[RUMOR] - General Asia's Red Version Launch (Edit: Date confirmed)

What you're seeing above is the (alleged) full list of new songs inclusions for not-Japanese Taiko arcades' next firmare jump, as the transition to General Asia's Red Version will take place on September 6th ... at least according to one of the most recent rumors.

If the leaked tables will correspond to the actual new song releases, this launch will have the introduction all the songs that have been featured in the namesake Japanese firmware up until the ongoing Taiko 3DS3 campaign's end, with the usual exception of Don Point songs. Together with those, however, some Japan-exclusive licenses will finally manage to cross the geographical boundaries, ranging from older ones (such as Guren no Yumiya and the Music Gun!Gun!2 crossovers) to more fresh releases like V/White Version's Kakushinteki☆Metamaruphose.

EDIT: September 6 the date is confirmed by official Asian ver. Facebook. We also found the possible source of the list being one of Hong Kong's chain arcade operators.

Libble to Rabble no Magical Fantasy Lyrics

Composer: Nobuyuki Oonogi (大野木宜幸)
Arrangement, lyrics: Masako Oogami (大上昌子)
Vocal: Mitsuko Horie (堀江美都子)

Taiko Time 6th Anniversary Quiz: The Questions

The triumphant return of the Anniversary Quiz this year features six questions to coincide with the sixth anniversary! Is your knowledge as accurate as your Taiko drum hits?

Taiko Time 6th Anniversary Tournament

Are you ready to set your controller scheme of choice on fire? With our latest blog anniversary, we're hosting a small tournament to test our readers' skills. Everyone's welcomed to join the fray!

Site Announcement: Taiko Time 6th Anniversary!

Over 6 years have passed since aquabluu/pikaby organizing the very first Taiko game songlist and yes, we're still going strong! As per tradition for us, we would like to thank our readers for their support to our blog through a handful of events and tweaks that we hope will make your browsing experience a more pleasant one.

Starting from the returning events, we'll have very soon the return of the Taiko Time Anniversary Quiz to once again test your knowledge of the franchise! Also to get everyone to actually play some Taiko, for the sixth year let's test out an format with a pilot Taiko Time Anniversary Tournament! Send us your submissions to either of the events in order to have a commemorative item from us for our 6th anniversary celebration. We're also having a brand new Feature article about Taiko console gaming as a whole!

Finally, we're going to add to our Others section the links to all our past Feature and Sympho-Neighbours articles for posteriority's sake, starting from our next Feature's posting date! During this transition, one of the former SN releases -namely the one titled 'Summer Scars'- will be re-branded to Sonority Scouts due to its more-contemporary nature rather than acting as an "historical archive" post.

Thanks again for your support, and keep on drummin'!

-the Taiko Time staff

Song of the Week! 27 August 2016

Continuing from the past week's theme, here's another song coming from yet another 6th Taiko game release... this time from the console front!

Taiko no Tatsujin x Tekken 7 FR Campaign: The Fighting Schedule

Together with the Taiko Team's Development blog, the Tekken gaming's official webspace (in Japan) gets a new entry today in order to explain in great detail the Tekken side of the Taiko no Tatsujin collaboration that has been announced last week.

Namco Taiko Blog (25 August 2016) - #LivestreamRecap

With Daifuku on the helm for the weekly blog update, today we're getting the Taiko Team's visual recap of the past livestream with higher-quality pictures of all the slides that have been used during the past broadcast, together with the Taiko gal spreading a little bit of the infamous tag symbol for Internet social media means.

No release date for the next arcade update has been given yet, but at least now we know when the next livestream session will happen: September 30th! If you want to suggest some topics to talk about or want some early snippets in general, the Taiko Team's Twitter account will be the main solution to both needs.

Link to official post

List of Title Parts in Taiko no Tatsujin (Red Version)

From Momoiro Version 2.04 onwards, arcade Banapassport players are able to set titles for their personal nickname either with one of the titles previously unlocked by doing specific tasks or by creating a new one by scratch by using specific title parts.

These title parts are basically divided into two different groups: nouns and phrases ('Group A') and symbols or connectives ('Group B'). Players can use up to 2 words from Group A and a symbol/connective from Group B to construct a custom title, following the scheme A-B-A. Any spot of said scheme can be left blank and the slots for Group A words can be filled with the same word.

While all the units from Group B are unlocked by default, players have to get the title parts from Group A through the rewards shop. Certain Group A parts can be unlocked only by achieving specific goals just like regular titles, whose unlocking requirements are explained into White Version's unlock page.

