It's time for our first Namco Original Ura feature of the year, and for this one we'll show you that Tatsuya Shimizu doesn't always need his usual Zeami alias in Taiko to make experienced players tremble in fear!
Xa Tatsh| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (222) | x6 (295) | x7 (468) | x9 (675) |
Taiko 0 K, Taiko Wii U 3, Taiko Ps Vita, Taiko +
290
none
xanThis has been quite a milestone for Tatsuya Shimizu (清水達也) in Taiko gaming, as this is his first song to jump in our drumming rhythm game series under his very popular Tatsh alias from his previous days on bemani fields. Alongside Tatsh himself, Xa's creation involved the lending hand of some more artists: Tomomi Natori (名取友美) for the chorus, recurring collaborator vocalist Junko Hirata (平田純子) and guitarist IMAJO from the Psychic Lover (サイキックラバー) unit.
The instrumental Namco Original above has also been notorious for having Taiko fans decide for its name (and pronunciation) during the Taiko Team's September 2014 livestream run, ultimately settling down to Xa (read as 'Exa/Icsa' as in 'Ikuza', Japanese word for War). The other temptative names for the song have been (in order of increasing popularity) Xansch, Xan and Xanzus, all of which are referenced by the rejected names' common root being Xa's SongID.
This song has also been object of a couple of polls in the past, the first of which leading to its console debut; for Taiko Plus's 10 Million Download celebrations in 2014, Xa managed to win the popularity polls over Sacred Ruin, resulting in the song being featured in a special song pack. Always in the same year, however, the song lost to Yuugen no Ran in a TatshMusicCircle poll for a Taiko track to appear in Tatsh's 2015 album Rebellion; the competition was heated between the two tracks, but a re-tweet of difference has decided the ultimate winner. The year 2015, however, has seen the rise of more sightings of Xa in console gaming grounds, with V Version having it as the unlockable track used in the many fights against the Ancient Dragon 'Revolution' and the third Wii U game as a free piece of DLC.
Following the trails of the previously-launched Souryu no Ran, Xa is yet another song with an insanely-high BPM which has been toned down for Taiko gameplay with scrolling speed reductions, in order to give out the illusion of a slower-paced track with occasional, really dense 1/16 clusters portions.
Xa Tatsh| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x10 (904) |
Taiko 0 K, Taiko Wii U 3, Taiko Ps Vita, Taiko + 290 none ???Devoid of any drumrolls of sorts and generous in thrills, Xa's Ura Oni mode isn't afraid to leave that many silence spots in the first half in order to cram in one of the most nightmare-ish Go-Go Time sections you'll ever see with 1/16 clusters at almost 300 BPM of speed!
More difficulty spikes like this one are also peppered in the beginning and ending portion, making every single hit landed correctly a huge factor in clearing the song... and to get ridiculously low scores for less-experienced players due to frequent combo breaks, provided that the Shin' Uchi scoring rule wasn't activated.
