💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2021 › 202108 › 20210814-unexpected-sdvx-improvements.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 13:13:57. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-04)
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I began playing Konami's Sound Voltex in early 2015, and by late 2016 I was clearing the equivalent of modern 16- and 17-level charts. A year later I was beginning to clear 18s, and in 2019 I cleared my first 19. I haven't improved much sine then.
My biggest hurdle was increasing hand speed; I was completely unable to handle jacks and trills, which most high-level charts use to add difficulty. For two years between 2018 and 2020 I practiced hand speed, and for two years I didn't get any better.
I've long worried that I've reached my cap in the game. I thought I'd reached the peak to which talent or practice, short of rigorous training for hours a day, would get me. And with my life as it is, I don't have time to devote that level of commitment to the game.
I played a session last night and a second one today, after not playing the game for a number of weeks. In those sessions, something seemed to click--my accuracy improved, my hand speed improved, and my reaction time improved. As a result, I cleared several new 18 charts, as well as setting high scores on many charts I'd already cleared. I didn't clear any 19s I hadn't already cleared, but my scores did improve on them, and I'm much closer to passing them than I was last month.
I'm not sure why my skill jumped so abruptly. I attribute it to playing more shmups recently, which has improved my reaction time, and beatmania IIDX, which has greatly improved my accuracy.
Maybe I'll clear a 20 someday after all.
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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]