This is the Para Para Paradise FAQ v0.2 By Mark Green Email address for submissions/comments: mark [at] antelope [dot] demon [dot] co [dot] uk The latest version of this FAQ will always be available from http://www.gamefaqs.com. ----------- wwwwwwwwwww If the block of characters on the left has a straight mmmmmmmmmmm right-hand edge, you are using a monospaced font. iiiiiiiiiii This FAQ looks far better viewed in a monospaced font. OoOoOoOoOoO Use EDIT, DOS TYPE, the Netscape text viewer, or MORE 12345678901 to view this file. ----------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- **************************** LEGAL BITS ****************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neither the author of this FAQ, nor any person who distributes it in any way, shall be responsible or liable for anything that results from using this FAQ for any purpose, including but not limited to damage to your Playstation 2, controllers, hands, eyes, observers, or getting cancer from the IR Pods (yes, that bit's a JOKE, no I'm not really saying it's dangerous, lay off..). This FAQ may be freely distributed provided that it is kept unmodified and in its entirity. This FAQ may not be sold, or included as part of a publication that is sold (including a website to which a subscription is charged), without the author's express permission. Para Para Paradise and Dance Dance Revolution are (c) and (tm) Konami, 2001. BEMANI is (tm) Konami. The use of any trademarks within this FAQ is not intended to be a challenge to their validity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************* INDEX ******************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PARA PARA PARAVANT -- Introduction PARA PARA PARADIGM -- What's going on!? PARA PARA PARAPHERNALIA -- Setting up the controller PARA PARA PARAPHRASE -- Menus and instructions PARA PARA PARAMETER -- Song data PARA PARA PARAPH -- Credits ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************** PARA PARA PARAVANT ************************ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Para Para Paradise - for Wild Boys and Cutie Gals!! Get into the Eurobeat Ecstasy & Fire the Hi-Tension Vibe!! Super Bass Sound will make you the prisoner of dance!!" One of three things has now happened. Either a) you're an importaku and the mere presence of a catchline like that has convinced you to buy the game; b) you're wondering what on earth I'm going on about; c) you're wondering why anyone would get a game that will "make them a prisoner". Well, I can answer b). Para Para Paradise is the latest in the everexpanding range of BEMANI rhythm games from Konami. It follows the tradition of Dance Dance Revolution in having you make whole-body physical actions that it detects. However, while Dance Dance Revolution was based on foot motions, Para Para Paradise is mainly based on hand motions. Para Para Paradise is important in two ways. First, its controller - a set of IR-beam emitting pods - is the most easily usable controller yet. It will not slip like the DDR mat, because you do not stand on it. Secondly, it is the first rhythm game to allow you to learn real dance steps from it. While DDR's steps were cool nobody in the real world would dance in a club like they would on a DDR machine. But people in clubs (well, clubs in Japan, at least) can and do perform routines near to or exactly the same those that can be done on a Para Para Paradise game. In DDR, the challenge was to perform the steps fast without losing your balance. You won't lose your balance in PPP, and the challenge is more creative: find a sequence of gestures that matches the required location checks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************** PARA PARA PARADIGM ************************ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, so WHAT is Para Para anyway? -------------------------------- Para Para is a popular dance style with clubgoers in Japan. It's a combination of line dancing and club dancing. Para Para steps are performed almost entirely with the hands - the feet are either not used at all or just used for bopping from side to side. (This enables lots of people to fit on the dance floor, since people don't need a great deal of foot space.) There is a specific Para Para step for each song, and everybody does the same step together. The steps are learnt either by viewing Para Para videos which show professional dancers doing the steps, or by going to a club where a "master" will show the entire group how to do a particular step. How is Para Para pronounced? ---------------------------- No, it's *not* "Parah Parah", or "Paruh Paruh". It's "Parappara" - all the A's sound the same, all the syllables are equal length, and there's no pause between the Para's. So do I have to know Para Para steps to play the game? ------------------------------------------------------ No. You do not have to dance the Para Para steps in the game - you can do any step that touches the sensors in the appropriate way. Indeed, only one mode of the game is based on actual Para Para steps. If you *want* to dance Para Para steps, you can, and if you don't know any, you can learn them from the videos included on the game DVD. How does anyone remember the steps? ----------------------------------- There is a fixed pattern to Para Para routines. They are divided into four sections: Intro, A-Melo, B-Melo, and Sabi. Usually each one of these will be a few bars long, and the routine will consist of doing these four in order and then repeating the Intro again. There are also fixed rules for how the motions run, but I haven't been able to translate them yet (something like "Left to right, up to down..") If it's based on professional, real Para Para dancing, why is the Para Para mode only 2-star difficulty, and why does it include 5-star difficulty songs? ---------------------------------------------------------------- When it comes to passing stages in the game, the game can only go by its sensors. The sensors cannot detect all the moves in a real Para Para dance, and there are relatively few check points in the Para Para stages. Hence, although doing the real Para Para dance is difficult, you can cop out any time and simply do an easy routine that hits the sensors if you just need to pass the stage. For this reason Para Para mode is much more forgiving than the other modes. Para Para modes include 5 or 6- star songs because the individual song difficulties assume you're going to do the actual Parapara step rather than just hit the sensors. So how do I get Para Para steps into the game? ---------------------------------------------- The easiest ways is to watch the videos included on the disk. But here are a few techniques visible on the videos that you can use in Parapara AND Normal modes. The names are my own ways of remembering them. AT EASE: The start-and-end position of all the dancers is: head down, hands crossed hard in front of you. PILLAR TAPPING: Tap your hand forward as if you were.. well, breaking a series of invisible beams. I guarantee you that on your first time you'll do an entire song this way, but it's normally used for slow sequences of adjacent arrows. LINE DRAW: Draw a line with your hand in the air, moving from the arm. Also used for sequential (not necessarily adjacent!) arrows. Optionally you can stop the line with a funky gesture or in a certain place. FLY-BY: Same as "line draw", but hold your hand fixed (usually high up) and move it by turning your hips. Sequential arrows again. L-PIECE: Hold an arm pointed upwards from the elbow, and the other arm pointed sideways from the elbow with the hand pointing at the elbow of the first arm. Use for combinations of diagonal and horizontal arrows. DOUBLE WAVE: Hold both arms out, point up from the elbows, and wave. Use for combinations of the outer sensors. DOUBLE PENDULUM: Same as double wave but point DOWN from the elbows. SURFACE TILT: Point the backs of your hands upwards and then place the fingertips of both your hands together in front of you to create a level plane which you can zag up and down. CIRCLE: Moving a hand in a circle can be useful for zig-zag combinations on one side. BLOSSOM / EXPLOSION (whichever you prefer): Hold both hands high up and circle them both down to the sides. FUNKY CENTRAL STUFF: For moments when just the centre vertical arrow is required, you have lots of choices: wave the hands up and down, cross them over, put them together in a praying position, etc. etc... Is this a girls' game? ---------------------- Both men and women can do Parapara (although some of the routines are better for one than for the other - if you're a bloke I don't recommend doing Aishiattemasu?..). However a majority of Para Para dancers are girls. Hence Para Para Paradise has been marketed at females - many of the demo dancers are women, and all the boxes and packaging are bright pink and covered in flowers. Whatever. If you like it, play it. And if anyone disagrees, make them do Dynamite Rave on Expert. Is this going to come out outside Japan? ---------------------------------------- It seems that originally Konami were not planning to bring Para Para Paradise out outside Japan because Para Para is almost unheard of in the States and Europe. However, they took the arcade machine to some trade shows and had