The name for the series we take here is directly referencing the SongID root being shared among all of the following songs (starting with the titular ymyrpg), which is likely made in turn from the key contributor Yukiko Yamamoto's YMY alias. Note that here we consider Xastur no Madousho as only a direct sequel to Desert de Yakiniku (Sahara ver.) and not part of the YMY RPG Series unlike some sources. Once again, that is also noticeable from its SongID (niku2), diverging from anything ymyrpg-related.
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Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki Yukiko Yamamoto (BNSI)
ドン・エンガスの笛吹き／山本由貴子(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC12 PSP DX |
 |
★5 (101) |
★6 (195) |
★7 (369) |
★8 (553) |
- |
| AC12 Asia |
|
★5 (101) |
★6 (195) |
★7 (369) |
★8 (552) |
- |
| Wii 2 |
|
★5 (101) |
★6 (198) |
★7 (369) |
★8 (553) |
- |
| AC0 NS2 (MP) Plus/STH RC |
|
★4 (101) |
★6 (195) |
★7 (369) |
★8 (553) |
- |
118
ymyrpg
Previously featured in Song of the Week: May 28 2011
Dun Aonghasa here is the namesake of the most famous of prehistoric forts on the Aran Islands in Ireland, and the complete title would translate as 'Flute Blower of Dun Aonghasa'. As the title suggests, the entire song is without lyrics and is made up of a soothing flute and whistle melody throughout. The distinctly Irish-sounding tin/penny whistle and low whistle is performed by Kou Ogata of k-waves LAB.
The reason for this choice is explained in an interview by the Taiko Team with the artist who composed the song, known back then as a group being nicknamed YMY. YMY is widely known on the NicoNicoVideo website for many original musical creations, including collaboration pieces starring other musicians; this Namco Original is one of those cases, with the song itelf being mirrored in Kou Ogata's website as well. YMY and Kou Ogata were asked to create "something interesting", and so all the involved musicians worked hard on creating simple, touching melodies, reminding listeners of the high cliffs and ancient fort walls of Ireland... and so Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki was born.
Even for a slow 8* song, Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki hides some musical surprises, starting from its peculiar stanza division. By changing from 6/8 to 5/8 beats, the notes flow without any interruption, making the rhythm hard to understand. Stanza confusion aside, the song flows at a steady BPM. It is made up of mainly 2 and 4 note clusters which repeat through the whole song and a few note streams at 1/24, which makes for a surprisingly tough song to full combo. Rubbing it in players' faces is a challenge set by the Everyday Dojo in Taiko Wii 2 where the goal is to obtain 350 or higher max combo, when the killer stream is right before that mark.
Though the song isn't playable on the first Taiko 3DS game, Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki is played in the game as one of the Story mode's background music traks, usually in conversations with the bard Alto (アルト), the character who plays the songs for boss battles, against both bosses and general enemies.
Lisdoonvarna no Tasogare Yukiko Yamamoto (BNSI)
リスドンヴァルナの黄昏／山本由貴子(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 S AC Wadaiko Wii U1 3DS 3 NS RPG NS2 (MP) RC |
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★3 (118) |
★5 (198) |
★6 (406) |
★8 (605) |
- |
128 ymyrpg
(YMY RPG 2nd song)Also located in Ireland, Lisdoonvarna is the name of a 700+ spa town, located inside the Mid-West county of County Clare. Once a city renewed for its recurring music festivals (and a yearly match-making festive tradition that continues to this day!), its original Irish name -Lios Dúin Bhearna- bears the meaning of "fort of the gapped keep", possibly referencing an actual fort that is roughly located at 3 Kms of distance from the city of Lisdoonvarna: Lissateeaun (lit. "fort of the fairy hill"), placed nearby the remains of a Norman-era castle.
One of Sorairo Version's debut tracks, Lisdoonvarna no Tasogare (lit. "Lisdoonvarna's Dusk") hasn't received any sorts of personal comments from Yukiko Yamamoto... for the longest time at least, as the author left a mid-2023 tweet telling its 'origin story' of sorts. Around the time YMY was done with the creation of Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki in 2008, a former (unnamed) colleague of hers asked if she was serious about her freshly-made song, a remark that at the time has upset Yukiko Yamamoto so much to the point of going "Dammit! If no one recognizes my next song, I'm quitting this job!!!". This grudge-born impetus is what ultimately brought to life to Lisdoonvarna no Tasogare, the only song of hers to have the unique distnction of being ported to the Wadaiko Master Brazilian cabs, of all places! Later OST releases of this song also shed light on the additional contributors to it, alongside the returning Kou Ogata: Ryousuke Tomita (冨田亮輔) for the additional instrumental backing (mandolin and bouzouki) and BNSI's Murakami Masanobu (村上正信) for the track down process.
Charting similarities with Dun Aonghasa include the predominant 1/16 charting trend, but clusters now tend to be higher in number with an average number of notes inside them, with some 1/24 cluster spikes being peppered in and a quite nasty x8 scrolling speed final note for one last thrill on its Oni mode!
Kathiawar no Cutlass Yukiko Yamamoto (BNSI)
リスドンヴァルナの黄昏／山本由貴子(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACN Wii U3 NS2 (MP) Plus/STH RC |
|
★4 (146) |
★5 (231) |
★7 (464) |
★8 (637) |
- |
120.5 ymyrp3
(YMY RPG 3rd song)Kathiawar, among other recognized spellings, is a peninsula in western India and part of the Saurashtra region. Note that 宝剣 here, literally meaning "treasured sword" by kanji, does not read as "houken" but as "cutlass" (カットラス), especially marked in the debut song list on the Wii U3 website.
