FOREWORD: Our Loosiano interview was our first attempt at an audio interview format. It was recorded on January 11, 2021, so some of Lucy’s answers and opinions may have changed since. In addition, this article is not a direct transcript of the interview; this article is meant to be more of a “highlight reel” of the main answers to the questions and side tangents, rather than a direct replacement or substitute for the interview. Your feedback on this split format would be greatly appreciated. You can download the audio version of this interview below:
[1:17]
A charter who certainly hasn’t been a fool, Loosiano stands out among other players in large part to his control method: an Xbox One gamepad. It’s certainly not an unusual controller, but given the prevalence of mouse and keyboard or turntables, Loosiano is in a small but no less capable minority of gamepad players.
Nevertheless, Loosiano is a well established and respected charter, whose charts have attained even the recognition of the Spin Rhythm XD developers themselves – with Loosiano’s New Game rechart being the winner of the first RemiXD competition. I’m here today with Lucy to discuss what exactly makes him x3 SHINE!
F: imfallin
L: Loosiano
[2:35]
F: I think we’ll start this off with like, the most basic of all questions, which is – what got you into Spin Rhythm XD? How did you find out about it?
L: I found this game through a youtube video – from an osu! youtuber who I don’t remember what their name is.
F: [Interrupting] Was it Miraie?
L: …no? Don’t think so, doesn’t ring any bells right now. But, I just remember seeing it once, and it looked really cool. They were trying to [play with] other control methods. It just overall looked like a lot of fun, even on the lower difficulties. So, I wanted to get it, and I did. In my college dorm room, on a laptop, and was really bad at it, and dropped it. Until like, January – I picked it back up, tried doing CTM, and then freewheel – wasn’t working. And then I just plugged in my Xbox controller once, and it just kind of instantly clicked with me.
[4:04]
F: Alright, so, so, let’s [unintelligible] that with: what made you decide to chart for Spin Rhythm? I know that you charted a bit of Geometry Dash before, if I remember correctly, but what was it about Spin Rhythm in particular that made you think “Oh yes, I want to chart for this game.”
L: I mean, I didn’t make any…Geometry Dash-I mean, I did, but they were really bad, because I was like, 13 or 14, maybe even 15. What made me want to chart [for Spin Rhythm] is I just wanted to try it for once. It was for a game that I really liked to play, cause I used to watch a lot of custom videos for Guitar Hero III, and all that. It always looked cool, and I was sad that I couldn’t play it, because I didn’t know how to do it at the time.
F: You know, I’ve mentioned this before, but (chuckling) your custom was the first custom I found out about for Spin Rhythm XD. Your good old Xenoblade Chronicles Medley was the chart that led me to find out about SpinShare.
L: Yeah, nice.
[10:03]
F: Bringing it forward into like – modern day, nowadays, what’s your general process behind a chart? What makes you decide that you want to chart a song, and what about that song impacts aspects of that chart’s design?
L: I think a good example for this would be using my Magenta Nights showcase. A whole bunch of those songs are really slow, and I knew I had to use sliders–this is like, much later on, into September or August, maybe even October, whenever the Magenta Nights showcase first came out. I knew I couldn’t really do any kind of patterns that would be complicated, because that’s not what the song’s asking for. The song’s asking for a vibe. Most of the songs in the Magenta Nights album are vibes, so that’s really what I try to do with charts.
[11:53]
F: Well then. What makes you decide that you want to chart a song in the first place?
L: It’s always just listening to it late at night, or sometime during the day. Like, that’s exactly how Poison Jam came out. I was listening to it, like 11PM, listening to Memories of Tokyo-To on my phone, and I knew that I had to do something. Poison Jam and Say Something are probably my favourite songs in the Memories of Toyko-To album. So I knew I had to chart one of them, but I kept listening to Poison Jam over and over again, and I was like – I need to chart this one. Cause it–
F: (interrupting) It’s always that sort of – “ah man, this is going to make a really good chart” that gets you.
L: Exactly! That’s literally how I think! Like, “how will this sound as a chart? It sounds pretty good”. And then I go buy the song on Bandcamp, and then I get to work. Literally how I released Poison Jam at 5 A.M., because I listened to it once and was like – I want to chart this, and then I finished it.
