Namco Taiko Blog 2 (31 August 2017) - Touhou Project x Taiko no Tatsujin's Third Collaboration Primer

Continuing from today's previous blog entry, here's a full rundown of the returning campaign that ties in Taiko no Tatsujin with the Touhou Project arrangement scene! For future reference, a dedicated website was also made with the content that is also spotlighted after the jump.

Namco Taiko Blog (31 August 2017) - Yellow Version GV 6.xx Update Notice

As foreshadowed a few days ago, here we are with a blog post about the next arcade update schedule! Will it only feature the Autumn Rewards Shop stuff or there's actually something more...?

Twitter Snippets (28 August 2017) - Yellow Version's Next Seasonal Rewards Shop Renewal

【お知らせ】太鼓の達人 ごほうびショップ【イエローVer.秋】
次回アップデート日より、どんメダル用「ごほうびショップ」が「夏→秋」に一新されます！あたらしい楽曲やきせかえが、もうすぐやってくる！
くわしい情報は後日、公式ブログなどで発表していきますので、ご期待ください！ pic.twitter.com/jy86zsLVH4

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) 28 agosto 2017

A quick tidbit for today, coming from yesterday's Taiko Team social media activity! While no dates are being spread as of now, it's been notified that the next Yellow Version software update will also bring in the Autumn Rewards Shop lineup for players of both Japan and general Asia to enjoy.

Given that this tweet has been pinned and that the current Rewards Shop lineup was introduced almost 3 months ago, it's a safe bet to assume that further details are expectable later this week...

3DS3 Update: Special Sticker Are Better Late Than Never

While the console front is having field days with the Sony people, Namco decides to have another present campaign to keep 3DS3 relevant (at least until Taiko Switch comes up perhaps?)

The present in question this time is the very mouthful "Special Sticker from which you can get in-game item". Yes, they are stickers for you to... stick on things. Yes, they reveal QR codes which you can scan with a copy of 3DS3 to get in-game items. And as a bonus, you can also have a dandy Taiko no Tatsujin themed backing sheet after all that!

All of these could be yours starting from August 9, i.e. two weeks ago! Yes sorry but to be frank we never expect 3DS3 to still have activity up to now.

3DS3 main site details page

Song of the Week! 26 August 2017

For this year's last pick of August, let's dig out some tracks that resound with Namco's gaming library once more... quite literally too, given the subject matter!

Issho ni Waiwai Ensou List

Premiered during the Yellow Version arcade firmware in both Japanese and General Asia Taiko HD arcades, the Issho ni Waiwai Ensou (いっしょにワイワイ演奏) mode is a custom mode that is triggered upon the start of a 2-player play by default, with the regular 2P variant still available to pick up.

This mode offers a selection of songs from the full songlist normally available in public builds, with the main objective of clearing track with a shared soul gauge bar between the two players. The Issho ni Waiwai Ensou mode allows the selection of different difficulty modes among the two players, with every available song's charts on all modes being re-branded to emphasize the mode's cooperative aspect. No gameplay modifiers of sorts can be chosen while playing with this mode.

Namco Taiko Blog (24 August 2017) - Session de Dodon ga Don's First DLC Packs

The Taiko Team's radio silence was broken by the late-day announcement of the first DLC packs for the soon-to-be-released PS4 Taiko debut title. Venture with us after the jump for the full rundown!

First Video: Koi-kurenai

 Koi-kurenai (濃紅) (4/6/7/10; 950 notes on Oni)
The final song of the Taiko no Tatsujin x INSPION collaboration has just hit the public arcade scene! While bearing the least amount of notes of the newly-introduced song trilogy, Koi-kurenai's Oni mode surely shows its claws in form of yet another relentless stamina-draining experience with broken-down cluster formations mostly made of short-lasting repeated bursts, not that much dissimilar to former Oni trials like the one of G Ishiki Kajou.

Feature: God Collection and the Shinto Culture Behind Them, Part 3

Building up from our previous two-parter feature, we take a look back to Shinto Culture as it's being told by the continuation of the Namco Original-based God Collection series.

As this peculiar song trope is branching out to Western religions, we might or might not be having a look at those outlets, too!

Song of the Week! 19 August 2017

Today's feature stars two songs from the Japanese hip-hop unit that has followed the development of the ever-lasting Taiko + app family since the very beginning!

First Video: Infinite Rebellion

  Infinite Rebellion (5/7/8/10; 1304 notes on Oni)
Daisuke Kurosawa's much-anticipated Yuugen no Ran arrangement has come to town and for the first time, we're documenting a new arcade song's coming through a Tokkun Mode video! As you can see, the reason for that is quite easy to figure out...

Yuugen no Ran's concept of "super hard notechart that comes from the future" is further built on for another of Taiko gaming's hardest trials yet, as many similarly-sounding notechart portions are integrated into new cluster-dense sections that play more on different timing signatures rather that outlandishly-high BPM (even if yes, it's still pretty high). And yes, this arrangement's Oni mode also bears more notes than the original track!

