I bought TGM4 for the Switch a few weeks ago, and the game has been very humbling. I can handle slower paced 20g gameplay all day long. But when the lock delay starts decreasing and everything gets faster, it isn’t long before I become overwhelmed and lose. I can only get to around level 200-250 in Master Mode or Normal 3, and usually lose at around level 400 in Normal 2 (I’ve made it to level 500 once, which is required to unlock Normal 3). I’ve gotten to level 599 in Asuka before running out of time, and I don’t use the ‘take-back’ feature, although the infinite rotation helps for good practice. My biggest issue is speed. I’m aware that proper stacking, glancing at upcoming pieces, and not rotating the wrong way are crucial, and I’ve applied those practices. But the game just gets too fast-paced and then I lose, and no matter how much I play, I don’t seem to improve. Someone on Reddit once posted that Death Mode (in a previous TGM game) was almost unplayable when they first played the game, but now those first 300 levels are boringly slow. That’s precisely how I’m trying to get. I want the levels I keep losing at to seem slow. Has anyone else hit a plateau like this and if so, how did you overcome it? I should mention that I’m age 40, so I don’t have the same potential as someone half my age. I’ll probably never achieve GM rank, nor will I ever compete. But surely I can still get better & faster than what I am now?!
Late reply, though realistically the only way to improve your speed is to repeatedly play on sections where the speed just starts to feel uncomfortable. After a while you will get used to that speed and you can go up a little more to repeat the process. Yes, you will misdrop and fail a lot, though the only way to learn speed is to practice speed.