[12:54]
F: Now, I know that this next question is pretty irrelevant now, but I still think that it’s relatively interesting. Back in like – even up to July, probably earlier, but around that time frame – you still charted almost exclusively expert songs, even though you were perfectly capable of playing and possibly even charting XD at the time. What at the time made you think “Yeah, I’m going to chart only Expert”, and what made you decide “I’m going to make the jump to charting for XD?”
L: I always wanted to chart for Expert because at the time, that was most of my playtime. I know there were a whole bunch of charts out there that were really hard, and like, all of the top players would talk about it. There [weren’t] many charts out there that are good at the time at lower difficulties like Expert. So that’s what I wanted to do – I wanted to chart for lower difficulties, so those players can feel like they’re also being catered to, like the top players are. […]There’s all of these XD charts and then there’s barely any Expert charts. So I tried to fulfill that.
[14:58]
F: So what made you decide to make that jump to XD charting, since you’re now charting quite a few XDs, if not almost exclusively XDs now.
L: I made the jump from Expert to XD for what I see now [as] a dumb reason, but at the time – I just saw nobody posting spin plays on my charts! That was basically it. When I posted like, all the Yakuza 0 charts like Baka Mitai, Judgments, La Di Da, and all the other songs that were Expert diff – I made them because I had fun playing Yakuza 0 that year and I wanted to make charts for them. But, no one – at least not that I know of – no one was playing them because I’d check #spin-plays and nobody’s posting anything about my stuff.
F: Hey, hey now – Koi No Disco Queen was a masterpiece when I played it, okay? Honest to god, one of the best early charts that I remember. I just didn’t post any spin plays of it, because I was one of those silent players at the time.
L: Yeah. Uh, I just got really frustrated with it, and when I got around to posting Trouble Shooting Star, my next chart was going to be – I was fed up with it. I know Matt would know that I was just fed up with it, ranting about it a lot, but when he was playtesting x3 SHINE, which was originally an Expert, I told him I just didn’t feel like I was going to do any more charts, because no one was really posting any spin plays of it. Then we came up – or I just brought up the idea of “What if I just…turn this into XD, by changing nothing.”
F: [laughter]
L: “Absolutely nothing. Just make it XD and see if people will play it”. And then there was still a problem – there are no beat holds. So Matt just brought up the idea “Let’s just make the last spinner at the end a beat hold”. Cause there are no other beat holds in that chart, as far as I remember. So it’s still XD, and so we went with that idea, and I posted it, and I also submitted it to the Autumn SSSO, and Custom 8s and there we are. X3 SHINE is in tournaments, it’s being played, and our plan kind of worked. It was still the same way Expert was charted, but like–
F: [still laughing] But one beat hold. One beat hold.
L: One beat hold. Made it XD, and people are playing it now.
F: [overlapping] This story always makes me laugh. Just, “people aren’t playing my charts. Alright, you want an XD chart? Here, have a single beat hold”. And then people actually fell for it.
L: Yeah. And that’s the thing – if you play Trouble Shooting Star now, it plays like a lower 20’s XD, with just…no beat holds. And that’s still an expert on my profile. So the thing is like – I always kind of knew how to make good charts for XD difficulty, I just didn’t think those were…I thought I had to make them harder. I just thought I had to make them harder, like with colour swaps and all that, in order to make it XD, but, hmm…not really.
[18:56]
F: Now, going less onto charting, and more onto you playing the game in general – I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that you’re one of the best, if not possibly the best controller player for Spin Rhythm XD. Which isn’t exactly the first control scheme of choice for most people. You touched on this earlier, but what was your specific reason for playing on controller, compared to the other playstyles, again?
L: I just did it as a joke. I was getting very frustrated with freewheel and CTM in January, and was like “This just isn’t working, I can do normal just fine, but when I go into Hard, and li-here comes the first beat, I just don’t know what to do”. I want a sound, I really wanted some kind of sound to come out of me doing a spin. Sure, there is kind of a sound of you like, moving your mouse to the right, but – it’s not enough for me. That’s what I think now, but before, I just thought “I’m going to plug in my controller and see how well I do”, and I did really well. It just instantly clicked, and I started doing experts like if I were to practice them beforehand.
