Last week we showcased a J-Pop song which got very few chances at being in a Taiko game. This week's song is also a rare one, but this time it's a Namco Original.
Tokoyami no Mori (常闇の森) Prologue "Night of the Evil God's Resurrection" (序章「邪神復活の夜」) | Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (126) | x4 (179) | x7 (388) | x8 (523) |
Taiko 13, Taiko DS 3, Taiko Wii 5, CD Donderful
68~135
none
blackmSaying this long title in full Japanese is quite a mouthful, so we translated it instead. Tokoyami no Mori (lit. Forest of Eternal Darkness) is a Namco Original that sounds as dark and grim as its title would suggest. Although it looks and sounds like it comes from a videogame, it's actually an original composition by Hoashi Keigo (帆足圭吾), otherwise known as MONACA.
One of the new Namco Originals introduced in Taiko 13, it fell through the floor pretty fast when it was axed from 14 after doing extremely poorly in the popularity rankings for the genre, and is side-by-side with Total Eclipse 2035 in the bottom of Taiko 13's Namco Originals. The subtitle is a 'prologue' of some sort, and for all the unpopularity that Tokoyami was put through, it still receives a 'middle chapter' in the form of Hougan no Kougetsu, on Taiko Wii 5. Tokoyami no Mori was used in the boss battle with the disguised Dokon Gang in Taiko DS3, at the end of the story mode before the penultimate fight.
This horrific Namco Original that sounds like an excerpt from a Dragon Quest soundtrack CD is an 8* on Oni, and like several other horror songs (Daidara 8551 and Jigoku no Daiou), uses 1/16 rhythm and 1/12 rhythm, with very clear boundaries between the two; they're almost never mixed together and each present in certain parts of the song, though the majority of Tokoyami no Mori is 1/12. It's quite comfortable at this difficulty level, and once you get the swing rhythm correctly it can be a good song for training accuracy.
