For our final entry in this impromptu themed-feature month, I'm waging a bet on what I'm going to assume is going to be a console-exclusive song for quite a while in the very next Taiko console game release!
Brand New Theater! THE iDOLM@STER Million Live! Theather Days| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (???) | x4 (???) | x6 (377) | x8 (734) |
Taiko PS4
177
none
???One of the long-standing tradition of Taiko gaming since the 2nd Anime compilation and the early Wii days is to feature at least one or two iDOLM@STER-related tracks as part of the Game Music genre; for Session de Dodon ga Don's case, this launch day quota is filled by the newcoming theme song for the latest mobile game of the franchise!
Released on June 29th for both iOS and Android platforms, the Japan-exclusive THE iDOLM@STER Million Live!: Theater Days (アイドルマスターミリオンライブ!シアターデイズ) app puts the player in the shoes of one of 765Pro's many producers, being put in charge of guiding the debut and career of the newly-born 39 unit (pronounced as 'Sankyuu', as in "Thank You"), consisting of both the returning idols from the former Million Live! app and new talents. This is essentially a rhythm game with note markers to tap/hold/flick as the idol performance goes along, with songs available through storyline/time-limited event means and a roster of over 50 idols to interact with and to be recruited with both in-game and real money currency, a-la gacha game style.
Brand New Theater! is the theme song of the Theater Days app, composed by Sato Takafumi (佐藤貴文) and lyricized by Momoki Eiji (モモキ エイジ), both affiliated to Bandai Namco. All the idols from the original Million Live! app lend their singing contribution in this combined group song, with the sole exception of in-game idol Kotoha Tanaka as her voice actress, Risa Taneda (種田梨沙), went on a hiatus since September 2016 due to sudden illness means. This also meant the (temporary) exclusion of the idol in the Theater Days app, although it's already confirmed its tentative return with future updates, together with the recent announcement of her VA's recovery. In album form, Brand New Theater!'s full version made its debut on the album THE IDOLM@STER MILLION THE@TER GENERATION 01 Brand New Theater!, which was released 3 days prior the Theater Days app's debut.
The version of Brand New Theater! that Taiko gaming has received is the one featuring the idol trio of Mirai Kasuga, Shizuka Mogami and Tsubasa Ibuki as the sole vocalists, respectively dubbed by Yamazaki Haruka (山崎はるか), Tadokoro Azusa (田所あずさ) and Machiko Saito (齊藤真知子). With sparse drumroll markers and an overall notecount that nears the Nam-Combo highs, this Idolm@ster track's Oni challenge brings back the standard of the former charting days for the song coming from the popular idol series: a pure 1/16 cluster challenge with tons of notes to test the unsuspicting player's enduring performance.