The origin story for Kathiawar no Cutlass is not "spite-born" like the previous tune's, this one tale being even posted on the artist's own blog (link). It was 2014's end and the composer was dining together with Etou and Takemoto from the Taiko Team. While chomping on delicious burgers and discussing about current and yet-to-come Namco Originals, Etou went to her and proclaimed: "Yamamo-san, I want to hear a song with an odd time signature!", strong of the experience with her former Taiko works. Despite feeling how both songs didn't resonate in the music game climate of back then, she still opted for making something that only she could be capable of, uncaring of the popularity status of her own craft at the time; such a resolve would be somehow reciprocated coming back home from that same Taiko Team dinner, as the 'Kathiawar no Cutlass' title came to mind on her way home. From there it took almost a year before its completion for the final Wii U Taiko game!
Contributing to her third entry to the series, Yukiko Yamamoto has enlisted the help of taichi hiyama (Uchuu SAMURAI, Tsukikage SASURAI) on violin and electric violin, Ryosuke Tomita (冨田亮輔) once again on bouzouki and acoustic guitar, and Daisuke Kaminaga (神永大輔) on the shakuhachi flute. With permission from BNEI, Yamamoto has also since released the source music on SoundCloud for your listening enjoyment, as also noted from the aforementioned YMY blog post.
While Dun Aonghasa no Fuefuki and Lisdoonvarna no Tasogare both featured just one bridge-full of unusually-timed stanzas, Kathiawar no Cutlass proceeds to use the uncommon 5/8 signature in the majority of the length, then with a 9/8 signature bridge (cut into 2/4+5/8 doubles).
Boukyaku no Tirnanog Yukiko Yamamoto (BNSI)
忘却のティルナノグ／山本由貴子(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACN Wii U3 NS2 (MP) Plus/STH RC |
|
★4 (146) |
★5 (231) |
★7 (464) |
★8 (637) |
- |
165 ymyrp4
(YMY RPG 4th song)Back to Irish fields for a more folklore-related trope, Tír na nÓg (lit. 'Land of the Young') is one of the many names for the Otherworld (or at least part of it), where the supernatural gods of the pre-Christian religion (the Tuatha Dé Danann) live. The place has been described in many myths as a place of everlasting virtues such as youth, beauty, health and abundance, inspiring many mythical heroes from Irish literature to reach its fabled grounds. Its name has already inspired parts of the rhythm gaming sphere, and it came back to the scene many years later as an original Taiko track! With the returning hiyama at the violin, Boukyaku no Tirnanog also features electric guitar player Hawk (鷹) from the Touhou Project-related doujin unit CROW'S CLAW.
Yukiko Yamamoto described her experience in the making of Boukyaku no Tirnanog (lit. 'Tír na nÓg of Forgetfulness') in a post of her own blog (link), shortly before its debut on Yellow Version as one of its Summer '17 Rewards Shop unlocks. For its creation, Taiko Team leader Etou has tasked the composer to create a ethnic-styled song that is chart-able as a 9-starred Oni, with the usual disclaimer of the artist herself being able to clear it on arcades...YMY's biggest problem for the job, however, is that she isn't used to 9* Oni clears thus far! Being un-experienced on the Taiko-playing field, she made the track under an upbeat tempo, so that she could have a bigger liberty on making note patterns that pursue its creator's ideal major sentiment: "While I'm not sure to be able to clear [the Oni mode chart], at least it looks fun to try following!". This was her first song for Taiko no Tatsujin since leaving Bandai Namco, hence the different artist-reference subtitle being retroactively added for the 2nd Nintendo Switch game.
Following the scoring singularity that occurred in the earlier console ports of 3piece-JazzParty!, Boukyaku no Tirnanog is currently the only Oni song which can net to the player the precise scoring of 1.1 million points under the Shin-Uchi score modifier, with a notechart that, likewise to the aforementioned CreoFUGA-winning track, is only made of Don/Kat notes and hit balloons. This song series' highest note count yet recorded was accomplished with a blend of repeating cluster-focused stanzas with some 1/12 cluster action and longer clusters spliced in between Go-Go Time zones.
Don-bardia no Odoriko Yukiko Yamamoto
ドンバルディアの踊り子／山本由貴子
| Game | Genre |
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|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NS2 (MP) |
|
★4 (146) |
★6 (231) |
★6 (464) |
★8 (583) |
- |
125.5 ymyrp5
(YMY RPG 5th song)The fifth of the Celtic-inspired tunes from yukiko Yamamoto is also the first one of these not to be named after a pre-existing/imaginary location, as the same YMY revealed on social media (link) how this was a song written mainly as a means to include a wind instrument close to the Breton tradition: the bombard. In other words, 'Donbardia' is most likely a wordplay on this oboe-related instrument and not a reference to places like regions of Italian intesests!
Also on the borderline-between-Twitter-and-X SNS platform is also revealed the accompaning lineup of artists behind the creation of this "Dancer of Donbardia"; Ryosuke Tomita (冨田亮輔) comes back for bouzuki/acoustic guitar dutes once more, but we got different performers respectively for the tin-whistle/low-whistle and violin duties- respectively, the nicknamed Patri (ぱとり) and Issaku Matsumoto (松本一策). This is the first of YMY's songs to feature main artist crediting on its subtitle and as such, all four songs received a retroactive subtitling treatment as a result.
We're back to 8* Oni shores, but it's a denser sea of blue notes as a result! Be also mindful of that final quick-scrolling giant note once you're done with the rest of this handswitch-a-holic treat, a feature inherited from the echoes of Lisdoonvarna and Kathiawar that came before it.
Back to song series page