List of titles in Taiko no Tatsujin (Red Version)

The title stem was introduced by a firmware update in Taiko 0, and gives players with access to Banapassports nicknames to put beside their usernames while they play, as a mark of their in-game achievements, much like in other rhythm games with user profiles. The titles can be interchanged in Donder Hiroba when you have obtained them, and the one currently selected will display on the arcade screen wherever the player name is. Some titles unlock hidden content like songs and costumes.

It is possible to get more than one title in a go by overlapping the conditions for unlocking them. In addition, for newer players, Don Points (DP) will also be given out for titles they get.

Almost all the titles from the White Version are available on Red ver. as well, with the addition of new title unlocks. Once again, titles are not ordered under a numerical order.

Titles are listed below, translated into English wherever possible.

Taiko no Tatsujin Red Version: Rewards Shop

 

Continuing from Taiko Momoiro, the Rewards Shop is a service on the Donder Hiroba website, where players can access their play data and customize their costumes, Don-chan colors and titles. The shop makes use of the accumulated Don Points (which were useless in previous HD arcade firmwares after the counter was maxed out) by allowing players to use them as currency to buy things like costumes and costume parts.

All the not-limited items which were purchasable with Taiko White arcades can also be purchased by Banapassport newcomers on Taiko Red, as well as new items since the latest arcade firmware's launch.

This is the last iteration of the Rewards Shop model based on the Shopping Points currency, as the Taiko arcade line's overall unlocking system has been completely reworked from the subsequent Yellow Version firmware.

TaikOp-ed: #7FaveTaikoSongs

Shoutout to those who has, or would have, put any Taiko no Tatsujin game in their #7FaveGames lists! In the vein of this Twitter trend, tell us your seven most adored songs on Taiko no Tatsujin with the hashtag #7FaveTaikoSongs. Bonus challenge to actually keep the list in the 140-character limit!

#7FaveTaikoSongs
Samba Alegria
Tsukikage SASURAI
GERMINATION
BLUE TOPAZ
Canon (Synchronica Remix)
Night And Day
Yomi no Izanami

— 野狼院ひさし (@hisashiyarouin) August 18, 2016

It's a Kick-ass Poison Livestream Zapping (19/08/16)

With this year's Summer season still going strong, Bandai Namco's Taiko and Synchronica teams have joined their forces once more for a nearly-4-hour broadcast, in order to spotlight the most-immediately incoming content for both series.

Of course, being a Taiko blog we're going to focus more on the former, but who knows if the 2nd block might have some surprises along the way...?

Namco Original Showcase: God Collection Songs

Another of the Taiko Team-announced song series, this cycle of songs has begun during the life span of the Taiko no Tatsujin White Version arcade firmware, with the objective of making original songs that are referencing the Japanese mythology, be it with the title alone or with the song's actual lyrics and themes as well. For the first time in Taiko arcade gaming, this is the very first song series to be formed and grouped into its dedicated custom folder, whose title was soon adopted as this collection of songs' very own series name.

While on this page we'll be primarily focusing our attentions on the songs themselves (and the artists behind those), you can find out more facts about the involved mythology tropes and figures in our multi-parter Feature series (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3).

Song of the Week! 20 August 2016

Last week, nigelliusnitrox has left some hints to what's coming to our blog in the near future, but being already in mid-August we might as well reveal what the motif is: our humble Taiko Time blog is up and active for over 6 years! It surely is a rocky coaster ride for us, but each of our passengers's loyality -present and past- makes it a totally worth one :D

So, what are we going to see today, then? Given how last week we had a Taiko 12 song (which by thin trivia stretching we could claim as planned due to Taiko 6's 12th birthday in 2016), let's cut to the chase with something big coming from the 6th arcade itself!

Quick Takeaways: August 19 Livestream

This post might be removed when the full coverage is ready. Meanwhile, feel free to contribute screenshots and information to help out!

Dojo Ranking

• White Version Dojo Ranking Best Results shown.
• Red Version Dojo Ranking to be out in the next update, together with the Taiko School.
• All songs/Normal Clear requirements revealed until Godan; partial hints given for the upper courses (except for Kurouto-to-Tatsujin courses).

Taiko 3DS 3

• New song packs available from September 1st:
• Hero Pack (500 Yen) - Minna ga Minna Eiyuu / Orb no Inori / THE DAY My Hero Academia New! / 「HERO」 －Main Title－ / Rare Hero.
• Donder! World Championship 2016 Area Elimination Phase Pack (600 Yen) - Onigiri wa Doko Kashira♪ / SsTtAaRr* / Rin / Kokorobo / Climb! Mount Parfait / Chouzetsu-Gikoukei Shoujo.
• EZ DO DANCE to be available for free download from September 1st to October 5th.

