Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The X-Drums (02/11/15)


With more than 4 years in active with livestream shenanigans of sorts, the Taiko Team finally managed to shoot the 10th official installment of their livestream series. Glide through the rest of this post for having a full rundown (with visuals, no less) of this broadcasting milestone!


The broadcast began one hour and a half before the actual beginning for an off-line chat session with the fans, due to this portion being a welcomed addition last time. As you can see from the picture above, the already-announced cast was also pleased to see the return of Linda AI-CUE, who also popped up during the livestream's "real deal" portions.

Among the topics treated in the fan-friendly corner are some of Linda AI-CUE's other game contributions as a musician (particularly with 2 selected Nintendo DS titles) and some snaps of Etou's latest vacation to Hawaii, together with some ramen dishes he cooked up recently.


At the livestream's official beginning, we are greeted -as usual- with a Comments Challenge board, featuring 4 goals which were all cleared by the stream viewers' commenting efforts. As of now, the Petit Chara prize has yet to be decided through a Twitter poll, but we'll warn you when its results will appear!


This is usually the part where Taiko mascot Daifuku leaves the Team up until the Taiko console game news corner, but before that she wanted to share some souvenirs of her last trip to Singapore: a phone case (pictured below), some early bird Taiko Wii U3 merchandise and a 797-labeled T-Shirt, not dissimilar to the ones usually worn by Kawagen Collagen during the Taiko livestreams and fan events.


With Daifuku leaving and Linda AI-CUE coming back, the judges of the latest CreoFuga song-making contest for the next Taiko tournament have come together to reveal the winners! First off, the Donder's Choice reward.

 

Upon remembering the many ways that Taiko fans could vote for their favorite picks, the Taiko Team displayed the 10 most voted tracks, and a mark-less graph indicating the voting ratio that each of the songs has gained during the voting period.



As you can see, the two most voted tracks have barely the exact same amounts of votes! due to the surprising result, the Donder's Choice award has been awarded to both the 1st and 2nd place, meaning that the two tracks will become Taiko no Tatsujin songs.

Here are the two winners, complete with direct links to their song entry on CreoFuga.



Up next are the 11 winners of the Judge's Choice category, together with an extra winner from the Taiwan/Hong Kong/Korea composers side! Once again, links to their respective CreoFuga entries are also included for your ears' pleasure.


Starrrrrrr by M-O-T-U / Kokorobo (ココロボ) by Ujico*


Netemo Netemo (ネテモネテモ) by Shoji (☆しょーじ☆) / Gloria by K.key


Tooriyo (トオリヨ) by Tezuka (テヅカ) / Asagao (アサガオ) by BTB

Right after the winners were declared, here's another update on the incoming Taiko 2016 tourney's in-outs: both the 'Elementary and Under' and the 'Middle School and Upper' divisions will have the Preliminary rounds on Spring next year, but while the MSaU division is forced to play with the CreoFuga winners, the EaU one's contestants have a free choice among all the songs available on Taiko arcades at the tourney's beginning. The MSaU division will have their Area Elimination phase next Summer, with all the CF songs getting a public release before their beginning.


If you care to join the Taiko side of the ongoing edition of the Tenkaichi Otogesai tournament instead, there are good news for the (Taiko) champion, as the Taiko division's winner will already be able to reach the Taiko 2016 tourney's Finals.


Here's an updated "Road to the Finals" info-graphic with the new Tenkaichi Otogesai addition. Stay tuned in the next few months for the other ways to attend the event! 


With the tournament news out, the Taiko Team leaves the seats for Daifuku and the Synchronica team and... wait... What's Masubutchi doing in there?!?


...anyway, the Synchronica portion begins with another reminder to the Bandai Namco Tenkaichi Otogesai songs coming to their external franchise sometime soon, To carry over the news, a small portion of Aka no Senritsu being played in Technical mode was shown through a laptop.


This was followed by the announcement of another Taiko x Synchronica collaboration, slated for this Winter. Since it's being held in that season, perhaps we might see some Winter-related tracks...?


After some reminders to the first Taiko x Synchronica collab and the Taiko songs currently available on Synchronica, there's a never-heard-before (on this blog, at least) Twitter event which will net Banapassport players some chibi characters from the Touhou series as avatars.


This ends the Synchronica portion of the stream, with Daifuku and Oosawa reaching the desk once again for some Taiko console news.


The first title in line is Taiko no Tatsujin V Version, due to the surprising milestone of over 100.000 copies being shipped worldwide in about 4 months. What an impressive feat!


We then get the schedule about V Version's latest content reveal, from the next paid DLC pack's content to the free Touhou Project pack and the 2nd DLC Song Poll. Not to mention Nippon Falcom's song poll and some teasers for next December's DLC pack!


This livestream, in particular, has been the first occasion in which we got to know which are the 10 songs that Taiko players are able to vote for the Falcom poll! Like before, the visual reveals are followed by said tunes' video link (if available) for a quick audio reference.




Overdosing Heavenly Bliss from Sora no Kiseki the 3rd / Inevitable Struggle from Zero no Kiseki



Kanashiki Soukyuu o Kakeru (悲しき蒼穹を翔ける) from Gurumin / Sorcerian Medley (ソーサリアンメドレー), with music from Ys and Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga Version

To round up the V Version updates, director Dark Attribute (TOMOKI) has been featured in a small video clip, teasing what's brewing in storm for December's DLC content.


