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Monday, February 29, 2016

Behind the Drums: Yuhei Etou


The current leader of the Taiko Team, Yuhei Etou (江藤裕平) was born on June 29th, 1985 and spent his childhood in the Kanto prefecture, where he grew on appreciating the Taiko no Tatsujin series as an early player during the school years. Hired by former Taiko Team leader Takahashi as a notecharter during Taiko 12 Zoryoban's launch window, he succeeded to his master's role roughly some time after the second Wii game's release.

Among his new roles as the new face of the Taiko Team are the management of the Taiko series' official blog updates, arcade/console games supervision and industry directive-related roles, as well as making charts for new songs from time to time. He's also the most recurrent-appearing member in public events for everything related to the gaming series (livestream/tournaments/arcade launches/variety TV shows), signing himself under an alternative way to spell Etou in Japanese (エトウ). He also happens to be in good acquaintance with some of the series' most recurrent external composers, such as Tatsuya Shimizu. As revealed by Etou himself in one of the Taiko Team livestream sessions, he got married by the end of 2014.

As a notecharter, Etou's approach is inspired by the concept of "challenge songs that feel like fit for hard difficulties", putting his efforts on creating charts that while elegible to be cleared in many degrees, they stimulate players to aim for a Full Combo on any difficulty. This philosophy often leads him adding visually-striking features to his notecharts like large notes and multiple BPM/scrolling changes, although he has made a name of himself as a flexible notecharter for both easy and hard Oni modes. Much like Kuboken (くぼけん), his Oni notecharts usually tend to have special-numbered Max Combo values, such as same-digit totals and Namco/Bandai goroawase shenanigans (765/876). While he usually takes less than 1 month to fully chart a song, he may require more than a month for selected songs like Joubutsu 2000. Due to his high position in the Taiko games franchise, Etou isn't used to chart songs with the same frequency anymore.

His profile picture above references his "harder notecharting side" with the so-dubbed 'Etou Beam', an infamous note-dense charting portion he made (with Nicovideo spectators) for Hurtling Boys's Oni mode (stanzas 55-56).

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Across Japan: March 1st Additions


The official song addition announcement complementing last Across Japan gives us the Asia-first tournament song and the previous month's DonChare unlock.
  • マリオネットピュア Marionette Pure
  • 凛 Rin a_hisa
And as always Tatsudon has to cover the brand new song's difficulty ratings, you should see Rin Kantan is ☆3 and Oni has at least 3 stars...?

Super Taiko 3D Deka (26/02/16)


While not being choke-full of content like most of 2015's broadcasts, this year's first Taiko Team livestream session sure had some aces up on its sleeves, in forms of artist cameos (...sort of) and some surprises along the way, all packaged with the usual degree of cheese of the broadcasting series.

Enough filling your eyes with big-sounding words! Here's what happened during the last Friday.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Song of the Week! 27 February 2016


If we do not talk about this song now, we would have to wait four more years to make the title association. Who knows if we can stay up for another four years (fingers crossed for it though)? And so in occasion for the very rare happening next Monday, here we are talking about...

Friday, February 26, 2016

Quick Takeaways: February 26 Livestream

This post might be removed when the full coverage is ready. Meanwhile, feel free to contribute screenshots and information to help out!

