Project Loved: Week of August 11th

What's up, Project Loved here. New maps at an affordable price.

Welcome back to Project Loved! Every two weeks, we pick out a few beatmaps from each game mode that will get their shot at making it into the Loved category. From the maps we selected, you can now vote whether or not you want them to be Loved! Click on each map's header image in this post to be taken to its voting thread.

In a bit of news, I (Toy) did a small podcast live from COE 2019 with some mappers regarding Project Loved and its future. In accordance to some concerns and general feedback received, the face of Loved for osu!standard will start to change starting this week. To begin, we're going to be nominating only 5 maps, down from our previous 10, every two weeks. Hopefully this will allow us to be more selective with our choices and give you a better chance to digest the picks each round.

I'm always looking for more feedback on the category's reception within the community, so please feel free to voice your thoughts with me so we can spice up Loved once again!

In case you don't read to the end of this post, be sure to submit suggestions for beatmaps to be added to Loved using the Google form! All of the nominated beatmaps are chosen from submissions on this form, which you can view in the corresponding Google sheet. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

Navigation

• osu!standard
• osu!taiko
• osu!catch
• osu!mania

osu!standard

osu!standard Loved candidates were chosen by DigitalHypno, -Roxas, BeasttrollMC, Bubbleman, fartownik and waywern2012!

THE ORAL CIGARETTES - Kyouran Hey Kids!! (Speed Up Version) by D e s
190 BPM, 3:04 | 6.04★
description written by fartownik

The Loved section is no stranger to sped up versions of songs, and with a track as popular as Kyouran Hey Kids!!, it should come as no surprise that this 190 BPM edit by D e s has collected 120+ favorites to date. A fairly standard mapping style with simple streams and straight, generic sliders leaves a stamina-draining map reminiscent of the recent BarkingMadDog Bon Appetit S megaset that was also recently introduced to the category. If you've become a God of Speed on the ranked mapset, it's high time you attempt to transcend that status with this map!

Negoto (DJ SEVEN) - Charon (DJ SEVEN PnB Refix) by eLy
175 BPM, 2:56 | 6.02★, 6.02★
description written by fartownik

Charon is a single-difficulty mapset from the mapper Anmiy (previously known as eLy), divided into two separate versions differing in Approach Rate (AR9.3 and AR9). The map is rather old-school dating back to January 2015 and it shows in the mapping style. eLy focuses more on playability, leaving the aesthetics a bit in the background. The main highlight of this map is the rhythm choice which, for me, is simply excellent and reflects the song's pace magnificently, blowing up especially profoundly in its two choruses.

a_hisa - Logical Stimulus by Naidaaka and DT-sama
185 BPM, 4:22 | 5.06★, 7.76★
description written by DigitalHypno

a_hisa's song Logical Stimulus has an absolutely beautiful melody, and this map by Naidaaka captures it perfectly. This high 7 star map contains super long, super flowy streams in the kiai sections, but the rest of the map has plenty of cut streams to keep you on your toes. This map is accompanied by a 5 star guest difficulty by DT-sama which is set to AR 7 for those of you looking for slower-paced gameplay. Judging by the favourite count of nearly 300, I'm sure many of you are already familiar with this map, but if not, you should definitely give it a try!

Caravan Palace - Lone Digger by Ohai et al.
124 BPM, 3:34 | 1.72★ – 7.38★
description written by DigitalHypno

This groovy swing tune by Caravan Palace has an amazing 11-difficulty mapset hosted by Ohai, featuring ten guest difficulties from different mappers. It's a full spread ranging from 1 to 7 stars, meaning there's something for everyone to tap their feet to regardless of skill. Surely the 280 favorites can back me up when I say that each difficulty is a joy to play in its own way, so be sure to check them out!

