(I’m going to refer to DJMAX RESPECT V as DJMAX throughout this post, as, at least in the USA and the current age, there is no other relevant DJMAX title.)

A score screen from DJMAX RESPECT V showing a Max Combo on DAYLIGHT 4B SC with 99.42% rate

I have to complain about this game’s DLC before I say anything else. Perhaps it’s because I’m used to community driven rhythm games and regular free updates to the soundtrack that just don’t exist for a commercial rhythm game such at this, but I’m also not at all interested in paying twice the price of a triple-A game (ON SALE, MIND YOU. AS THIS IS BEING WRITTEN PRETTY MUCH ALL OF DJMAX’S DLC IS ON A -80% SALE AND I DOUBT I’M GOING TO BUY IT) for most of the songs in the game; sure, the base game is definitely at least somewhat lacking, but I’m definitely not paying half the price of the base game for the most up to date songs, either. I really think that the system they have with Clear Pass+ should have a free tier as well, because there’s a lot of cool content in this game that you can literally only play if you shell out an absurd amount of money for DLC when I think players should be able to get a modern experience with only the base game. I think that is my biggest critique of the game; I know this is a business model for most rhythm games and this creates profit after the game releases, but to do this with no content for base game players in any form, at least by this point in the game’s live service cycle, is incredibly predatory, and I’m tired of pretending it’s not.

With all that complaining said and done, though: DJMAX is pretty fun.

I’m a huge VSRG fan; notably, my rhythm game of choice is Quaver, but I’ve got a relatively stacked profile on osu!mania (though I plan to learn every mode if I get my hands on a new tablet pen) and Etterna as well. I’m nothing incredible at 4K and I’m ass at 7K, but I find them to be simple, fun games of skill. When I play on keyboard, I tend to treat DJMAX as a less difficult game when I play its 4B mode as I’m generally quite good at that, as unless your chart is any harder than DAYLIGHT 4B SC was, which I was able to nail the FC on after a bit of grinding, I’ll probably be able to knock out the FC on it, too.

Though I’ve mostly been grinding 4B since I picked up the game after season 13 ended in order to see how high my DJ Class can go without any DLC purchases (I think it’s probably going to end up staying at Street DJ IV unless I buy some hard DLC, and this is by far my best mode), I consider 5B and 6B to be the highlights of the game for me. 6B is by far the easier mode for me, as it’s just a 6K rhythm game plus the side track that all of DJMAX’s modes have, and I think the key count is manageable in a way where I don’t feel like I’m stepping into uncharted territory like I do when I play 7K(+1) while still being interesting. I’m very proud of my FC on BlythE 6B SC, namely, but I’m sure I’ve hit some other decent plays in the key mode. 5B is basically 6B in a trenchcoat due to the fact that a key on the left hand and a key on the right hand are both assigned to the middle button as a carry-over from the controller based roots of the game; while in most 5K games, I would just use the right hand key to hit the middle button, DJMAX’s charting takes advantage of the fact that two keys occupy the same space, so I’ve definitely struggled to process this mode properly.

8B is definitely an interesting mode I want to learn more, as even though I’m fine-ish when it comes to hitting side tracks every so often, having a button that is a cornerstone of a chart and is not in line with the other buttons throws off my judgement and I struggle quite a bit as a result. It should feel like how Sound Voltex does with its FX lanes, but it doesn’t, and it’s likely because I run a quite high scroll speed for 4B and 6B. I think I want to spend some time with it on keyboard, but that depends on me figuring out a comfortable control scheme that doesn’t place my thumbs somewhere awkward like the default does. (I tried binding the bumper keys to the Alts, but that creates keybind conflicts.)

I like the easier judgements that DJMAX has, as it means the pressure to get a Perfect is a lot lower and there’s a lot of room for easier FCs, which the game heavily prioritizes with its systems. I think the changes that were made to Fever in the recent versions (the removal of manual fever from freeplay to seperate chaos and note shuffle) are very welcome, as manual Fever was already a relic of DJMAX past that is objectively worse than auto Fever while just being that much more difficult, and now that I’m somewhat used to it, I don’t believe it’s quite as distracting of an effect as I used to. The game has a very arcade-y feel while also feeling not quite as hard as a game like beatmania IIDX that I’d find in an arcade, making it something fun and simple for when I don’t want to grind Quaver or another, harder rhythm game.

I think the ranked system is very interesting, but I wish the earlier ranks were either harder or easier to grind through, though things may have changed, as I haven’t played ranked in many seasons and only ever made it to Platinum. It’s very interesting that it’s now possible to play the ranked system in private lobbies with the Versus Match system, which is a change I personally welcome. I think this is partially because it’s possible to play DLC songs through ranked, but the competitive system is very fun. I honestly wish we got hard judgement in free play, though, as it’d make for some very interesting scores; I recall the mobile KALPA doing the same for its competitive leaderboards, and as much as I like how loose the top judgement is in this game, it would make leaderboards far more competitive in a very fun way.

