Do you enjoy expert?

[CasePB]

Let me start by saying I don’t want anything about the game to change. I love the way that it is currently, I’m just stating my opinion about what feels fun for me personally.

I’m curious how many people find expert mode to be enjoyable and fun. So I’m just going to say it, hard mode is the sweet spot for this game. Hard is just the right pace to make you feel like your dancing along with the songs unintentionally, and it’s real fun. It made me realize that I actually enjoy dancing. While expert doesn’t have that same feeling.

Expert is about reacting as fast as humanly possible, flailing your arms about as fast as you can. I very much get that, I played a few songs on expert and it can be fun in a challenging type of way to see how fast your reactions are, but it feels very messy at times, like you’re spazzing out instead of dancing to a beat. Expert makes a good workout mode for sure. Seems like every custom song I've tried from beat saver so far is about being as fast as possible as well, haven't found any I liked. Anyone else prefer hard over expert?

[SilentCaay]

Hard mode is too easy. My first time playing this game I jumped straight to Hard after playing one song on Normal and was nearly FC'ing them all on my first attempt. Expert is pretty much the perfect difficulty for me. They're easy enough to clear without overworking yourself but still a decent challenge to FC.

My ony real issue with the vanilla songs on Expert are that some of the songs/beatmaps aren't interesting enough to hold my attention long enough to FC them. There's still like 3 of them that I haven't FC'd just because I don't find them fun. A well-made Expert map will be both challenging to FC and fun with enough flow to feel like you're dancing.

Like this:
https://youtu.be/2QMTbdxhqFs

[Dori V•V]

I kind of agree, but also disagree a bit here :>

When I started playing expert I totally had the same feeling as you, but when I got better and learned the patterns (on like 2-3 maps, I am still working on it ;)) the flow returned (together with better scores) as I was able to do more wide movements and got more "ninja-ish" instead of overwhelmed and extremely concentrated.

It's fun now, although it's very exhausting. Maybe less dancy, but more ninja-ish and when I practice more or find the right map the dancy part might increase as well. It's also really satisfying to see how I improve with each session.

/Edit: Oh, and it also helps if you try to not look exactly in front of you, but a bit more far away with the "fast reactions"-issue.

[Rutabaga]

Agree with previous speakers that maybe Hard is a bit on the easy side. Took me a few days, but then i completed most of the songs on expert, now i'm about half way through getting full combos on all the songs.

If anything, it almost feels like there is room for somewhat more challenging maps. Perhaps that will be less of an issue as both the level editor comes along, and we get more content for the game.

Anyway, just keep practicing and Expert will soon become a lot more fun than hard. It's not about super fast reaction, but about looking a few blocks ahead and understanding the patterns. One big thing, imo, is to keep your arms where the last cut left you. In most cases that sets you up correctly for the next cut, unless the song is throwing you for a loop on purpose :)

[guts2501]

the custom song "beat it" is great to dance to on expert mode. So is "kung fo fighting", the trick is to not focus on hitting the blocks perfectly in the center or even with a full swing, but just to get the movement/direction right.

[☠ Angry Toast]

I wouldn't change anything either for those that enjoy expert but I do not enjoy it. It seems like its mostly about memorization. I prefer to flow from one beat to another on visual instinct and you cannot even see what's coming next in expert mode.

Again wouldn't change I'll just play hard and enjoy myself heh.

[Vespertellino]

I'd say - hard is more about enjoying the song and the game overall, expert is about enjoying your body,reflexes and score - both ways work for me.

[KRiSX]

I prefer hard, have just started to S rank a couple of them, have managed to rank a couple on expert but I just find it to be too much... Maybe I'll get there but for now I'll stick to hard

[Syl3r]

i personally prefere hard. the vanilla songs werent that hard on hard but i still beat most on my first or second try. but expert feels too hecktic to me. im not that fast with swinging my lightsaber around so in expert i was using almost exclusively my wrists in the levels and that jsut didnt feel great.
i much prefere the game to be a bit more relaxed where i can put some expression into my swings.
from the custom levels im playing i really like most hard difficulties. they lay inbetween hard and expert most of the time so its challenging but still super fun.
my favourites atm are these:
Michael Jackson - Beat it on expert
gorillaz - Clint Eastwood on hard
Gangnam Style on hard
YMCA on hard (more for the silliness, waaaay too many mines in there)
Rasputin (Funk Overloaded) on hard (its a tiny bit too hard for my taste but thats mostly cause its so long and i dont have the stamina to properly train it for a long time)
Unravel on hard - super chill level)
HERO! on hard
and last but not least
Ducktales. i adore that level. is short and has one super cruel part at the end. love it

[Fenro]

