TAPSONIC BOLD

Fun rhythm game with unique mechanics. Utilizes 6 key gameplay. Not a big issue for me, but others may find it off-putting or confusing if they've never tried. Great overall if you want something a little different from other rhythm games due to the layout switching gimmick.

As for gameplay options, you can customize note speed and keybinds to your liking and there's a limited amount of key note customization (changing the colors from a fixed set). Serviceable options, but they exist nontheless.

My only real complaint is the lack of songs, but apparently the game is no longer maintained, which is disappointing. Regardless, I enjoy the game for what it has, but I can only recommend it be purchased during a sale due to that one gripe. I think I paid around $5 USD on sale, which is more than worth it. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it at full price because it feels incomplete and lacking in content. Really wish NEOWIZ would do more with Tapsonic Bold as I really enjoy the gameplay a lot and it's actually a refreshing breakaway from DJMAX or EZ2ON at times.

❤

Not a bad companion piece to DJMAX Respect if you find this game on sale. Especially if you're clamoring to play DJMAX Ray songs again since this game has them

Also I'm a huge sucker of the morphing lanes mechanic

It doesn't follow the usual Dj Max formula, but it's still hella fun to play!
The music is also really really good!

Very fun :)

game is good but wish it had a more settings like the combo chain to be removed or moved to the side it makes playing the game really difficult for me as my eyes get distracted so easily it wouldn't even be difficult to do it's a good game it has good music and it plays really well but the only problem i have is the combo chain when playing

It's good, just not maintained anymore. Tapsonic as whole has been abandoned, they killed Tapsonic World Championship, the OG Tapsonic and they also abandoned Tapsonic TOP.

But all in all I'd say it's still worth getting.

I love the mechanics in this game, which actually differentiates itself very well from the other 6k rhythm games. The hold-slide thing, and the 2k-4k-6k switch is very fun. One thing needed is more songs. :D

A really good polished music game. Nice background visuals which are configurable if you find them distracting, plus the key note matching sounds can be turned off too.
It can be a bit tricky to get the hang of the way the key-tracks swap in and out, plus the tutorial good be on an easier track. But once you get the hand of the basics and the sort of things that are thrown at you, this is a fun game to play. With the swapping in and out of key-tracks actually helping to set the pace.
Tip: In solo mode change the track order to put it in order of difficulty. As the default is everything is set to the normal difficulty otherwise, which can be overwhelming if you're not quite used to this sort of game or the method they use for matching notes.
If you're a fan of the Guitar Hero games, then you'll be able get into the swing of things.

I basically paid $20 for this game to do nothing but crash on me every time I try to play it. It ran the first time I opened it. But after that it does nothing but crash. I've troubleshooted the hell out of it and nothing. Im on a new computer and it meets all the requirements to run properly. Customer service hasn't been much help. Over all, I feel like i just had $20 stolen from me. After 2 weeks of no progress, im just going to uninstall and have nothing to do with it ever again.

Good rhythm game, but dropped by Neowiz as soon as DJMAX RESPECT/V released. You're better off buying Respect/V and putting the money towards the DLCs.

I recommend this ONLY IF:
1. You are new to this type of games and want it in its purest form
2. You dislike grinding to unlock stuff
3. You won't pay for DJMAX respect

You may be turned off if:
1. You want incentives or addtl challenges (unlockables, ladder match, etc)
2. You already have DJMAX respect
3. You want a music game playable with gamepad

Expanded review for beginners:
Here you get a polished beatmania-type game where you get almost a hundred songs at all difficulties unlocked, at the get-go, encouraging quick, session plays as opposed to full-on grinding. The UI is clean, the song selection is pretty solid, the difficulties cater to a wide range of player skill, and its so optimized for PC that I can even play it on an i5 HD 3000 without any lags. Not to mention, it has a very attractive price point (incl. DLC). This game may be a far second compared to DJMAX respect, but its a darn solid overall game.