I was going to speak on how controller played earlier into this post, but it seems like I forgot when I went into the easier judgement discussion. I’ve only recently started playing the game on controller on Steam Deck which, though much less impressive than my plays on keyboard, is actually quite fun; from what I’ve played, I’m able to play some MX charts in most key modes, and it very much feels, with the difficulties I have and the playstyle that these difficulties encourage, that this is how the game was meant to be experienced, but I never got that experience on keyboard because I was too good in a lot of places. I feel like it’s hard for me to find DJMAX’s full identity between it being a difficult, high intensity experience for me on controller and a not so difficult, medium intensity experience for me on keyboard, as the game has both very interesting dynamics for combo drops and encourages back-to-back FCs in freestyle mode. All I know is that I’m much worse on controller and my hands hurt after every play, but by god is it worth it.

For all I love this game’s SC charting for, it’s very puzzling, especially coming from other VSRGs where charts are heavily critiqued on quality, because it feels like there’s no difficulty consistency; difficulty spikes are very extreme and come out of nowhere, even though the overall difficulty of the chart is pretty consistent otherwise. In BlueWhite and DAYLIGHT in particular, it feels like the entire chart is relatively quite easy before the chart pulls out its bullshit pattern; this is what makes many DJMAX charts fun, but it also makes it very jarring when these patterns get pulled out. NIGHTMARE is a far less positive example of this for me than the previous two mentioned, where the entire chart is already quite hard as is, then the ending tanks your rate 5% and kills any hopes and dreams still left within your heart unless you are an actual god; I suppose it’s fitting that it’s an SC 15 on some keycounts, then, but it pushes nearly every other SC down a rating simply by existing, and that feels a bit criminal.

There’s not too much to say on an actual review of DJMAX as a whole. I know that I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who didn’t care about the series as a whole, or at least about VSRGs specifically. The game itself requires a lot of investment in order to get the most out of it to the point where most of the things you could get for it aren’t even worth it; it saddens me that this is what the market looks like, but it is what it is. At the very least, it’s a DJMAX game in the modern day, which, at the time that the original DJMAX RESPECT came out, hadn’t been done for years, so it’s definitely something worth preserving at the least.

A short addendum about the music of the game#

I spoke with a friend about the original version of this post and the conversation eventually shifted to the game’s OST. I think DJMAX is definitely a mixed bag, which is why I say that the game is definitely mostly for those who care about the series in the first place, as much of the music from past influential titles in the series are present in the soundtrack for the newest entry in both the base game and DLC. I’m mostly going to talk about the base game’s soundtrack here, because that’s all I have access to, but these trends do tend to be continued in the DLC, although the overall quality of the soundtrack is much better.

If you’re coming to DJMAX looking for a soundtrack in line with a more popular arcade rhythm game, I personally suggest you look elsewhere, as many of the songs in the base game especially are very strange in the context of a rhythm game. Entries like “Ask to the wind”, “Ruti’n (GOTH Wild Electro Remix)”, and “quixotic” are a few varied examples of the more strange entries that I personally like a lot; notably, there are a lot of songs that are so unmemorable that I simply do not remember them off of my head for this, but you end up having to sift through a lot of generic music to find songs you like. There are a few entries, namely “BlueWhite” (which I did cover briefly in my music thread) and “DAYLIGHT”, that are boss songs that don’t really sound like it. I’m definitely often surprised by what I ended up liking off the soundtrack, as there are some very comparatively weird entries I just fell in love with, and it’s pretty clear that the producers behind this game’s soundtrack know what they’re doing to push what you can make a good rhythm game chart out of, but it’s definitely worth being cautious, because not everything is a hit.

For as many lows as there are in the soundtrack, however, there are a good amount of highs. If you are a fan of rhythm game music, that’s not to say this game doesn’t have its fair share of highlights; notably, some of M2U’s more notable works, namely “Nightmare”, but also “BlythE”, which just seems universally loved by the people who have heard it, originate from the series and are present here. HAYAKO’s “ANALYS” started here and I’ve definitely heard it quite a bit since; beyond this, a lot of HAYAKO’s work is very strong and fits the vibe of the game. “We’re All Gonna Die” on its own is a selling point for the game, but it’s a very difficult unlock. I’m mostly speaking on specific examples I enjoy, but I think it’s worth taking a listen to some of the highlights and lowlights of the soundtrack to see if it’s worthwhile.

My friend called DJMAX’s soundtrack a “6/10”, but honestly, I’d give it a bit lower of a rating if I wanted to give it one. I argue that the soundtrack as a whole is weighed down heavily by a number of middling entries, but the hits hit hard and, if they were isolated, this game would be a sea of all sorts of bangers. At some point, I think it would be fun to make a playlist of my personal highlights, as I think they’re a very good and very unique take on a rhythm game soundtrack; while my feelings are mixed, I think there’s enough good in this to keep me coming back.