Well, for me expert seems to be way to easy at the moment, so i find myself getting most of the enjoyment from doing custom Expert+ maps where the speed of the blocks has been doubled. heres a vid of me doing Delta MAX Ashura to show you what i mean

https://youtu.be/VEH2fNm-RZE

Also, at this point i can basically beat any expert stage on first try, so the only challenge i can find are the expert + maps

as you rack up playing hours in the game you get more adept at reading the map, and you learn to chain moves with your body better on reaction to different cube formations. To prove a point, this video was my second attempt at this song, so even at higher speeds than expert it is still reactable if you have practiced the game enough

[fitterdave]

Old codger here. Can finish all the standard songs on normal (get an A on only 2) Not even got through any tune on hard mode. Having an absolute blast though. Anyone know a good place to get replacement foam pads for the HMD? This one is soaked and no one will go near it now. 8)

[TheSambassador]

Expert seems crazy until you play it a bit, then it becomes just as easy as Hard, and Hard becomes boring.

[GoatLord]

I'm gonna start of by saying im too lazy to read what everyone else said, but I wanna point out my view on this.

I get everything you say, and I somewhat share your opinion. When I started of with the game I realised very quickly that Easy was super easy, and normal was like a tutorial stage. Once I had completed all the levels on normal I moved on to Hard.

I too realised it was the sweet spot, I had attempted expert and to me it seemed impossible! I had very fun moving to the beat and just like you, I found my self dancing (for the first time in years)! It was actually enjoyable to dance with lightsabers in a weird type of way?

But after completing all levels on Hard with a fairly good score (B on most of them with only a few notes lost) I decided to once again give expert a try. It took a while until I got use to the speed of expert, but once I learnt it, I could do all the other levels too!

I still think hard is the "Sweetspot" BUT, I do find expert more enjoyable, because it is really hard. I feel like some kind of ninja or jedi, and once I finish a level, I feel like I really accomplished something, especially since I'm usually very sweaty afterwards.

I have even started using beat saber as a "minor" exercise, both slighty physical but for the most part Psychological, since it makes me train handeling a lot of stuff at once, and also the speed rate of how fast I can react!

So yes, hard is the sweetspot, makes you feel good, you feel happy dancing to the beat with lightsabers, but expert makes you feel like a badass, and you actually get some kind of excercise out of it. That's my opinion on expert!

[xenicat]

Originally posted by fitterdave:

Anyone know a good place to get replacement foam pads for the HMD? This one is soaked and no one will go near it now. 8)

vrcover.com is popular, they have many different kinds or just go to amazon they have covers as well.

Get some headbands too. I use them for these kind of games to catch the sweat before it goes into the foam.

[Wanderer]

I believe I agree and mimic a lot of people here.

I started on Hard, because I didn't think I could handle expert and I knew easy/normal were probably poor choices. Once I got good at hard (Scoring A's) I tried Expert and was failing hard. I got a handle on it, learned the patterns, and it was fantastic. Expert, felt, amazing....

But, just recently I went back to hard. Quite honestly, as you stated, I love hard a lot more for the same reasons you do. I get into the song, and I slash with fuller strokes and I dance to the tune as I do it. I even hop and bounce. I really get into it. And I LOVE that. Expert is so fast at times and intense, I just can't do that. I've been finding places where I can, but usually I'm just so focused on doing it.

I definitely bounce between the two of them now based on what it is I want to do. This game for me is definitely about having fun and feeling awesome while doing it. Same as Guitar Hero. I'm not looking for incredibly fast maps, or even ones moving faster than what's currently the norm. I've checked out a lot of those Youtubes and they look boring as hell to be honest. They're so fast, that they don't really implement clever combos to master. You're just trying to twitch to hit the blocks. Expert and Hard have some really, sweet, clever use of combo block patterns that just make it thrilling for me.

I must shout out to the Beat Saber guys, just to reiterate and say... You guys have done an AMAZING job building the block combos, and making some extremely clever and fun combos that encourage specific movements. I'm still discovering the intended strokes for a few maps now and again, and I get a kick out of it once I got it down.

Breezer, Commercial Pumping, and Balearic Pumping are definitely my favorite songs that I just don't get bored of. I love Escape, Legend, Beat Saber, and Country Rounds a heck of a lot too. The others are meh to me.

[SilentCaay]

Originally posted by syne:

Originally posted by fitterdave:

Anyone know a good place to get replacement foam pads for the HMD? This one is soaked and no one will go near it now. 8)

vrcover.com is popular, they have many different kinds or just go to amazon they have covers as well.

Get some headbands too. I use them for these kind of games to catch the sweat before it goes into the foam.

I can vouch for the 6mm vinyl pads from VRCover. They're infinitely better than the stock foam pad. More comfortable, doesn't absorb sweat like a sponge and you can easily just wipe it down between users if you're entertaining people.