This is a couple days old now, but I gotta post it here, it's big news! And I've been bored at work, and bored at work is ideal writing time. Two years to the day of my last Guitar Hero II chart demo video, I've posted another. It's for one of Connor's tunes off the self-titled MoriHime album I did a joke review of for my music recommendations sections, "Shooting Star". Check it out here.
I'd do a YouTube embed, but I'm trying to be mindful of retro PCs that don't swing that way. A screenshot will suffice.
I've been getting the warm gooey insides for GH2 modding again this year, but nothing compelled me to dive back in until Connor handed me some stems for "Shooting Star" and told me to go nuts. I figured this wouldn't just be a good way to indulge my love of modding probably my favorite game ever made, it'd also be good promo material for his record, so nuts I went.
You want to know how nuts I went? I asked Connor to record himself playing the guitar part and used that as a reference for not just left-hand fretmapping animations (so where on the neck the in-game guitarist places their hand), but as a reference for which chord shapes they should make with their hand as well. I went and upgraded my custom camera cut code for this—now, instead of having to place notes on specific MIDI pitches in the TRIGGERS track in Reaper like I used to, which is slow and annoying and takes an extra pass at the chart that I usually don't come back for, I can place custom text events in FeedBack, my normal chart editor, as I'm working on the chart itself. I also don't usually use this many flares, but I wanted to go big, not go home, so the whole venue lights up real bright on those big hits.
I am so pleased with this chart, days later. This may be the best stage I have ever authored for GH2! Nah—it is. It just is.
What's been great even outside of how well the chart came out and how much fun it's been to come back and work on the game is just how positive the reaction has been to its release. With the sole exception of a GH2 meme chart I did (ironically my last posted chart video in 2022), this video has been the fastest growing video in the history of my channel, hitting 120 views in the first day of it being up, and tons of comments too. What that tells me isn't just that there's still interest in my modding work, even after what happened with MiloHax, but that there's more interest than ever in it.
You ain't seen nothin' yet. B-b-b-baby, you just ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet.
