Yatagarasu
Kandai (update verifier)
Yatagarasu (八咫烏, Yata for short) is a 2.0 Extreme Demon mega-collaboration level hosted by Riot and Viprin, verified and published by TrusTa.[1] Yatagarasu is a hell-themed level depicting a three-legged crow from Japanese mythology called Yatagarasu. The level was verified and released on 13 January 2017, rated and featured on 14 January 2017 and placed at #1 on the Demonlist immediately after, surpassing Artificial Ascent. Many had suggested that RobTop should add a new difficulty to the game for Demons of this tier, which would arrive three days later in Update 2.1 when the Extreme Demon rating was introduced.
An update was later verified by Kandai on 23 April 2023, fixing numerous transitions and bugs.[2]
History
[edit | edit source]The idea to create Yatagarasu was first proposed by the GeoStorm members in November 2015.
It was intended to be a new Bloodbath inspired by The Hell Factory's song, with three coins presented at the end as an award for completion. Because Bloodbath was the sequel to Cataclysm (although Ggb0y's original sequel was going to be Infernal Abyss), GeoStorm members hoped that Yatagarasu would be a fitting mega-collaboration sequel to The Hell Factory, which in turn was an intended sequel to Cataclysm.
Rek3dge and Riot first proposed the idea of Yatagarasu, and Viprin hosted the mega-collaboration thereafter.
Sandstorm and ASonicMen were originally part of the mega-collaboration project; however, Riot disliked ASonicMen's contribution, leading to their removal. Sandstorm was having trouble creating, so he was kicked as well.
The hype for Yatagarasu began when the level's name, the song, and the length were leaked through Riot's Extreme Demon videos on YouTube. When Riot showed copyables for the Demons he beat, various parts of Yatagarasu were displayed in the editor.
Yatagarasu was officially announced in mid-December 2015, when Riot allowed the builders to upload their parts to YouTube. Michigun and FunnyGame's parts were the first to surface. More parts were revealed quickly, but some people had not yet uploaded theirs, so the level remained shrouded in mystery.
More light was shed on Yatagarasu when the well-known hacker Cyrillic leaked a work-in-progress version of Yatagarasu in early 2016. This version had up to Zelda's part, except that part was longer (people thought Cyrillic built it until Riot stated that Zelda accidentally built into Michigun's supposed part, thus creating this). People were surprised by how another part seemed to replace Michigun's part. This leak revealed several previously unannounced parts and provided a summary of what the level would look like.
In February 2016, Yatagarasu was fully built. However, Cyclic's hacking scandal over The Hell Zone and Sonic Wave had his part severely nerfed and then discarded completely. In March 2016, Cyrillic leaked a work-in-progress version of Yatagarasu of an account pretending to be Cyclic's. This version was presumably the same as that shown on a 'preview' video released days before, as it finishes with Zelda's extended part and features Cyclic's nerfed part (still debated about which is which). Many people believed Cyrillic added his part at the end, but it later turned out it was not his.
After Cyclic was kicked out, Manix648 would fill in his gap, with Riot also adding a logo art to replace the 'Embrace, Death' text at the start of the drop. However, Riot got into a drama with Manix648 for unknown reasons, and several days later, he kicked Manix648 from the collaboration. ASonicMen then used the swing-copter from Manix648's former part into his part in Bloodlust.
During this drama, Riot quit and handed Yatagarasu to Surv. After Riot gave Yatagarasu to Surv, Surv quickly made progress, reaching 33% in just three days.
Viprin hosted a creator contest to fill in the missing gap. Manix648 tried to win it but sadly failed. AbstractDark eventually won the contest, and LmAnubis changed the gameplay of their parts at Surv's request. Vermillion's cave effects were made darker, csx42's part was buffed, green orbs were removed from WOOGI1411's part, and the skull art from Rustam's submitted Yatagarasu part was added to Vermillion's part.
Aurorus would leak a copy of the level in August 2016. It was a somewhat outdated copy, featuring some older parts that were replaced, but it included the updated art at the start of the drop. The origin of this version presumably dates to when Manix648's part was removed (it was not in this copy). It was still superior to the version now regularly known as 'Old Yatagarasu'.
Sometime later, Surv grew tired of the level, so he quit and handed it to TrusTa.
