2023 was a big year for me in returning to my weird obsession with IIDX.
IIDX has been a huge influence in my entry to arcade rhythm games and one that I strived for the longest time to improve and become good at.
Beginnings
I originally found IIDX during a random encounter in early high school which was around 2017-2018. The mall near me had a Round1 freshly built and I got a chance to step inside as soon as it was opened to the public.
Around this time, IIDX was still on Copula, but I actually didn't touch the cab until Sinobuz! My first time playing, I got instantly hooked. Next thing you know, I would be pulling up to Round1 every weekend and sinking so much money on credits just to play again.
Eventually sometime in 2019, Gamo2 released the well known Phoneixwan controller to their line up of IIDX home controllers, and having some spare cash, I decided to buy it and start playing at home.
During this time, I was clearing 6s to easier 7s and started to really enjoy the game once charts became more challenging.
However, once I went off to college my interest in the game took a sharp turn.
Losing touch with the game
Going into college, I decided to bring my controller with me to campus and showcase the game at our esports club.
Sadly and expectedly, there wasn't any interest really for arcade rhythm games I could find within the student body at my university. Rhythm games at the time were still relatively niche with osu! being the exception.
As my studies got harder and the nearest arcade being over 2 hours away from me by public transit, my ability to play reduced dramatically. I was also pretty depressed during this time because of school and I started to lose interest in pretty much all of my hobbies.
Along with this, I started to develop a really toxic mindset. I was never the type to pick up concepts or skills quickly and this really had an impact on adapting any sort of growth mindset. I started to think putting any effort or time into improving at anything was useless because of how slow I am. This extended into IIDX and I eventually gave up on the game entirely when I got stuck transitioning to 9s in the game.
At this point I gave up playing for 2 years. My Phoneixwan was collecting dust, and I sadly ended up selling it too thinking I wouldn't get back my interest in the game.
Late 2022 that I started to see improvement in my anhedonia with my graduation lined up. During that time, I was also really lucky to meet a group of friends that shared my interest in arcade rhythm games. I started going back to the arcade way more often, but mostly to play other rhythm games, still ignoring IIDX.
Regaining Interest
It was only until my trip to Japan in the summer of 2023, when my interest in IIDX came back. Having the opportunity to play at Round1 and GiGO Arcades was a really cool experience and probably re-sparked my interest for the game again.
Following my trip, I actually ended up buying the new Phoneixwan LMT+ model (most wise financial decision) and started to play seriously again.
As of now and with a few months of playing, I'm passed the initial wall of getting into 9s and even ended up reaching 5th dan coming back.
Goals going forward
For 2024, I'm hoping to reach 6th dan or potentially higher. It took me a while to reset my mindset for this game, but after inactivity for years I've come to accept my slow progress in the game and the incredibly high skill ceiling.
I'm glad to enjoy playing IIDX once again and I'm hoping to set some great scores as we enter 2024!