When playing through Gruntilda's Final Battle for the first time, there was nothing in the first two minutes or so to make me doubt that the 64 rating was roughly correct. The 16th runningmen patterns and the 24ths with a reasonably fast BPM and some short [3]-jacks in 24ths were sufficiently tricky to qualify for a relatively hard 'very challenging' label.
However, in the last minute there is quite a lengthy part with mini-jacks that tests jacking in all four arrows ([1], [2], [3], [4]) on high speed with quick transitions between the fingers. When compared to, say, Battle Theme #37, which I presume is rated a 67 because of the few mini-jacks in it, the mini-jacks in Gruntilda present a much bigger challenge.
This is also what I experienced on a second playthrough and my suspicion that I was not the only one having troubles was confirmed when looking through the high score list. Granted, the song was only recently released, but many high-tier players, including Fantasticone, Hakulyte, tosh, kmay, and the step artist himself, Charu, have not yet AAA'd this song.
I don't have a good memory for songs with comparable BPM or patterns, so I'm sorry if I fail to buttress my argument by a solid comparison to 64-69 difficulty songs, but the combination of a relatively long (3 min +) chart with up-speed 16ths and 24ths in sometimes tricky patterns, followed by a mini-jack section that even high division players tend to dump goods on, seems to me to warrant a higher difficulty rating than the one currently assigned to it.
I think the minijack part in particular make this chart a FMO and not the easiest one at that. I wouldn't say this is 70+ material, since it's only the 10 seconds or so of minijacks that are responsible for the difficulty spike that make me question the 64 rating, but with charts like Battle Theme (a few minijacks) and For FFR (atrocious roll-ending) getting a 67 because of short difficulty spikes, I think Gruntilda's Final Battle would also deserve a 67 or perhaps even a 68 rating.
However, in the last minute there is quite a lengthy part with mini-jacks that tests jacking in all four arrows ([1], [2], [3], [4]) on high speed with quick transitions between the fingers. When compared to, say, Battle Theme #37, which I presume is rated a 67 because of the few mini-jacks in it, the mini-jacks in Gruntilda present a much bigger challenge.
This is also what I experienced on a second playthrough and my suspicion that I was not the only one having troubles was confirmed when looking through the high score list. Granted, the song was only recently released, but many high-tier players, including Fantasticone, Hakulyte, tosh, kmay, and the step artist himself, Charu, have not yet AAA'd this song.
I don't have a good memory for songs with comparable BPM or patterns, so I'm sorry if I fail to buttress my argument by a solid comparison to 64-69 difficulty songs, but the combination of a relatively long (3 min +) chart with up-speed 16ths and 24ths in sometimes tricky patterns, followed by a mini-jack section that even high division players tend to dump goods on, seems to me to warrant a higher difficulty rating than the one currently assigned to it.
I think the minijack part in particular make this chart a FMO and not the easiest one at that. I wouldn't say this is 70+ material, since it's only the 10 seconds or so of minijacks that are responsible for the difficulty spike that make me question the 64 rating, but with charts like Battle Theme (a few minijacks) and For FFR (atrocious roll-ending) getting a 67 because of short difficulty spikes, I think Gruntilda's Final Battle would also deserve a 67 or perhaps even a 68 rating.
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