December 2012 is officially the last month of the monthly DLC distribution of new songs for the third PSP Taiko game, Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX.
Since the first pack's release, players have been able to get a sneak peek at songs that would be released later in a few months time simply by checking out hidden SongIDs in the .edat files provided with the DLC songs with hex editing programs. Even the Taiko Time blog joined this "cybernetic expedition" month after month, resulting in the discovery of a large number of SongID of pre-existing songs (or even brand new ones) which were officially released right after the next 1-2 months on average.
The end of the monthly DLC was predicted by a few factors, such as the lack of hidden songIDs in the last few months being a sign of the tap running dry and the lack of brand-new Namco Original songs other than the CreoFUGA winners, as opposed to last year when there was literally at least one new song introduced to the version every month.
Some of the hidden ID songs never managed to get an official release and still lie inside the DLC data as simple IDs. Below there is a complete list of songs that were originally planned for PSP users but then dumped, together with their CENTER number (indicating their original release order of the songs) and the months of their 'unofficial discovery' beneath the ID data.
#22 - Hacking to the Gate
Originally discovered on: October 2011
In one of the very first DLC packs, there was a completely unknown SongID (for the time): shtage (it's on the ninth row from the top). After major speculation, it is most likely to be the ID of Hacking to the Gate, the OP theme of Steins;Gate, which was one of the new anime licenses obtained for the then brand-new Taiko 0 HD arcade. It was never released on PSP DX however, or any console Taiko in general.
#42 - Uso (嘘)
Originally discovered on: December 2011
Two months later we found siduso, the ID of another arcade-exclusive treat. It belongs to the J-Pop song Uso, which made its debut on Taiko 13 as a J-Pop song (it was performed by Sid) instead of being in the Anime genre (as one of the ED themes for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood), and also shares a similar genre ambiguity with songs like Bakuchi Dancer and Blue Bird. Uso is still exclusive to arcade machines.
#45 - Kaze wa Fuiteiru (風は吹いている)
Originally discovered in: January 2012
Next stop for our trip is a song from AKB48 which was specifically made in occasion for the Taiko 10th Anniversary celebrations (hence the ID, akb10t). This time, the reason behind the fact of having this song as an ID rather than having the actual song was probably for the fact that the 10th year of Taiko no Tatsujin games was going to end the month after, rendering the song out of place. If you still want to play it on a console however, there's always Taiko Wii Ketteiban!
#49 - ???
Originally discovered in: January 2012/February 2012
This is the oddest case, as the song which is marked as No.49 for the release... actually doesn't even have an ID! Hackers found this in the DLC pack by finding an unused position marker in the .edat file (and folder #49 is skipped on the DLC pack if you have all the songs). Programming issue or last minute cancellation?
#80 - PON PON PON
Originally discovered in: July 2012
#81 - Kyary ANAN (きゃりーANAN)
Originally discovered in: July 2012
#82 - CANDY CANDY
Originally discovered in: July 2012
#83 - Tsukema Tsukeru (つけまつける)
Originally discovered in: July 2012
The last group of currently-unreleased songs is a very recent one, all coming from the discography of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. While a pair of those songs have been featured in other console Taiko games, the other couple of songs have not ever been released on any Taiko game.
PSP would have been the definitive home for every Kyary Pamyu Pamyu fan (like for the massive grouping of Hatsune Miku songs), but for some reason or another these songs skipped the game altogether. Since they were discovered all at the same time, it's heavily speculated that these songs were initially planned for release all in the same month as part of a download lot, much like what happened with the CreoFUGA and Idolm@ster songs, which can be bought all together at a cheaper price per each bundle. Could be copyright issues, or maybe Namco has something else in mind for this set.
And this ends our little journey through the forgotten DLC songs. Are they ultimately doomed to console oblivion or will they have chance to shine sometime in the future? With the latest blog entry, the Taiko Team stated that there will be other extra content for the game, though not monthly anymore, so we'll just have to wait and see.
