This year's first Taiko Team livestream session has been quite a wild ride, between the Taiko Team building up the release of the next major firmware update and us being busy live-tweeting the event with... well... mixed results (Just remember that it lasted for about 12 hours!).
Nevertheless, it has its chunk of good content to talk about on this visual-based blog entry, so let's get this ride started!
As usual, the stream starts up with the obligatory Comments Challenge board, once again wrecked in a matter of hours by the stream viewers. Some of the achieved prizes are already available on Murasaki Version as well!
Coming next is the Murasaki Version talk, including all the new songs being featured on Day 1. The list also includes the three new Don Point unlocks, so there's really no surprise about the early content. Click here for our quick rundown about the new songs!
New title-related outfits are on the Murasaki wave's crest, as the previously-limited Touhou Marisa outfit and the iOs-born Korosensei costume from Assassination Classroom can be unlocked.
For those who missed the early Don Challenge days, DonChare-exclusive outfits are being released in the Rewards Shop for all to enjoy! The first of these is the Halloween costume.
As for in-game features, there are some slight changes that are worth mentioning. The first of these regards the Results screens, with the word bubble not covering the crown achieved for the play and the rankings not covering the previous scores.
Plus, Banapassport players are now free to customize the default cabinet ranking difficulty shown and default Taiko sound used for playing, through new Donder Hiroba options shown below.
The Murasaki Version talk is halted for a bit, in order to let Taiko Team mascot Daifuku have a few re-matches against Natsu Matsuri on Oni mode, with one of the early Murasaki builds. After failing the first attempt and a brief Full Combo play with tips by Etou, she managed to clear the song at the second attempt! Expect a certain title part arise sometime soon.
Returning to Murasaki news, a couple of new custom folders will be introduced, in order to let Banapassport players set up to 4 songs for a quick access (Fixture Folder) and see what are the most played 4 songs overall (Hit Songs Folder).
Murasaki Version will also be the first arcade firmware to feature a 'Friend Invite' feature with other Banapassport players! Prizes are awarded to the most active donders who spread the Taiko word to other Banapassport users who never played Taiko games before.
Last (but not least) is the Dojo Ranking/Taiko School talk on Murasaki, coupled with one more chart about Kimidori's Dojo Ranking maximum clears. As many players have complained about how steep is the difficulty degree between the 10-Dan and Tatsujin courses, Murasaki Version will introduce three intermediate courses in between the last and former second-to-last trials: Kurouto, Meijin and Chojin. Both the Taiko School and Dojo Ranking features are planned to return between April and May this year.
It's now time for some special guest! The first couple for this stream is made by composer Kawagen Kollagen and singer Sachi from indipendent unit Harineko, in order to talk about Jikuuchou Sousa 2-ka, their combined creation and Kimidori Version's very last Namco Original.
Especially when it comes to the song's lyrics, there's something more than meets the eye and that Sachi wants to make aware about. See for yourself if you can guess why with the first lyrics sheet.
... doesn't ring any bell? Here is another sheet:
Still without a clue? Have the rest of the lyrics sheets then!
That's right: just for 9mm Parabellum Bullet's Punishment, the first letter on each lyric line spells out the word Kimidori or -in general- many related colors to the past firmware build's yellow-green color theme. Talk about dedication!
Afterwards, a small album plug has been issued for Harineko's latest album, roOt. Sachi herself also spread selected linked in order to let early Internet users to enjoy two of this album's tracks for free, the first of which addresses is reported below (with the latest being taiko_5). Only the first 100 users can listen to the songs for each of those links, so act fast if you are interested!
Before leaving, Sachi lent her voice for a live rendition of Jikuuchou Sousa 2-ka, featuring Masabutchi on the drums and Kawagen with a portable keyboard. Nice stuff, if you ask me!
With Sachi's leaving, the team is already ready to welcome Tatsuya "Zeami/Tatsh" Shimizu for some discussions about the third and possibly last 'no Ran' song.