Livestream
  • Three comment goals met
    • 10K goal: Twitter icon and Smartphone wallpaper.
    • 30K goal: Title part Dangerous (やばい).
    • 50K goal: Taiko no Tatsujin White Version Title Parts Gacha discount to 100 Points .
WCS2016
  • Leftover CreoFuga songs to be released in five weeks between April and May:
    • April 1st: Climb! Mount Parfait (食らいむ!まうんとぱふぇ) / unatra - Rin (凛) / a_hisa
    • April 15th: SsTtAaRr* / M-O-T-U feat. Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) - Chouzetsu-Gikoukei Shoujo (超絶技巧系少女) / Nekokaburi Cyclone (xi+Nekomirin) ( ねこかぶりサイクロン (xi+ねこみりん))
    • April 29th: Kokorobo (ココロボ) / Ujico* - Onigiri wa Doko Kashira (おにぎりはどこかしら♪) / Yomii feat. Hatsune Miku (よみぃ feat. 初音ミク)
    • May Week 1 (unspecified date): Netemo Netemo (ネテモネテモ) / Shoji feat. Honoka♡Erika (☆しょーじ☆ feat. ほのか♡えりか) - Hiyoko Fantasy (ひよっこファンタジー) / Tsuyomi (つよみー)
    • May Week 2 (unspecified date): Reitouko CJ ~Amen Taiko Brothers~ (冷凍庫CJ ~アーメン太鼓ブラザーズ~) / DJKurara - Gloria / K. key - Asagao (アサガオ) / BTB
  • Area Elimination phase on May for both the main divisions (Elementary-and-under; Middle-School-and-upper).
  • Winners of the Taikai tournament from both divisions gain automatically access to the WCS2016 Finals in their respective winning category.
  • New tournament-related Banapassport event for everyone from April to June, involving the songs from CreoFuga-spawn artists. Earn tickets by playing those songs to claim limited unlocks such as special title parts (from 1 to 2 tickets) or one of the three new songs below (8 tickets):
    • Princess of Donder / MOES feat. Erica Kaibo (MOES feat. 海保えりか)
    • Shonin YokkQ (承認欲Q) / Kaneko Chiharu feat. Haxchi (かねこちはる feat. はぁち)
    • Ghost Mask (ゴーストマスク) / Harunaba feat. Yukari Yuzuki & Chihiro Ishiguro (はるなば feat. 結月ゆかり&石黒千尋)
  • Joining the aforementioned Banapassport tournament-related event will net the Tiger and Dragon individual Petit Chara during the months of April and May respectively (Petit Chara names currently pending).
AC0 White ver.
  • Tokkun Mode (特訓モード) coming to White Version arcades soon; it requires both a regular arcade credit and Banacoin currency linked to a Banapassport account to play. Play songs up to 10 minutes with a set of features from console games' Training modes (autoplay, BPM tweaks, rewind/fast forward, ...); afterwards, there's a regular song play choice to end the credit.
  • New title-related outfits for the Assassination Classroom and Kamen Rider Ghost series added with yesterday's White Version software update.
  • Taikai Tournament ticket campaign returning for the whole month of March
  • Taiko x Love Live! campaign deadline extended to March 31st; unlock two Petit Charas with one Ticket claim for the remainder of the campaign.
  • Two new Namco Original songs added to God Collection folder in the following months:
    PS: Know your mythology: Takama-ga-hara and Takeminakata
    • Shiritsu Takama-ga-hara Gakuen Koukou Kouka (私立高天原学園高校・校歌) / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. Np Hiko Inuta & Yamamoto Momiji (D.watt(IOSYS) feat.Np 犬田彦 & 山本椛)
    • My Muscle Heart / ~TV Takama-ga-hara-style Anime [Muscular Magical Girl Takeminakata] Main Theme~ (~テレビ高天原系アニメ「筋肉魔法少女タケミナカタ」主題歌~)  / Yuuya Kobayashi (IOSYS) feat. Yamamoto Momiji (monotone) (コバヤシユウヤ (IOSYS) feat. 山本椛(monotone))
  • New Namco Original song coming out in the following months:
    • Audio de Ka! (オーディオ de カッ!) / From Audio Suspense Drama "Audio Deka" (音響アスペンスドラマ「オーディオ刑事」より)

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Collab Corner: PazuDora Taiko no Tatsujin Dungeon Fixtured with Addition



Even after all Puzzle and Dragons songs retreated from current games (save from Taiko Plus), the still very 3DS1-centric Taiko no Tatsujin Dungeon in the smartphone game will be made a fixture via the Coin Dungeon system among some other collab dungeons, all while adding Maple (Vita1) and Takkun (3DS2) to the fray, maybe to make things more current?

Link to Gungho post

EDIT: pad_sexy on Twitter already showed the artwork for Maple and Takkun's evolved forms! Click here to check them out (text in Japanese).

V Version Update: Popular Song Pack 11 and 2nd DLC Poll Winners' Second Wave


The title is quite self-explanatory, so go see what's new after the jump!

First Video: Game Version 5.07's New Songs


It's arcade version update time yet again! See with us today's newly-introduced song quintet.

