Today's chat involves our Sympho-Neighbours from Bemani, as we see what three months can do for Scars of FAUNA, the second song from Konami's rhythm games coming to Taiko no Tatsujin games.
EDIT: Once a Sympho-Neighbours, this feature has been re-branded under the Sonority Scouts label due to its more-contemporary nature.
Back on February where we gave the song its time to shine in the Song of the Week corner, the song was only included in jubeat as part of the first Tenkaichi Otogesai collaboration. Little did we know that the spring breeze and the summer heat would have opened the doors for this song to appear in even more Bemani franchises!
The first two series to simultaneously receive the song after its launch were beatmania IIDX (22 PENDUAL) and REFLEC BEAT (groovin' Upper), as part of the Nekomata & TOTTO to Iku GW Dangan Tour (猫叉＆TOTTOと行くGW弾丸ツアー) event. From April 2nd to June 1st this year, players who managed to fulfill the collaboration's conditions managed to receive Scars of FAUNA in both franchises on their eAmusement profile.
Below is a video of the song from the touch-based REFLEC BEAT, a series which features random-moving markers after each play of a song's mode (but with the same timing appearance for each marker) that players have to hit by touching and flicking the screen in different ways.
Here is instead the same song on beatmania IIDX, bemani's keyboard-based music game where players have to hit notes with the keyboard's notes and far-side scratcher while a fancy video is played on the other side, which (for Scars of FAUNA's case) is made by IMAGICA Imageworks graphic designer Seiichi Itagaki (板垣聖一). For IIDX, the song is labeled under the fictious genre of WORLD-ELECTRONICA, which Naoyuki Sato already used for many of his songs in the past.
Today's Sympho-Neighbours feature has been made by yet another, really fresh inclusion of the song in another rhythm game franchise! Thanks to the currently-running BEMANI SUMMER DIARY 2015 event, Scars of FAUNA is now playable on the latest entry in the pop'n music franchise, the series which hosted Naoyuki Sato's first rhythm game songs.
For those who don't know, pop'n music is played by hitting the notes who scroll in 9 different columns with 9 bright buttons in 5 different colors, while a skirmish occurs between the player's character and the song's rival chara. For Scars of FAUNA, said chara is an alternate coloration of Yima, the very same being coming from Naoyuki Sato's debut song in Bemani, BEYOND THE EARTH.
If the song in the video above feels somewhat different from the original version we heard for the Tenkaichi Otogesai event, give yourself a pat on the back: Scars of FAUNA's cut used is indeed different from the original one, as this version (and the one from beatmania IIDX) comes from an alteration of the song's long version, featured in the album follow slowly. As usual, we'll update the original SotW as soon as possible with the new trivia for the song!
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Thanks for sticking with us! Anyway, for those who are worried that the feature is starting really lob-sided towards specific rhythm games, don't worry: Sympho-Neightbours isn't about bemani-ish stuff alone! Just wait and see. Pinky-promise.
