There are tons of new details about the Story Mode and in-game screens to look at, so let's get started!
The story begins during a festival, when the drum siblings Don and Katsu stumble across a mysterious rabbit called Takkun (タックン), who is looking for his clock friend Tikkun (チックン). No more mysterious cries of help coming from a warp hole in the bathroom!
After a brief search, the three encounter a white-haired man known as Professor Timedyne (タイムダイン教授) and his three henchmen Pietro (ピエトロ), Helga (ヘルガ) and Daanam (ダーナム), who have kidnapped Tikkun for his power to travel through time.
This sets up the stage for Don and Katsu's Space-Time Adventure, an RPG-rhythm hybrid journey across several different times!
Taiko DS3's RPG mode was top-down, and this expands on it, featuring a much prettier 3D world and a better perspective. Don and Katsu travel through time, interacting with other characters, fight off enemies and collect treasure.
The basic combat mechanics are the same as the one on Taiko DS3; Don-chan has a HP bar and so do his enemies. Tapping the beats damages enemies and defeats them. There's a twist though: Don-chan is not alone this time!
Like we mentioned before, Don-chan and Takkun can recruit monsters which they encounter in their travels to fight alongside them, increasing the power of your attacks. Their HP is accumulated into one on the top-left. Sometimes, after winning a fight, one of the opponent monsters may join your team and fight for your cause. You can even give them nicknames!
Like in Taiko DS3, each battle earns you money and experience points, which are distributed to the his monster party. Yup, they can level up too, and each of them have specific types. Expect a weakness/resistance system to go with it too! You can save multiple team formations, making it easier to pick your favorites.
Don can support his party members both with its many outfit combinations and consumable items like spray-able potions (sounds more and more like a Taiko version of Pokemon, doesn't it?), which give advantages to particular categories of monsters, or the entire team. Both costume parts and items can be found by exploring, inside certain treasure chests or bought in stores with the money earned from enemy battles.
All the costume pieces come in two parts, a return to form after 3DS1's full-body costumes.
Now, here comes the big news.
For the first time on a portable Nintendo system Taiko game, Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken will have paid DLC content, in the form of new playable songs and new scenarios for the Space Time Great Adventure mode! The basic game itself will have the biggest songlist on DS/3DS so far, with more than 60 songs not counting DLC. Impressive, isn't it?
Of the 60+ songs included, we already know almost half of them, as they were already revealed in Famitsu's latest issue. On Taiko 3DS2's official website, the image used for the tutorial section of the site reveals that Namco Original Hyakka Ryouran will be included in the game. The other sections of the website featured are about the Story mode details you have just read about on this page.
