Zaia's Dance Dance Rebuild is a technical pack by Zaia. It is a resteps pack of songs featured in the Dance Dance Revolution franchise.
It features an episodic release format in which new simfiles are added to the main pack periodically.
There has been one DLC pack as of November 2024, titled “Fun For Everyone”, which added 5 new songs to the pack.
The pack's name is derived from the identical abbreviation with DDR, and the "Rebuild" is a reference to the Rebuild of Evangelion film tetralogy. It is the second pack I have titled using the Rebuild name; the first was Rebuild of Sharpnel (2018).
| Pack Director | Zaia |
| Stepartists | Zaia |
| BPM | 77-280 |
| Songcount | 30+5 |
| Blocks | 7-13 (7-13 target) |
| Type | Technical |
| Format | Singles |
| Release Date | Jul 12, 2023 - Base pack Sep 23, 2023 - DLC1 |
¶ Structure
All simfiles have 3 charts. The Expert chart is the “full” chart to the song, the Hard chart is a “stripped down” version of the Expert, that will remove either burst elements or reduce the complexity of technical elements, and Medium is the “casual” chart.
Chart #CREDIT fields contain the technical breakdown notations, and the #DESCRIPTION fields contain the stepartist name, sub-block rating and FX/misc notes. The reason they are swapped around is because on themes that only display one information field at a time and cycle between them, the #CREDIT field is the first displayed, so I wanted to optimize songwheel scrolling to make the breakdowns appear immediately
- ITGMania has rendered this redundant because it shows multiple information lines simultaneously
Base pack simfiles use the base pack banner and background, and DLC simfiles use their respective banners and backgrounds.
¶ Development
The wheels for the Dance Dance Rebuild project were set in motion before it existed. On May 10, 2023, Konami held the opening match of the Bemani Pro League, and during that livestream, a new song for DDR was debuted - BREAKING THE FUTURE. I wanted to step this song immediately, so I ripped the audio off of the livestream. The next day, I posted it in the dimo's dojo Discord server, after which I put the chart into the vault for use in a pack one day in the future.
On July 06, 2023, BREAKING THE FUTURE was mentioned in the server again, and I read a message about me releasing the simfile. It got me thinking - “I have no definitive roadmap to releasing this simfile. It could be years before a suitable pack for it to go into is made." I then thought about all the other DDR songs I'd stepped that were just sitting in random Tech Decks folders or in ! Finished Songs 12. These charts had no real home of their own, so I decided to give them one. A project of only resteps of DDR songs, with a quick turnaround.
I emphasized the speed factor to myself - this was going to be the fastest pack I'd ever made. I quickly drafted up a songlist, took stock of what I'd already finished and what would have needed to be stepped, and got to work downloading simfiles from ZiV to use as skeletons.
I had 10 charts already finished: B4U, BLSTR, BREAKING THE FUTURE, DANCE ALL NIGHT, EURO BEAT, Going Hypersonic, Inner Spirit -GIGA HiTECH Mix-, Ishtar and Wadatsumi. This left 20 new ones to put together.
I was able to finish these 20 simfiles in four days. At the time, there were no plans for lowers, so it was only the Expert charts. The next day was devoted to playtesting and preparation for release.
The pack released on July 11, 2023.
During August, with most recent wave of new DDR songs, I began to prepare for the first DLC pack. This release would be accompanied with a video trailer, as well as Medium and Hard charts to every simfile in the pack. The DLC released without issues on September 23.
¶ Artistic Influences and Chart Design
I took inspiration for this pack's charts from DDR itself. The artistic vision for this project was to reimagine the DDR songs in an ITG context, but also preserving the genetics of the DDR chart within them. This meant not leaning too hard into the ITG style of writing, or the ITG metagame, and giving the songs room to exercise some agency over how they wanted to be stepped.
Some charts ended up more tuned than others, and that was because I felt their songs could handle more techs. Technical songs like BLSTR were heavily filled with complex technical elements, whilst songs like Deep tenDon Reflex benefited from low-engagement motions to highlight the music whilst maintaining a kinesthetic calmness (which I believe suited the song's style). This pack's experiment was all about finding each song's point of equilibrium between tech and no-tech use, and setting the chart's technical scaling somewhere near that point to give it just the right balance of movements unique to that song and that help emphasize its musical charm points.
¶ Graphics
The Dance Dance Revolution A-era visual style is one I find quite interesting. It's vaguely multiple things all at the same time; its quite “technological”: by depicting elements like lights, holograms, electrical sparks, and objects with polished metallic finishes and sharply-chiseled edges. Its some kind of a “bright, clean future” aesthetic, and particular emphasis is made to highlight the glowing lights in the background and sharp edges of things like the A3 logo.
Replicating the DDR A style is very difficult, because the elements used, particularly the hologram elements, only look good when they're in motion. I don't have that luxury, so I have to increase the complexity of my images in exchange for making them more visually exciting when static to balance the impact out.
The image I went with had just enough straight lines and glowing lights to evoke the same aesthetic as DDR A3, and interesting enough to not require animation, but not so busy as to risk overwhelming the title logo. Most of the image I cropped out, and I also widened it significantly to make the diagonal lines appear more shallow and to emphasize the horizontal depth instead of the vertical depth (as in the source image).
The ZDDR logo directly references the base DDR logo, swapping the word “Revolution” out for “Rebuild”, and replacing the decals on the DDR arrows to those of ITG's.