Namco Taiko Blog 2 (25 February 2016) - Taiko x EXILE Collaboration, Round 2!


The Taiko franchise's 15th Anniversary celebration is still going strong, and so is last year's Taiko x EXILE campaign! Find out after the jump where it's going to branch out next.

Namco Taiko Blog (25 February 2016) - March's "Butter-Free" Donchare and 12th Comments Challenge Goals


While you'll find out the reasoning behind the weird title soon, let's take a look at the next set of monthly unlocks, together with the goals for tomorrow's livestream.

Across Japan: The W That Makes WCS2016

Again, although it's not "World" World, but that's the most international an event has ever been for Taiko no Tatsujin. As such, each of the seven regions currently graced with AC0 White ver. will each be holding a run of local tournaments. The champion of each country/region will be given a spot at the final showdown at Japan on July 17 (Sunday). Because this might involve you going abroad, remember to present a copy your passport to show that it expires no earlier than July 2016!

The song choices are a mix of this and the last tournament-focused Creofuga contest spawns. And if you look carefully, you might see a less familiar name, as 凛 Rin a_hisa will be released to Asian White ver. before Japan starting March 1. Finally something exclusive for us, huzzah!

Oh we are supposed to talk about other swag too? Okay, so all participants will receive a small sticker sheet gift, while the top 4 for each region will win a Taiko no Tatsujin-branded towel to wipe your sweat (among other uses).

Link to original post

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Taiko Plus STH - Device Compatibility List


While the recently-released Taiko Plus STH actually got a 1.0.1 update (required to play the game) for NuPlayer support, the news that Android players were waiting the most is an actual compatibility list for the app. While the Google Play store is still silent on the topic, the app is now addressing the issue since yesterday!

By checking out the in-game News menu (= the leftmost option with a mail icon in the main menu), it's now possible to see which smartphones are allowed to play the app at its fullest, ranging from Xperia to GALAXY and AQUOS models. We won't be posting here the full list of supported phones, but it's already possible for everyone to see if your smartphone is one of the supported models.

Please remember that not-supported smartphones that are able to run the app can't be used to play Oni modes for any songs.

Twitter Snippets (24 February 2016) - V Version's 2nd Poll Winners, Round 2


With February '16 coming to a close, a new DLC song pack reveal for V Version is expected to kick in tomorrow, the last Thursday of the month. Together with it, however, is also the announcement of another couple of winning songs from the 2nd DLC poll!

Judging by the colors of the blurred-out image above, that's an Anime and a Variety track up there. Which one will we get this coming March?

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Eringi no Ekubo Lyrics



Composer: Yuuji Masubuchi (増渕裕二)
Vocal: Mika Sato (佐藤美香)

Monday, February 22, 2016

Twitter Snippets (19 February 2016) - Taiko Arcades' new mode?


One of the features being advertised for next Friday's livestream concerns the addition of a never-heard-before new game mode for White Version arcades. If the tweet above is featuring legit advertisement material, it appears that the silence on this topic has already been broken!

For starters, it looks like that this mode will be making use of Banacoin, Bandai Namco's newly-introduced currency for Banapassport players which lets players charge their cards with definite amount of real-life cash for a number of extra features and services, From the screenshot supplied below, it appears that the Banacoin interaction with Taiko games is leading to the implementation of a timed Practice mode, styled after its many console release versions between Wii/Wii U and PSP/Ps Vita.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Behind the Drums: Sariya-jin


Sariya-jin is an independent composer/singer, whose real name still lies in mystery. Having started to make content on the Internet in 2channel (2ch)'s Karaoke board, her rise to popularity has happened thanks to her Niconico channel, where she sings both covers and original songs.

During the years, she has had many singing roles with other independent units such as Silver Forest and TatshMusicCircle for the creation of custom Touhou arrangement songs. She's also known as Sari when she's being credited as the singer of the Sweet Simple Little World unit.

Sariya-jin's musical rise in Taiko gaming have intersected in the transition period between the second and third generation of arcade gaming, most of the times singing to songs composed by either independent composers or NAMCO SOUNDS personalities.

