The game is currently among the highest-grossing iOS and Android applications in the world, with 16 million downloads in Japan only and a monthly revenue between 62 and 84 million dollars, making GungHo quite the financial juggernaut to be reckoned with! As for any other gaming success story, many alternate titles and spin-offs have been paired with the (still running) original app, including 2014's arcade puzzle title Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament (パズドラ バトルトーナメント), a 2015 trading card game and three different titles for the Nintendo 3DS.
One of the defining traits of this long-lasting mobile sensation is the franchise's open-minded set to host a number of cross-over events and collaboration with many different franchises and brands embracing both Japanese culture and the West! The Taiko no Tatsujin series has been one of the very first supporters of the collaboration fanfare, leading to a number of special occasions in which titlkes from both series could enjoy some promotional content. For the Taiko series' case, this more than often resulted in the sharing of many of the fan-dubbed 'Pazudora' series's collective soundtrack.
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Walking Through The Towers Puzzle & Dragons| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (104) | x4 (164) | x5 (270) | x7 (481) |
Taiko 0 S, Taiko Wii U 1, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko +
150
none
puzdraPreviously featured in Song of the Week: July 13 2013
Once simply known as Puzzle & Dragons (Boss Song) on Taiko iOS fields, Walking Through The Towers is one of the very first BGM tunes of Puzzle & Dragons's original mobile version, which is nowadays used for a wide share of boss battles (mostly Normal dungeons). Like for the other songs in the original app, Walking Through The Towers is composed by Kenji Ito (伊藤賢治) and Yukio Nakashima (中嶋教雄); the former artist is a well-known freelance composer whose earlier works include early Square games, while the latter is loyal to GungHo. In rhythm gaming, it's also possible to spot the song in Taito's Groove Coaster series, both on mobile and arcades!
On the topic of official soundtracks, Kenji Ito released an iTunes album with music from the game, under the 'itoken' alias on May 2013; the album is titled Puzzle & Dragons Original Soundtrack -itoken limited- and includes both the first original tracks and three remixed pieces created together with a couple of Namco-related composers: Denji Sano (Taiko Time, Boku wa Shinse) and Kouta Takahashi (music for Ridge Racer games). Another remix of the iconic boss track, made by ex-ZUNTATA member Hirokazu 'COSIO' Koshio, was made in commemoration to the first collaboration event between Pazudora and Groove Coaster, with said remix being played both in the promotional P&D dungeon and on the very same rhythm game series as well (link)!
The journey of Walking Through The Towers in Taiko has been a really rocky one along the years: after a Taiko no Tatsujin + limited campaign in 2012 with a generic song name (the song was officially untitled before 2013), another Taiko + event in the following year rebranded the song with its definitive title and added dancers to it. The release of the PazuDora pack means that it was no longer limited on the smartphone Taiko. A similar destiny to his song occured for the arcade scene: after being playable only in the aforementioned Pazudora Fan Thanksgiving 2013 celebration, Walking Through The Towers became a default GM track after one of Sorairo Version's last software updates.
Gameplay-wise, Walking Through The Towers perfectly fits the place of a 7* Oni challenge with an average BPM value and several special notes along the chart. Later outings of this song outside of its Taiko debut as the 'Puzzle & Dragons (Boss Song)' would see some of the most known monster families in the game as custom dancers, like the evolution Spirits (on top), the Starter Dragons (as the main five dancers), and the Slimes and the Metal Dragons, both appearing when the Spirit Gauge is filled to the max. Each subsequent song from the P&D app uses the same custom dancers setup as well!
A New Journey Puzzle & Dragons| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (116) | x5 (174) | x5 (216) | x7 (403) |
Taiko + 137 none puzdr2Previously featured in Song of the Week: December 14 2013
After Walking Through The Towers, the majority of the subsequent Puzzle & Dragons songs in Taiko have made a name of themselves for being exclusive to the console grounds, starting with another couple of the original app's tracks which were composed -once again- by the hands of Kenji Ito (伊藤賢治) and Yukio Nakashima (中嶋教雄).
A New Journey is the overture theme for the Technical Dungeons, a particular kind of dungeon in the game where the enemy monsters can either attack normally or use one of their special abilities to perform even more powerful attacks or applying several kind of buffs and debuffs, both on themselves and/or on the player. The BGM's title was thought up by Kenji Ito to match the title chosen for one of the first non-limited Technical Dungeon's trials ("New Journey", from the Fertile Land dungeon set). This was one of the three songs that made up the original publishing of Taiko Plus's Pazudora Pack, as well as being one of the three iOS-exclusive picks from the series.
Despite being slower than the older P&D song, A New Journey still proves to be suitable to the modern 7* Oni rating, thanks to the many combinations of small 1/16 clusters being used. The cut used on Taiko is slightly shorter than the one in the original game. A different cut of this song to be played with is also featured in the Groove Coaster series, once again thanks to some collaboration magic!