Expanded review for veteran/DJMAX players:
Some may complain about the lack of lane selection, but I like it this way, the lane switching is a first among this series of games. The song selection is diverse and spans about 15 years (from DJMAX online, up to Respect, and even Bold exclusives). The beatcharts (especially the Expert ones) does not feel weird at all and is super fun (except for those bulls--t jackhammer notes). The missions present quite a bit of a challenge if you are an achievement hunter. Neowiz is known to have beautiful UI/UX on its games, and this is no exception.The only complaints I have would be (1) the lack of keysound, and (2) the lane tilting innerward. Overall, if you find DJMAX Respect's price + DLCs to be too steep, OR if you find DJMAX respect to be too stressful (unfair ladder matches, too grindy, dependence on Perfect Play, million combo, most achievements tied to DLCs), this presents itself as a very solid alternative. I miss Fever and keynotes, though.

Game no longer starts, shows "Missing authentication information" and forces you to close it.
Some stupid DRM system preventing playing legitimately purchased game.
NO.

TL;DR - HARD PASS.
Don't look for anything close to an 02jam experience, and don't even think of it if you're new to the genre.

This review is going to be very biased -but it's on par with my disappointment.

Back in a better time, when my only worries were to pass my next exam and not starve at the end of the month, I was a huge fan of O2jam, I considered as a 'simple little music game'. Since their PC servers have closed, I've been looking for an equivalent and quickly realized that O2jam was NOT simple since every try at a keyboard-based rhythm game so far has failed to recreate the experience.

When it comes to Tapsonic Bold, this can be made very clear by the features the game is missing:

No choice about the number of keys used by default
This is the biggest offender. Beginners cannot start slow, more experienced players cannot enjoy a constant, more complex challenge. The amount of keys you use is determined by the song you're playing, whether you like it or not.

No odd number of keys.
Most people have thumbs, and all keyboards have a space bar. The absence of a key in the middle removes a lot of gameplay subtleties. I would be fine with 5, 02jam had 7 and it was awesome, but here your thumbs will just have to remain idle.

No music/keystroke sync.
In O2jam, hitting a key actually triggers a sound. It means that playing a song correctly is very rewarding, since it actually sounds good, and you actively contribute to making it sound good. Here you just tap keys, which is rather underwhelming.

Then, there are the new features.

The first one is some sort of note jump, which is displayed differently from usual note, but which isn't any different from the usual input, at least not to my understanding. I play those jumps like I'd play any other note, it registers, the end. This feature, then, is simply visual clutter.

The second one is the lane skip, and I can't stand it. Basically, at some point in the song, the layout will automatically change, on the fly, from any number of keys, to any other number (for instance from 4 to 6 keys). There are two ways this feature, in my opinion, is terrible:

- In theory, it only limits the amount of active lanes, which could be achieved by simply mapping the notes as usual, without adding emphasis and more clutter to the gameplay.
- In practice, it forces map design that leaves some of your fingers idle for entire chucks of the song and becomes actually confusing when it comes to how you're supposed to play the song.

Lane change would be great as an optional game mode, but seeing how some essential features are missing already, having it everywhere adds an unnecessary layer of difficulty to the tracks, through a mechanic that I find questionable in an on itself.

To conclude
Just porting the gameplay of 02jam would have been perfect, but Tapsonic Bold neuters it with one hand, while bashing it with inadequate features with the other. I could only recommend it for seasoned players looking for an extra challenge and being thirsty for new stuff to play. Besides that, for me, it's a an average title that won't justify the time involvement required by the genre. Hard skip, refunded.

This is a great game!

Although, it feels like this was only a test for popularity before releasing DjMax to the Steam platform.
There hasn't been any new song DLC for some time, so it feels like this game has been deserted.
Never the less, it is a great game and it performs better on poor hardware compared to DjMax so it still has a place on my work laptop!

Not as great as their "Flagship Rhythm Title" DJMax, but serviceable, and actually have some really good new tracks.
Currently it has 111 songs including all the DLCs, each has 4 difficulty, and I'd say it's totally worth the price.
Rhythm and timing feels all solid and tight. The slide notes may take a little while to get used to but they are essentially just long notes.
UI looks a little bit too flat but still OK, most songs don't have MV so that could be a con, I can live with it though.
Game modes are fairly basic: a freeplay, a mission challenge mode, and an arcade mode. Nothing fancy. It has online ranking, for me that's enough.

I think this needs a new review as my last one was more of an angry rant (Acting like this isn't going to be one too):

I would not recommend getting this game unless you are willing to throw away 20 dollars +10 based on if you get the music pack for a few cool features. I only play this occasionally to see what this game could be but keep getting disappointed by what it currently is. If you are looking for a 4 or 6 lane rhythm game, try out Musynx for 4 dollars instead.