[20:55]
F: So, how would you think that playing on a controller influences your general playstyle?
L: I certainly try to go for less movement when possible. That’s the first thing that comes to mind – that’s what kind of differs from both playstyles. There’s not a lot of movement when it comes to actually moving along sliders or all that – try to be minimalistic as possible.
[21:17]
F: Do you think that your control scheme has any sort of influence over your charts and your charting style?
L: Oh yeah. I definitely think so. I’ve gotten more used to it now, but before, I used to never chart really short sliders. Because whenever that happens, it can really mess with controller and fling the wheel to a direction that you didn’t want to go to. And you completely overshoot a tap. That ha-
F: [interrupting] I sincerely apologize for Paradisus-Paradoxum.
L: It’s fine. [laughter]. It’s certainly there, but I’ve gotten more used to it now, and not really complaining about it much, but it definitely reflects on my charting. The most movement that ever comes up is sliders and spins – even then, saying spins count as movement isn’t really saying much. But like, I always try to chart – at the beginning, I charted really safe to how I would like it, which [was] probably kind of more safe but I also didn’t really do any CTM friendly stuff at the time.
[22:16]
F: Now, you’ve been participating rather frequently in the two recent official RemiXD competitions, and you even won the first one. Congratulations by the way.
L: Thank you.
F: How do you feel about these contests, and – more catered to you – how do you feel about being the winner of the first one? Having your chart added to Spin Rhythm in the future?
L: It’s absolutely surprising. It still is now. I mean, I never really talked down on my chart, saying like “it’s the worst thing I’ve ever created”. I spent a lot of time on it, and it was kind of gruelling, because replaying the same section, I’d feel like “This could just be done better”. And many times I said that.
F: And through all of those replays, you didn’t catch the backwards spin.
L: I didn’t catch a backwards spin! Yeah, but listen!
F: But I did! [laughter]
L: I did not catch that backwards spin. That is true, but that’s–
F: [interrupting] I saved your chart.
L: You did save my chart. Well I mean, I just like RemiXD as a competition a lot. I was looking for something like this, just to see if I’m not the only one thinking like these charts are – my charts that I post on SpinShare are good. I want to see if other people think so too, when it came up to the 3 judges and everyone else in Twitch chat and all that. And then the community poll – that’s what I was looking for. Some kind of validation, really.
F: I think that’s only natural, for people to want this thing that they’ve made to be approved by everyone else.
[23:51]
F: Now let’s delve more into the various artists and genres that you’ve opted to chart for Spin Rhythm. So, you have quite a lot of Yakuza charts under your belt.
L: Mm-hm.
F: Quite a lot of them. I-I have a suspicion, just the smallest feeling that you enjoy the Yakuza series.
L: A bit, yeah.
F: Ju-Just a little bit. Now, what is it about the Yakuza series that you enjoy? Why have you apparently had the resolve to chart seemingly every karaoke song from that series?
L: Because it’s utter insanity. This whole series is utter insanity. Like, the storylines are very–
F: [interrupting] It’s so insane that it crashes my PC.
L: Yes. Indeed, it does. But it’s not – There’s not many words you can say to fully explain how insane these games can be.
[An estimated 362 words of Loosiano explaining how insane these games can be has been omitted from this transcript]
[26:30]
L: It’s just Japan Simulator, basically. And then there’s the substories too, and even the substories have their own unique music that you just want to listen to constantly. And that’s what I tried to do with my Yakuza charts. I started off with La Di Da, which is just a tutorial song for new moves you can learn as one of the fighting styles. Just one of the tutorial songs, and each fighting style has their own tutorial song when you want to learn new moves!
L: And it was only over, maybe a minute and a half long, so it was like a tester – like, “do I really want to go into charting this game?” And I liked how playing the chart felt, so I was like, okay, cool, what’s the next thing that comes to mind? Judgment. The karaoke song in Yakuza 0, and like, “okay, I’m gonna do this”. And I did it, and it was a long song, cause it was the full version, like 4 and a half minutes.