Behind the Drums: Yoshinori Kawamoto


Born on December 27th, 1965, Yoshinori Kawamoto (川元 義徳) is a music composer affiliated with Namco since the 80ies. His contribution to the franchise have roots sprouting from before the Taiko franchise's very existence, as he was involved in the advertising portion for the distribution of the very first arcade machine. His many aquaintances in the musical field have been the starting point for different kinds of perks along the years, such as the CreoFUGA song contests' inception and the appearance of selected singers and voice actresses in the franchise (most notably unmo and mother/daughter couple Kikuko and Honoka Inoue). Yoshinori Kawamoto is also known in the Team to be a huge Kyary Pamyu Pamyu fan, as he often applies for charting her songs that appear in the series.

As a music producer in Taiko no Tatsujin games, his role mainly concerns the creation of notecharts, with his first one being for the Vocaloid track Ninjin Nin. For his charting methods, Kawagen Collagen became notorious for making his works without forcing any inclusion/exclusion of notes due to focusing on the creation of special combo-numbered songs, although some of his Oni notecharts may still sprung some unintended number-plays. One of his most popular ones -the 797 ('Na-ku-na', or "Don't Cry") from Sotsu Omeshiki- is often used as a symbol and a t-shirt motif for most of his Taiko-related public cameos. As of February 2017, his work portfolio includes about 40 songs charted.

In recent years, Kawagen Collagen has become one of the most recurring main hosts of the Taiko Team's livestream sessions, together with Daifuku and the seasoned Etou-Takemoto duo. He doesn't flinch when it comes to talking about notechart creation mentality, let alone being the un-official guest star interviewer most of the times!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Taiko Plus: Suggested Pack 2

And we're back to the App Store version of Taiko no Tatsujin Plus, where in the first addition after the advent of Plus STH it's not Gakkyoku Tori Houdai songs but a full pack of licensed picks! 600-yen a pack as always.

Suggested Pack 2
  • R.Y.U.S.E.I. (Sandaime J Soul Brothers)
  • Follow Me (E-girls)
  • Digital Mogura (Gesu no Kiwami Otome)
  • Dream Parade PriPara
  • Ultraman X (+Ura)

Song of the Week! 20 February 2016


I hate to tell you, but the reason of why I wasn't around that much this week is because I've been really sick. Even after the doctor's visit, I've had some ghastly moments that still give me the chills, ugh.

Speaking of doctors, ...

Across Japan: Very Timely! White ver. Update 1.02

A bit forward from Japan's G/V 5.07 update, Asia's White ver. cabinets will be updating to a separatedly-denoted G/V 1.02 on February 23. Adding songs on the spot and On the same day as the G/V 5.07 update, there is a whopping 4 out of 8 to be released on the same day as Japan (including being released from event locks)!

And since there are so many of them this time, we are also starting using the new Same day as Japan tag for those new songs here at Taiko Time!

New Songs: February 23 (G/V 1.02)
  • Watashi Igai Watashi ja Nai (Gesu no Kiwame Otome.)
  • XY&Z Pokemon XY&Z
  • Yoake Made Ato 3-byou Synchronica Same day as Japan
  • Aka no Senritsu Same day as Japan

New Songs: February 25
  • Toori Yo Tezuka feat. Kagamine Rin/Kagamine Len Same day as Japan
  • Houkago Magician Marine Base Same day as Japan 
  • Kagayaki o Motomete Versus
  • Choco Chiptune. Ancraft

Link to original post

Thursday, February 18, 2016

First Video: Choco Chiptune.



Choco Chiptune. Ancraft (4/6/7/8; 640 notes on Oni)
Starts with half speed and twice again during the after-chorus bits. The song may be fast (210BPM base) but not too rowdy with mostly single-color clusters and 8th chains, and none over 16th separation (although apparent 32th at half-speed), all following mostly to the percussion at the back. If you can cope with the speed it's rather nice piece of chocolate cake.

Twitter Snippets (17 February 2016) - 2nd Tenkaichi Otogesai's Finals


In occasion of the incoming JAEPO, the 2nd Tenkaichi Otogesai tournament will host its Finals event for each of the involved branches! If you want to see live who among the 55 finalists will be crowned the champion (and in the case of the Taiko branch, who we're going to see again for the World Championship 2016's Finals), the Arcade Operator Unit's Twitter account has shared the link to the related Niconico livestream, going live tomorrow at 7 pm (Japan time).