TrusTa then achieved 57% in a few days. However, he suffered numerous failures thereafter. He ended up nerfing and balancing the level to make it more consistent and possible. Many people were unhappy with the nerfs, as they contradicted Riot's original intent of the level being harder than any level. Others argued that Yatagarasu would no longer be the hardest level (Bloodlust and Blade of Justice were already fully built, and The Hell World was in the reconstruction stage) and were just happy the level was going to be released.
After several nerfs and a devastating fail at 95%, Yatagarasu was finally verified on 13 January 2017, approximately 14 months after its origin. It has since been rated Extreme Demon and was featured almost immediately.
A short time later, Surv conquered the level that had once conquered him, making him the first victor of Yatagarasu. Sunix, BlassCFB, Skullo, Wooshi, and Kevelia eventually beat it as well, and Yatagarasu then held five victors to its name. Later, more people beat it. However, as harder levels were released, Yatagarasu eventually lost its Top 5 spot and later fell out of the Top 10, continuing to drop on the Demonlist.
The most majestic part about Yatagarasu is that it held the end for one of Geometry Dash's most magnificent chapters—the one in which legends rose, grew dominant and fell—Update 2.0. Two days after Yatagarasu was released, RobTop finally released Update 2.1, nearly 17 months after the wait. It secured its place as a sequel to Bloodbath, as Bloodbath marked the end of Update 1.9, Yatagarasu ended Update 2.0.
Description
[edit | edit source]- 0-4% (Viprin): Yatagarasu begins with a ship sequence. This section is dark, making the layout difficult to see. A Yatagarasu (a three-legged bird in Asian mythology) makes an appearance in front of the player. There is a Low Detail Mode key in this section. Next is a cube sequence with invisible obstacles, which are indicated only by their mirror images on the floor and ceiling. At the end is a teleport portal leading to LmAnubis' part.
- 4-8% (LmAnubis): This part contains the ending of the difficult cube sequence, followed by a short UFO with several gravity changes. Next is another cube, this one short, with a triple-spike jump. Afterwards is a brief straight-fly sequence through an invisible-spike corridor, followed by a short mini-ball segment with precise timing.
- 8-12% (Jeyzor): This part is a very lengthy and difficult wave part with a flashing background, rapid gravity changes, and very tight openings. The tight gaps require precise timing to navigate, and there are multiple speed portals to throw off the player while Jeyzor's name watermark flashes quickly along the ground.
- 12-15% (WOOGI1411): This segment starts with a tight UFO sequence, in which the player must hit the invisible blue orb, later becoming a moderately tight ship sequence. Next is a tight wave segment containing a few invisible gravity portals and size portals to trip the player up. Next is a tight wave segment which leads to Findexi's part.
- 15-19% (Findexi): This segment starts with a simple ball segment. Next is a ship with several sizes and gravity changes. The following is a slightly harder ball sequence. This part contains several objects with a white pulse effect. In addition, this segment is likely one of the easiest parts of the level, along with Rek3dge and Xcy-7's.
- 19-22% (Rek3dge): This part closes off Findexi's ball segment before switching to a brief ship sequence. A short cube sequence is up next, with several orbs. Next is a brief auto segment that displays the level's name, along with its logo and the Yatagarasu itself, in capital letters, 'YATAGARASU', in the 'Oxygene 1' font. The level then transports the player to weoweoteo's part with an invisible teleport portal as the music's pace halts.
- 22-26% (weoweoteo): The music then drops and picks up a new, faster pace. The player hits a green orb, which brings them to a triple-speed straight-fly ship segment, marking this part and transitioning into a semi-auto wave section. If the player passes, they will enter a mini-ball section with extremely difficult timings and fakes.
- 26-30% (stellameoww): This part is composed of a double-speed wave section that the player must traverse between structures and sawblades with gravity changes; this part requires timing and spam abilities. After that, the player transitions into a mini-ship segment, which consists of a tight straight-fly.
- 30-33% (AbstractDark): This part starts as a triple-speed cube segment with orb timings and teleport portals. Then the part turns into a brief half-speed UFO segment, followed by a robot part with precise timings.
- 33-37% (Giron): Giron's part starts with a brief triple-speed straight-fly, followed by a confusing memory mini-cube part. Next is a ball part with fairly difficult timings, marking the end of Giron's part. At the end of the ball part, the player can skip a green orb, which puts the next mini-ship part into reverse gravity.
- 37-40% (Aeidux): This part begins with a difficult mini-ship segment, which the player must go to the lower route because the upper route is blocked with invisible blocks. Then the player enters a straight-fly segment with gravity changes, followed by a ball segment with tricky timings.
