Beatmania IIDX 23: Copula

Beatmania IIDX 23: Copula is the 23rd installment of the Beatmania IIDX series. The first location test held at the Tokyo Lesiure Land #2 location in Akihabara, Japan from July 10 through 12th 2015.^[1] It was released on November 11, 2015.^[2]

Gameplay

For more information about the gameplay of Beatmania IIDX in general, please refer to Beatmania IIDX#Gameplay.

Beatmania IIDX 23: Copula retains the core gameplay introduced in the first game in the series, and builds upon features added in subsequent versions. Notes fall from the top of a vertical track, and players are required to either press buttons or turn turntables as they reach the bottom. Copula introduces a number of new features and gameplay elements to this base, including a new "hell charge note", additional beginner note charts available in standard mode, an "assisted easy" difficulty mode, and various other adjustments and features.

Gameplay changes

Hell charge notes

In Beatmania IIDX 17: Sirius, "charge notes" and "backspin scratch" notes were introduced, where the player has to hold a button or continuously spin the turntable for a specified amount of time.^[3] Traditionally, these charge notes were effectively treated as a note at the start and end, with the end note being automatically treated as missed if the note is not held. In copula, a new type of charge note, the "hell charge note" was introduced, in which the groove gauge meter would continuously drop or increase during the extent of the charge note, depending on whether it was correctly held. Additionally, with hell charge notes it became possible to recover from failing to hold the note by pressing and holding after the correct start point.^[4][5]

Assisted easy mode

In addition to the easy mode available on previous versions, which reduced the rate at which the groove gauge drops when notes are missed, Copula adds a new "assisted easy mode", in which the rate at which the gauge drops is the same as in easy mode, but the threshold for clearing a chart is reduced from 80% to 60%. Charts cleared in this manner are marked as being "assist cleared".^[5]

Class mode changes

Class mode (段位認定モード) is a mode in which players select from a series of preselected 4-song courses (ranked by difficulty level of the course). The difficulty level of the highest level course cleared is often used as an indicator of the overall strength of the player.

In copula several changes were made to the class mode system. First, options were added to play a class mode course with notes mirrored (mirror mode), or with the groove gauge dropping faster than normal (EX mode) or both. These options were previously available in Beatmania IIDX 22: Pendual, but mirror mode was selected based on whether the current day was "present phase" or "future phase", and EX mode required payment to be made using Konami's PASELI electronic currency;^[6] in Copula both options are available through normal menus.^[5]

Additionally, Chūden (中伝), a new class rank was added in-between classes 10th Dan (十段) and Kaiden (皆伝), and class mode courses for dual-side play were changed from having 3 tracks to 4 tracks.^[5]

Changes to song selection menus

Certain beginner charts which were previously only available in the "step-up" training mode are now available in other modes such as standard mode, under the "ALL BEGINNER" folder.^[5] Various other minor changes were made to the song select UI, including a rainbow indication for unlocked hidden tracks, and new sort options.^[5]

Music

Currently, there are 62new songs, including 51 all-new songs, 3 returning songs with alternate ANOTHER charts, 2 returning songs with added Hell Charge Notes, 4 songs from Console Versions, and 2 revived songs. A total of 23 songs from previous games have been removed.

References

External links