Well folks, today is my birthday (yay!) and as such, I'm taking this little corner for myself to feature something I wanted to cover since its release.
Now sit back and enjoy some facts about my NEW absolute favorite tune in Taiko games!
Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuduru Uta (散りゆく蘭の綴る詩)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (241) | x6 (357) | x6 (465/506/568) | x9 (701) |
Taiko 0.5, Taiko Wii 5, Taiko PS Vita, CD CC-3
180
none
yugao2Looking back at the early staff interviews we did, I thought it was strange that I did not pick an original Taiko song as my favorite (don't get me wrong- I still think No Way Back is awesome!), but all the new original songs brought by the ongoing arcade generation made me realize more than once that Taiko's streak of producing quality original songs doesn't stop, and this first Don Challenge unlockable is proof of that.
Coming from Katsu-Don (the second firmware for Taiko 0), Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuduru Uta (lit. "Poem Spell of the Scattered Orchid") is the first Namco Original in a while to make sequels to older original songs, as the Taiko Team itself confirmed this song on Twitter as the follow-up of Yuugao no Kimi. This is further proved by the song's ID on the last Wii videogame, which is yugao2.
Like its predecessor, Chiriyuku is a rock song made up of difficult and abstract kanji, much like in a traditional Japanese poem, and hints at certain events in Japan's history. This song, in particular, references a crucial event of the Sengoku period known as the Honno-ji Incident (本能寺の変, 'Honnō-ji no Hen'), which lead to the forced suicide of the powerful daimyo (=territorial lord) Oda Nobunaga on June 21st, 1582. This also transpires in some lines of the lyrics, picturing the lord as a demon (as his rivals and traitors used to portray him) and mentioning the loyalty of Mori Ranmaru to his lord, who put the Honno-ji temple on fire as requested by Oda, so that the traitorous general who put the coup to scheme -Akechi Mitsuhide- and his forces couldn't have his dead body.
As the first song of the Don Challenge monthly arcade feature, Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuduru Uta is also the first Namco Original of the current generation to feature forked paths in on of its game modes (aside from the Hatsune Miku song which was later ported to the Vocaloid genre). When it comes to Oni mode, this song's main notechart gimmick are lots of touch 1/16 clusters and two note clusters, making for some tricky switching. It's easy to lose focus and break your combo, especially during the frantic chorus of the song.
