* AmericansHateTingle: This trope kicked in in the West after ''Guitar Hero'' was released. Detractors dislike the reduced number of fret buttons (alhtough ''XG'' addresses this), the differences in guitar chart design, the lack of Western songs (then again, when the series is primarily [[NoExportForYou Asia-only]], this is inevitable), and songs being cut down to 2 1/4 minutes or less (due to the game offering 3-5 stages per credit).
* ContestedSequel: ''GITADORA'' (2013) due to the removal of the second guitar, making the ''[=GuitarFreaks=]'' side of the game single-player only.
** This is only on new cabinets though. Upgrade kits for XG cabinets exist, and still allow 2 guitar players.
* DifficultySpike: The first [=GuitarFreaks=] had a relatively noticeable one for beginners by nature of not having many songs, and also not allowing players to play a song more than once per credit. After most likely playing "Cutie pie" and "Chicago Blue", the player had to select from the much tougher and faster remaining four songs as their final stage.
* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' when that first came out, unsurprisingly. This has largely died down as fans have come to the conclusion that both games are meant to serve not only different geographical demographics but also different types of players (''Guitar Hero'' is designed more around simulating TheRockstar experience and for relatively casual fun, while ''GITADORA'' better suits competitive/score-minded players), and because ''Guitar Hero'' as well as its CreatorDrivenSuccessor ''VideoGame/RockBand'' ended up fading out of mainstream attention anyway, while ''GITADORA'' continues to have a thriving player base in Japan.
* SequelDifficultySpike:
** Its not as bad as Beatmania's difficulty curve, but songs have been getting harder as time goes by, ''especially'' on drums (and ''especially'' drums on XG).
** ''XG'' introduces two additional fret buttons a la ''Guitar Hero'' and ''Rock Band'', two more drums, and one more bass pedal, resulting in a more difficult experience all across the board.
* ThatOneBoss:
** "DAY DREAM", no, check that, ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast anything]]'' with "MODEL DD(number)" in its title.
** Downplayed with [[Music/{{Dragonforce}} "Through The Fire And Flames"]]. While it is quite hard on all instruments, so are many other songs in the game, so it loses some of its crap-your-pants factor.
* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Initial reaction to the changes to guitar play on XG, because no matter how dissimilar it is (they still don't have hammer-ons and pull-offs, and they did not change to an angled note track either), any guitar game with five buttons is a ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' rip-off.
** And then XG3 toyed around with having a 3D stage and customizable (but still chibi) avatars. They promptly vanished on the next version.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: If ''[=GuitarFreaks=] 5th MIX'' and ''drummania 4th MIX'' are linked up with ''Keyboardmania 3rd MIX'', or ''GF 6th'' and ''dm 5th'' with that same ''Keyboardmania'' game, players can enjoy a Super Session game with up to 5 players (2 on ''GF'', 1 on ''dm'', 2 on ''KBM''). Unfortunately, this ends up being AwesomeButImpractical because only 11 songs are available for this mode.
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