A halo was added around the text to give the logo some more vertical presence and to re-insert some of those light hologram elements that the DDR A3 title screen has so many of.
¶ Songlist
Zaia's Dance Dance Rebuild contains 35 songs. 30 in the base pack and 5 in the DLC1
| Song | Artist | BPM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI | BEMANI Sound Team "Sota F." | 190 | |
| Avenger | USAO | 200 | |
| B4U | NAOKI | 155 | Featured in StaminaRPG6 2022 |
| Black Emperor | Chroma (黒魔) | 120-195 | |
| BLSTR | Ujico* | 160 | Featured in StaminaRPG6 2022 |
| BREAKING THE FUTURE | ARM (IOSYS) x BEMANI Sound Team "U1" ft. Kradness x TRIΔNGLE | 180 | |
| DANCE ALL NIGHT | Sota Fujimori | 135 | |
| Deep tenDon Reflex | BEMANI Sound Team "Coyaan" | 180 | |
| DIABLOSIS::Nāga | sky_delta | 100-200 | Added in DLC1 |
| EURO BEAT | tiger YAMATO NAOKI NAOKI feat. DDR ALL STARS good-cool feat. Meg |
152-170 | HOLD ON ME BURNIN' THE FLOOR (MOMO MIX) HYPER EUROBEAT Last Message Transfer from Zaia's Tech Decks 1 |
| Going Hypersonic | Mameyudoufu | 156 | Transfer from Zaia's Tech Decks 1 |
| I-W-U (I Want U) | nagomu tamaki | 150 | Added in DLC1 |
| Inner Spirit -GIGA HiTECH Mix- | lapix (Remixed by Blacklolita) | 150 | Transfer from Zaia's Tech Decks 1 |
| Ishtar | Gekidan Record (劇団レコード) | 156 | Transfer from Zaia's Tech Decks 1v |
| Jungle Dance | NATSUMI | 155 | |
| Kilonova | BEMANI Sound Team "Yvya" | 150 | |
| Kiyarora eisei no kiseki (キヤロラ衛星の軌跡) (The Trajectory of the Carola Satellite) | Yoshimi Kudo (Basisscape) (工藤吉三(ベイシスケイプ)) | 150 | |
| Last Card | kors k | 170 | |
| Lose Your Sense | ZxNX | 175 | |
| Poochie | kors k | 110-220 | |
| Respec fujin (リスペク風神) (Respect Wind God) | BeatMARIO(COOL&CREATE) (ビートまりお(COOL&CREATE)) | 135 | |
| Run The Show | fazerock | 150 | Added in DLC1 |
| Ryoushi no umi no Lindwurm (量子の海のリントヴルム) (Lindwurm in the Quantum Sea) | Kuroneko Dragon (黒猫ダンジョン) | 280 | |
| S!ck | Eagle | 177 | |
| Sector | RYOQUCHA | 160 | |
| SHIN HEBI HIME (新蛇姫) (New Snake Princess) | BEMANI Sound Team "U1-ASAMi" | 115 | |
| Silly Love | DÉ DÉ MOUSE | 124-153 | |
| SMASH | Whac-A-Me | 160 | |
| Spanish Snowy Dance | Mutsuhiko Izumi | 180 | |
| suspicions | BEMANI Sound Team "Nekomata Master (猫叉Master) VS dj TAKA" | 77-153 | Added in DLC1 |
| The Least 100sec | Hirofumi Sasaki | 100-132 | |
| Tokonyatsu tropical (とこにゃつ☆トロピカル) (Endless Summeow☆tropical) | Dormir | 132 | Added in DLC1 |
| Tokyo Shinwa (東京神話) (Tokyo Mythology) | DJ TECHNORCH feat.Uchu*Kurage (宇宙★海月) vs BEMANI Sound Team "U1-ASAMi" | 197 | |
| Triple Journey -TAG EDITION- | Triumvirate | 192 | |
| Wadatsumi (海神) (Ocean God) | Totto (兎々) | 159 | dimocracy 2022 round 7 submission |
¶ Reception and Retrospect
The release of ZDDR's base pack was marred by a critical problem with Spanish Snowy Dance, in which the chart's notes were not appearing for some people. This required the pack to go offline whilst I collaborated with Chief Skittles and cmmf for a fix.
ZDDR received a solid reception, and it was notably favored with players who enjoyed Bemani music but had grown disillusioned with Konami's chart styles and wanted something with the ITG-style flow and technical and rhythmic complexity. It has maintained a presence in tournament packs due to the familiarity of its music and inclusion of low-tech/no-tech Medium charts that can draw casuals and regular casuals.
The DLC introduced some new challenges with updating packs that had not really been explored before, as most people preferred to put new content into new folders, rather than update existing ones. In the case of ZDDR DLC1, the new songs could be added easily, but updating the existing 30 with the new lower charts required the cache to be rewritten.
¶ Trivia
- B4U was first written as DDR Extreme edit data and played on DDR Extreme
- EURO BEAT is a DDR Extreme non-stop course
- Inner Spirit -GIGA HiTECH Mix- was going to be my submission song to dimocracy 2021 round 1, but the difficulty restriction rendered it ineligible (this chart didn't exist yet)
- It changed to The Least 100sec, and I stepped that song (not the same chart), but ended up submitting Himawari Sunset
- SHIN HEBI HIME is a mashup of New Decade and BREDLI
- Because of the unusual way it sounds, it attained the internal moniker “Joker Bredli”
- The DLC2 expansion is already complete. It is just waiting on the completion of some documentation