The video, also available on V Version's Twitter account (and right below these lines!) show the director upside down, stating about how J-Pop song Kurenai's 999-note Oni mode has become a staple in Taiko gaming and that December's DLC pack will have something that will follow its footsteps. We don't have any idea about what this mysterious piece of DLC will turn out to be right, but TOMOKI ending its presentation by crossing his arms might be enough of a hint...?

And now it's time for some Taiko Wii U 3 news, as the game is being released this month! First of all is the anticipated amiibo support, starring the Pac-Man amiibo and the entire line of Animal Crossing figurines and cards.


Just for another reminder on the subject matter, using the Pac-Man amiibo will unlock the GM EAT'EM UP! and the Pac-themed outfit coaster/Miiverse frame couple, while one of the many Animal Crossing amiibo devices will give out the GM Animal Crossing New Leaf Medley (とびだせ どうぶつの森 メドレー) and another combo of themed outfit/frames, starring Isabelle, Tom Nook and Mr. Resetti.


The Team also reflects on the fact that this amiibo partnership will become the first time in which Taiko gaming FINALLY receives a song from the Pac-Man series, Namco's flagship IP. For comparisons, the yellow muncher has reached Synchronica waaaaay earlier than Taiko, with the very same EAT'EM UP! coming as a launch song!

Did you know that the idea behind the creation of Pac-Man comes from a pizza-based dinner? ITALIAN PRIDE

In any case, Tatsu-Don (in another sheet of paper) is here to point out one aspect which has been reiterated in the latest Wii U 3 website update: while the two songs can also be unlocked through the in-game Mekadon Gacha as usual, the frame/outfit unlocks are exclusive to the associated amiibo.


Speaking of the Mekadon Gacha, another quartet of unlockable songs has been revealed, starring the beloved return of Norudon 2000 and Yuugen no Ran as well as two newcomers: Maou (まおぅ) for the Classic genre and Namco Original Maigo no UFO (迷子のUFO), of which a short clip was played in the livestream. Sadly, said clip can't be found on video-hosting websites yet...


One last screenshot advertised another return to Wii U gaming in form of free DLC, once again starring two arcade returns (Ignis Danse and Natsumono☆ for the NO genre) and two new entries: Leo Ieiri's Kimi ga Kureta Natsu (君がくれた夏) and Warera Omou, Yue ni Warera Ari (我ら思う、故に我ら在り) from Kamen Rider Ghost.


After a break, Etou and Masubutchi reappear in company of the livestream's guest star composers, banding together to announce their latest songs for Taiko games.

From left to right (excluding Taiko hosts): t+pazolite, Jenkins.C, Tachibana and aran

After a short chat with the guest star and the streamers, all three songs were revealed in their entirety, with video recordings already available on Youtube/Nicovideo. The song by t+pazolite, !!!Chaos Time!!! (!!!カオスタイム!!!) is the very same one that has been played for the last livestream's frantic ending, while the Massive New Krew duo and aran both made songs whose name relate to the Japanese mythology: Kagutsuchi (カグツチ) from MNK and KUSANAGI from aran.

Below are the individual videos of the three songs in the stream. Too bad that those videos don't show what happened during the songs being played (such as Masubuchi headbanging and t+pazo being somewhat concerned of that)!







Right after the three songs, here's the announcement of something that was already lurking the air for some weeks: the next big arcade firmware's official reveal!


Murasaki Version's successor will indeed be the White Version, featuring the same art we spotted in a visual leak some days ago (link). At launch, White Version will feature the limited 'God Collection' folder, in which both Massive New Krew and aran's songs will be featured.


t+pazolite's !!!Chaos Time!!! will come earlier instead, headed to a November 15th release on Murasaki Version arcades.


After a small poll, the streamers have decided that the first play with t+pazo's new song has to be done with Etou and its rightful creator! The video below shows Etou and t+pazo playing the song on Muzukashii and Futsuu respectively, but it was followed by aran (1P) and Jenkins.C (2P) attempting the same feat on the same difficulty settings for 1P and 2P.

Of course, Oni mode wasn't shown at all, but the ratings of the song for the other modes are already visible as 5/7/8. Do we have another t+pazo 9* Oni on our hands or is it going to be even harder?



After the jolly plays, it has been revealed that t+pazolite's 3rd album (of which we briefly talked about before the stream here) is going to have the long version of Shiny Kung-fu Revival, together with other recent extended versions in current rhythm games franchises.


Having reached all of the livestream's goals, the duo Etou/Masubutchi and the guests joined the viewers to come up with the livestream's free title part, which saw Ching-ching (カチカチ) as the winning choice.


Since the Team was going overboard with the time, however, there was time just for a final !!!Chaos Time!!! with the guests before the broadcast's scheduled ending. White Version has finally been brought up, but it looks like we're going to wait a bit longer for further details about the new arcade firmware.

Here's to 10 more wacky livestreams with the Taiko Team!
Posted by Nintendo 5-Star at 5:10 PM
Labels: , , , , ,