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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Song of the Week! 31 August 2013


Today's featured song is from the Game Music genre, from a legacy arcade game starring ninjas. Yup, lots of ninja games back then. Wondering which one this is?

Amazing Song Pack now out for Taiko iOS


Yet another song pack is released for the iPhone version of Taiko no Tatsujin. It's not another pack of licensed song though; this one is serious business, with five great and varied Namco Original songs and charts to try your fingers on!

Speaking of fingers, dare to try FCing Ryougen no Mai on this touchscreen?

Full list of songs, all in Namco Original:
  • Hayabusa (隼)
  • junction
  • 3piece-JazzParty!
  • Arumujika ac14.0V (アルムジカac14.0V)
  • Ryougen no Mai (燎原ノ舞)
Thanks to crystalsuicune for the screenshot and heads-up!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Namco Taiko Blog (29 August 2013): September's Lunar Donchare


Quick blog post today for the monthly update of Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version. And September's song is....

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Yet another future update for Taiko 0

We've already crossed this road three more times in the past, and today we're on the early arcade upgrade hype again! From today, it's possible for arcade owners to buy the HDD upgrade kit for the 'Taiko no Tatsujin December 2013 Edition', another provisional and vague name for the next massive update for Taiko 0's never-ending journey (click here for more details). What do we know about this 3rd giant upgrade so far?

-) Planned for a generic December 2013 release date.

-) 278,000 Yen for the HDD upgrade, and 50,000 more if the arcade has not yet installed the camera for Katsu-Don and up. No news on how much the entire cabinet costs, but if available, it should be the same as the previous models: 998,800 Yen.

Credits to crystalsuicune for the find!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

First videos of Taiko Sorairo Game Version 6.07 new songs



Not all of them are here yet (as of now, still missing the Sekai no Owari song, which is said to be the actual band performance and not a cover), but the important new songs in this update all have videos! See more after the jump.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-8) Fuzi Graveyard: Rock Star's Grave


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script :(4-7) Fuzi Graveyard: Campsite A


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Made By You: Special Packer Feature 2



Our anniversary feature is right around the corner (end of this week!) but before that, Packer Woo showered us with a whole pile of new songs and Taikojiro charts so let's get to them all first! (he will still be in the anniversary special, don't worry!)

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-6) Fuzi Graveyard: Creepy Tree


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-5) Fuzi Graveyard: Thousand-Year Old Grave


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-4) Fuzi Graveyard: Graveyard #2


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Song of the Week! 24 August 2013


Next Tuesday, the Vocaloid rhythm game Project Diva F for the PS3 will finally be localized for North America and Europe, and fans are celebrating the occasion: fanmade PVs are flooding the Net, those who have pre-ordered a copy are counting down to the release, and Lokamp finally finished his sound-proof bunker!

So, what about here on Taiko Time? Since we already featured all of the Miku songs which are available in the latest Project Diva entry, it's time for another fan-favorite pick. With Ura mode, no less!

Friday, August 23, 2013

3rd quiz questions

The Taiko Time 3rd anniversary quiz is now on! It's a much simpler affair than last time; only eight questions with no tables or whatever to fill in. Just send your answers to either my email address or Lokamp's email address (which you can find of the Contact/FAQ page) by the 31st of August!

All participants will get a small gift from me for participating; it's just for fun anyway! Good luck!

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1.  Which version of Taiko was the first to have costumes of every animal in the Chinese/Japanese zodiac in it?

2. -The song has 616 notes on Oni.  
    - I played it once on a PSP, but never saw that song in an arcade before. Hope I'll be luckier next year! 
    - Hitballoons... I think there were 5 of them for the Oni chart

What song is this?

3. The number of points per note usually goes down as you move from Kantan to Oni, on account of the note quantity increasing. However, there is a song which gives out a maximum of more than 18,000 points for one note on Oni difficulty. This song was released within the last three years. What song is this?

4. Which three licensed characters send mail to the player upon playing their songs once in Taiko Wii 4?

5. How many songs from the Precure anime are in Taiko no Tatsujin?

6. Which arcade and console Taikos were released together on the same day?

7. Which 3 Taiko songs were playable in the make-believe arcade in Yakuza 5?

8. The SongIDs of Classic genre songs are typically cls***, where the stars are other letters. However there is one Classic song whose songID does not begin with 'cls'. Which song is this?

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Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-3) Fuzi Graveyard: Graveyard #1


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-2) Fuzi Graveyard: Entrance


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS Script: (4-1) Fuzi Graveyard: Beginning


Warning: may contain plot spoilers.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Namco Taiko Blog (22 August 2013): Want to hear more? Notecharter Interview 1

Well this is something unique. Instead of announcing anything particular, the blog entry this week is an interview with one of the notecharting team of Taiko no Tatsujin. For the first round, it's Kuboken (くぼけん).

