How to play

<< 1. Introduction to Taiko

In Dance Dance Revolution you hit the arrows when they reach the top of the screen and align with the corresponding arrow mark. In Drummania you hit the correct drum when the colored bar aligns with the bar on the bottom of the screen. The basic rules are no different in Taiko no Tatsujin. You have to hit notes as they reach the left of the screen and align with the circular mark.

There are four basic types of notes.

Red note (Don)         Blue note (Kat)           Drumroll                        Balloon note

                                            

Now, all four types of notes will scroll one after another towards you when you play, from right to left.

Hit the drum in the correct places. Here's what the 'center' and the 'rim' of the drum are. Center is the entire face of the drum, and the rim is the edge. They're divided into two parts each, left and right, for your left and right hands. So there can be up to four inputs at any one time.

For a red note, hit the center when it aligns with the marker on the left.

For a blue note, hit the rim.

For a big red note, hit both left and right sides of the center for extra points. Hitting one side is acceptable, but the points obtained are less. Note that this rule DOES NOT apply to arcade, only console Taiko forces a two-sided hit for more points.

For a big blue note, hit both left and right rims.

For a drumroll, hit wherever. The more times you hit, the more points you get!

For a balloon note, hit the center rapidly the number of times shown. Finish for bonus points!

Hitting notes correctly will increase the Tamashii gauge on the top-right corner. Once the meter crosses the 'ノルマ' (norma), you've passed the song! The 'norma' will be in further position the higher your difficulty is.

The combo number will go higher the more notes you hit in a row. Missing one will reset this counter back to zero. Hitting all the notes is called a full combo (FC) or a perfect combo (translation given in Taiko Drum Master).

Video tutorial in case you still don't get it. (English version of Onpu no Uta. For the original Japanese Onpu no Uta tutorial with extra description on Yam notes and Go-Go Time, click here)

There are four difficulty settings in Taiko, Kantan, Futsuu, Muzukashii and Oni, each harder than the last. Beginners should start from Kantan and work their way up! Once you're feeling confident, move on to the next, until you're ready to challenge Oni. The difficulty stars under each level show how hard the song is (relative to that level). 5 stars maximum on Kantan, 7 on Futsuu and so on. The number of stars in each difficulty are mutually exclusive, e.g. 2* Futsuu is still harder than 5* Kantan, but 1* Oni is not necessarily harder than 8* Muzukashii.

At one point there were 6 stars on Kantan difficulty, but that was quickly rejected.

>> 3. Advanced rules