Pros:
* This game has a few interesting features that make it stick out compared to usual 4k or 6k rhythm games that can make it enjoyable to play a good song. This includes the ability to switch from 2 to 4 to 6 lanes in the same song (not controlled by you but there is a button you need to press thats still a part of your score) and key holds that goes between lanes.
* There is a mission mode that lets you challenge yourself with different parameters over multiple songs and an arcade mode.
* The look of the game is very aesthetically pleasing to look at, this matched with the menu music gives a good presentation.
* You have a lot of options for customization allowing you to customize the notes, background, and the sound you get when you hit notes and how dim the background is.

Cons:
* The first thing that comes apparent is the song selection screen works very poorly, key presses don't register and the game keeps taking a second to load a preview of the song making the process of selecting a song very slow and painful.
*(This is more of a personal preference) The song selection is very poor and a lot of songs don't have a very defined beat (We'll get to that next), there are a few hits in there but 90% of it sounds boring to play.
* The maps for a lot of the songs have key presses that just don't feel right and are in odd or weird places. This could partly be due to the song selection because as I said before they don't have a very defined beat and you're having to follow along to what you're seeing a lot more than what you're hearing defeating the purpose of a "rhythm" game.
* The score and how well you hit a note is displayed in the middle of the track and is very bright making it hard to read notes last minute as its a similar color to the notes most of the time which can cause you to mess up at key moments of the song.
* Some of the backgrounds are a lower resolution than the rest of the game which feels off, sort of like when you're playing destiny 2 on pc and it cuts to a 30 fps 1080p cutscene out of nowhere.

If I missed something I'll edit it in later and if I said something wrong let me know, but otherwise this game just doesn't feel good to play, it looks good and everything, but that's not going to keep me playing. I would again, highly suggest trying out Musynx for 4 dollars and then buying the rest of the game for 26 if you like it. It has tons of content compared to this game due to the fact it does 4 and 6 lanes separately and feels a lot better to play.

It's a polished enough button-pusher but it's a little threadbare content wise and a little hard to recommend because DJMax exists? The original music is damn excellent though, I'm more willing to recommend this to someone who's already an expert button pusher rather than a novice, you'll probably get more out of it since it does absolutely possess high-end charting but the difficulty curve is not exactly smooth for a new player to learn just off this, they'll probably need to cut their teeth on something else.

It's got juuuust about enough going for it, I think.

I've been eyeballing BOLD since its release and finally decided to get it. I'm really satisfied. I think it's the most new-comer-friendly of all NEOWIZ games so far. I have been a fan of NEOWIZ games since DJMAX Online (like 2004?), and have followed the studio on and off. The music is their own (I assume?) so they do re-use songs, but I don't mind cause it's nice to bring some familiarity/nostalgia forward into their new games and helps to differentiate NEOWIZ games from ones like OSU/Guitar Hero stuff.

Games I have played from the studio (DJMAX series): Online, Portable & Portable2, Blacksquare, Clazziquai, Technika, Respect, & for TAPSONIC TOP for mobile.

My Likes:
- The menu music is so enjoyable. Really love it, but only accessible at the start screen for this game, sadly.
- As always, visual design is on point. Beautiful game to play.
- The song selection that they have is not bad, I'm willing to try almost all of the songs they have to offer.
- Controls were easy to adapt to, even though I have not played keyboard style in more than 5 years (but I have been playing their other music games in between, so I don't know if that helps).
- It is incredibly difficult to fail/die in any song regardless of difficulty. Example: I can achieve more than 40+ missed notes and get back to full health by the end of the song
- Everything you need to have under control can be seen and adjusted on the screen somewhere with little instruction (eg. speed of notes & bpm)