The Orb Festival Puzzle & Dragons| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (158) | x6 (228) | x6 (389) | x8 (646) |
Taiko + 163 none puzdr3Previously featured in Song of the Week: December 14 2013
While Walking Through The Towers is the boss theme for the Normal Dungeons, The Orb Festival is the theme used for the boss battles in Technical Dungeons. Both this track and A New Journey are also used in an additional kind of dungeons in the game (the Conditional Dungeons), where only certain monsters can be used or different conditions have to be respected in order to try them, such as having all monsters of a certain attribute, running a dungeon without using high-cost monsters or certain skills and so on. Enemy monsters can also use their special abilities, just like in the Technical Dungeons.
With stamina-unfriendly cluster segments and long combination of notes, The Orb Festival definitely proves to the hardest PAD song of the original trilogy for the "early-stage" Pazudora Pack. Muck like the two previously-featured songs, it's also playable in Groove Coaster, no less!
Sakasama Sekai (さかさま世界) Puzzle & Dragons Z| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (104) | x4 (157) | x5 (318) | x7 (438) |
Taiko 0 M (limited), Taiko Wii U 1 157 none puzdrz(video processed to bypass muting)
Previously featured in Song of the Week: January 17 2015
Some of the Pazudora tracks in Taiko gaming are coming from some of the series's many console spin-offs; such is the case for Sakasama Sekai, being the theme song for the 3DS videogame Puzzle & Dragons Z (パズドラZ).
Released in Japan on December 12th, 2013, P&D Z is the first game for the series to be set in an actual story against the original iOs/Android app's approach. In the game's world, people and dragons are able to co-exist thanks to the power of the mystical Drops. However, the sinister organization Paradox wants to break the power balance for their own schemes; it's up to the player, as one of the world's Dragon Tamers, to foil their plans, with the help of the mysterious dragon Syrup.
While Z's puzzle game approach is basically the same of the original mobile app, the game is branched to be like a proper, Pokémon-styled RPG, with player-input attacks (through orb combinations) and many collectible monsters to get and train. The positive reception of the game in Japan (over 1.5 million copies sold as of June '14) has led to the creation of multiple titles and general media about P&D Z's world, such as a CoroCoro Comic-serialized manga and a couple of arcade games: Puzzle & Dragons Z: Tamer Battler and the afore-mentioned Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, both featuring many of Z's signature monsters and Dragon Tamers. Even the original app included these characters as recruitable monsters! Later on, the game was ported to the rest of the world as part of the Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition combo game, which was released on May 2015.
While Z wasn't a collaboration-savy game like the original, it was possible to unlock special dungeons with specific passwords, mostly featuring many of the first game's "Descended!" line of bosses. Wouldn't you know it, the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise is the only external one to appear as a password dungeon in the game! As such, a limited campaign has been issued between arcade Taiko games (Momoiro) and the first Wii U title, with both games featuring P&D Z's main theme and a 2-part Syrup outfit, becoming the first simultaneous release of content between console and arcade Taiko since Taiko 12 and Wii 1. As the collaboration ended, the song is still playable only to the Wii U users who managed to download it before its removal.
Speaking of the song itself, Sakasama Sekai (lit. 'Upside-Down World') is the 18th single of Japanese tarento Shoko Nakagawa (中川 翔子), and second song on Taiko by her after Strawberry Melody, one of the 10th Taiko arcade's exclusive J-Pop tracks. Her single of this song, released the day before P&D Z's JP launch, is paired with her opening theme for the Japanese run of the American TV series Once Upon a Time.
With upbeat rhythms and a constant speed, Sakasama Sekai's Taiko Oni plays like an average J-Pop song notechart, with different cluster formations and some drumrolls/hitballoons sprinkled in.
Kessen!! (決戦!!) Puzzle & Dragons Z| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (109) | x5 (175) | x6 (310) | x8 (538) |
Taiko 0 K to Mu, 0 R, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko + 154 none puzdr4Previously featured in Song of the Week: January 17 2015
Some time after the Taiko x P&D Z collaborations, Taiko games have received a proper, in-game track from the game, which -like it's predecessor before it- has quickly touched both console and arcade grounds. Being used for many of the game's boss fights, Kessen!! (lit. 'Battle!!') is composed by in-house GungHo musician Kenji Ito (伊藤賢治), already responsible for the music in the iOs/Android game. The song is also available to play in Taito's Groove Coaster games, both on the arcade releases and on the currently-running iOs app Groove Coaster Zero.
