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Please don't take this awful intro seriously—
So, yeah. It's been a while. I'd say it's good to be back, but this blog will probably be chalked up as a sh*tpost thrown together as fodder for an awful community, so I can't really say that with a straight face.
All grievances aside, let's continue the trend of my interest in Cytus being fueled purely by my ability to write about it. Even though I haven't played Cytus seriously in over a year, now that the totally not rushed Switch port is out, I figured now would be a great time to throw together a fun meme with my sustained knowledge of the game. And hey, what better meme to exploit than the sudden resurgence of tier lists? Screw those dumb WatchMojo Top 10s of the past; we've got tier lists now, bois.
We’re gonna use the “golden seven” letters for our tiers (because I’m too lazy to make more unique tiers), with S, A, and B reflecting good chapters, C, D, and E reflecting average chapters, and F tier being the only tier for bad chapters, since there aren’t many of those in the game. Just mediocre ones.
Also this list is almost entirely subjective, and if you take it seriously, please direct your complaints or laudations to any place where I won’t have to listen to you.
No more dilly-dallying now, let’s clown around in Cytus town yet again.
(I’m only doing the first ten chapters right now because I’m tired shut up)
Despite being one of three chapters to be overhauled in Cytus 7.0, I’d consider Chapter I to be the only chapter whose tier placement has changed radically as a result of the new charts. What used to be a dismal E tier chapter (saved only by the good music) has turned into an excellent starting point for new players, as well as a fun, relaxing romp for veterans of the game.
I’ve heard a fair number of people complain about how the music here sucks, a la the cult of Paff hatred in C2, but Chapter I strikes me as a chapter with a lot of spunk. The music’s got so much energy, and although the featured genres might not tickle everyone’s fancy, they undeniably lend themselves well to the Cytus layout.
You won’t find anything revolutionary here, and the cover arts kinda really suck, but overall you’ve got a solid collection on your hands with this one. I’m slamming Chapter I into B tier to kick us off.
Chapter II feels like the opposite of Chapter I for me. Whereas Chapter I is an upbeat collection of songs with charts that hardly stray in quality from one another, (except for Hot Air Balloon lul) Chapter II is a wicked mess. You’ve got some songs, like Iris and Hard Landing, that toss kickass beats and charts your way, but then you’ve got songs like Sanctity and Nocturnal Type, which just reek of mediocrity. You’ve even got some like Sacred, that just straight-up suck. The quality here is all over the place, and that’s hardly a good quality to me.
Lots of people will point at the Entrance series as a reason to boot this up to A tier, but I honestly think that the Entrance series is the most average thing about this chapter. Yeah, it introduced ICE, but think about how it compares to his other trilogy, L. I don’t care what your opinions on the songs or charts are; each of them vividly stand out from one another. Now look at the Entrance trilogy. You’ve got the updated one that’s sorta cramped I guess, the easy one, and the one with the double notes at the end. They’re bland.
I’d make Chapter II a D tier, but the shining pieces in this chapter keep reeling me back in for more, so I’ll be nice and throw it right in the middle of the board.
I think I remember calling Chapter III my favourite of the original three at one point in time. I don’t know what I was on at the time, honestly. This chapter’s lame.
Chapter III feels like a less polished Chapter I. All the charts are the same difficulty, (aside from two; I don’t count The Riddle Story because they didn’t update it) which causes them all to bleed together. I criticized Chapter M and L for picking the same difficulty for all its charts; I can’t just give this one a pass for doing the same thing but with Level 7s instead.
They also hardly bothered with updating the charts in this chapter. COSMO is less memorable than it used to be, as is Saika. And they didn’t update The Riddle Story. Prismatic Lollipops is still cool I guess, and I’ll defend Halcyon’s current chart ‘til my last breath, but really, there’s nothing here.
I’d’ve put this one at a C tier just to piss off the Halcyon haters, but then I remembered that they haven’t f*cking updated The Riddle Story. D tier.
This chapter is horribly overrated in the public’s eye. Holy Knight sucks my nut. The song is fine, but I don’t want to play it, ever. Probably the most bland “eight-note spam” chart in the game. They could’ve done so much more with the instrumentals, especially the guitar in the climax.
Biotonic is also so damn bland. The cover art is the only good thing about it. There’s, like, one interesting pattern in the chart, that’s it. What else is there to talk about in Chapter V, really? There are a few goodies in the music department, like Chocological and Zauberkugel, and a few goodies in the chart department, like Dino and Just A Trip. Nothing incredible. Again, I don’t like talking about mediocre chapters, so take my D and let’s move on.
