This is the Para Para Paradise FAQ v0.1
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.
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**************************** LEGAL BITS ******************************
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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.
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******************************* INDEX ********************************
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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
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************************** PARA PARA PARAVANT ************************
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"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.
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************************** PARA PARA PARADIGM ************************
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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.
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). However, for some reason, Para
Para Paradise seems to have been marketed to females - many of the
demo dancers are women, and all the boxes and packaging are bright
pink and covered in flowers. I'm not sure why this is - perhaps it's
just because Dance Dance Revolution and its ilk weren't targetted
that way and they want to give it a try. 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.
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*********************** PARA PARA PARAPHERNALIA **********************
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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. 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. :)
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************************* PARA PARA PARAPHRASE ***********************
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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.
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.
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 frame.
CIRCLE - Change the P-Movie mode.
TRIANGLE - Toggle the directions window.
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.
RANDOM The sequence of arrows will be randomized.
MIRROR The sequence of arrows will be flipped.
HIDDEN The arrows will not be shown.
SUDDEN The arrows will not be shown until they are near the check
line.
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.
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************************* PARA PARA PARAMETER ************************
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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 Rodgets 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 *** *** **** ******
Night of Fire / Niko 155 *** *** **** *****
One night in Arabia / Go Go 151 ** ** **** *****
Girls
O Sole Mio / Go Go Girls **** *** **** ******
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 *** *** **** *****
You can light my fire / Madison 154 **** *** **** ******
* Key-A-Kiss songs are named in Katakana on the screen.
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*************************** PARA PARA PARAPH *************************
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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-).