AC0 Red ver.

• Gekkabijin and Mars to be temporarily added from August 20 to September 11th
• September DonChare rewards: Cat outfit and Namco Original Shining 65.
• Next software update to be adding the following songs: Senshaku Zesshou no Fantasia (仙酌絶唱のファンタジア) Touhou Project Arrange - Hakurei Shrine Example Festival Collaboration Unit New! / Abandoned Temple Final 2nd Tekken 7 FR New! / conflict siromaru+cranky New! / VICTORIA Cranky New!
• New WCS2016-themed outfits, Tokkun Mode tweaks to be added in the next software update
• 2nd Touhou Project Collab Campaign; 5 new Petit Chara and 6 new Title Parts added in the first event's rewards.

Other

• Taiko no Tatsujin collaboration with Tekken 7 Fated Retribution; Taiko visual flairs/clothing to be added in the Tekken 7 arcade version's update.
• New Namco Original by t+pazolite: Doku L0CANdy♡ (毒L0CANdy♡).

Synchronica

• Five new songs on September, three of which being made by t+pazolite.
• Otherwise no immediate news in relation to Taiko no Tatsujin

Namco Taiko Blog (18 August 2016) - August 19 Livestream, the Full Picture

The title already says it all, so let's see one last time the schedule for tomorrow's broadcast:

Date/Time: August 19 2016 18:00~21:30
URL: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv270801003
Who: Taiko Team members including Daifuku, Anne, Takemoto, Etou; t+pazolite
What:

Taiko Block from the beginning to about 20:20, including:

• Test Stream/Talk Time
• Red ver. Ranking Dojo Special: Ranking Dojo returns for Red ver., and you get to catch first-hand and exclusive scoop, such as a never-heard-before inside story about the mode's creation
• Red ver. News Corner: in addition to Ranking Dojo, hear out on new collaborations and songs (more specifically, one new collaboration and song) and then some in Red Version's next update, such as new features being added to Tokkun Mode in the future
• !!!Chaos Time!!! with !!!t+pazolite!!!: Witness the return of the curly-haired composer, who will introduce the stream viewers to a new song of his for Taiko no Tatsujin

Synchronica Block scheduled for the last hour, starring t+pazolite once more with new song/content talk.

Link to original post

Twitter Snippets (August 13 2016): Huis Ten Bosch 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin Still Going

【お知らせ】ハウステンボスさんの「3Dプロジェクションマッピング太鼓の達人」にて、収録曲が更新されました。
「水と冒険の王国」を始め盛り沢山のアトラクションと共にお楽しみください♪https://t.co/uuK5jKOl5A pic.twitter.com/Z4HfA3nzM0

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) August 13, 2016

The 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin attraction in the Huis Ten Bosch theme park/resort is still ongoing, and is keeping up with the general Red ver. with new adds! (also maybe some removals but we did not keep track)

3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin Adds: August 2016
 365 Nichi no Kami-hikouki
 Umi no Koe au "Three Tarous Series" CM Song
 Ikari o Kure Yo One Piece Film Gold
 Chouzetsu☆Dynamic!? Dragonball Super
 XY&Z Pokemon XY&Z
 Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger
 Kimi ni 100 Percent Crayon Shin-chan
 Butter-Fly Digimon Adventure
 EDY -Electrical Dancing Yoga-
 PERFECT HUMAN
 Sekai wa Itsudemo Mystery Taiko no Tatsujin Dokodon! Mystery Adventure Theme Song
 Red Rose Evangel
 Suuhaa 2000

Taiko Plus/STH: The Rest of Early August Pick-ups

Did you get those free songs by our breaking-news tip-off? Good, now we can leisurely get to the rest of early August's additions.

Gyakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: August 1
 オーブの祈り Orb no Inori

　　　「ウルトラマンオーブ」より Ultraman Orb

 おさかな毎日！さかなクン Osakana Mainichi! Sakana-kun

　　　さかなクン Sakana-kun
 熱情のスペクトラム Netsujou no Spectrum
 輝きを求めて Kagayaki o Motomete

　　　Versus
 Choco Chiptune.

　　　Ancraft

Gyakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: August 10
最終鬼畜妹フランドール・S Last Brutal Sister Flandre S
　　　東方Projectアレンジ Touhou Project Arrange
　　　ビートまりお Beat Mario
 チルノのパーフェクトさんすう教室 Cirno's Perfect Math Class (+ Ura)
　　　東方Projectアレンジ Touhou Project Arrange
　　　ARM+夕野ヨシミ(IOSYS) feat. miko ARM + Yoshimi Yuuno (IOSYS) feat. miko

The latest "Touhou invasion" also adds the Touhou Project special dancers to the apps, including the previous 6 Touhou Project Arrange songs. If you don't see the special dancers, delete and redownload the song data and it should add them together.