Chapter VI’s actually pretty dope. The music, in my opinion, is nothing to write home about, (except for Bloody Purity) but here’s where we break back into into the unique charting styles that we’ve been lacking for the past three chapters. The charts here are notably messier than Chapter I’s, but they also have many more unique ideas, sacrificing consistency for experimentation. Because of that, I find myself revisiting this chapter a lot more than any of the others prior.
You’ve got Dragon Warrior, with its peculiar time signature and fun rushes. You’ve got Selfish Gene, with its surprisingly intricate yet fair slow chart. You’ve got The Blocks We Loved, which f*ck you f*ck you f*ck you.
I know that this chapter isn’t really great or even good, but I really admire it, so it’s getting a B tier for me.
Oh, god. If I could rate sections of chapters, then I’d place the first two thirds of Chapter VII in the A tier. A bombastic collection of songs which, although stray a bit in the realm of absurd difficulty, all manage to provide memorable challenges that, for the most part, feel fair. You can tell this chapter marked the point when Rayark really began to hit their stride when it came to chart-crafting.
However, the last third of this chapter drags the whole collection down quite a bit. Like, Musik is a half-decent song, and the ending of Hercule’s got some sorta neat patterns, but damn dude, this sh*t just puts me to sleep. I probably would’ve been more lenient toward this chapter if it wasn’t organized like this, but as it stands now, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth whenever I decide to play through the whole thing.
That, and it gave birth to Chapter L. Yuck. Chapter VII lands in C tier.
Hoooh, man. I am so sorely tempted to smack this baby into the S tier where I believe it truly belongs, but like with Chapter VI, I know at heart that this chapter isn’t as good as I feel it to be. Q overstays its welcome a solid 15 seconds into the song, plenty of people I know dislike Hoskey, and Scherzo is almost universally despised.
Still, if Chapter VIII didn’t pull off some crazy sh*t with the charting formula! Masquerade is a complex test of coordination, AXION pioneered half a dozen patterns that have become mainstays in most difficult charts, and Laplace is just so. Goddamn. Sick.
And Slit. Ohhhh my god. This song is my child. My new personal favourite song in the game — all three of them, for that matter. The most epic, iconic, consistent, fair trilogy of charts in the game. Don’t @ me.
I’ll place Chapter VIII in A tier, just to kill that one conniption fit over Scherzo before it happens. You’re welcome, Reddit.
It almost goes without saying that this chapter is good. Not as good as Chapter VIII, but better than Chapter VII. Even if you don’t care for his music, I think it indisputable that NeLiME was a perfect fit for the tone of Cytus, if only rather overused in this chapter.
The other charts are solid, for the most part. Oriens, Qualia, and Warlords of Atlantis stand out in my mind. Really, the only thing keeping this collection from A tier is the music. Yeah, I know I defended Chapter I’s music a little while back, but hey, subjectivity.
The music in Chapter IX is all over the place, and ranges from sorta cool to yawn-inducing. Seriously, To Further Dream is the most boring “epic” song I’ve heard in my life. I also hate East West Wobble in literally every aspect. Ladder notes can suck my left nut.
Chapter IX still gets a B tier, and I think that’s a rank most people would agree with. Rayark’s on a roll now; there’s no way they can screw up, right?
Ohhhhhh noooooooooooooo.
Let me get this out of the way first: the music in Chapter X is so, so bad. If Chapter IX was a mish-mash of odd crap, then this is just… crap. Cut out everything else, this music is crap. This is a fact. I have consulted the top five doctors in the world, and all of them have classified Chapter X as an incurable parasite upon our nation. The 11th revision of the ICD lists each song in this collection as causing numerous cases of respiratory failure, brain damage, and a permanent crust behind the eyes, which causes people to see Misaki Okusawa as anything less than best girl. Truly, a fundamental flaw within our natural human genealogy.
And yet… I’m not placing this chapter in F tier. Remember, F tier is only for truly bad chapters. We haven’t gotten there yet. Chapter X still has some redeeming elements, namely in the chart department. I don’t think the chart quality in this chapter holds a candle to the prior three, but Red Eyes and Gatorix are still… fun. Yeah, fun. Ladder notes are still a cancer upon our nation, but Halloween Party is an alright jam, as is Set Free.
See, I can find things to like, even in a chapter like this. What I’m really trying to say is: Chapter X isn’t bad. It’s f*cking awful, and I’m only rating it this low because I’m jelly of Freedom Dive, haHAA