some very positive feedback so they're going to release the arcade machine outside Japan. Presumably this means they may also release the home version but it will be a little while away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************** PARA PARA PARAPHERNALIA ********************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's face it - you NEED the controllers to play this game right. The controller consists of five sensor pods (which are bright pink and look like either flowers or knuckle dusters, depending on your perception...) linked to each other. The central one bears four buttons and a USB connector to plug into the TOP USB port on your PS2. (No I haven't tried sticking it in a PC yet, but if you do, better use a powered hub.) Each of the pods has three infrared lenses on it. Position the pods around you, with the triangle formed by the lenses pointing at you. There's a mat included with the controller to help you position them as on the arcade machine, but you don't have to position them that way. (Note that the illustration on the back of the box shows the cables taut with the pods in place. Your cables probably will not be taut. Don't worry.) On each of the controllers is a dial which adjusts the sensitivity of that particular pod. You can adjust this if the sensor isn't detecting you properly. Rolling it left (with the pod the right way up) makes it less sensitive, and rolling it right makes it more sensitive. The game runs a diagnostic on the controller as it starts up. If you get a CAUTION! notice before the title screen appears, one of the pods is showing a serious error. Check that the controller isn't covered up with anything that it could be detecting, and also make sure you haven't made it so sensitive that it's detecting the ceiling. Be aware that if you're standing within the sensor area to control the game, it may be detecting your hand on the controller, which is not an error. You can run a more advanced diagnostic from the Options menu, although it is often possible to play the game perfectly well without passing this more advanced diagnostic. However, the game may not detect you if you attempt to do actual Para-para routines. The sensors are infra-red. So don't use any remote controls in the area of the sensors or you may get them very confused. The left/right/start/select buttons on the centre pod may be used to control the game, if for some reason you want to crouch down and mess with the pod instead of just having a PS2 joypad plugged into your standard Port 1 and using that. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************* PARA PARA PARAPHRASE *********************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Main Menu offers the following options: Game Start 1P Game Start 2P Endless 1P Endless 2P Free Training Records Option GAME START: Takes you into the arcade-style game of ParaPara Paradise. In this mode, you choose a single mode and then play three songs in that mode. The game will end if you fail any song. Also available in this mode is the "Nonstop MD" mode - which looks like a Minidisc in the song selection screen (while all others look like CDs). This lets you choose your three songs in advance, and you will play through them all without stopping. The game will still end if you fail any of them. There are no bonuses for finishing the game - everything is unlocked from the beginning. ENDLESS: Choose a difficulty setting. You will then keep playing songs in that mode continuously until you fail one. The songs are selected by the console. FREE: Offers the following options: Player Single/Double/Battle Play mode Parapara/Normal/Hard/Expert Nonstop MD Count Nonstop MD Game Over Yes/No Choose the number of players and mode. You will play as in Arcade mode except that you can play as many songs as you like and the game will not end if you fail one. "Nonstop MD Count" lets you choose how many songs you will play nonstop if you select the MD, and "Nonstop MD Game Over" lets you choose if the sequence of nonstop songs will stop if you fail one. TRAINING: This allows you to practice songs for the arcade game, OR learn some actual Para-para steps! Each song available in Parapara mode has a "Parapara Movie" of actual Parapara dancers doing the steps. By watching and memorising these you can learn the Parapara dances. The menu is as follows: Music/Mode Start Part End Part Speed P-Movie MUSIC/MODE: Choose your music as normal, except that a new mode is available - "Video". In this mode you are not required to do any dancing and you can just watch the movie for the song you're doing. START PART / END PART: Each song is divided into 5 