L: And then it released, and like, overnight, when I went and woke up, I saw that Darnoc had @’d me with a spin play and some feedback. Saying like, “This is one of the best Expert charts available on SpinShare” at the time, which is around May-April? Some time around there. And I just learned a lot of things through there too. And then all of a sudden, Slival @’d me with “THAT’S RAD!” Which is basically – a direct reference to what Kiryu says when he unlocks a new fighting style. So I knew he–
F: [interrupting] Slival just had that eye-zoom in, just like “WHOA! THAT’S RAD.” His computer just went black and white, he just began analyzing the chart, it’s all black and white, it’s all great.
L: Exactly! He had a – he had a revelation, for sure. And then I DM’d Slival about it, and was like “Oh, can’t believe there was someone else here who played Yakuza 0”, because other than that, it was like – either noone played it, someone played it but didn’t know where it was from, and Slival came by and knew where it was from and also played it. So I DM’d him about it and was like “Do you happen to have any other song that you want to request?” And he instantly said Baka Mitai.
F: [singing] Baka mitai, kodomo na no ne…[laughter]
L: And it was – it was great. Cause I was just charting songs from a game that I – I only played Yakuza 0 and there was the 6 other games – I only charted stuff from Yakuza 0, and I was having fun with it, because it was a game that I loved playing. I just kept going and going and going.
[29:44]
F: How has the music from the Yakuza series translated over to Spin Rhythm charts? They all evidently have – some natural compatibility with rhythm games, given that most of them are in the Yakuza 0 rhythm games, but like – how has their structure translated over to Spin Rhythm charting in particular?
L: I would say that these kinds of songs – mostly these karaoke songs – don’t really translate over to other rhythm games as well. First thing that comes to mind is like, Guitar Hero, because you mainly want to play guitar in Guitar Hero or Clone Hero.
F: Absolutely mind blowing revelation.
L: [laughter] Absolutely mind blowing, I know. But in Spin Rhythm, it’s like you’re playing Kiryu singing along to the lyrics, as you’re doing sliders and taps and all that. You’re playing the lyrics. [As well as] being able to have the freedom to do all the melodies and all that – all the drums and such…
F: So – so what you’re saying is that if X3 SHINE is the Brawler style, then FREEDOM DiVE is the rush style?
L: Oh…FREEDOM DiVE [laughter]. If X3 Shine is the brawler style, then what would rush be?
F: Uhh, what’s the one with the Majima matchstreams?
L: Oh, that’s Majima’s breaker style. Which you haven’t seen yet – don’t spoil yourself on that!
F: Okay, okay, okay, I’m sorry!
L: You’ll – you’ll see why I attributed the Majima matchstreams to his breaker style. Other than that, I know you would know that he has the thug one, which is his default one.
F: Oh, that’s right. Yeah.
L: Yeah, that’s his default one, which is thug, which – I don’t know where one that would go to.
F: Pledge of Demon.
L: Probably. [laughter]. But I thought that it would be best to chart here because – no one really questions it. Like, “oh, I’m just playing along to a guy in an eyepatch who’s dancing along a skater rink in a very flashy suit”. I mean, you can, but it follows the music, and it’s doing well.
F: Yeah, an-Oh! What’s the one where you pick up a whole bunch of objects?
L: Beast.
F: Beast. Cold Blooded must be beast, because when you play it, and you miss, you go and take your keyboard and throw it against the wall.
[32:27]
F: So, evidently you’re also a rather large fan of Synthwave, with the Magenta Nights showcase and your upcoming Selection 4 showcase.
L: Selection 5.
F: Selection 5? Whoops. Oh well. So, do you have any favourite artists besides the ones you’ve charted songs for?
L: Oh, besides? I mean, I was going to say Mitch Murder but – I only really listen to Mitch Murder and Ace Buchannon, really. Because they’re upbeat, but their albums also have songs that are chill. For example, with Ace Buchannon, with things like Promise or High Vibrations are very chill, but other things like Mano a Mano and Buns of Steel are very upbeat. So it’s a good mix.