The notecharting team gave themselves a very interesting name too, "譜面ジャー" (fumen-ja), which in English is "Notechart Ranger". You know, like in the Sentai kids shows (think Power Rangers). Following that is a description of the job. Since it's a relatively lightweight task, most anyone in NBGI can become a Notechart Ranger: producers (like Etou), designers, planners, programmers, visual team, sound team and so on. The charts they make are reviewed by fellow Notechart Rangers before being finalized and released.

And with that, Kuboken's introduction!

Profile
Joined Taiko Team: 2006 (during Taiko no Tatsujin 8)
Number of charts made: About 90
Skill level: 9* Oni on buttons, not so good at sticks

Notechart specialty
-Handles Oni 6* to 8*
-Loves making charts which allow players to nearly Full Combo with at least one troublesome part.
-Different permutations of repeating patterns
-Loves all difficulties equally

Sample notecharts created (has a 'progessive' style on charts, picking up as time goes by)
Rouge no Dengon (ルージュの伝言): Moderate and good for practice, but if given the chance, would have subtracted some more notes.

Densetsu no Matsuri (伝説の祭り): Made the lyrics together with Oogami Masako, and had the best memories working on this chart, which as the ending theme of Taiko PS2 7, had 777 notes.

Chou Tokyuu (超特急): Quite a balanced chart with 1/12 notes

Spleunker (スペランカー): The repeating ------ patterns in this song were meant to be imitating the sound of a minecart. Clever stuff. He also wonders if he should have made the two balloon notes in the middle unbreakable instead.

Star Soldier Medley (スターソルジャーメドレー): Projects a brilliant, bright scenery for the song, with a final rush of tough patterns. Other notecharts made by Kuboken such as L.O.B.M utilize this concept too.

Arumujika ac14.0V (アルムジカac14.0V): All difficulties use backbeats and skipped beats to confuse and make the player 'nearly' FC the song. He managed to slip in the unbreakable balloon note this time!

LOVE Zukkyun (LOVEずっきゅん): Kuboken likes the rhythm pattern of the intro and Melody A of the song. The alternating, repeating --- portion in the chorus was Etou's idea.

Fly away: A very heated, energetic song! Continuous large notes in the chorus punctuate this energy.

Mulberry: A refreshing and loose song with notes to match, trying to make an unremarkable chart match the music to leave a good impression.

Onara Hasukashikunai Yo (Onaraはずかしくないよ): Kuboken's most favorite chart project, period. High-speed, simple and makes you want to dance along, with patterns that won't frustrate improving players.

365-Nichi no Love Story (「365日のラブストーリー。): Kuboken: Now why didn't I make this have 365 notes...? *laughs*

Maou no Showtime (マオウのショウタイム): As the 3DS boss song, the chart must also be full of pranks and tricks (like all those mean scroll changes in the middle). The combo total '888' was used because it sounded like laughter (8 is 'ha' in Japanese).

Knitting High (ニッティング・ハイ): The repetitive nature of the song was sometimes hard to keep track. Kuboken remarks at how many of his charts are for Oogami Masako's songs.

Jojo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~ (ジョジョ ~その血の運命~): The 'do-do-do-don' four-note clusters was contributed by another member in the team (Kan, 'カーン'), to create energy.

  Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi (花オト裏拍子): Kuboken thanks the CreoFUGA winner for a lovely song, and fills it with lots and lots of notes.

Phoenix: A mellow, slow-paced song, so he created a simple, unhindering chart to match.

Sayonara Crawl (さよならクロール): The original Melody A for this chart had only blue notes, so red ones were added in and it actually sounded good. Evokes a fresh summer feeling.

And that's all Kuboken writes for today! He hopes to continue making charts everyone can enjoy playing on Taiko no Tatsujin.

Link to original post

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Taiko Wii U?


The rumor has resurfaced, because http://wiiu.taiko-ch.net/ is no longer just a reserved website, it's actually online already. There's nothing inside yet except for the words 'test site', but it implies greatly that there's going to be a new Taiko for Nintendo's HD console! The only question is when!

Thanks to crystalsuicune for the heads-up!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Namco Taiko Blog (20 August 2013): Taiko Sorairo Game Version 6.07


It's not Thursday yet, but the team's week-long break is finally over and there is work to be done! Namely, another update for Taiko Sorairo to add in the second batch of tournament songs.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

pikaby asks: Taiko no Tatsujin merchandise


Plushies, toys, keychains, posters...they serve a purpose: to advertise Taiko no Tatsujin and promote people to play it more. Like other game series, merchandise become collectible items, and the recent influx of Taiko stuff in association with collabs and lottery drawings just made me want to ask: do you have any Taiko merchandise?

I do, but none that are official. The McDonalds Happy Meal toys never reached my place. All I have are a few imitation plushies of Don-chan and Kat-chan, which are bought from souvenir stores. Suffice to say, I don't expect the salespeople there to know anything about Taiko!

What do you have? Show off your collection, be it official or imitation! It doesn't matter, as long as it shows your love for the game!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Song of the Week! 17 August 2013


Today's featured song is an old anime song which stuck all the way up to now, and doesn't need a subtitle to tell the world that it's a really popular song from a very popular show!