UCC Judging - Lotus, Fallen from Grace Player used: Marisa Difficulty Played: Original Pattern judging: --Stage Portion 1-- "omw to beat up tricky again" (8.5/10) -As a Stage portion this works really nicely, The music synching elevates it to interesting lengths, almost reminiscent of Barrage Musical. -I like the patterns used, While the rainbow shots and the aimed red arrowheads can get pretty cramped. --Murasa Non-- "help me" (7/10) -A pretty standard Murasa non, with all it's ups and downs. -The added spread of bullets between waves makes things a little more interesting by filling out empty downtime. -The synching between bars is really neat too. --Stage Portion 2-- "summer snow incident intensifies" (8/10) -Most of my thoughts here can be summarized in the last stage portion, really neat, music good, arrowheads scary. -The Laser death fairy with the red arrowheads can be quite spooky but not too bad, A nice challenge. --Shou Non-- "[insert curvy laser joke here]" (7/10) -Really nice to look at this one, how the curvy lazors move around and stop. -It's not too bad to dodge either! Very nice even while expecting shou shenanigans. --Shou Spell-- Light Sign "Prominence of Dainichi Nyorai" "two color slabs" (8.5/10) -I enjoy the Miko reference here, It works quite nicely with Shou's laser spam. -The pattern itself is also pretty nice, albeit a little bit random, It does look really nice to witness. -But it's not too hard nor too easy. --Stage Portion 3-- "red" (7/10) -red -red --Byakuren Non 1-- "we getting JAZZY up in 'ere" (10/10) -Can we can we can WE TALK about that ENTRANCE?! -The switch between nameless path and makai is interesting, but the transition was handled really well. -As for the pattern, Taking Miko's cues to throw Knives everywhere is really neat, But what's even better is the usage of one of her attacks in HM/ULiL, it works neat visually and keeps you on your toes. --Byakuren Spell 1-- Law of Guanyin "Vajras of Purifying Light" "no more vajras PLEASE" (8/10) -I enjoy the usage of Byakuren's light blade thingies[tm], A really cool aspect of Byakuren that doesn't get too much usage. -In here though, The spell can get quite cramped during the flash of light, which -while cool- can catch you off guard. -The reference to Superhuman is also really good! --Byakuren Non 2-- "WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO REFERENCE THIS WOMAN" (7.5/10) -A Tsukasa non that is dodgeable. -The lasers are able to apply quite a bit of pressure here, It kind of reminds me of Clownpiece's in her third non due to how much pressure it gives off. -Aside from that, it's quite good anyways, having to lane switch in order to stay alive makes this spell quite fun to play. --Byakuren Spell 2-- Enlightment "Golden Tailed Kuda-Gitsune's Dogma" "10/10 it has the little stars" (6.5/10) -While it looks a bit daunting at first glance, this is actually pretty simple for a spell. -The little charge effect for the lasers do prevent cheap shots by giving you just enough information, but not nearly enough for you to easily dodge them. -It doesn't really change through the spell though, the little aimed stars force you to move but not too too much, sometimes becoming a nonissue. --Byakuren Non 3-- "bethoven virus" (7.5/10) -I never thought about combining Remilia with Byakuren's opener, it mixes really well thematically. -The Meinster shots can be hard to predict as usual, specially the non-aimed spread, which can wall you if you're not careful. -Some of the meinster's tiny bullets do linger during the next Opener, which can either make things interesting or hinder you depending on the person. --Byakuren Spell 3-- Black Magic "Scalet Fantastica" "RED MAGIC PURPLE MAGIC" (9/10) -This has a cheap shot at the start of the spell due to the speed of the bubbles, and potentially even bullets from the bottom of the screen? -Aside from that, The combination of Scarlet Gensokyo and Flying Fantastica is really nice, And the spawning bullets create an interesting dynamic that alters how Flying Fantastica plays regularly. -A very nice closing spell, shame about the difficulty though. --Closing Thoughts-- Well, What can I say? I dig music synching a heck of a lot. And being the second script to have an actual ~proper~ Stage in this contest really makes it feel more complete. Such a shame that the synching doesn't extend to the boss itself, I would've loved something akin to BF's Stage 4 boss, But alas. There are some really solid patterns here, as well as ideas that were pretty well executed, although with a few difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere, It still was really enjoyable to see, and play. -cat