Hyacinth

Hyacinth arrived as Yahpp's original contribution to Pump It Up 2015 PRIME. It steps away from his usual habit of reworking older PIU classics: this is a band-style piece built around vocals and lyrics by e-aka, whose name is oddly absent from the song's eyecatch. An instrumental cut posted by the composer also exists. At 192 BPM, that brisk tempo shapes much of what makes the upper charts demanding.

The song covers a wide range: Single 5, 10, 14, 18 and 22, plus Double 13, 20 and 24 (levels as of PHOENIX). The S5 was added in the XX 2.05 patch. PHOENIX bumped several charts upward, the S10 rising from 9 to 10 while the S14, D13 and D20 settled at their current numbers, and both the S22 and D24 were raised from their XX values. The mid charts lean on eighth-note twists and bracket technique, saving their sharpest material for the closing breakdown.

Through Prime 2 this chart was rated D23 and counted among the so-called three D23 bosses, alongside Yog-Sothoth and Robot Battle. It uses its high BPM to pack in patterns that would already be threatening at 160-170, and its final run overpowers many a D24. Within the trio it is regarded as the most approachable, thanks to a relatively quiet opening that lets players plan their wiggle strategy; the reverse-direction staircase right after the halfway point is the real filter. Scoring well is brutal, with only a handful of players reaching SSS+ rank. As a curiosity, the D24 has no credited stepmaker, the only Prime original where that is the case.