[32:53]
F: On that note, what is it about synthwave that drives you to chart it?
L: There’s always those little drum fills that – in parts of the songs that kind of catch you by surprise, and they feel really nice to play. Like in Space Harrier, there’s little synth drum fills in between, that – playing through a whole bunch of sliders and spins and a lot of beatholds – which I still need to update…
F: Well, you get a second shot at redemption with the Selection 5 showcase.
L: Yeah, exactly. There’s like these little quick beat taps and some double beats into taps and all that and that’s always a cool thing to chart and play. So listening to synthwave – this game is essentially what got me into synthwave with Tree’s charts of synthwave stuff. And I just want to do my own.
F: I’m hoping that Hotline Miami gets you even deeper into that rabbit hole.
L: Yeah, it’s going to get me deeper. I still need to spend some time listening to it. That’s essentially how I – There’s nice smooth parts and then there’s some nice drum fills, and it’s just – perfect.
[35:07]
F: You’ve also done a fair amount of charts from the game Sayonara Wild Hearts. Great game, by the way.
L: Yes, great game.
F: The soundtrack for Sayonara Wild Hearts is also very rooted in synthpop, so it’s a pretty natural evolution from the various synthwave songs you’ve done. If I remember correctly, you took on your first Sayonara Wild Hearts song as a spin request, right?
L: Yep.
[silence]L: I did.
F: Indeed you did.
L: What, are you going to ask the thing after that, or?
F: Uh, I was hoping you would delve further into that, but I guess I’m just going to move onto the next one!
L: Nononono, I’ll talk – I’ll talk about it, but like – if it was–
F: No no no, I think that editing this is going to be too much – so we’re just going to move on to the next question.
[35:54]
F: So what compelled you to continue to chart a good chunk of the rest of the game’s soundtrack?
L: They’re just great songs, honestly. Playing through them in Sayonara Wild Hearts, it’s just like–
F: Man, it is an experience.
L: Yeah. It is such an experience, not just on your eyes especially, but in your ears too. They’re just great songs. As you go through – like, all the vocal songs are really good. Dead of Night and Inside especially, which were the ones that were requested first. Spin requests don’t get fulfilled very often, but I [ran] into the person who posted it, and I just thought “Oh, I know these songs cause I played this game earlier in the year. I never really thought of charting them, but now that I listen back to them, these would make some great charts”.
F: Yeah, I remember when I introduced my cousin to Spin Rhythm XD, he was like “Oh, you know what game would make some great songs for this? Sayonara Wild Hearts.” and I was like “Yeah, but I haven’t played it yet, so I think I’m going to wait until I properly play it”. And then it became like, one of the two games of the year that made me cry, the other one being Tetris Effect. I can’t believe I cried to Tetris Effect and Sayonara Wild Hearts this year, but not like The Last Of Us II or Persona 4 or something like that.
L: Yeah. But I played the game earlier in the year. I thought that these songs are cool. But I hadn’t even heard of whatever Spin Rhythm is – or, I [had] heard of it, but it was in the back of my mind. I didn’t really think about it. And then, when it [came] to the spin requests, it was like “Oh, these songs are great. I want to chart these”. So I let the person who had the spin requests know “I’m going to be doing it”, and if there’s any specific…difficulties they wanted. And they said that–
F: [overlapping] Ones that they wanted charted? Oh. Right. I forgot that people who can’t play XD exist. Wow.
L: Yeah. [Laughter] Because I hadn’t noticed them before, and so I was wondering if they were like, really good, or playing around Expert / XD – which is what they were, around the Expert to XD level. And they told me “It would be nice if you did XD and Expert for these charts” and I was like “Okay, I’ll do that”. And then…
F: And then you just went on a binge and did a whole bunch of them.
L: I just went on a binge, because after that – after I released both, I just went back into the game and played through the whole thing again. And I just thought “Oh, there are so many good songs that are in here” – I mean there were some [that were charted], but they haven’t aged very well. And so I just wanted to continue, so then I did Sayonara Wild Heart, which was like – the intro song. Then more suggestions from the person who had the spin request, for Hate Skulls and Transonic Gravity, and then after that was Parallel Universes, and you know how that went.