- 40-44% (Xcy-7): This part is mainly a cube part with orb timings and some fakes that the player must memorise. Then the level turns auto and transitions into Vermillion and Rustam's part. This part is considered one of the easiest parts of the level, since it becomes easy after learning how it works and since almost half of it is auto.
- 44-51% (Vermillion + Rustam): This part starts as a double-speed ship segment with multiple gravity changes, tricky timings, and straight-flying with effects to create a 'cave' effect where the player has a limited vision of the obstacles in front of them. Afterwards, there is a difficult ball section with difficult timing, similar to Aeidux's part. Rustam also created a skull art piece at the ball section, originally made for an older version of Erebus.
- 51-54% (Zelda): This part starts as a brief half-speed robot sequence with difficult timing, followed by a wave segment that is mostly an enduring wave 'spam' segment, which changes to normal speed as it transitions into Michigun's part.
- 54-58% (Michigun): One of the most difficult parts in the level, this starts with a double-speed robot with tricky timing, followed by a cube with equally difficult timing. It goes into a triple-speed wave with extremely difficult timing and then a brief but brutal straight-fly segment, with a difficult triple spike at the end. The player must jump shortly after the triple-spike; otherwise, they will crash due to a move trigger that causes the Yatagarasu to fall and kill the player, synced with the 'caw' in the music. There is also a trigger under one part of the wave, changing the RobTop quote at the end to a picture of an Easter egg. Next to the egg, it says 'Viprin' and 'Michigun'.
- 58-62% (Luneth): This part starts with a half-speed UFO sequence with gravity changes and orb timings. After that, there is a fairly difficult ball part with tricky orb timings. The music slows down here.
- 62-70% (Hinds): Hinds' part is yet another difficult part that starts with a swing-copter with challenging timing, then switches to an upside-down mini-ship with a tunnel-like straight-fly that appears in a few Hinds' levels. Next is another extremely difficult swing-copter mode, followed by a difficult mini-ball and mini-UFO with difficult timing, and a final mini-cube segment.
- 70-74% (Evasium): The obstacles' hitboxes in this part are very hard to locate, and the entire part is at half speed and made with very dark decorations. The first half shares a similar style with its ship gameplay to Viprin's part, followed by a UFO section with challenging timing and gravity portals.
- 74-79% (loogiah): Here is another difficult part. It starts as a mini-ship, becomes dual, and changes back to a non-dual form to confuse the player, and is entirely straight-flying. Next is a half-speed wave segment with extremely difficult timing, followed by a mini-ball part with equally difficult timing. The ball transitions to a normal-sized ship with changing speed, marking the start of csx42's part.
- 79-84% (csx42): This is perhaps the hardest part in the level and was once near impossible. The part begins with a half-speed mini-ship sequence featuring challenging straight-flying, followed by a wave with extremely tight timings. A ball with confusing and difficult timing follows it. Then it transitions to mini, then to a mini-ship with a short, difficult straight-flying section.
- 84-93% (FunnyGame): This entire part is in mini size. It starts with a triple-speed mini-ship sequence featuring tricky, difficult manoeuvres amid moving objects and trick orbs. After that is a ball segment with a mechanic identical to one of FunnyGame's levels, Lonely Travel; however, it is much more difficult and confusing. Next is a UFO segment with tricky timings and more moving objects. Throughout the entire sequence, FunnyGame's name watermark is visible in the background.
- 93-100% (Riot + Viprin): Decorated by Viprin, this part is mostly a cube section; however, it is filled with tricky and difficult timings. Words temporarily flash by in the foreground, starting with 'D' (Except for TrusTa), including 'death', 'decay', and 'TrusTa', the verifier of this level. It then ends with an auto-ship being 'carried' by the Yatagarasu, with RobTop's ending quote: 'It is not enough for me to succeed, others must fail.' After that, a heart appears between the last two spikes of the level. Finally, the level ends with the Yatagarasu and the text 'The End'. The end screen features an intricate artwork of the Yatagarasu. The RobTop ending quote can be replaced by an Easter egg found in Michigun's part.
