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previous video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvalqtQqOus

As someone who held the post of Sound Director of O2Jam Malaysia for 3 years, I approach this new release with an open mind.

Every game needs to monetize, but it feels like O2Jam Online really doesn't quite understand the environment it's re-releasing into.

Two franchises literally rebounded out of the dead and redefined their identities- DJMAX Respect V and EZ2ON Reboot : R. They touched up and unified control scheme, had an incredible run of new content that appealed to modern tastes, and overall became the defining version of the game. When people talk about DJMAX nowadays you can bet they're most likely referring to Respect V.

This version paints itself into a corner by being based off the mobile release, but its problems go way beyond that of a port.

Just as a little bit of context, there are generally two big umbrellas of types of rhythm games which define their charting/playstyle:
- the gameplay simulates reacting to the music (dance games, osu, muse dash, SDVX etc)
- the gameplay simulates making the music (IIDX, O2Jam, DJMAX, all in that umbrella, Guitar Hero, etc)

While there's a lot of overlap in how charts are made, the former is a lot more loose as an interpretation and often just follows the general groove/rhythm of the music, whereas the latter is stricter because the concept is they're all keysounded and how good you play can affect the resulting sound

O2Jam solidly was the latter (even if it was noodle hell a lot of the time)

When the original service finally shut down because of tool and server file leaks, the game got coopted by the community and O2Jam became known as a 'private server game', largely unofficial and community driven. The content people made turned it into pretty much a clone of osu!mania, which subscribes very much to the former mentality. While there obviously is fun to be derived and the absurd charts that became the new identity of what people think of as "O2Jam", and this unfortunately is a pandora's box that probably will never close again.

This new release finds itself fighting an uphill battle against:
- private servers of the original and those player's mindset of O2Jam being a 'community driven game'
- modern rhythm games on the same platform/storefront that provide way more production value with keysounds and BGA like DJMAX and EZ2ON
- several other more comparable rhythm games like SIXTAR GATE and Tapsonic (even if the latter isn't updated anymore) which honestly have much better charting/tracklist even though they're not keysounded and only have the occasional BGA

and YET it still launches with an absolutely insane monetization options - no permanent unlocking of songs, a $13/month subscription, which is enough to get any one of the competitors permanently during a Steam sale. edit: I found out later that $13/month doesn't unlock all the songs. For additional fee you can temporarily unlock 2 more Special Packs with bangers like Lonely Song.

I want to say there's some chance that it can turn itself around despite an awful, AWFUL start (It's sitting on 5% positive reviews on Steam as of this writing) but there are many, many other factors that point to there either not being enough manpower or expertise to turn this fortune around:

- the in-game tracks are mono. Why. Literally no audio person working on the game would have kept silent about this. It honestly is a disrespect to all composers and producers and sound engineers who worked on this franchise for the two decades it existed
- sync issues from track to track, which hint that the content audio file being played itself is off, rather than triggered incorrectly.
- half the song jackets are incorrect.
- incredibly unsuited charting for keyboard. While DJMAX Respect was(/is) primarily controller-driven, it does have keyboard specific charts and a commitment to giving those to every song
- no keysounds, which, while understandable since most of the content from O2Jam U onwards probably never had them made, is a very huge strike comparing to the original version of the game

I'm not even listing the more subjective things or things that probably could possibly be corrected with a more reasonable amount of effort, like highway layout or the inability to set many buttons in keybinds.

I think it really hit home in the 2nd video where I played 7k V3 and it was simply an inferior experience to literally emulating the original, between the layout, mono audio and lack of keysound response.

I generally don't like lambasting games that come out half-baked because every game's development is probably a special kind of hell, but it doesn't sit right with me that this franchise which I poured blood, sweat and tears into for years of my life is being marionetted around like a zombie. It feels like Valofe paid for the IP then wants to monetize it to recoup but has absolutely no idea how.

That being said, I wish the game and the team all the best.