Giga-P ft. Kagamine Rin & Len - Bring It On (Speed Up Ver.) by Logicdash
240 BPM, 2:34 | 8.04★
description written by waywern2012

Making its way through Loved is Logicdash's first ever beatmap—Bring It On by Giga-P featuring Rin & Len. It's a Speed Up Version, so it'll be a bit faster than you anticipate a Giga-P song to be. The beatmap has a bigger circle size than the usual CS4 with the star rating being a little over 8 stars. The beginning of the beatmap starts fairly simple with simple patterns and smaller jumps. It picks up the pace at the 2nd kiai time with increased spacing. After a short period of time, you will find yourself at the 3rd chorus section doing back and forth jumps, as well as triangle jumps with triples in them that are pretty spaced. Are you able to do this high-star 240 BPM map? Try it out and give your vote!

osu!taiko

osu!taiko Loved candidates were chosen by -Kazu-, iceOC, jyake and nyanmi-1828!

ZUN - U.N. Owen Was Her? by Jerry
155 BPM, 2:41 | 4.92★
description written by nyanmi-1828

Can you defeat Flandre?
Jerryによるこの譜面は、7/27に公開された時からたったの3日で72favを獲得するという伝説的とも言えるスピードで認知されています。（8/8現在では87favも獲得しています）
この譜面は、"VS. Flandre Scarlet"と称し、この曲の原作である東方Projectの登場人物のフランドールスカーレットからの攻撃や妨害を受けながらプレイします。これには、見えないノーツとストーリーボードを組み合わせた手法が用いられています。
もちろん、一筋縄ではいかない難易度ですが、とても素晴らしいこの作品を一度プレイしてみてはいかがでしょうか？

Can you defeat Flandre?
This map by Jerry, uploaded on 7/27, received an almost legendary 72 favs in 3 days (87 favs as of 8/8).
This map goes by "VS. Flandre Scarlet" meaning you play while being attacked by Flandre Scarlet, a character from Touhou Project, the game this song originates from. This is achieved by a combination of invisible notes and storyboarding. Of course, it's not an easy map, but why not give this fabulous map a try?

KNOWER - The Government Knows by Pencil-kun
1000 BPM, 3:38 | 4.06★
description written by jyake

Pencil-Kun's The Government Knows map is by far the most impressive attempt in bringing a NotITG-style modded map to osu!taiko. NotITG is a very well known open-source DDR clone that has garnered fame for their stylish mod charts. Bringing the flair of the original chart by FMS_Cat, Pencil-kun employs a clever style of mapping by using an invisible play-field and a custom-made video that goes along with the gameplay, so that he can do all of the craziest gimmicks that you cannot traditionally employ through storyboarding. Not only are the visuals impressive and funny, the mapping is friendly enough to newcomers that all levels of player for Taiko can enjoy this masterpiece, so please make sure to give this one a try!

Lzie - Hachigatsu no Yoru (MathaFuckera.k.alziefuck) by ekumea1123 and vzk
270 BPM, 3:08 | 7.10★
description written by nyanmi-1828

Nightcoreやアーメンブレイクなどを詰め込んだ、"アーメンパンク"と呼ばれるジャンルの曲は、太鼓譜面にとても適しています。
その中でもこの譜面は休憩があまりなくスピードも速い譜面かつ、叩きやすいパターンで構成されているため、マルチで叩きやすい体力譜面として投げられることが多いです。
この譜面をやるととても体が熱くなります！（八月ですからね）

The genre of music called "Amen punk", packed with elements such as Nightcore and the Amen break, is very suited for taiko maps.
And among them, this map is popular in multiplayer for its balance of fast and stamina-draining density with simple, comfortable patterns.
Playing this map heats your body up! (I mean, it is August).

osu!catch

osu!catch Loved candidates were chosen by Tenshichan, Sartan, Wesley and Yumeno Himiko!

TERRASPEX - AMAZING BREAK by Spectator et al.
145 BPM, 3:50 | 3.00★, 5.69★, 6.82★
description written by Wesley

AMAZING BREAK is a well-known map created by some awesome mappers. The highest difficulty has been used in tournaments while the lower ones (at least for me) are new. Back when it was first submitted, a lot of people were quite hyped because of how well the map is made. A map by Spectator and Kyuare, what could possibly go wrong? Streams, fast patterns and a longer map at that—a real consistency test!