Song of the Week! 13 August 2016

I'm back now, I'm back now! In case you weren't aware, the majority of the Taiko Time team is actually on vacation IRL this week too (scheduled posts and mobile editing curtained that well enough, I hope). Now in hurry to push a fresher Saturday feature, I am just grabbing something that has the tad bit of connection to what we'll be doing later this month.

Yomi no Izanami Lyrics

Composition, Arrangement: Hisui (翡翠)
Lyrics: GIW (祇羽), Yura Hatsuki (葉月ゆら)
Vocal: Aya Shinno (真野綾), Takane Yabuki (矢吹高音)

Japanese lyrics sourced from Namco Taiko Blog dated June 2 2016

Across Japan (August 10 2016): For Eternal Glory: August Facebook Tournament

With the WCS2016 events finally concluding, let's reminiscent with both song choices for this month's Asia ver. Facebook Tournament from tournament-related song contest spawns! And because for some reason this is the last tournament for White ver., we also choose from the white-colored genre just in case.

Oni: Gloria K.key (☆10)
Muzukashii: Eternal bond Ryuwitty feat. GUMI (☆8)

Link to original post

Taiko Plus/STH: Daily Free Songs for the Summer

For three consecutive days in the midst of the summer heat, get free downloads (and for keeps) of one song per day on the iOS Taiko Plus or Android Taiko Plus STH.

August 10: My Mine
August 11: Growing Up
August 12: Samba Alegria (+ Ura)

Link to original post
Site Note PS. After the renewal this week, it appears that the Taiko no Tatsujin Official Blog also host other general announcements (like this one) outside the usual weekly posts by Etou/Daifuku etc. We here will only put those weekly posts under our normal Taiko Official Blog format with the tag "official".

Game Music Showcase: Klonoa

Bandai Namco's Klonoa series has started as a side-scrolling platform series with the eponymous character as its protagonist: a black-and-white, cat-like creature known as a "Dream Traveler", a being which is called to travel through several planes where the state of dreams is in danger, despite Klonoa himself not being aware of his peculiar call. While the series on home console grounds only constitutes of its debut Playstation title and its Ps2 sequel, threre are three more platform games and a 2002 action-RPG hybrid being made for portable systems, as well as a spin-off sport game about volleyball for the original Playstation in the same year.

Up to this day, all of the Klonoa games' track in Taiko are coming from the two main home console titles, picking up the pace only in recent times.

While this series only deals with straight-from-game Klonoa music, see also SotW on Wahoo~ Ondo for more Klonoa remix action.

Kagutsuchi (Extended ver.) on Massive CircleZ Best album

To be released during this summer's Comic Market, Massive New Krew and their circle Massive CircleZ have amassed the best works across 5 years into a two-disk the-best album. Among the track listing is an extended version for the God Collection tune Kagutsuchi.

The album is available by itself or in a limited-quantity Special Set with exclusive circle merchandize.

Massive CircleZ Best main page

Taiko Official Blog (August 8 2016): Official Blog Renewal, and more

Welcome to the brand new Taiko no Tatsujin Official Blog (太鼓の達人公式ブログ), says the Taiko Team today! Moving from the old Taiko no Tatsujin Development Blog (太鼓の達人開発日誌) at the old URL http://taikoblog.namco-ch.net (old posts are still there) to the new URL at http://taiko-ch.net/blog/, Etou and the Team will continue to bring you news about the franchise, and we here at Taiko Time will also continue to relay them to you.

On the inaugural day of the new format, we also have three other posts on various news updates. Talk about catching up on speed!

1. Reminder of August 19 livestream (URL: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv270801003) being the Red ver. Ranking Dojo, but also have general news and collabs, as well as why t+pazolite is taking time to join.
2. The kid-centric learning site Wonder! School holds a Don-chan outfit design contest, where the winner gets to have their design put into 3DS3 and AC0, as well as scoring Taiko swag. Prizes only for Japan-living kids, 18 or under. Contest main page
3. After sponsoring refreshments for the WCS2016, drink company DyDo holds the collab giveaway campaign, where buying the company's many drinks can net one bath towel (choose from 3 designs, plus custom initial embroidering) or knapsack (choose from 10 colors and 10 design). Prizes only for Japan residents. Campaign main page

Link to original post (renewal)

Link to original post (livestream)

Link to original post (Wonder! School contest)

Link to original post (DyDo giveaway)

Feature: God Collection and the Shinto Culture Behind Them, Part 2

 

Continuing from Part 1, we are looking into the Shinto culture tidbits found in the God Collection songs, which are based on Japanese mythological gods as the name implies.

