Cytus

Cytus
Cytus 2.0 Title Screen
Developer(s)	Rayark Games
Publisher(s)	Rayark Games
Platform(s)	iOS, Android, PlayStation Vita (PlayStation Mobile)
Release date(s)	January 12, 2012
Genre(s)	Rhythm game
Mode(s)	Single Player

Cytus is a rhythm game developed by Rayark Games, an independent game developer in Taiwan. It was first released on the iOS platform on January 12, 2012. The game was later released on Android on December 4, 2012. A port for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Mobile, titled Cytus: Lambda, was released on June 26, 2013.^[1]

Plot

The name Cytus is taken from Cocytus, the Greek mythological river of wailing or lamentation.

Cytus features a story plot that is carried through its 10 main chapters as well as a prologue, namely:^[2]

• I. Operators
• II. Disaster
• III. Cytus
• IV. The Silence
• V. Vanessa
• VI. The Lost
• VII. Loom
• VIII. Another Me
• IX. Buried
• X. The New World

The story revolves around the protagonist, Vanessa, who lives in a 22nd-century world where robots with human memories are the only remaining sentient beings while living humans are killed by a mutant virus. Due to limited memory space, human emotions are stored in the form of music in "Cytus", and by playing the songs, the robots are able to revive their human emotions. The plot features the disaster and the protagonist's struggle with identity.^[2] The story is told in-game through various cut-scenes that are unique to the chapter title songs; in comparison, the other individual songs within each chapter are at most only marginally relevant to the plot, except for a limited few.

Gameplay

The main gameplay of Cytus features the Active Scan Line, a black line that move up and down across the screen.^[3][4] The player taps circular objects, referred to as Notes, as the Active Scan Line passes over them, following the music.

Three types of Notes are used. The Click Note, a single circular note, requires tapping the object in time. The Drag Note, a continuous track of notes, requires dragging along the track. The Hold Note, a note with an extended ribbon meter, requires holding over the note until the meter is filled. Notes to be hit as the line rises are colored blue and purple, while those as the line drops are colored yellow and green.^[4]

Each Note is judged by the accuracy to be either Perfect, Good, Bad or Miss. The better the accuracy, the higher score is given. The maximum score is 1,000,000, and a minimum of 700,000 is required to clear a stage.^[4] After a stage ends, various metrics are provided to show the player's performance, including score, TP, a letter grade, and numbers of hits in each type of judgement.

Releases and Pricing

Cytus is available through the Apple App Store and Google Play. The full game charges a base price plus optional in-app purchases for players to purchase additional chapters of playable songs.

The release on Google Play is free but features a cool-down countdown before starting each song. The countdown will be removed when the full price is paid.^[5]

The PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Mobile port Cytus: Lambda includes the then-exclusive chapter Prologue: Live, otherwise identical to its smartphone releases. A teaser video was released onto YouTube prior to release on June 7, 2013.^[6]

Million Downloads Plan

Rayark Games announced the Million Downloads Plan (Chinese: 百首新歌，百萬下載; literally: "hundred new songs, million downloads") in the wake of "illegal piracy harming the sales figures of Cytus".^[5][7] Starting from Version 2.0.0, a 10-song chapter will be made available to all players for free for each 100,000 paid downloads achieved, up to a million paid downloads or ten chapters.

Chronology

• Chapter IV: The Silence is open for free with Version 3.0, for achieving 100,000 paid downloads.
• Chapter V: Vanessa is open for free with Version 4.0, for achieving 200,000 paid downloads.
• Chapter VI: The Lost is open for free with Version 4.5, for achieving 300,000 paid downloads.
• Chapter VII: Loom is open for free with Version 5.0, for achieving 400,000 paid downloads.
• Chapter VIII: Another Me is open for free with Version 6.0, for achieving 500,000 paid downloads.
• Chapter IX: Buried is open for free with Version 6.1.0, for achieving 600,000 paid downloads.^[8]
• Chapter X: The New World and Chapter S: Symphony are open for free with Version 7.0.0, for achieving 800,000 paid downloads.^[9]

Songs

More than 100 songs are available for play in the game, spanning a variety of genres including pop music, trance music and drum and bass. The music is composed and performed by independent composers and artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Vocaloid engines are also used.^[4][10]

Alternate versions

A number of songs has alternate version(s) in addition to the normal version. These can be called upon by interacting with the song artwork in the song selection screen. Gestures used includes tapping, swiping and holding at a specific timing and location.

Cytus: Alive

Cytus: Alive are a special series of songs added in version 6.0.^[11] Unlike normal songs, Cytus: Alive songs contains plot animation during gameplay.

List of playable songs

The following lists all playable songs from the game, organized by chapter.^[12]

Other media

Soundtrack

Multiple Cytus soundtracks have been released both on iTunes and as physical CD, featuring playable music and background composition from the game.^[13] Cytus -Prologue-, was released on April 1, 2012,^[14] Cytus -Hindsight- on December 10, 2013^[15] and Cytus -Foresight- on December 28, 2013.^[16] A story album called Cytus -Alive- has also been released on August 20, 2012; the album features songs composed by Sta and Cranky with the same names as the ten chapters of the game. Each song corresponds to each chapter in the story plot.^[17]

References

See also

• Deemo, another rhythm game by the same developer

External links

• (English) Official website of Cytus