Taiko Time 7th Anniversary Quiz: The Questions

Welcome to the annual mainstay of our Anniversary celebration! (except that one time where we turned the tables and have you ask us questions)

This year's Anniversary Quiz consists of seven main questions with some further divided into parts, to a total of 17 possible points. To enter, please send your answers together with your nickname to be displayed via one of the following methods by the deadline of September 5 2017:

• email to pikaby@gmail.com
• via Direct Message to our Twitter handle @taikotimeblog
• via Direct Message to me (hisashiyarouin) on Discord

We will reveal the answers and results on September 18 2017 at the Anniversary Conclusion post. All participants submitted an answer by the deadline will receive a little something as a token of thanks back at the submission channel you sent us (no exact delivery time as of now, but we will keep you posted).

Across Japan (August 10 2017): Licensing Slam! August Facebook Tournament

This month's theme is licensing, one because songs coming into the Asian ver. have to go through another level of licensing, and then there is the hot new collaboration that meme'd "licensing done" out of the picture.

Facebook Tournament: August 12~20 2017
　　　 Results Announcement: August 24 2017
INSPION (Oni ★10)
　　　サウンド制作スタジオ「INSPION」社歌 Sound Production Studio INSPION Company Song
最終鬼畜妹フランドール・S Last Brutal Sister Flandre S (Muzukashii ★7)
　　　東方Projectアレンジ Touhou Project Arrange
　　　ビートまりお BeatMARIO

With the licensing issue done, INSPION's three latest contributions are also coming to Asian ver. AC0 on time.

New Song: August 10th, 2017
 INSPION Same day as Japan
　　　サウンド制作スタジオ「INSPION」社歌 Sound Production Studio INSPION Company Song

New Song: August 17th, 2017
 Infinite Rebellion Same day as Japan
　　　黒沢ダイスケ Daisuke Kurosawa
　　　原曲「幽玄ノ乱/世阿弥(Tatsh)」 Original Song [Yuugen no Ran/Zeami (Tatsh)]

New Song: August 24th, 2017
 濃紅 Koi-kurenai Same day as Japan
　　　黒沢ダイスケ × 小寺可南子 Daisuke Kurosawa x Kanako Kotera

Link to original post

Sayonara Varya Lyrics

Artist: Mirai Kodai Gakudan (未来古代楽団)
　　　Composition, Lyrics: Taketeru Sunamori (砂守岳央)
　　　Arrangement: Taketeru Sunamori and Miyako Matsuoka (松岡美弥子)
Vocals: Haruka Shimotsuki (霜月はるか)

Japanese lyrics sourced from official YouTube preview dated April 18 2017.

Song of the Week! 12 August 2017

This closing week, a new official Touhou Project title was released, it was the birthday of one of the Taiko Discord group's users sporting a Touhou avatar and I can get to talk about Eurobeat music some more...

...really, do I need more reasons to get to talk about Touhou stuff once more?

Namco Taiko Blog 2 (10 August 2017) - Behind the Notechart(s): Mitsusegawa Ranbu

Before this year's summer break, Yamaguchi of the Taiko Team stopped by to talk about his charting job for the latest geared-with-Ura-at-launch Namco Original from Yellow Version.

Namco Taiko Blog (10 August 2017) - Taiko no Tatsujin x INSPION Collaboration Begins!

Roughly one month after the original announcement was made, the collaboration event between the Taiko no Tatsujin series and the emerging INSPION company is finally ready to boot! The full details of this 3-parter operation are fully detailed in today's Taiko Team blog entry.

First Video: Yellow ver. 5.17 New Songs and Wai Wai Ensou Introduction

With the latest arcade update going live, the Issho ni Waiwai Ensou has been introduced, so it's only fair to give the pre-jump headline to a related gameplay video before spotlighting the actually-new songs!

[SITE] - Title Fix Notice: Taiko Time 7th Anniversary Edition

As the 7th Anniversary celebrations continue, it is also high time for us to right what was wrong, like egregriously-put title romanizations. And if you remember, we should also be concluding the ruse that is The Great Big Taiko Time Title Fix Feud.

Of course, our policy should be to aim for no title fixing is required, but to err is human and we are more than ready to admit fault. If you find more inconsistent or strange romanization that we have put forth, bring it out for us to discuss and fix!

Song of the Week! 5 August 2017

Once again, I got no ideas for this week's feature song beforehand, so I resorted once again to the kind folks over the Taiko no Tatsujin Discord group for a quick brain-storming. Wanna see the results of that?

