History YMMV / EliteBeatAgents

* BizarroEpisode: The level set in 15th century Italy starring Leonardo Da Vinci set to Freddy Mercury's "I Was Born to Love You". It's the ''only'' level that takes place at any time other than the present, and is the only level that doesn't have some representation during the final two songs. The only other reference made to it anywhere is a brief picture of its stars at the ''very'' end of the game.

* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: MenInBlack... on ThePowerOfRock!

** The "Survivor" level revolves around a kid-friendly take on zombies in the form of zombies that can only be defeated by being fed peanuts. Three years later, ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' would explore a similar concept, with the titular kid-friendly zombies being weak against a variety of vegetables the player can use against them, including peanuts.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: This seems to be the opinion among several of the more militant Japanophile fans of the original ''Ouendan'', even though this game clearly retains all the WidgetSeries charm of its counterpart.

** A level where a washed-up baseball player ends up in a situation where he essentially becomes an example of one of the closest things the Elite Beat Agents Universe has to a superhero as he opposes a giant monster using his baseball skills.

** A level where, in the body of a athletic sprinter, a battle between white blood cells in the form of scantily-clad nurses armed with over-sized syringes and a disease in the form of demonic-looking figures armed with tridents take place.
** Two levels where a ridiculous alien invasion perpetrated by music-hating extraterrestials is the main premise.

** A level where a meteorologist who tries (and succeeds) to alter the weather by willing it to be the desired weather that she promised her son and her viewers.

** The "Survivor" level revolves around a kid-friendly take on zombies in the form of zombies that can only be defeated by being fed peanuts. Three years later, ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' would explore a similar concept, with the titular kid-friendly zombies being weak against a variety of vegetables the player can use against them.

* {{Woolseyism}}: To the point where it's a new game around the same gameplay concepts, just to make the humor and quirkiness hold appeal outside Japan. And for the record, it's become [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff popular inside Japan]] as well.

** The spinners are not a very popular feature of the game. Would you believe they were ''worse'' in ''Ouendan''?
** Like with ''Ouendan'', the scoring is highly combo-based; you get a multiplier proportional to your current combo. In other rhythm games, missing a note simply means you'll lose a few points; here, a combo break halfway through the song will damage your potential score to the point where you may as well restart.
*** Another contrivance with the scoring is how the game will ''punish'' players who hit the final beat of a particular color group with imperfect timing even if all the other ones were hit with perfect timing... by awarding a 100-point Beat bonus instead of a 300-point Beat that one may think they would deserve.

* SignatureScene: "You're The Inspiration", for the sheer TearJerker factor and being the one stage players absolutely refuse to fail on.

* TheScrappy: Colonel Bob's gold-digging wife makes Norma and Isabella Carrington look like penniless saints in comparison. She clearly only loves him for his money, and unashamedly pissed away their fortune on herself. Never mind that she forces him out on the streets to work his ass off re-making their fortune back during the course of "Let's Dance" and, judging from the splash art you get for the best ending, with the way she's looking at the diamonds, [[AesopAmnesia doesn't appear to have learned a thing]].

** The ''La La'' stage is about an anthropomorphic white blood cell fighting a war against a demonic-looking virus. That sounds a lot like ''Manga/CellsAtWork'', don't you think?

* AntagonistTitle: In-universe example: The movie ''Romancing Meowzilla'' in "Makes No Difference", if you consider the titular monster to be an obstacle for the hero to overcome.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The level set in 15th century Italy starring Leonardo Da Vinci set to Freddy Mercury's "I Was Born to Love You". It's the ''only'' level that takes place at any time other than the present, and is the only level that doesn't have some representation during the final two songs. The only other reference made to it anywhere is a brief picture of its stars at the ''very'' end of the game.

* NightmareFuel:
** Failing "Let's Dance" will have the colonel dying of dehydration, which caught many players off-guard.
** The Rhombulans in the final two missions can petrify humans who don't comply with their "No music" demand to MakeAnExampleOfThem, showing everyone else that ResistanceIsFutile.
** The zombifying virus from ''Survivor'' first you're watching a reporter get infected on tv, the next thing you know there's an entire hoard of them coming at you at the restaurant you're eating at! Is it any wonder that Jake starts screaming for help?

** The zombifying virus from ''Survivor'' first you're watching a reporter get infected on tv, the next thing you know there's an entire hoard of them coming at you at the restaurant you're eating at! Is it any wonder that Jake starts screaming for help?

** The last several missions can be very tough to S-rank on Sweatin' and Hard ROCK! difficulty. It's not just "Jumpin' Jack Flash", for just the same reasons why it's That One Level. There's also "[[BrutalBonusLevel Survivor]]" and possibly "Anthem", if you consider how it makes one last effort to destroy your hopes of an S-rank right at the very end with a short Spin Marker. Meaning only those with lightning-fast reflexes stand any chance of truly achieving OneHundredPercentCompletion.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: This seems to be the opinion among several of the uh... ''more militant'' Japanophile fans of the original ''Ouendan'', even though this game clearly retains all the WidgetSeries charm of its counterpart.
* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: {{Film/Men In Black}}... On ThePowerOfRock!

* ThatOneSidequest: While not the hardest song to S-Rank, "Walkie Talkie Man" on Breezin' deserves mention for its SurpriseDifficulty. Being the first song of the easiest difficulty, you would expect the S-Rank to be a cakewalk to obtain; but in reality, everything the level does to make itself easier to complete ends up making it harder to S-Rank. The slower tempo forces way more precise timings than usual in order to get 300s, and the low number of hit markers leads to a very low bar of errors, with six in total.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Polite example. In some songs, if you happen to let your Elite-O-Meter almost empty out in a section with long delays between markers, consider yourself screwed because of how it constantly depletes.

** ''Do not fail'' "You're the Inspiration". [[labelnote: Explanation]]The aforementioned "You're The Inspiration" is infamous among fans for being one of the most heartbreaking missions in the entire game, [[TearJerker and for]] '''[[TearJerker very]]''' [[TearJerker good reason]]. As such, it's common for players to absolutely '''''refuse''''' to fail that level, just so that Lucy [[VideoGameCaringPotential has a nice Christmas (and gets to see her father one more time)]].[[/labelnote]]

*** Another contrivance with the scoring is how the game will ''punish'' players who hit the final beat of a particular color group with imperfect timing '''even if all the other ones were hit with perfect timing'''...by awarding a 100-point Beat bonus instead of a 300-point Beat that one may think they would deserve. What good would that be to a player struggling with "Jumpin' Jack Flash" where bonuses of other kinds are desperately needed to fuel a rapidly draining LifeMeter?