We also remember that it's almost safe to assume that the 2nd Tenkaichi-related songs will be available in all their proprietary rhythm game franchise the day after the tournament's ending, so expect to see Aka no Senritsu and Yoake Made Ato 3-byou in all White Version arcades soon.

Namco Taiko Blog (February 18 2016): Wii U3 February DLC and Livestream Attack


How many consecutive Thursdays do we have double Namco Taiko Blog entries? Anyway, check out the newest free and paid DLC for Wii U3 in this month and the two livestreams for the upcoming week!

Official MyBachis: Promotion Sequence on (Japan) White ver.


There isn't much else to add, but this 3Q-4U-AC00 backed promotion sequence is added to White ver. cabinets across Japan to promote the Official MyBachis.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

[RANDOM] - Taiko no Tatsujin Ideas for Super Mario Maker



For the last post of the day, here's a little something quite unusual to see: translating (part of) a Taiko no Tatsujin notechart into a level gimmick in the level-creating title Super Mario Maker. Believe it or not, this is also one of the game's highest rated, user-made levels to date!

Currently standing in the 3rd position at the time of this post's publishing date, whack Piranha Plants under the sound of Senbonzakura's chorus by using the Kantan mode's note positioning as a guide. Will the Cosplay Mario manage to reach the bottom with his suit still on?

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS 2 (work-in-progress) fan-translation patch!



Those in the know on the 3DS scene will know that the console has been recently um...blown wide open. Questionable things aside, it allows for patches to be applied to games, creating things like this!

A huge fan of Taiko no Tatsujin, tiduscrying, recently emailed me with a little scoop on what his fan-translation patch looks like; which is, as of right now, a simple case of swapping menu graphical assets and text from Japanese to English. Obviously, getting to the graphics files in games are hard. In the progress video above you'll see some menus in JP and some in English. Worth noting that all this works even with legitimate DLC in the game!

A few clipping issues aside, this all looks pretty darn interesting and authentic. tiduscrying also wants to try his hand at translating the RPG mode; that's going to be quite the effort! Though, even just with the menu translation, I can already see it helping a lot of international Taiko players enjoy the game better!

You can follow the project on its page at GBAtemp.

Official MyBachis: General Launch at LaLaBit Market and Amazon Japan


After the conclusion of the Namco store-only pre-order, the Official MyBachis are now accepting general vending via BNEI's own LaLaBit Market online store and Amazon Japan.

For those who did make it to pre-order, the bonus outfit gift will come in the form of an extra slip with the purchase, holding the serial code. Type it into the Donder Hiroba to receive.

予約購入特典

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Phoenix Lyrics



Composition, Arrangement: Yoshiaki Hirai (平井克明)
Lyrics: Taku Inoue (井上拓)
Vocal: singman

Monday, February 15, 2016

Taiko 3DS1 Under Nintendo Happy Price Selection

That misspelling was rather unsightly though. (Addendum: They since fixed here)

Yeah we're back on 3DS1 news, woohoo! Starting from March 17, Taiko no Tatsujin Chibi Dragon to Fushigi na Orb will be included in Nintendo's Happy Price Selection promotion, where various first- to third-party games will be sold (both package and download) at the new 2700 yen base price, or 2916 yen when including tax.

Site Announcement: 2nd Lyrics Feature Request Poll!

And we have the 16 candidates! Sorry we didn't get to too many of your requests, but because we are nowhere near completing all the lyrics features, there will be another poll for this, and we are still welcoming any and all feasible suggestions (= there is lyrics set out there in Wii games or OST, and the copyright is not too hard).

In the meantime, show your support to the following songs to push them to get a Lyrics Feature! Songs that have more votes will be given a Lyrics Feature earlier, but all 16 will get one by the end.

Remember you can vote more than one song! So say you love all of them equally you can check all 16. We respect your benevolence.