F: Ah yes.
L: The gimmick chart.
[41:58]
F: It’s always great, making charts just because you want people to – cause you want to spread your love for all the different albums and games and all other things that these songs come from in the first place. And – this isn’t on my outline, but I just realized how good of a question this is. Are there any other artists that you really enjoy, but you either haven’t bothered making a chart for them on SpinShare, or you just don’t think they would work well in Spin Rhythm?
L: I mean, there’s songs in Sayonara Wild Hearts that I don’t think really work well. But for games themselves? That I haven’t gotten around to? Yes, I do have one, and it’s called DuckTales Remastered.
F: Yoooooo.
L: All the songs in the levels are just absolutely amazing.
F: I only found out recently that the person behind the soundtrack for that game was Jake Kaufman, also known as “Virt”, from Shovel Knight and one of the Crypt of The Necrodancer alternate soundtracks. When I found out about that, it just clicked in my head like “Oh, that’s why that game soundtrack slaps”.
L: Mm-hmm. They’re just great songs, and – I have a whole showcase of like 12 songs ready to go, which I–Well, not ready, but like, all their stuff is…
F: [interrupting] Loos is hoarding – Disney is forcing Loosiano to keep his charts in the Disney Vault. [Laughter] Only available for a limited time, download them quick!
L: [overlapping] Yeah, I just have them there– I’ll get rid of them on February 14. Bout to pull a 3D All Stars on you. But yeah, I just haven’t gotten to it because the last showcase I did was very exhausting. And those songs weren’t particularly busy, while the DuckTales Remastered ones – all the levels are very busy. And I just at the time could not do it. I probably can now, I don’t really know if–
F: Yeah, I feel you. There’s a lot of – I did a Persona 5 showcase back in July, August, and at the time I was still really new to charting. And while that showcase was the one that pretty much put me on the radar, it was also pretty early on – I still didn’t know a lot about charting, so there were a lot of songs I just abandoned. But looking at them now, I’m thinking “Man, what was July me doing? I can totally do these now”. And uh, yeah, I’ll finish that showcase one day, I swear.
L: Yeah, I’ll probably get back into doing the DuckTales one. But yeah, even for games that came out last year, like Yakuza: Like A Dragon. There are other songs that are absolutely amazing, but I literally – I don’t think I can really do those, because those songs are spoilers for the game! Like, BIIIIG spoilers! It sounds amazing, and it would make for a great chart, but I can’t do it, because if someone’s gonna play it, then you’ll get spoiled! I really want to, though.
[48:04]
F: So, let’s finish up this interview now. So, of your charts that you’ve got on SpinShare, are there any that you’re particularly proud of? Are there any that you feel was the most fun for you to chart in general?
L: I have a few. Umm…
F: Xenoblade Chronicles Medley?
L: Of course, but not really. I mean, I will go around and rechart Xenoblade Chronicles Medley whenever I kind of want to; when I’m really feeling it, you know?
F: [laughter] Goddamnit. When it’s Reyn time.
L: Whenever. I don’t know. But things that I’m very much proud of? There are 3 charts that come to mind. Euro de X3 SHINE, which I released recently, which is technically my first Eurobeat chart ever released. My New Game for RemiXD – I was at first not proud of it, but I’m very proud of it now.
F: And it’s so proud that even the Spin Rhythm developers themselves thought “Yeah. This is a good chart”.
L: [Chuckle]. And number one I think for me that I’m very much proud of is Celestial Resort (Good Karma Mix) REVAMPED. I’m very proud of that one.
F: What’s the exact Programmatic comment, again?
L: It is – hold on, I got it here.
F: I would look it up myself, but then you’d hear the clacking of the keyboard on the recording.
L: “It’s pretty good but a lot of the taps don’t sync with some of the major notes in the song. The chart is more even while the song is much more syncopated”. And that was back in April, when I first released it. And at first I just didn’t know what it was talking about, because I had no idea what the word syncopated meant back in April.
F: Honestly, I still don’t know what the word syncopation means.
