Release Hallucination - VANITAS by Mordred

This is a song I love so much that I just have to write my thoughts on this map...
Especially because Luscent, Mordred and handsome are 3 mappers I respect massively and am an enjoyer of a large majority of their maps, so its not even like this comes from a place of hate.
I harbor zero ill will to any of the 3 mappers or to anyone involved in the production of this map, this is purely just me being disappointed by the map due to my love for this song.
I don't even know where to begin...

I'll start with rhythm because I think a lot of my issues with this map stem from the rhythm.

In the video released by Release Hallucination they spoke about how osu staff asked them specifically to include complex rhythm in the song, yet this map just straight up didn't map the large majority of them? Really disappointing to me like the composer even went of out his way to include them like please map them :(. The absolute biggest offender of this is the 3/4th VANITAS lyric in the choruses, its literally the name of the song and like the lyric you will remember the most, yet you just 02:51:431 (4) - have it being in the middle of a slider body not clickable or passive...

There is 1 of the funky vocal rhythms that is mapped tho which is 02:16:835 (2,3,4,5) - so W Mordred for that, really sad handsome didn't do the same rhythm for it the first time it happens, goes hard.

And that is just the vocal "complex" rhythms that arent mapped, there is alot of stuff like 01:29:943 (1,2) - this stream should absolutely be turning on 2 and not 1 in my opinion, like the white tick before is really not all impactful I feel like a blue tick turn is like way more appropriate here...

Okay this is a bit of a rant but like... 03:32:106 GENUINELY what are we mapping here... There is the cool ass Piano rhythms going on yet this is just like all consistent 1/3rd mapped to the constant guitar chugs? maybe? I think? like I don't get the logic behind this being the rhythm choice used here... And not only does it kinda just feel like it doesn't follow the song, it all being 1/3rd like pretty much removes all the uniqueness of the actual drum 1/3rd section just after 03:36:431 and makes it feel like nothing special...

03:53:525 Unsurprisingly the best part of this map by miles, thank you Mordred for not being scared to actually map the song, W Mordred. That being said, 04:02:038 (9,10,11) - bit of a nitpick but I do not like this rhythm here xD

04:19:268... This uuuh... This genuinely might be the most underwhelming way to map a guitar solo I have ever seen in my entire life... 04:29:606 (2,3,4,1,2,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,1,1,1) - The first time I say this I literally yelled "WHAT ARE WE DOING" in VC and my friend laughed his ass off xD.

04:48:254 yeah so uuuuh... I think I just fundamentally disagree with mapping this section like this... Like just make the entire thing active and basically just 1 continuous stream put the fries in the bag. That being said doing that would make this even worse of a tiebreaker than it already is so its whatever...

05:14:809 This is also one of the best sections of the map, W Mordred, not much to say

05:23:592 THIS section however... Literally just 1 big big issue for me... 05:31:160 (1,1,1,1,1,1,1) - I'm sorry but this is just so incredibly underwhelming its insane... like could we really not think of a better way to map the loudest 2/3rd rhythm drums you have ever heard in your entire life accompanied by a screeching guitar :(

My Lawyer has advised me not to speak on the rhythm of the final chorus so I shall refrain...

The final section after the last chorus is honestly fine I don't have much to say.

Structure:

This is probably just a me thing but to me the verses of this song are really really repetitive in nature, so to map them like this in such a way that there is no clear repetition of patterns just feels so wrong to me... Granted I am VERY biased against unstructured maps but I think for a song where it repeats itself so much its like kind of a requirement...

Contrast:

I won't say much on contrast because its almost entirely a consequence of it being a tournament map that there is very little sectional contrast throughout the map so it is what it is.
HOWEVER, I do have 1 thing that bugs me enough to mention it because the section overall is banger... Why is 04:09:133 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1) - This so much harder to play than 04:15:620 (1,2,3,4,1,2,1,2,1) - this while the latter is higher pitch and just overall more intense... like lowkey just buff the second one, everyone is gonna break on this section anyways just say fuck the players at that point :tf:

Overall I just think for a song where the vocals are such an important, if not the most important part, it would be way better to focus more on mapping them...

I used to think this map was kind of alright but after looking at it more and after having mapped the song myself, I have kind of grown to really dislike this map unfortunately.
Normally I wouldn't care all that much but this is like one of my all time favourite songs so I am naturally just gonna be a lot harsher on maps of it because of that.

Once again I harbor ZERO ill will towards anyone involved in this map, if I offended you in anyway I am very sorry it was not at all my intention. Please no one direct any hate towards anyone ever because of the quality of their maps in your opinion, its really not that serious...

Please Enjoy Editor