My dislikes:
- Currently (NOV 2019), the song selection is a lot smaller than I am used to seeing, especially since they're pulling from their other games. That's my major con.
- Because of the small music selection, playing Arcade/Mission does not feel rewarding, as there is nothing to unlock. I think most/all of the playable songs are already available in Solo Play. Mission mode seems more of refining skills, where as Arcade seems to be aiming for like a score-based competition with others that play BOLD. Both of which are neither explicitly stated, but more implied.
- You need determination: If you're new to falling-note style music games and/or you have trouble when it comes to different coordination for each hand, there's not exactly like a guideline or explicit way to progressively get better... you're kind of on your own for that
- If you're a "I like the story" person, a story does not exist for BOLD. It is purely a music game, and it is executed well. Therefore, no half-hearted story exists to complain about later (A good decision, in my eyes).
- Something a little less fix-able, as it would require alteration of the whole note-scoring process: After finishing a song, you get a review as per usual, but it kinda hurts that in the highlighted summary there is only "Full combo/Full perfect" which kind of go hand-in hand.... and if you don't get it then it just says "FAILED". It is consistent with TAPSONIC TOP's reflection page, but personally I really liked it when Portable 2 would give out those CDs for like "only missed 1 note!!" or something like that, and those would show up on the preview-summary as well. However, Portable 2 notes were based on percentage of accuracy (10-100) rather than Good/Perfect/Perfect+ notes

A few songs that I hope will come in the future, but unsure how often they'll update BOLD as they are maintaining their other releases: Space of Soul, End of the Moonlight, Miles, Ask to wind (& live mix), Proposed flower wolf pt 1 & 2, Blythe, Only for you, Cosmic elevator.

"Actual" TAPSONIC coming to PC O_o

Gameplay :
I thought it was a port of TAPSONIC TOP on PC but I was wrong.
There has a mechanic like TAPSONIC TOP such as Slide note, Flick, Dynamic lane change, Key lane.

But or more special than that this game including some special mission (but the mission itself is good enough and it was easier than DJMAX Trilogy due to too many key lanes.)

Still, I prefer they'll release more Gear / Note / Customization more than this. Someone wants to play on 2D Vertical Lanes.

BGAs :
I think some of them using from DJMAX Respect resources on PS4 when upscale is good enough. But the BOLD itself it does not have much BGA (I hope they're working on this and please make a TAPSONIC DLC in Respect)

And if you don't like BGA u can choose album cover (eyecatch) or another visualizer.

Playlist :
This one it's my BIG concern. First, on Early Access, they lacked a playlist and Original content doesn't include. But in the Release version, I saw original about 15+ songs.
.
And now they're including a few BMS songs, O2Jam collaboration songs (20+ more on DLC).
.
(I'll not talk about DJMAX Original)
.
Graphics :
I'm not sure why developer setting just set windows mode by default but I knew why.
If you play a fullscreen mode on monitor 21+ inches, I think it will hurt your eyes so much. And you need to take a break in 20 minutes and come back to play again.
(Yes, I'm using 144 Hz monitor and it works flawlessly than shitty game name osu!)
.
Conclusion :
I'll keep playing this more than other music game in Steam. + I'll be waiting for DJMAX Trilogy port on Steam.
.
And I hope they will release BMS Pack.

EDITED : Grammar checked.

I bought this game when it originally came out on early access back in October 2018, and it's been interesting as this game start as a port of TAPSONIC TOP and seeing it slowly transform into it's own original thing has been pretty fun! The game itself still has the same gameplay as TOP, but it has new charts designed for keyboard as well as a new UI.

If you're unaware of the TAPSONIC TOP it's a mobile rhythm game that features music from the DJMax series as well as some original tunes. The game is different from some other rhythm games because of a few mechanics, there are holds where you have to change the key you hold during the hold note and a lane switching mechanic that can enable and disable keys. To make it easier to understand, when playing a song it will sometimes switch to 2k, 4k or 6k - in rare situations it also can change to 5k! This is a cool mechanic that changes up the gameplay suddenly but I do think it used to be cooler since originally you could miss the lane switching notes to not change, now it forces you to change. I don't really mind this as it probably allows the developers to make charts faster but it is a bit of a shame.

In terms of content, well, during early access it wasn't too great as song updates were rare but in this surprise full release they added around 40 songs! There are now 82 tracks in the game which makes the game way easier to recommend, especially at the current price. I also wouldn't mind if upcoming DLC was paid now because of the current song count. Songs aside, there's an arcade mode where you can play 3 songs in a row and a mission mode which has a bunch of requirements for you to do in each mission. These 2 are decent distractions but I mostly play the normal mode since it has leaderboards.