parts (although some have more). You can choose a range of parts to play. SPEED: Choose the speed to run at. 5 is full speed, anything lower is slower. You can't go higher than 5. P-MOVIE: Allows you to play the ParaPara Movie for the song in different ways. This will not be available if the mode is not "Parapara" or "Video". The options are: FULL - The video fills the screen, and the cockpit is displayed over it. LLUF - The video fills the screen and is flipped left to right. STANDARD - The video fills the empty area inside the cockpit. DRADNATS - The video fills the empty area and is flipped left to right. ARCADE - You will see the graphic effects from the arcade mode instead of the Parapara movie. Why the left-right flip option? Because although some of the videos have a view from behind the dancers, on most of them the dancers will be looking at you. This means that the dancer's left arm will appear on the right of the video and vice versa. This can make it easy to accidentally do motions with the wrong arm. Flipping the video will put the dancer's left arm on the left of the screen to make the video easier to follow. (Watch out though, because if there IS a view from behind the dancer, that view will be the WRONG way round.) Once you have started a song in training mode you can use the following controls on a PS2 pad inserted in port 1: SELECT - Abort training and go back to the menu. START - Start the song from the beginning again. LEFT - Go to start of the current part, or to the previous part if you're already at the start of the current one. RIGHT - Go to start of the next part. UP/DOWN - Change the speed. SQUARE - Freeze the current frame. Press SQUARE to restart. CIRCLE - Change the P-Movie mode. It will cycle between FULL, LLUF, STANDARD and DRADNATS mode. TRIANGLE - Toggle the directions window (shown on the left). CROSS - Toggle the entire cockpit. RECORDS and MEMORY CARD are self explanatory. OPTION: Offers a menu: GAME LEVEL - Choose the difficulty of the game. SOUND - Choose stereo or mono. STICK OPTION - Choose which hemisphere the analog sticks will work in - the upper, lower, or either. SCREEN BRIGHTNESS / SCREEN ADJUST - Self explanatory. CONTROLLER CHECK - Run a detailed diagnostic on the infrared controller. Make sure nothing is above the controller pods when you select this option, and when the display appears, move a hand over each sensor in turn. The image of the sensor on the screen will light up when it detects you. If a "NG" indicator appears, then either the sensor is stuck in one state OR it gave a very sudden flick to one state and then back again. (In this case the announcer will also start to give you a very waffly Japanese explanation telling you to adjust the sensitivity dial.) You can exit by pressing X. If any controllers are NG when you do this a warning will appear - choose the left option to get out of the diagnostic. Any time the game is asking you to choose a mode or song, you can press TRIANGLE on an attached PS2 pad to choose from: P-MOVIE Lets you watch the Parapara Movies in Arcade mode on Parapara difficulty. BATTLE 2P battle mode. HI-SPEED The arrows will move faster. The music itself will not play faster, but the resolution of the scrolling will be changed so that they move faster while remaining in time. RANDOM The sequence of arrows will be randomized. The time at which arrows occur will remain the same, but the location of the arrow will be randomised. MIRROR The locations of arrows will be flipped left to right. HIDDEN The arrows will disappear about 75% of the way up the scroll. They continue, invisibly, onto the check spaces, so you must use your memory and your sense of rhythm to touch at the right time. SUDDEN The arrows will not be shown until they are 25% of the way up the screen. This requires you to be very alert! BEMANI fans will automatically know how to play the game, but for anyone else (umm.. IS anyone else going to get this? Well, anyway..) The screen will show a sequence of arrows, scrolling upwards in time with the music. At the very top of the screen are five outline arrows. When one of the scrolling arrows covers an outline arrow, you must make an appropriate motion, either by placing or holding a hand (or some object) over the appropriate IR sensor, or by pushing either analogue stick in the appropriate direction (based on either up or down depending on your stick setting in the options menu). When you are making a motion in a particular direction, a band of colour will appear along that line on the screen. Sometimes the screen will show two arrows linked together. In this case you must hold the motion until the second arrow passes the outline. You are graded based on how close in time your motion was to the moment when the arrow hit the outline. The grade will be GREAT, GOOD, BAD or POOR. If you miss a motion altogether, your grade for that motion will be POOR. At the top of the screen is the "exciter gauge", marked with a percentage value. Performing GREAT motions increases it and performing BAD or POOR motions decreases it. If you are in a mode where it is possible to fail, then you will fail if you reach the end of the song and the exciter gauge isn't in the light-blue area. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************* PARA PARA PARAMETER ************************ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This section shows all the songs on the disc together with their BPM rating and their difficulty in each mode. Note that when you are actually selecting a song, the songs are shown in ascending difficulty order. An X in a difficulty slot indicates the song is not available in that mode. Songs that are not available in Parapara mode also do not have P-Movies. --------- Difficulty --------- Title / Artist BPM Para Normal Hard Expert 100 / Dave Rodgers 155 *** **** ***** ****** Aishiattemasu?* / Key-A-Kiss 145 ** *** **** ****** Ale' Japan / Dave Rodgers 148 ** **** ***** ****** Anniversary / Dave Domino and 150 ** *** ***** ******* Virginelle Bandolero Comanchero / Franz 150 *** *** **** ****** Tornado and the Mad Cow Girls Boom Boom Fire / D.Essex 154 ** *** **** ******* Burning Desire / Mega Nrg Man 148 ***** *** **** ****** Can't Stop fallin' in love / 155 X *** **** ******* NAOKI Can't stop fallin' in love 154 **** **** X ***** Super Euro Version / Naoki with Y&CO Celebrate Nite / NMR 146 X *** **** ****** Crazy for You / Pizza Girl 157 ** *** **** ***** Dancer / Mano 154 ** *** **** ***** Deluxe* / Key-A-Kiss 153 ** ** ***** ****** Don't Stand So Close / Ballove 155 *** *** **** ****** Dynamite Rave / NAOKI 150 X *** **** ******* Dynamite Rave Super Euro 150 **** X X ****** Version / Naoki with Y&Co Energy Love / Delta Queens 156 ** *** ***** ****** Eurobeat / Dr.Love 157 ** * **** ***** Feeling of Love Super Euro 150 X *** **** ***** Version / Tohei Shimizu with VENTURA Go Godzilla Go / Kia 158 *** *** **** ***** Hold on me / Tiger Yamato 152 *** ** **** ***** I Wanna Dance / Domino 152 ** ** *** **** Jealousy / Virginelle 152 *** *** **** ***** Kingdom of Rock / Dave Rodgers 156 ** *** ***** ****** Kiss Kiss Kiss Super Euro 157 X *** **** ******* Version / Naoki with B4ZABEAT Like a Virgin / Virginelle 148 ** *** **** ***** Love Again Tonight High Speed 160 **** *** ***** ****** Mix / Naoki feat Paula Terry Luv to me Disco Mix / Tiger 154 X X **** ***** YAMATO Luv To Me Disco Mix Super Euro 160 **** *** X ***** Version / Tiger Yamato with Y&Co Made Of Fire / Niko 160 **** **** ***** ****** Mickey Mouse March Eurobeat 152 *** ** ***** ****** Version / Domino Money go! / Marko Polo 158 ****** *** **** ****** My Sweet Banana / Go Go Girls 154 *** *** **** ****** Night of Fire / Niko 155 *** *** **** ***** One night in Arabia / Go Go 151 ** ** **** ***** Girls O Sole Mio / Go Go Girls 154 **** *** **** ****** Play with the numbers / Domino 154 ***** ** ***** ****** Remember Me / Leslie Parrish 153 *** ** *** **** Romeo and Juliet / Lolita 151 *** *** **** ****** Speedway / Niko 157 *** * *** **** Station To Station / Derrick 160 ** *** ***** ****** Simons Stay / Victoria 160 *** *** **** ***** Tora Tora Tora / Domino 148 *** ** *** ******* Try Me / Lolita 146 * ** *** **** Velfarre 2000 / Bazooka Girls 160 **** **** ****** ******* We Two Are One Super Euro 160 X *** **** ****** Version / Lala Moore with B4ZABEAT Yesterday / Cherry 158 *** *** **** ***** You can light my fire / Madison 154 **** *** **** ****** * Key-A-Kiss songs are named in Katakana on the screen. Quotes for rounds in arcade mode: "Super Eurobeat of Avex and Konami unites in your dance! First stage!" "The stage is ready for your dance! Second stage!" "Show me your cool dance! Third stage!" "Congratulations, thank you for playing." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************** PARA PARA PARAPH ************************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you know something that's not in the FAQ, or you can spot a mistake I've made, let me know by email at mark [at] antelope [dot] demon [dot] co [dot] uk. At the moment I have recieved no contributions (since this is the first version) so it only remains for me to thank Konami (for making this game), Elly S. and Chrispy-Chan (for being as mad on rhythm games as I am), and the Chambers Dictionary (for giving me lots of words that start with para-).