Gameplay
[edit | edit source]First 10 victors
[edit | edit source]| Victor # | Player | Date Completed | Total Attempts | Furthest Fail | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verifier | TrusTa | 14 January 2017 | 50,593 | 95% | YouTube |
| 1 | Surv | 16 January 2017 | ~27,000 | 96% | YouTube |
| 2 | Sunix | 18 January 2017 | 11,692 | 98% | YouTube |
| 3 | BlassCFB | 7 February 2017 | 17,356 | 88% | YouTube |
| 4 | Kevelia | 22 April 2017 | 14,050 | 88% | YouTube |
| 5 | Rampage | 30 April 2017 | 42,306 | 94% | YouTube |
| 6 | DiamondSplash | 4 May 2017 | ~18,000 | 95% | YouTube |
| 7 | dDom | 11 June 2017 | 29,845 | ? | YouTube |
| 8 | iNeo | 26 October 2017 | 16,144 | 84% | YouTube |
| 9 | BoldStep | 20 November 2017 | 26,213 | 96% | YouTube |
| 10 | Wooshi | 5 December 2017 | 12,683 | 96% | YouTube |
Notable completions
- Tyson currently has the largest fluke on Yatagarasu, fluking from 43%.[3]
- FinnStreams fluked Yatagarasu from 64%, as a jump from Black Blizzard, in 5,200 attempts.
Notable fails
- Both Sunix and Skullo failed at 98% by failing to hit the final set of blue orbs quickly enough to provide their cubes with enough height to jump over the last spike.
- GirlyAle02 failed at 92% and 97%.
- Vortrox failed at 90%, 92%, and 96%; the latter occurred after holding for too long after the blue orb.
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Yatagarasu was placed at #1 on the Demonlist on 14 January 2017, above Sonic Wave.
- This addition pushed X Adventure into the Legacy List.
- Yatagarasu is regarded as the 27th instance of the hardest rated level in the game's history.
- Yatagarasu was ranked #24 in Geometry Dash Today's list of 'The Top 100 Greatest Geometry Dash Levels Of All Time'.
- Yatagarasu was nominated for and won Best Demon Megacollab in the Geometry Dash 2.0 Awards.
- This achievement makes Yatagarasu the only Top 1 level to win a category in the Geometry Dash Awards.
- Yatagarasu has an extra space at the end of its name.
- Quite ironically, Yatagarasu is a mythical crow with three legs sent from heaven in ancient Asian culture (China, Korea, and Japan) and represented the Sun, bringing harmony and well-being, not a hellish bird creating hazards, as depicted in the level. As a result, many people misinterpret the Yatagarasu.
- Yatagarasu was believed to be a sequel to Bloodbath.
- Dorami beat Yatagarasu, not knowing he was in Practice Mode (auto checkpoints were turned off, and he had MegaHack to hack the practice music). He then asked Luqualizer whether beating the level in Practice Mode counted, and Luqualizer said it was legitimate.
- Dorami later went back and noclipped Yatagarasu in Normal Mode.
- Several parts that have been replaced in the final version were reused in different levels.
- weoweoteo's old part was reused for the first part of the extension in Bloodlust, and Manix648's old part was reused for both Bloodlust and the old version of Blade of Justice.
- Additionally, both of Rustam's and Terron's parts that were entries for the creator contest to replace Manix648's part are later reused for two levels: Devil Vortex and Crimson Planet, respectively.
- Cyrillic posted the old version of Yatagarasu, with Cyclic's part in it, along with Zelda's extended part.
- Several players, including LmAnubis and Michigun, have changed their parts completely from their initial versions.
- Aeidux's old part looked much reminiscent of Vermillion's part in Bloodbath.
- Viprin once asked RobTop if he wanted to create a part for Yatagarasu, to which RobTop accepted, but nothing happened afterwards.
- There was a debate on whether Yatagarasu or Bloodlust was harder, and Manix648 himself said that Riot confirmed Bloodlust was the harder one. Due to Yatagarasu's nerfs, the level was placed below Sonic Wave.
- Surv's record before he quit verifying Yatagarasu was 34%, while Riot's record was 13%.
- In his preview video, Jeyzor states that Yatagarasu used to have a build limit. However, the level now has nearly 90,000 objects, surpassing the object limit for Update 2.0 of the game, and still exceeds the current 80,000 object limit of Update 2.1.
- On 17 July 2016, Surv accidentally deleted about 45% of the objects from Jeyzor's part and saved the level after rage-quitting in a stream during his verification process.[4] Luckily, they later got restored.
- Viprin remade his ship part at the beginning of Yatagarasu, quite early in the building process. Findexi wanted to remake his part later, but Viprin declined, stating that the level was now 'the final product'.
