This Guitar Hero Song Took 10 Years To Perfect
"Guitar Hero" boasts a number of complicated classic tunes throughout the series. However, not even legendary tracks like Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames" could compete with the intimidating "Soulless 6." Until now, nobody has ever managed to defeat this blistering track.
ExileLord, a respected part of the "Guitar Hero" community, has composed some infamously difficult songs over the years, which have been added into "Clone Hero," a cloned variation of the classic rocking rhythm game. The "Soulless" series of songs demand expert-level technique and concentration to complete. "Soulless 4" lasts a grueling 12 minutes. "Soulless 5" follows suit, lasting even longer at about 17 minutes.
"Soulless 6" amps the difficulty in a different way. The 45-second track crams combinations together in a fashion that most players could only dub as impossible. ExileLord released "Soulless 6" on April Fool's Day in 2011 as an unbeatable joke. Even the name "Soulless 6" was a joke, as it was apparently "too hard to be Soulless 4 or 5," according to the video description.
"Soulless 4" and "5" didn't exist at the time, but they didn't achieve as much notoriety as their shorter sister track even after release. Guitar Hero players tried to full combo the song for years. A decade later, one Twitch streamer flawlessly strummed the impossible song.
CarnyJared's Twitch chat exploded into cheering chaos as the "Guitar Hero" streamer celebrated his accomplishment. In the middle of streaming his "most serious runs" at the track, he became the first recorded player to full combo the song, hitting 100% of the correct notes. Some others have completed "tech FCs," meaning they completed in parts rather than as a whole, but he was the first to FC it in one go.
Eurogamer noted CarnyJared use of ghosting, which allows users to fret notes that aren't required, to keep up with otherwise unreachable patterns. However, there may have been more to this victory than CarnyJared's impressive technique. Some Reddit fans wondered how much CarynJared's accomplishment relied on the difference between "Clone Hero" and the official "Guitar Hero" games.
"I'm extraordinarily impressed by his rake strumming skills," one user writes, "but some of the noodly parts in the latter half only look possible thanks to Clone Hero's forgiving engine."
ExileLord, who also worked on "Clone Hero" as a programmer, said the feat would be "twice as difficult in terms of precision" in "Guitar Hero 3." In addition, ExileLord explained, "The timing window of notes in Guitar Hero 3 effectively gets cut in half." Therefore, CarnyJared's "Soulless 6" full combo might not have been possible using the official "Guitar Hero" engine.
Regardless of the technicalities, the fact that the track had never been FC'd in a decade speaks for itself. The "Guitar Hero" community continues to pay its respects to "Soulless 6" as challengers attempt to play the previously impossible song. If there's one thing that gamers love to do, it's to break records, no matter how bizarre they may be.