This song is your first boss fight.
Through The Fire And Flames, or TTFAF for short, is a famous track in music games. Most notably from Guitar Hero, it was the end-game map for a long time. In Beat Saber it may not be quite as difficult as the fabled original Guitar Hero map, nor is it the end-game boss fight, but it's probably the most iconic "challenge map" this game has seen so far, and it will probably stay that way for quite some time, maybe forever.
With that said, TTFAF is certainly a gimmick map. It's an interesting accomplishment to be honest, being simultaneously incredibly difficult and actually quite easy. Much like the original Guitar Hero map, the vast majority of being able to beat this map is effectively memory. You must play through the failures to get anywhere in this track - in other words, to beat TTFAF you must fail TTFAF... Many, many times.
However, the raw intensity of the note count, the epic sound of the song itself, and the sheer duration of the song combined make it one of the most satisfying maps you will ever complete. Your journey Through The Fire And Flames will, on multiple occasions, have your heart and mind racing, with your blood pumping small doses of adrenaline to every fiber of your being as you struggle to stay alive each time you make it further through the map. But the true joy is your first completion. Nothing beats that primal scream you will make when you finally slash your way through the last wall of notes to find sweet sweet silence.
What's bizarre is once you've beaten it a couple times, when you come back to play it you'll beat it again without anywhere near as much stress. And you'll think about the actual layout of the map, and wonder - why did this ever give me so much trouble? The truth is, very few parts of the map are actually difficult pattern - you just get so overwhelmed playing it the first time you spend too much time panicking and not enough time doing anything right at all.
Despite being my personal favorite challenge map of all time, as well as a major part of the community's (especially viewers!), I can't pretend it isn't without flaws. There are a couple questionable bomb and note placements, even disregarding the overwhelming nature of the patterns in the song.
Mapper: Freeek
Expert and a Hard difficulty. 2800 notes and Even more event light triggers… Enjoy!
I’m new to the Beat Saber modding community and was really excited to try this map, remembering it from Guitar Hero. I was especially excited that it was available at Hard, as it seems the overwhelming majority of songs (or at least the ones I’m interested in) are only Expert/Expert+. Unfortunately, I’m not up to that challenge yet.
Being fresh from vanilla Beat Saber, I can confidently say that the Hard difficulty of this map is significantly harder than Hard vanilla maps. The first thing I noticed was the frequency of the notes, which is VERY fast, and then the parity. The map has frequent double directionals (drumming), at least one downward note in the top row (I’m short :c), and several hand claps. I also learned first-hand about face punchers. :# Not my favorite. There are vision blocks from notes in the middle, too. I see the potential for this map to be fun to play, but it’s not for me.
Very good