After half an hour of idea-gathering for its name, Shikou no Ran (紫煌ノ乱) stand up as the ultimate winner, after three heated polls. The results of these are listed below, for posteriority's sake.
Hey, while you're at it, why don't hear the song itself in advance? Here it is:
After that the name has been settled, Tatsh/Zeami has promoted his latest feats, starting with the already-out Frontier album (with a custom arrangement of Yuugen no Ran) and some future visits at the JBG Academy for some music-related classes and seminars. On March 15th and 28th, he will attend as a teacher for a couple of lessons, while on April 26th he will host a seminar open to everyone.
This bit of info ends the stream's first part. After the break Tatsh/Zeami was gone, but more cheerful updates for console Taiko players arrived! After two months without DLC content, the latest Wii U Taiko game is finally getting some more love, with five brand-new songs free of charge (2 console firsts, 3 new overall) and 7 paid outfit parts. This content will arrive next week, on March 19th.
Taiko Plus was mentioned as well, due to the recent release of the first Vocaloid-based song pack two days ago.
There should have been some talk about the latest 3DS Taiko game, but unfortunately that's not the case. With a letter, Sasaoka excuses with the audience for not being able to join the Taiko Team, promising that he is cooking something spicy for the next month... We have just to wait and see. I suppose.
Back to the arcade grounds, the team made a quick recap of Murasaki's new features, now mentioning the return of Hataraku 2000 among the returning songs.
That's not the only feature being updated from Part 1, as the first gift for that 'Invite Friend' Banapassport feature has been revealed, resulting in... a sitting Tatsudon, or Suwarudon ("Sitting Don"). Here's also how it would look next to an actual Kat-chan.
Meanwhile the Team needs to eat too! They delegate the choice of pizza toppings to the audience and they sided with the cheesy choice and the spicy choice (actual name not mention). Etou exclaims "Spicy!?"
But that's not the last of that day's polls! Around this time, the Taiko Team decided to let the viewers speak about the Comments Challenge goals. First of all, the Tatsu-Don merchandise plans, with Straps/Dakimakura pillows/Smartphone cases being the most voted choices.
Up next is the Petit Chara suggestion, with the iconic Ms. Cat and Mr. Spoon taking the lead. Quite predictable, if you ask me!
The last poll of the stream's Part 2 was about the new title part, with Don-ishiki beng the winner.
The poll flurry is followed by Taiko Team notecharter Kuboken for his real-life version of the official Taiko Blog's "Notechart Sentai Rangers" features. The hairy charter comes together with Shika@ni~san (しか＠に～さん), the latest addition to the Notecharter Sentai Rangers.
After an exchange of Idolm@ster gifts with Etou/Masabutchi and a lights-off, strobo lights Yokuderu 2000 rave (sadly not being snapped fast enough...), the guest charters talk about some of their latest charting tasks in a visually different way...
Indeed, the guys have decided to
...time's up! The two songs are Donkama 2000 and Ignis Danse, two tunes that have been talked a lot about in the past years.
The third and last one is a bit tougher, as the 4 patterns below belong to four different songs, played on a 2-player Oni mode setting. Since the answer pic has the song's names on the left, you have to scroll further down for the answer.
Wouldn't you know it, all the four songs are very recent Idolm@ster songs, in which Kuboken was highly involved for its patterns' creation.
In between the first two quizzes, Shika@ni~san stepped up with a list of recent tunes for which he mapped all the modes. If you have enjoyed the notechart of one of the songs below, now you know who to thank for them!
With the charters' leaving and another brief break, the stream enters its longest stretch, in which Etou and the others figure out how to spend a sleepless night together with the audience until Murasaki Version's release.
Among the many things happened in this 7-hours final part we have Etou playing songs on Murasaki version with Masabutchi joining with his drums and Takemoto shouting stadium cheers, the trio answering the viewers' questions and a poll about who between the three and Kuboken should eat the leftover piece of pizza from before. During this segment, we also come to know that Etou is getting married in the next few months!
And that's really all for this stream. See you next time, guys!