Twitter Snippets (August 4 2017): Snarky Granny Intrudes (further)

【お知らせ】「お台場みんな夢大陸2017」の #スカッとジャパン のコーナーに設置中の特別仕様の筐体に、楽曲「スカッとじゃんけん」が追加されました。明日から遊べます！
会場にはハイスコアボードも設置されているので、記録更新してスカッとするドン！#フジテレビ #taiko765 pic.twitter.com/aP3CCD6BAP

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) August 4, 2017

Now that the previously-exclusive Sukatto Bachan no Uta will be seeing general Japan-wide inclusion soon, the special Yellow ver. cabinets at Odaiba Minna no Yume-tairiku 2017 event needs something else for the collaboration with Tsukai TV Sukatto Japan. So that's why starting tomorrow (August 5 2017) those cabinets will be adding the exclusive Sukatto Janken that is used in the small rock-paper-scissors segment in the show.

In addition, if you are of high-caliber Taiko no Tatsujin skills, you can be eternally (read: until the event ends) celebrated on the whiteboard leaderboards for everyone with the event's day-ticket to see.

Across Japan (August 4 2017) - Why, Why Play Without the Licensed Picks: Yellow ver. Asia G/V 4.03 Update

What's the point with playing the Asian ver. newest update when only the single Namco Original from Japan's equivalent update made it on the same day, and the new two-player mode is official coined in English as "Waiwai Play"? Well still a lot actually, the Don Medals being one.

Well in a step up of the game, the Taiko Team has prepared the three versions of the Waiwai Play flyer in English, Traditional Chinese and Korean.

New Songs: August 8 2017 (Yellow ver. Asia G/V 4.03)
鏡の国のアリス Kagami no Kuni no Alice Same day as Japan [▶]
　　　伊東歌詞太郎 Itou Kashitarou

Link to original post

Twitter Snippets (3 August 2017) - Missing Tweak Notice

【公式ブログ】8/8実施予定「太鼓の達人 イエローVer.」次回アップデートより新登場になる2人専用「いっしょにワイワイ演奏」とあわせて「いつもの演奏ゲーム」でも、ネームプレートなど表示物の位置が調整されることを追記しました！ https://t.co/L4kx0EOfih pic.twitter.com/PyksqhsqKz

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) 3 agosto 2017

Together with all the features that have been revealed on yesterday's blog entry, there's an additional tweak for the regular 2-player mode that the Taiko Team staff has forgotten to mention in said blog post! A quick tweet was made to remedy on that.

In short, the player icons on the left side of the scrolling bar will be re-arranged so that multiple informations attached to it in-game, such as the players' titles/title parts being set and the eventual modifiers that are being used for the play session. To have a size comparison, check out a Taiko 0 2P video such as this one.

TnT Original Playlist Update (2-3 August 2017) - Summer '17 NO Songs

Between the last 2 days, all of the last months' previous original songs from Yellow Version are here, from seasonal Rewards Shop items to sporadic 10* Oni contenders! However, no official lyrics for any of the songs are supplied in the related video descriptions.

As for why we've changed the English spelling of the song featured in the embeded video above, that's one topic we're going to talk about in the coming days...

 Asteroid
 Geki-un! Shichifuku Happy Crew
 Mitsusegawa Ranbu
 8OROCHI
 Tsukuyomi
 Boukyaku no Tirnanog
 Usagi no Shippo
 Kaidan
 Ouka Ranman
 Turquoise Tachometer
 Negai wa Esperanto
 UNDEAD HEART (Ikari no Warriors) (with official lyrics)
 Sayonara Varya (with official lyrics)
 Ryu to Kokuen no Himegimi (with official lyrics)
 Gunslinger Cinderella (with official lyrics)
 ≠MM (with official lyrics...?)
 Sotsu Omeshiki Full (with official lyrics)

Namco Taiko Blog (3 August 2017) - Summer Duet Ensemble: Yellow ver. Version 5.xx Update

As foretold by the previous weekly post, it's going to be update time once again! After the jump is listed all the content that has to be expected this time around.

Taiko Plus/STH - Early August '17 GTH Additions

 

Six new songs for both versions of the Shinkyoku Tori Houdai app! Let's do this.

Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: August 1

 Minna ga Minna Eiyuu (みんながみんな英雄)
 KISS KISS BANG BANG
 Utsukushiku Sewashiki Danube (美しく忙しきドナウ)
 Amanda
 Ten Bin-za Kyuko Yoru o Iku (てんびん座急行 夜を行く)
 Alexander no Theme (アレキサンダーのテーマ)

Site Announcement: Taiko Time 7th Anniversary!

This year we're just slapping actual Taiko sprites together for the anniversary logo :P

7th Anniversary for the Taiko Time blog! Woohoo!

Despite our real-life commitments getting in our way from time to time, we are glad that we have kept on this pro bono endeavor in bringing Taiko no Tatsujin resource into English-speaking circles. We may reiterate this every year, but it is true that we thank all of your support, as long-time readers or occasional drop-ins alike.

But to be frank, outside of the routine Anniversary Quiz and some on-occasion housekeeping (we have one Title Fix post planned), we really don't have much idea for what else to do this year. Do you have burning questions to ask us in another Staff Interview? Do you have interesting custom made notecharts you want us to showcase in a revival of Made By You? Do you <insert your own suggestion maybe>? Tell us so that we can plan for it down the road.