Like the circle's contribution in the Historic Figures Series (not yet a Song Series Showcase for the Taiko Time blog) playing off Himiko and Prince Shotoku, the two song created by IOSYS talents for the collection features alternate world views with inspirations from the source materials.

Song of the Week! 6 August 2016

Pokemon Go, the second big-name app to have ties with Nintendo, makes many fans' (not necessarily childhood) dreams come true and lets you catch Pokemon in real life... at least through your phone screen with augmented reality hocus-pocus. Take a break from struggling with bad servers, glitchy performance and physical movement in Part 2 of our mobile-gaming two-parter special!

Oh wait, we have the Pokemon (games) Medley Song Series Showcase up already, and Pokemon anime theme songs used to have a Song Series Showcase. Gotta find something mildly related...

Sonority Scouts - X Marks the Beat

Now that we've had our comprehensive look at the Taiko no Tatsujin side of the very recent crossbeats REV.SUNRISE collaboration, it's time to have a closer look at how Capcom's mobile-spawn franchise handles out the new additions!

Namco Taiko Blog (4 August 2016) - WCS2016 Song Selection Commentary

Just as promised a few weeks back, today Etou is talking about the song selection criteria that has occurred for the now-concluded World Championships 2016 tourney.

First Video: Sekai Fushigi Hakken! Opening Theme

 Sekai Fushigi Hakken! Opening Theme (世界ふしぎ発見！オープニングテーマ) (3/4/4/7; 167 notes on Oni)

Are you tired of exceptionally long songs?
Is your battery running low but want to experience one last track?
Never fear! Free Taiko 3DS DLC to the rescue!

A silly fanfare like this one is up to snuff for the latest song addition in Taiko gaming, as with its 42 seconds of running time is officially the shortest non-spoof playable song ever made for the series!

Regardless of this dubious milestone, its Oni notechart drives the 7* shake home with 1/16 cluster formations and a low notecount.

Taiko no Tatsujin Red Version unlock list

All unlockables are limited to Banapassport users only.

First Video: Red Version v1.10's New Songs

It's update day in Japan, which means that August's DonChare addition is joined by a new slew of publicly-available songs! While up here we're showing a fresh acquaintance in Tatsh's Amaterasu (whose full ratings are 4/7/8/10), after the jump you'll see the other brand-new song additions.

Don Challenge List (Red Version)

Don Challenge (shortened to 'DonChare' (ドンチャレ)) was introduced in the July 2012 update of Taiko no Tatsujin (HD) for Banapassport-equipped arcade players, which is a set of 11 goals that has to be cleared by playing the game and meeting certain criteria. The challenges change on a monthly basis, and once a certain number of them are cleared, the player can unlock new songs and titles for themselves too! 10 of the goals can be cleared by individual players, and the 11th one is a group effort, contributed by all players with Banapassports.

The songs unlocked through Don Challenge will be available to all other players in the following month when the goals are renewed, so it is an incentive for regular arcade-goers to clear goals so that they may be able to play new songs earlier than everyone else and unlock more new content.

Below is the list of Don Challenge goals made for the Taiko Red Version firmware and the content they unlock. These will also be listed in the related unlock article.

Contents:
Katsu-Don | Sorairo | Momoiro | Kimidori | Murasaki | White | Red
       August 2016 | September 2016 | October 2016

Mirai e no Kagi Lyrics

Composer: Hiroto Sasaki (佐々木宏人)
Vocal: Miki Tsuchiya (土屋実紀)

Namco Taiko Blog (August 1 2016): End of Another Era: Wii U3 Final DLC and Pricing Changes

Sadly yes, we are there again at another console Taiko no Tatsujin game's end of lifetime, measured in terms of DLC addition. Also common to the Wii U series of games, the once free DLC songs will be converted to paid content after approximately a year.

But hey, enjoy this last free batch of songs (no outfits this month) and let future you deal with having to pay for more songs.

Wii U3 DLC Songs: September 1 (free until 2017/03/31, 150 yen +tax ea. after)
 郢曲／暁闇 Eikyoku/Gyouan
　　　東方Project × NAMCO SOUNDS Touhou Project × NAMCO SOUNDS / Linda AI-CUE
 BLAZING VORTEX (+Ura)

　　　「クリティカルベロシティ」より Critical Velocity
 マオウのショウタイム Maou no Showtime
 紫煌ノ乱 Shikou no Ran
 はたラク2000 Hataraku 2000

The massive list of pricing changes is after the jump.

Link to original post