 リブルとラブルのマジカルファンタジー Libble to Rabble no Magical Fantasy
 ブルちゃんのおやつ Buru-chan no Oyatsu
                    (bonus: ???)
 カラメルタイム☆ Caramel Time☆
 福袋餃子自慢商店街の歌 Fukubukuro Gyouza Jiman Shoutengai no Uta
 平成太鼓街道 ~バチの女~ Heisei Taiko Kaidou ~Bachi no Onna~
 風のなかに巣をくふ小鳥 Kaze no Naka ni Su o Kufu Kotori
 未来への鍵 Mirai e no Kagi
 シシハゲマイ Shishihagemai
============================
 ノるどん2000 Norudon 2000
 BE THE ACE
 どんちゃん音頭 Don-chan Ondo
 どんちゃん 世界旅行 Don-chan Sekai Ryokou
 フニクリ・フニクラ Funiculi Funicula

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Behind the Drums: Tomoki Matsumoto


One of the 2nd Taiko generation's most prominent notecharters, Tomoki Matsumoto (松本 智貴; often quoted as マツモト) on his active can count over 90 songs charted, as well as many key role in console Taiko entries directions. When it comes to creating notecharts, he's a very methodical figure familiar to multiple do-overs, as after finishing a chart he's used to verify if it goes harmonically with the base song, fixing any unconfortable parts and starting the checking process all over, until he isn't satisfied with the final work.

Matsumoto has been the director of all the Taiko games for Wii since the 2nd (except for Chogouka-Ban, where he was the producer), with another directing role coming for Taiko V Version. During said game's life-span, he began to publicly pop up as the self-titled 'Dark Attribute' (闇属性) TOMOKI', popping up on Taiko no Tatsujin V Version's Twitter account for informations/DLC teasers and even appearing in some of the Taiko Team's livestream sessions!

Behind The Drums: Tomoyuki Hamada @ t+pazolite


Born October 10th, 1985, Tomoyuki Hamada (浜田知幸) is an hardcore-speedcore composer and one of the eldest members of the HARDCORE TANO*C music circle. In activity since 2004, his first works include a wide variety of Bemani Simulation Files (BMS for short) behind the signature of many aliases; for his musical compositions, however, he sticks with the t+pazolite alias. He's the owner of the C.H.S. music label (standing for "Cutie & Headshaking Sounds"), under which all of his albums are published.

The t+pazolite alias has to be read as 'topazolite', referencing the yellow-green variety of the andradite garnet mineral. Still, the reason behind this nickname choice is (and possibly will remain) a mystery, as Tomoyuki Hamada himself has admitted in a late 2015 interview that he simply forgot about it.

Being introduced to Taiko grounds thanks to the first edition of the Tenkaichi Otogesai cross-over tournament, t+pazolite eventually made it having some songs made especially for Bandai Namco's drumming franchise, as well as being a guest in several of the Taiko Team's Nicovideo livestream events.

Outside of Taiko gaming, his scores can be found on SOUND VOLTEX as contest-winning entries, as well as being generously relevant in Taito's Groove Coaster series and Sega's Maimai and Chunithm.

Twitter Snippets (February 12-14 2016): Two Stream One TV Appearance


Above is the limited showing of kids show Ohasuta star Prince Akira (Dream5's Akira Takano) and Taiko Team's Daifuku talking and playing Taiko no Tatsujin and Official MyBachis. Only this weekend!

Also the two livestreams for the rest of the month has their NicoLive URL set. In addition to the previewed Official Livestream #12, the JAEPO 2016 weekend will also be graced with live-relayed footage from the BNEI Booth on the event floor.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Song of the Week! 13 February 2016


Once again, Valentine's Day is drawing closer (and I have this funny feeling of deja-vu in my mouth), meaning that lovers around the world are ready to deliver tasty treats to their soulmate.

But whether's the case of girls giving treats to boys (in Japan) or the other way around in the rest of the world, one thought reigns supreme in the most gluttonous of lovers...