The music itself? Mostly pretty great, as I mentioned previously a lot of it is from DJMax but the latest update that added around 40 songs exclusively added new songs that aren't from DJMax. I like most of these but I think they put the best songs at the start, the songs near the end are a bit slow and I think the song order is a bit strange. (slight edit: some of them might be from DJMax/TAPSONIC TOP, haven't played TOP in over a year!)

Overall, if you were ever interested in this game during early access I can definitely recommend getting it now, it's changed a lot since the original version and it's a lot of fun!

Closest thing to a newer DJMAX-related game for PC.

Haven't played the very first revision of the early access, but the current version seems to be better.

Needs more songs and a timing adjust feature though. Nonetheless, would still recommend this if you're into rhythm games.

EDIT: Calibration has been added as of 1.4.0.

EDIT2: Seems that the timing feels better now, not to mention some of the new charts feel more fun compared to the previous ones as of the 01/22/2019 update.

EDIT3: Seems that a lot of reviews aren't updated yet to reflect the most recent revision of this game. It's way better now as of the 02/27/2019 update. Still hoping for more content though, but those new songs and modes that were added sure felt nice.

EDIT4: Game has been officially released as of 03/26/2019. Now has 82 songs. So worth it. I hope song-specific BGAs get added to this game and also fair prices for the DLC if ever.

EDIT5: 3 new tracks plus actual BGAs for most songs as of the 04/25/2019 update yay!

FINAL EDIT: Press F to pay RESPECTs

It's like to play TAPSONIC TOP on PC, Slide notes needs time to practice if you haven't played TOP before.
The game is all good, but still got some problems.

Problems:
1. Can't adjust Offset. [ That's sure a big problem ]
2. Only English. [ Most of the player on steam know English, But there is always some one....if you know what i mean ]
3. Song's Level not accurate [ Expert Liar Lv9, It's like I'm playing a Lv10 or what ]
4. NEED MORE SONGS!

If you want to play music game on steam, try this one, [ Don't play Musync, IT'S SHIT :) ]

Updated: 30/11/2018

Original Review

• Background videos
  
• Calibration
  
• A difficulty above Expert
  
[*] (unlikely) Multiplayer

First I really want to know why there was little to no promotion for this game. It deserves some spotlight.
In short: Potential to be the Steam Rhythm game i've been waiting for.
--Why I Like It--
So if i were to be honest, this is my first Tapsonic, however, it's far from my first NEOWIZ game. I origin from S4 League, which borrowed half of its soundtrack from DJ Max titles, which is arguably the origin of Tapsonic. I've play DJ Max trilogy for months, even though i wasn't all that great at it. So far this game is very solid. It's an early access title, so there isn't too much to look at outside of normal music modes. Gameplay is pretty solid itself. You have 4 difficulties to choose from. Easy difficulty may as well just be scrapped from the game. But i experienced no lag at all while playing the game. But i am a little confused as to what to do about the slide notes. Sometimes i feel like my inputs aren't making it in. Perhaps it's something i just have to try getting used to. The choice in songs are pretty nice. Not too many recognizable tracks, but i saw a few tracks from the DJ MAX days.

I mention DJ Max a lot, but i'm a hundred percent sure this game is great for New-Comers as well. For all I know it could be better. I certainly do hope that song packs aren't going to cost an arm and a leg. The base game is at a very fair price in my opinion. On mobile Tapsonic, these 20 songs probably would have costed you $50. I do hope to see older fan favorites to come along, but more than that, I hope that the visuals are improved a bit. Visuals are pretty nice in this game, but you may start to feel how bland it can feel about twenty minutes in. There is ONE thing that would greatly fix that. Having the music videos in for each song play in the background. This was a key feature in previous rhythm games developed by NEOWIZ.

I really would like to see more songs and visual aspects come to the game though. That's what this game needs the most. Otherwise, it is pretty solid for a EA title.

--Personal blab--

The game may still be in EA, but without a doubt I can see myself killing a lot of time with this game.With more songs obviously coming along, this game could be a dominant rhyhtm game. I've been waiting for rhythm games to come on Steam for a very long time. I saw the great return of Fighting Games in between that time on steam. When Rhyhtm games did make a return, i was very dissapointed because they were restricted to VR games when it was truely unncessesary. Especially when there was nothing about the VR gimics that took place in the games.