Jimmy-Rustler - Sentimental Hades in the Heavenly Skyscraper by rostld
142 BPM, 1:43 | 11.89★
description written by Sartan

So here we go with a little bit of an odd map to get a bit of variety in this week's picks. Despite rostld's reputation of not really mapping anything all too serious, Sentimental Hades in the Heavenly Skyscraper is quite a playable map for good players. It's quite bursty in its difficulty thanks to crazy jumps from the halfway point up until the end of the map. It's very enjoyable to try and catch these jumps though, making it a map with lots of replayability. Above all though, simply put the map is funny and not to be taken too seriously, with the lawnmower meme having been quite popular around its release in 2015.

osu!mania

osu!mania Loved candidates were chosen by Shoegazer, Lenfried-, Pope Gadget and Toaph Daddy!

Silentroom - Finixe by shuniki
222 BPM, 2:35 | [4K] 5.66★, [4K] 5.66★, [4K] 8.66★

Returning with more of his staple extraordinarily hard LN maps is shuniki being nominated for Finixe. While this isn't the hardest of shuniki's LN maps that have been nominated for Loved, it is certainly no pushover when it comes to the strain and speed required to perform well on it. The chart contains massive inverse walls as well as some less dense—though in a way, trickier—LN streams with patterns clocking in at 222 BPM which are sure to fire up players who thrive on giving themselves some physically taxing LN. As has been the story with past shuniki nominations, this is a perfect map for those hardcore LN lovers, those who want to push their skill, speed, and reading with inverse and general long note play to the limit, and those who want to have a fun time with the smooth, yet challenging experience that can be found in Finixe.

Masami-T - Toraburu Kuroneko Manbiki by AutotelicBrown
119 BPM, 2:40 | [4K], 4.90★ – 6.99★

AutotelicBrown gets her first mapset nominated for the Loved section with Trouble Kuroneko Man'yuuki. Chordjack charts are a common favourite among most players, and Man'yuuki is just that: chordjacks.

The chart is filled with doubles and triples to the main melody with occasional quads charted to higher and louder notes. In the Ayumu's Distress difficulty, there are also occasional jumptrills that pair with snare rolls, which could trip up players who are going for either accuracy or a 97-98% score. In the Ayumu's Trouble difficulty, the snare rolls are just 1234 rolls which are less stamina intensive than jumptrills. There's no long break until 70% into the chart (which is 3 minutes long), so this chart doubles as both chordjack stamina practice for lower-level players and chordjack accuracy practice for higher-level players.

This mapset also has 5 different rates (1.0x to 1.4x), so it's very likely that you'll have two or three difficulties to try out. If you enjoy charts like XeoStyle's Lone Digger or arcwinolivirus' Endless Tewi-ma Park, or if you just want to practice chordjacks in general, absolutely try out this mapset.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - -SUIKINKUTSU- feat. Uehara Hiromi by Evening
51 BPM, 6:53 | [7K] 6.05★, [7K] 6.05★

Following Evening's success last round with their 4k pick, it would be unwise to skip over a 7k pick for this round. For this round, we're having SUIKINKUTSU.

From the beatmap info alone, players would already notice the two difficulties with arrows in the diffname. These advise which diff is best to play depending on your dominant hand / thumb usage for 7K.

Playing around 175 BPM in the majority of the song on average, 1/2 bracketing and pattern repetition takes a very strong presence in the chart. As the song progresses, the patterns adjust well according to the music from huge mini LN chord usages, to a shift in the LN layers, and more.

There are a couple of main sections to look forward to: the trumpet solo, the piano solo, and the climax which gives the whole map a strong character. Some of the patterns utilized involve long anchors, looping patterns, and a very strong emphasis on playing with the proper diff for the best experience.

An excellent song choice paired with a very notable chart gives this map a rightful spot for Project Loved.

From everyone on the Project Loved team, we hope you enjoyed this week's selection, and are looking forward to the next! The winning beatmaps will hit the Loved beatmap listing sometime next week and will be announced via @osugame on Twitter.

In addition to all of the Loved captains that choose the maps and write the descriptions, make sure to thank Noffy, huu and Ephemeral for their miscellaneous help in managing Project Loved.

If you have any suggestions for beatmaps to be added to the Loved category, please submit them using the Google form! You can view the current submissions on the corresponding Google sheet. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

—Toy