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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Namco Taiko Blog (11 October 2012) - Joubutsu 2000 (Notechart)


Last time covered the making of the song, now Etou covers the making of the demonic chart, which till today is still the most difficult song to play in all Taiko no Tatsujin.

Or, it would be the most difficult song, but similar challenges have since emerged, like Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu and Suuhaa 2000, both of which are just as chaotic and difficult to master. Etou gets his grubby hands on Joubutsu 2000 a little after Shimedore 2000 was finished....the end of an era and the beginning of a new 2000 series?

"Ooh, so this is the new 2000 song"
"What's the song called? Eh? So you're putting it that way huh."
"Right, this will be my first 2000 song I will chart!"

...

"Hey um, Masubuchi, are you just beginning to make the song or what?"
"Whaaaat, this is the final complete version??"

Big shock there; the music of Joubutsu is unlike any other and even more randomly slapped together than all the previous 2000 songs.

"Shimedore 2000 has closed the series, so we wanted to end it with a brand-new song"
"So think of some patterns for this last song"

At the time, it really was supposed to end at Joubutsu so Etou put a lot of effort into making the patterns. That was before Mata Saitama and Suuhaa came to be. He was at his wits' end before even starting; the song was just that crazy.

How was Etou going to make a cohesive chart from this sort of music? The concept was making the chart entirely from zero. No referring to previous works. Shimedore 2000 was easy since it was a medley of different patterns from old songs, but not this. It was going to have to be one level even higher than all the current 2000 songs, more diabolical and brutal. Now we enter into the hell.

A 'beta' version of Joubutsu 2000 can be listened to on the original post if you have the right plugin.

The basic building block of Taiko no Tatsujin are the two notes Don and Kat. Arranged together they form a rhythm. They formed a rhythm of their own. While listening to the song intently, Etou noticed that the drums were completely out of line with the recorder and the voices, and followed a rhythm of their own. So he decided to follow that and make the drums the main base for which his note patterns would be placed (Etou also remarked that Masubuchi's drumming was great!)

A second concept came about during this time in Etou's mind. 'Being one level above the previous 2000 songs' was not enough, but since this was the last song, the notechart would also remind the player of the previous 2000 songs without actually using any of their patterns.

The beginning 'don kat dodokat don dodokat don', a tribute to Saitama.
Parts of the notechart resembling Koibumi, EkiBEN and X-Day. The streams and random 2-note clusters resembling Kita Saitama. The 1/3 notes from Kechadon. The mixed dense clusters like in Tenjiku. The slowdown from Hataraku. The forced forked path from Soroban.

A masterpiece was created. Joubutsu 2000's final notechart pays homage to every other song in the series while being more difficult than any of them combined and actually made rhythmical sense (if you use some imagination). And so the 2000 series' perfect final ending was created.

But of course, back to the present day, the series is still alive and well and the story continues.

There will be another update this afternoon, which is an interview with the 3rd and 4th CreoFUGA song creation contest winners! The songs 'Orando Nadeshiko' and 'Koi no Shohousen' and their creators will be in the spotlight.

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