L: I kind of do now. But it was something that always loomed over my head; it was like “I gotta remake this thing sometime soon”. Because Celestial Resort Remix is just so good, but there’s no good chart of it on SpinShare. And noone’s like, taken it after me after all this time, so I was like “I’m gonna do it right now”. Because Prog released his Forsaken City Remix, Sever The Skyline, and PickPig also did Mirror Temple. B-Side.
F: The best song in the game, by the way.
L: Yeah it’s…pretty good. I knew I had to do mine.
F: 2 Mello: The creator of the best songs in soundtracks that aren’t his.
L: Also, best base game song, Twist Sound.
F: Yes, that is a fact. If you deny it, then stop listening to this fucking podcast.
L: [laughter]. But yeah, I just knew it had to be recharted. But when I looked back at the chart, it was like “I literally can’t salvage anything from this. Everything is off, everything is just bad”. So I just deleted the whole thing, and started over. With a better audio file of course, because that’s really important now.
F: Gotta love that Quality 8 Audacity export. For a song that’s 32 kilobits per second.
L: [laughter]. But I knew I had to completely refresh it and make it an actual good chart. I spent a lot of time with it, and it came out much better than I thought it would. It was something that I tried to – pull a good message out of my charts. Because it’s always – you want something that people look forward to, I guess? When I first did my Yakuza stuff, I knew that there [were] some people out there looking forward to more Yakuza or Karaoke or other kinds of songs in Spin Rhythm.
L: So that’s what I kept doing. And I did synthwave stuff, and more karaoke. Because I wanted it to have something for people to have fun with – something that’s for them, because they came from some other game or some other place. That’s kind of the message I try to go for. Have something that someone can connect to. Just to make them happy.
[52:21]
F: Is that like, the advice that you would give for charters? Because I have that question like 5 rows down, but you seem to have answered it already.
L: Yeah. Uh, so you want me to give advice for other charters? Is that what it is?
F: Well, I asked if you just had any general advice, but you seem to have touched on it – chart something that you’re proud of, and you want others to experience – but yeah, I guess so, do you have any other advice that you want to give?
L: Yeah, I do. I want to say to – don’t make it something that makes it a chore. Because once it becomes a chore, you start caring about it less, and you start copy pasting a lot of things where you can really just innovate with other kind of patterns.
L: And also, just don’t be afraid to ask what kind of things are not good – like, something that’s not a good pattern. We’d rather want to see a chart from someone who’s asked a lot of questions, and has a really strong first chart, than someone who hasn’t asked anything, and have a whole bunch of patterns that could be touched upon, and have no problem to begin with. All that really needs to be asked is “Is this good enough?” or “Is there something wrong with it?” and then all we do is say like, “Oh, this probably isn’t very fun for CTM players” and all that.
F: Yeah. A lot of the time, I find that I – I want to give advice, it’s just like – I’m so scared that I’ll end up accidentally coming off as an asshole that I just end up…not typing it instead, and just backing off. But like, a lot of people – the charting community is really good with giving advice for newcomers.
[54:14]
F: Alright. Now, are there any charts on SpinShare that you consider your some of favourites, or any charts that you feel got overlooked by the wider community?
L: Not overlooked, but my favourite chart that always comes to mind is PickPig’s ASGORE chart. It’s the kind of chart that I think to myself as–
F: [singing] Fingers in his ass…fingers in his ass…
L: [chuckling] Yeah, it’s the chart that – If I were to start off and chart XD early, I’d probably chart like that. Because at first – do a lot of beat spam in some areas, and some beat holds in other areas. I would think that I would do it like that too, but like – it was already done while I was still not really messing with XD too much. At least I think – when I first played it at least, I wasn’t going too much into XD. I still look back on that chart and it’s one of my favourites on SpinShare. And recently, just looking on the pages on Hot…err, New…I mean, I haven’t played many of these new charts yet, but…
F: Well, we gotta check a look at ASSGORE, aka Fingerfuckung…in the future.
L: Oh, I haven’t played that one yet.
F: Neither have I, but I am very excited for it.
L: I am intrigued, and scared, and the album art has me feeling weird.