- Jeyzor's name watermark is incorrectly layered behind the spikes instead of in front of them. Older versions of Yatagarasu displayed it correctly, though.
- Surv once got upset on one of his streams over repeatedly dying at WOOGI1411's part, then he abruptly ended his stream without warning and quit Geometry Dash a few days later.
- Yatagarasu was verified on Friday the 13th, generally considered an unlucky day in Western superstition.
- There was a secret way right at the end of Luneth's part. If the player goes up and misses the teleport portal to Hinds' part, they will discover a secret way, but they will later crash at the end by the intentionally placed sawblades; therefore, there is no way to beat Yatagarasu using a secret way. This secret way eventually became entirely patched.
- There was once an anti-cheat added to the transition from Giron's part to Aeidux's at 37%, which prevented skipping the green orb and staying upside down into Aeidux's part. However, it is possible to bypass it with a single click somewhere in between. Nevertheless, it was later removed.
- TrusTa's verification video of Yatagarasu has garnered over 3.3 million views on YouTube, making it one of the most popular verification videos in Geometry Dash.[5]
- There is a joke-level remake called Jajagarasu.
- Yatagarasu is part of the player-made 'RGB series', along with Sonic Wave and Erebus.
- Zoink verified the unnerfed version of Yatagarasu on 30 December 2023.[6]
- If rated, the level would have placed within the Top 10 of the Demonlist.
- Zoink verified the level three months after the original Yatagarasu fell into the Legacy List of the Demonlist.
- There is currently a remake of Yatagarasu in development called Itsumade.[7]
- In development, there was also a semi-impossible remake known as Amaterasu, but it got cancelled.[8]
- Yatagarasu stayed in the Top 10 of the Demonlist for a very long time, standing 865 days before being pushed by Visible Ray on 29 May 2019.
- The placement of Awedsy on 13 September 2023 pushed Yatagarasu into the Legacy List after standing on the list for 2,434 days.
- This placement makes Yatagarasu the longest-standing level before being pushed into the Legacy List at the time, surpassing Erebus' previous record of 2,277 days. Zodiac currently holds this record with a tenure of 2,696 days.
- The Demonlist team made a post on their Twitter account to honour Yatagarasu's legacy.[9]
- This placement makes Yatagarasu the longest-standing level before being pushed into the Legacy List at the time, surpassing Erebus' previous record of 2,277 days. Zodiac currently holds this record with a tenure of 2,696 days.
- When entering the upside-down UFO portal in LmAnubis' part, a shark appears on the bottom left of the screen. Nobody noticed it in Nexus' completion. It may be an unintended psychological illusion. The same shark can also be found as an Easter egg in Digital Descent.[10]
Music
The song, 'Flawless Wings of Yatagarasu' by GlassSkinned (GLS for short), is a remix of one of Touhou's mainstream OSTs, 'Nuclear Fusion', a theme song for Utsuho Reiuji, the last boss of Subterranean Animism.
The original song characterises a fight against Utsuho through the Hell of Blazing Fires. In 'Flawless Wings of Yatagarasu', Geometry Dash players describe the song as a terrifying, exceptionally devilish tune.
- The purpose behind being called 'The Flawless Wings of Yatagarasu' is that the song is a remix of a song that is the theme song of Utsuho Reiuji, a Touhou character.
- In the Touhou Franchise, Utsuho's species is a Hell Raven, who absorbed the ancient deity 'Yatagarasu' (clearly alluding to the level AND the song).
- This is valid because Utsuho has otherworldly forces that permit her to have the Abilities of the Mythical 'Yatagarasu' of old Asian culture, although in the most nuclear, solar and atomic ways possible.
- In the Touhou Franchise, Utsuho's species is a Hell Raven, who absorbed the ancient deity 'Yatagarasu' (clearly alluding to the level AND the song).
- The reasoning behind Geometry Dash players describing the remix as the above is a result of the dim nature and satanic climate that GLS has remixed within the song.
- This statement can be upheld with the clarification; the song is used by a few red/hell-themed Demon levels, e.g., The Hell Factory and The Flawless.
Videos
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGKx0pk_wo
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrGFFPhtAFc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC8_YthIpc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOrFkf72F8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGKx0pk_wo
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSdyb-Ft1tk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR7AgkQSr-k
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmyPxmwptn8
- ↑ https://twitter.com/demonlistgd/status/1702016938954707130
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S-XG1b0qQw&t=299