's just not a good one.
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Thanks, MiroXo ♡
2023-12-03
really, best review for this game.
2023-10-31
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