osu!, a rhythm game about clicking circles, has had a new client in development since 2014, aiming to fix some of the issues and “spaghetti code” the previous stable version had. The new client, Lazer, is open-source and works on Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Lazer has finally been made the default download option for new players just starting the game.
I’ve seen recordings of people playing this before in stream VODs a couple times before the player fired up another game, and, well, this post finally got me to try it.
The on-ramp for new players trying to make sense of it is, uh, not great. Trying to make an account on the website tells you to download the game. Okay… Trying to make an account in the game then sent me back to the website!? (Why not just let me register on the website in the first place?)
The basic idea of the circle mode is easy enough to understand – although I doubt I will ever get very good at this, at least with a mouse, and I’m still not quite sure on whether or not I’m supposed to hold a key down/click-and-drag or just click and then follow the motion? – but there are other modes that it threw me in (mania?) when I tried loading another song from the catalog and it was rather difficult to even figure out what keys I was supposed to push. (The diagram on the wiki was not helpful – I spent a while confused thinking I was supposed to use ASDF for a “4K” when it seems like it’s actually DFJK for some reason?) Probably all makes sense to someone who’s been playing it for years, but, yeah… Pretty UI, but the on-boarding could use some work.
Might be fun to poke around at for music discovery though.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth from giving it a try.
In Osu! (Standard, so the circle clicking mode) you can, by default, use Z and X aswell, instead of the mouse buttons. Standard is a long learning process, and if you do decide to maybe play it again, my personal recommendation would be not to get stuck on PP (performance points), it could really ruin the fun of the game, when you play the same song and map for the 100th time in a row.
Mania, I haven’t really played so I can’t really help with that.
A tutorial song and map should’ve immediately downloaded after installing Lazer, but if it didn’t, I recommend downloading it, cause it does help with the basics of Osu! Standard.
Also settings has keybinds and you can change anything to anything pretty much. I would recommend clicking around it.
I did do the tutorial (after fucking up the first time through the initial setup and only getting the recommended songs and going “?!?!?!” for a moment) so I know about Z/X but what I mean is it’s not entirely clear if I’m supposed to keep holding them while dragging. The UI’s clear enough if I missed entirely, but if I kind of got it, I’m not really sure if I’m doing it right. With the reversals and the circle closing-in timing and a lot going on on the screen visually, it’s a bit much all at once. TBF, it’d probably make sense if I spend more time poking at it; those were my initial impressions.
Thanks for trying to help me, btw, with your comment; always appreciated.