Game:

Tetris Effect: Connected (2021)

Duration: 1:47:48

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At long last, here it is.

In Journey Mode, you play through an assortment of themes to get a high score. The mode has 3 difficulty: beginner, normal and expert, and harder difficulty has faster level speed that makes scoring, and playing in general, more difficult. The first run of each difficulty is pretty much for unlocking new areas, and once you finish all areas, "total area score" and "total score" category is unlocked for each difficulty. Total area score is the sum of high scores for each area. Total score is the score of a single run, meaning that the score counts only if you play areas consecutively. Naturally, the best potential for the total score is to play through every level of every area in order, nonstop, not only because you get to play all levels, but also because the developers have put in a special infinite zone mode if you do make through the entire journey. This makes aiming for total score records brutal to achieve, as you have to play well over an hour of tetris, nonstop.

The core idea of playing Journey Mode for high score is to spam 25% zone while filling the entire gameplay with T-spins and Tetrises, ideally for the zone clears too. All clears can also help, but only in the zone, as all clears tend to break B2B and are usually less efficient in scoring than T-spins or Tetrises. (Tetris B2B all clear is the possible exception here.) And after long grinding sessions with multiple chokes and failed runs, I managed to reach over 2.3 million points, reaching 2nd place (as the time I'm writing this video, March 7th, 2023.) and beating Doremy's record which was my ultimate goal for this. I cannot believe I managed to do this at all; so many things could have gotten wrong; at several moments it almost did; and at later stage there were horrible chokes that I somehow salvaged from this being thrown out like so many other runs did. This is easily my best achievement in Tetris games by far, and I don't think I will be able to top this soon.

That being said, I wouldn't like this record staying high for long. While Journey Mode has been explored quite a bit, most of the focus were on time, beating the entire area suite as fast as possible. Scoring has been explored far less, which is understandable since it is agonizing to play for hours for high score with as few mistakes as possible. Even for my own run, I see several mistakes on my own run and estimate my ceiling to be around 2.4 million if I played "perfectly" at my pace. (Which is wishful thinking that is way easier said than done, but it's nice to imagine nonetheless.) On the flip side, however, this also means that the top spots are up for grabs for any decently skilled Tetris player, so the leaderboard can have an interesting shakeup if more players join in the competition! I'll leave that for those who like a good challenge. :)

For now, enjoy this hour-and-a-half journey through the wonderful world of Tetris Effect.

0:00 failed attempt - skip ahead to the next timestamp

0:40 The Deep - 79,241
4:15 Pharaoh's Code - 78,129
7:44 Karma Wheel - 75,994

11:39 Jellyfish Chorus - 86,078
15:08 Da Vinci - 78,860
18:47 Prayer Circles - 82,733
22:30 Ritual Passion - 74,879

26:02 Deserted - 87,761
29:43 Dolphin Surf - 68,276
33:06 Downtown Jazz - 87,560
36:53 Spirit Canyon - 84,456

40:38 Jeweled Veil - 85,948
44:32 Forest Dawn - 74,022
47:51 Kaleidoscope - 91,000
51:20 Turtle Dreams - 91,597
54:54 Celebration - 68,437

58:05 Sunset Breeze - 88,060
1:01:56 Aurora Peak - 84,948
1:05:20 Zen Blossoms - 87,560
1:09:21 Yin & Yang - 65,910
1:12:44 Hula Soul - 62,460

1:16:17 Starfall - 68,491
1:19:21 Balloon High - 73,870
1:22:44 Mermaid Cove - 73,239
1:26:14 Orbit - 73,345
1:29:15 Stratosphere - 80,521

1:32:33 Metamorphosis - 226,711
1:41:04 Metamorphosis (Infinite Zone) - 64,397 (Area Total 291,108)

1:42:47 Ending
1:44:03 Credits
1:47:09 Total Score - 2,344,483
1:47:40 Journey Beginner Mode Total Score Rankings (2023-03-07)

Until the next trip...

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