Let's fly away from New Taiko's overwhelming new entries for a while, in order to focus on this Saturday's picks! This week's choices are from the Game Music genre and from the same videogame series.
No Way Back God Eater| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 14 | x4 (139) | x7 (188) | x7 (426) | x9 (697) |
| Taiko 0, PSP 2 | x4 (139) | x6 (188) | x7 (426) | x9 (697) |
| Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 3 | x5 (139) | x7 (188) | x7 (426) | x9 (697) |
| Taiko 0.5 onwards, Taiko PS Vita | x4 (139) | x6 (188) | x7 (426) | x8 (697) |
Taiko 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PSP 2, DX, Taiko Wii 3, Taiko PS Vita
157~164
none
godeatThanks to a user request received some weeks ago, I can finally write a few lines about my most favorite game song in Taiko! But first, as usual, let's introduce the game from which this song came from.
No Way Back originates from the action/adventure videogame God Eater (ゴッドイーター), released for PSP on February 4, 2009. With the promo slogan "Attack with speed! Hunting has evolved.", Namco wanted to put the roots to the beginning of a new hunting series, behind the trail of the blazing hot Monster Hunter series made by Capcom. Adhoc Party missions up to 4 players and downloadable content for the solo Story mode are featured as well. Now, Monster Hunter clones and derivatives are nothing new in Japan, but God Eater is very well polished and features enough graphical and gameplay distinctions to separate itself from the king of the genre.
Single Player mode's plot is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where planet Earth's population is being decimated by powerful creatures named "Aragami", which are able to evolve into many deadly forms thanks to their body cells' learning potential. Only a few humans - the God Eaters - can withstand the Aragami menace by wielding special weapons powered by Oracle cells, the same cells in their wild enemies. The player's avatar is one of the latest God Eater recruit, assigned to the Fenrir Far East branch.
There are many versions of No Way Back in God Eater, but the one in Taiko - composed by Go Shiina and sung by Ben Franklin - is usually heard during the fights against a Vajra, a giant Aragami resembling a tiger. The song's debut in Taiko was with the second PSP game as part of the special download packs which have anticipated the arcade debut of many new songs; another song brought by the same composing duo of No Way Back, called IN THE ZONE, would have had the same fate a few months later.
On Oni, the song has a well balanced chart with lots of clusters and no troublesome bits, making this an FC of effort. Emulating the Muscle March songs, No Way Back ends with a 99-hit balloon that puts a strain on your arm strength. Its Max Combo value is the same of Kare Kano Kanon.
No Way Back God Eater| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 14 | x10 (713) | |||
| Taiko 0, Taiko PS Vita | x9 (713) | |||
| Taiko Wii 3 | x5 (221) | x7 (304) | x8 (492) | x10 (713) |
| Taiko PSP DX | x5 (170) | x7 (307) | x8 (511) | x10 (713) |
Taiko 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 3, Taiko PS Vita 157~164 none exgodWhen the rumor of a Ura for No Way Back rose among Taiko 14 players, many God Eater fans were expecting to play the full-length version, No Way Back ~Out of My Way~. What actually surfaced though was simply a harder version of the same music. Like IN THE ZONE, No Way Back Ura has a very nasty part in the guitar solo, with multiple crazy combination streams between 1/16 and 1/24 notes. For pro players, this Ura mode became soon the springboard for mastering harder challenges like Metal Hawk BGM1.
Together with the Anime song Tank!, No Way Back's Ura mode is one of the first Ura to be available as a downloadable for Taiko PSP DX, though its Kantan/Futsuu/Muzukashii are slightly different from the ones already featured on Taiko Wii 3. Although it may seem comfortable in 10* Oni, Namco sure didn't think so when they took one out in Taiko 0.
Mujihi na Ou (無慈悲な王) God Eater Burst| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All console | x4 (149) | x6 (209) | x6 (316) | x7 (443) |
| All arcade | x3 (149) | x6 (209) | x6 (316) | x7 (443) |
Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 4 145~154 none mujihiI've forgot to say something else about the first God Eater videogame: it never left Japan! But positive feedback from players and critics made it win an award at the Playstation Awards 2010 with over 200 million downloads, encouraging Namco to produce a sequel to be released worldwide. And so, on October 28th of the same year, the improved version of the first game (Burst) has crossed the globe, and a God Eater sequel is on the works for PS3.
God Eater Burst (ゴッドイーター バースト, Gods Eater Burst in North America) is an exact replica of the original game with some consistent updates: more weapons and game mechanics, full English voices for the game's Story mode, enhanced adhoc party features and new songs. Mujihi na Ou ('Merciless Lord' in the European OST) is one of those new tracks, once again composed by Go Shiina. Among all his songs, one of his most remembered one is Haikei, Gakkou ni Te... (Taiko 11), a Tekken 5 track in Namco Original, and Mujihi na Ou shares the same Oni max combo as that song.
Easier than No Way Back, Mujihi na Ou became one of the easiest 7* tunes in the current song generation, thanks to its moderate speed and its anti-panic clusters. Oddly enough, this is also one of the few Taiko PSP DX new songs to be featured in the ongoing Taiko arcade without getting a star decrease.