Thursday, February 11, 2016

First Video: Kagayaki o Motomete



輝きを求めて Kagayaki o Motomete Versus (5/6/6/8; 471 notes on Oni)

The first of the shop preliminary enters White ver. around Japan today! At an initial 80BPM and then a flat 200BPM throughout, the notechart is a rather simple mix of mostly triple and 5-hits, and is not too taxing for a first candidate song outside the speed.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Namco Taiko Blog (February 10 2016): Official Livestream #12 WCS2016 Special and White ver. Update (V5.07)


The first of the two Namco Taiko Blog is about official release of Google Play's Plus STH, which we already did a lot of reportage before this, so we'll skip a lot here.

And so the remainder of our post will be dedicated to the other things that is actually new: a WCS2016-centric official Taiko Team livestream (#12), and the upcoming version update with some serious new stuff coming February 25!

Monday, February 8, 2016

Feature: How to Play Synchronica


Seeing Taiko no Tatsujin and Synchronica are getting more and more closely collaborating, it is time that we at least brief you on how to play this new game, so that you have some head-start initiation to get those collaboration effort goodies.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

AkeOme!!!+SotsuOme


The AkeOme!!!+SotsuOme (アケオメ!!!+そつおめ) album is one of the rarest collectible items from the Taiko no Tatsujin series, as it could be purchased only in occasion of the 2016 edition of Niconico's Tokaigi gaming convention. Later on, the album was re-distributed in 2017 during JAEPO and a Twitter campaign in an even more limited quantity (176 at JAEPO and up to 7 for the Twitter lottery).

The main feature of the mini-album is that each of the featured Namco Original songs's name begin with one of the letters of the album's actual name, including the + and exclamation points as well. Much like for the Sorairo Version Premium Soundtrack CD, the mini-album also features Vocal-only and Prototype versions, as the album's last 2 tracks.

First Video: Taiko Plus STH Hands-on!


As an accompanying feature for our Plus STH launch details post, here are a few selected "first moments"-type videos of the new Google Play release of Taiko no Tatsujin. Be it you are planning to [METHOD REDACTED] or [METHOD REDACTED], these should show you what to expect of the general gameplay, Fukubiki and reward systems, and how to obtain more songs (or at least where to get them - none of the videos we found actually purchased the plans).

And some more details to note:

  • Log in daily (resets daily at 04:00) for additional points and other rewards!
  • You can obtain individual songs from the GTH plans for free with the coins you get from trying apps or other offers. Current songs for this include Natsu Matsuri, A Cruel Angel's Thesis, Angel Dream and Hyakka Ryouran. With this method, each song can be played for either 7 days (150 points) or 30 days (300 points).
  • Plus STH (and also normal STH for those Japan-exclusive smartphone content plans) has used the new-generation Bachio Sensei ending congratulations, unlike the iOS Plus that still uses the Wii-incarnate of the thing.

Enough said, see two more of these videos after the jump!

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Site Announcement: 2nd Lyrics Feature Request Poll, the Pre-poll!

Addendum (2016/2/6): Let's put a cutoff date to the pre-poll, because it has to end somewhere. Please submit your suggestions by February 10! And feel free to leave more than one suggestion (we will pan them out afterwards to make it fair enough for everyone).

...Pheonix, Eringi, Neh Oshiete... yup we have all of the 1st Lyrics Feature Request Poll candidates done and scheduling! Yay for us able to finish something for real!

Now while the remaining six Lyrics Features of the first poll are being panned out for release in the coming weeks, let's go forward and start thinking about the next! Like the first, the 2nd Lyrics Feature Request Poll will be having 16 songs to vote for, and one Lyrics Feature will be coming out every two weeks on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, generally avoiding crashing dates with our other Features like Sympho-neighbors.

And for that, we need your song suggestions! Leave them down below for this pre-poll and we might include up to 8 reader suggestions, chosen by popularity and technical feasibility (best are Wii/Wii U/OST-confirmed lyrics, but we at least need a speculative set to work with).
Addendum (2016/1/13): As always, suggesting at any other place you can reach us (chatbox, Facebook, Twitter, email) is also accepted.

With your suggestions, we will be starting the main poll on Monday, February 15. The batch of new Lyrics Features will be starting in mid-March, right after the final Feature of the last poll, being Neh Oshiete (which is my top choice personally but oh god why it has zero votes).

