There is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the timings on the PSN release
I never got to play the original PS2 version of this game. I was aware of it but didn't get around to tracking it down before the went OOP (had I known the guy who would go on to make Elite Beat Agents directed it, I probably would've tried harder).
So fast forward to a week ago, I start playing a ROM of the PSP version. No complaints, I get about two levels in and then I hear that it recently got re-relased on PSN. I figured I should do the Right Thing and buy it legitimately, so I do.
Except suddenly I'm now doing horribly at this game, and I don't understand why. I am not an amazing player, but I have a decent number of rhythm games, and I usually don't stop playing them until I've completed them on Expert mode, because I find the Expert tracks are usually the most fun. I know when I'm on-beat. Yet somehow the game keeps declaring I've missed notes that feel right to me.
I've tried various suggestions from this sub: both PS5 and PS4 versions, turning on Mono sound, nothing works. Meanwhile, just to make sure I'm not going nuts, I go back and play the first two missions again on the PSP version, and I get perfect scores on both. Something is definitely off on these re-relases.
I was close to saying, f*ck it, and playing the PSP version to completion with the justification that I paid for it indirectly, but unfortunately I can't progress beyond the third level because my ROM seems to indefinitely hang the PPSSPap emulator at the third level loading screen. So I'm back to being stuck with the PSN version and its wacky input delays.
And just for giggles, after I perfect ran the two stages on PSP and found I couldn't move forward, I went back to the PS5 version one more time. B and C ranks, again, twenty minutes after acing the same tracks on the PSP version.
It's not me, dammit. F*ck this broken ass port.