F: [laughter]
L: Have you seen the album art? It’s definitely a feeling I’ve had.
F: I have seen the album art. It’s very…interesting, to say the least.
L: Yes. It’s interesting. I-Oh! PickPig’s Halland chart, the one from Minecraft Dungeons, in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate OST. That one was really fun, that I played recently.
F: I believe that one’s just come out, so I haven’t actually played it yet.
L: Yeah, that one just came out, and that one’s just been stuck in my head. It’s really good.
F: If only they had actual Minecraft music in Smash Ultimate. Oh well.
[56:14]
F: Is there anything that you have to say about the SpinShare community?
L: Oh. I mean, there’s a lot I have to say, but to shorten it down: I didn’t think this community would accept me so much as they do now. At first, in April, I was kind of active in it, but I was always self conscious about the way I presented myself to others, as well as my charts. And then I just took a huge break through summer, just playing on my own, with other real life friend groups, and all that. And then I [got] back into it because of Matt, in August, and just tried to get back into charting and all that, because Matt has very nice things to say about my charts. Sometimes I used to think he’d just say it just to make me feel better, and not really say anything truthful to it, but he’s really–
F: [interrupting] Now that’s pessimistic.
L: I mean, I just didn’t think at the time that my charts were that good, because noone was playing them.
F: The biggest critic is always going to be yourself.
L: True. But I just, I love this community so much. Definitely the – The only one that I’ve actually been active in, other than my real life friend groups.
F: You love to see it. I could say the same thing.
L: Yeah. This is probably one of the best communities I’ve been in, other than like, friend groups, basically.
[57:47]
F: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
L: Oh, yes! January 28, Yakuza 3 through 5 are coming out for PC and Steam.
F: [overlapping] Oh my god. Goddamnit.
L: [continuing] You should absolutely play it, as well as Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2.
F: If I could, I would, okay? I’m sorry, Loos! I’m sorry.
L: I know, but this is to everyone else listening! You can now play 1 through 5 starting January 28th.
F: You can already play Yakuza 1 and 2 already! What are you talking about?!
L: Yeah, yeah! You can play from 0 to 2, right now! You can do that right now and then when the 28th comes out–
F: [interrupting] On Xbox Game Pass!
L: Exactly! On Game Pass.
F: Which is available on sale for only 1 dollar for your first 3 months. [laughter]
L: [laughter] I’m just not going to [unintelligible] on that one.
F: This video is sponsored by RAID: Shadow Legends!
L: Oh my god! [laughter] But 3 through 5 is coming out January 28th. Play them. They might not play as well, because they’re on the older engines. 3 and 4 are.
F: What about 6? Is 6 already–
L: 6 is on the Dragon Engine. That’s coming in March.
F: Ah, okay.
L: Yeah, 6 is coming in March. Play 3 through 5 before it gets to March, because 6 is a doozy.
[59:22]
F: Uh, do you have anything to say about the order you should play the games in, Loos?
L: Play it 0 through 7. Don’t start with Kiwami, start with 0. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
F: Anything else that you want to add besides Yakuza, or…?
L: The controller playstyle is a normal playstyle, Trok. If you’re listening. It is a normal playstyle. Alright, that’s all.
F: Well then, I’m going to ask you one last thing: one pattern is now made illegal. If you were the one who’s deciding this pattern – according to you, which pattern is now illegal?
L: 1-5 flicks. Like, 1-5 or 5-1 flicks starting with a tap and a match, if they’re really close. I’m looking at Into The Zone specifically, because I got a -1, and I could never FC it. Basically those – those are the first pattern that come to mind – just, absolutely illegal. No.
[01:00:20]
F: Now, I lied, there’s one more thing I want to ask.
L: Okay.
F: When are we getting the Xenoblade Chronicles Medley rechart?
L: Ooh. I’m planning for it, but I’ve got other things up in line. Maybe see it in a few months, maybe? But I have so many other things in mind that I want to chart.
F: [overlapping] When it’s Reyn time. We’ll get it when it’s Reyn time.
L: Yeah, when it’s Reyn time, which is probably late March, because I have other things planned.