Song of the Week! 6 February 2016


The Chinese New Year celebrations are drawing close once again! It's a perfect occasion for us to do yet another double feature about some of the elder Asian Taiko arcades' exclusive tracks.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Taiko Plus STH - Launch Version Details


Now that some time has passed since the latest smartphone Taiko game's release, it's time to take a further look at the whole picture to point out what's actually different between this app and i-devices's Taiko Plus.
  • Starting from the app's Play Store page, Version 1.0.0 is currently downloadable from Google Play accounts of any nationality, although this may be changed in the near future.
  • Oni mode for all the songs is only available to the devices that are recommended from the Play Store page to use the app. For a full list of the currently-recommended devices, a list is currently in the works by Bandai Namco, as even users with the already-trusted models have sent reports of bugs due to the game or the in-system Android version being too low (although the Play Store page is listing that anything from 'Android 4.0 and Up' is enough to play).
  • Ura Oni modes for all applicable songs are not currently playable with the launch version.
  • The game comes with Carmen Prelude, March From the Nutcracker and Saitama 2000 already attached to the app, with RIP SLYME song Deep Cleansing not getting ported. Another trio of songs -Bolero, Namcot Medley and Oshiete Kumatomo- can be downloaded for free in the game's Additional Content menu.
  • No song pack is currently available for purchase on Version 1.0.0, as the unified Taiko +/Taiko + STH website's Google Play song list side only reports the list of content for the Gakkyoku Tori Houdai (link).
  • The subscription-based Gakkyoku Tori Houdai mode also makes its debut with less/different features in comparison to the original version on Taiko Plus. In short, the Android version only offers the over-100 songs that the GTH service had for its launch on Taiko Plus, now being limited only to a monthly subscription system. The service's songs can be played through two different subscription plans: Popular Songs Plan (400 Yen/month sans taxes) for all the J-Pop/Anime/Variety/Vocaloid/Classic songs and Namco Original Plan (300 Yen/month sans taxes) for the Game Music/Namco Original tracks only. It's possible to subscribe to both plans together for the price of 500 Yen/month (again, excluding taxes). These prices are the same for everyone, including the players with not-recommended smartphones (and thus without Oni mode).
  • The pre-registration campaign's rewards are already available for everyone as in-app unlocks that are sent through an in-game notification (much like with the Lottery unlocks).
If some of these features will evolve/get changed for the next updates, we'll let you know!

Namco Taiko Blog (4 February 2016) - Taiko 2016 Tourney's Final Recap and Updates on White Version's Ranking Dojo Bugs

 

It's recap day once again for the Taiko Team, as today's dual-entry post is about the World Championship 2016 tournament details digressed during the past World Hobby Fair/Tokaigi events, with a slice of update of what's the current situation with the Ranking Dojo bugs.

First Video: TAIKO WITH A MISSION



As Yuuyatails in the chatbox points out, the newest PSVita1 DLC pack has a little MAN WITH A MISSION theme running through the Anime choices. While database feat.TAKUMA(10-FEET) is the same as the database from Wii U3 with only a new title, here's the actual new song of the day:

 Raise your flag Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (411 notes on ★8 Oni)
With a 1.25x scroll speed boost through the bulk of the 145-BPM song, the song is mostly test of your processing power over both odd and even mixed 16th patterns at a moderately faster speed. Slightly to the lower end of some of the newest ★8s.



 Seize the day Tokyo Xanadu (884 notes on ★9 Oni)
Completing today's newcomer song post is the Facolm poll winner track, coming from Tokyo Xanadu to V Version players as a free piece of downloadable content. Much like for the Sengoku BASARA Medley, this piece of music comes with a really aggressive Oni notechart where its high BPM and multiple note clusters can pack quite the challenge if teamed together!

Across Japan: February Starts with a Steam Whistle

  

As Kurofune Raikou was added to Asian White ver. on February 1st, punctually as always for Namco Originals.

Next is the February Facebook Tournament across February 6-14, which will be covering half of the Chinese New Year's named days. If you are free of family gatherings and round table meals, get to an arcade room to play Sugar Song and Bitter Step Oni (★8) or Lost One no Goukoku Muzukashii (★7) to snatch a spot on the leaderboards, to be released on the 17th.

Link to original post (Kurofune Raikou)
Link to original post (February Facebook Tournament)