With 100 more notes than Sakasama Sekai's Oni, Kessen features a denser barrage of clusters and repeating note stanzas, becoming a good benchmark for newbie players for early memorization approach and stamina-enduring skills. This is also the first Game Music track not from Bandai Namco games that is being used for a Taiko boss battle, against the alternative version of the Giganto Rex in one of Taiko 3DS 2's DLC Story mode chapters. The track being inside said DLC pack has also been the very cause of its later removal, as the song's distribution rights for Kessen!! on Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken expired over time. Oddly enough, the track re-appeared from those limited outings for a more permanent stay, during the Red Version firmware period and as part of Taiko Plus's Pazudora pack, on September 8, 2014.
Fight the Fanatics Puzzle & Dragons| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (129) | x5 (230) | x7 (410) | x8 (654) |
Taiko + 156 none puzdr5For an even weirder instance of a song's journey in Taiko on this song showcase, we have to look no further than the very last iOS-exclusive pick.
Unlike with the former songs which were more tied in with the games' "proprietary" elements of the franchise, Fight the Fanatics was made by Kenji Ito (伊藤賢治) as a custom boss track piece for the recurring collaboration dungeons of the main-line games from the renowned Final Fantasy series. The collaboration with the influential RPG franchise and GungHo's gacha/puzzle hybrid game has evolved with each re-iteration of the collaborative event, spotlighting Fight the Fanatics not only for the 2-part final boss battle against Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, but also for the later-added dungeon sequel that features Final Fantasy XIII's Orphan as the final boss and the FF Tournament boss fight against Final Fantasy XV's Glauca.
The unique (albeit short) journey of this song in Taiko has seen its debut as the final addition to the aforementioned Pazudora pack on August 15th, 2015; however, the song was removed from downloading by the end of that very same year, meaning that only the people who have grabbed it during the slim 5-months time span will still be able to play it. Those who can access it will be faced by another 1/16-based cluster challenge by notecharter sentai Yamaguchi (ヤマグチ) whose deeper pattern combination put it way ahead than Kessen!! on the difficulty scale perspective.
Holding Hands Puzzle & Dragons| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (105) | x5 (195) | x6 (316) | x7 (397) |
Taiko 0 W 146 none puzdr6The trend of Pazudora songs being console-exclusive tracks for the longest time didn't held back the potential for some arcade-aimed action! During the White Version firmware's lifespan, there have been several collaborations involving the arcade branch, ultimately netting the addition of all kinds of customization perks, from outfits/outfit parts to some of the series' monsters becoming Petit Charas to take along with your Taiko avatar!
For the song side, on the other hand, we've seen the return of some of the older tracks to go along with some brand new inclusions, starting from the music of the original app's multiplayer features. Holding Hands is, in fact, the overture BGM of the mobile games' multiplayer mode, which started out as a collaborative 2-player variant. True to the song's name, the team of players share their team formations to form a bulkier party to be handled together by taking separate turns in order to clear dungeons. Later on, it was also added a 3-player competitive multiplayer variant, which uses the same tracks as the ones of 2P sessions.
Arihotto (アリーホット) of the Taiko Team has been in charge of the song's patterns, feeling very reminiscent to the ones of Walking Through The Towers while being a little more lenient on the small mixed-hit small cluster side.
Unite The Force Puzzle & Dragons| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (64) | x4 (99) | x7 (262) | x8 (406) |
Taiko 0 W 156 none puzdr7Just like A New Journey is to The Orb Festival regarding the overture/boss BGM song duo, Holding Hands is to Unite The Force for the multiplayer modes of Puzzle & Dragons. Both tracks, once again, are composed by Kenji Ito as well.
Yamaguchi (ヤマグチ) comes back as this song's charter, featuring cluster formations not that much dissimilar to Kessen!'s Oni and a long note cluster whose pattern formation is the same as the final long cluster of Taiko Time's Ura Oni, but with reversed colors instead.
Battle -Denkousekka- (バトル－電光石火－) Puzzle & Dragons Cross| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (55) | x4 (104) | x5 (198) | x8 (364) |
Taiko 0 R, Taiko 3DS 3 138-160.40 none puzdx1For the latest arcade/console tie-in song, we venture once again into spin-off fields with the next Nintendo 3DS entry of the series: Puzzle & Dragons Cross (パズドラクロス).
Currently a Japan exclusive, the world of Cross is Dorogoza Island, a land full of the so-called 'Drop Energy' which lets humans to raise creatures of all kinds to set off in battle, both as fighters and as morph-able combat suits. Much like with the Pokemon titles, P&D Cross is available in two different variants: Kami no Sho (神の章, 'Gods Chapter') and Ryuu no Sho (龍の章, 'Dragons Chapter'), each with their own story alterations and exclusive features. The story of Puzzle & Dragons Cross is also picked up by an animated series by the same name made by studio Pierrot, whose Japanese premiere of July 4th, 2016, actually pre-dates the launch of the two Cross games (July 28th, 2016)!
One of the Cross games' boss battle themes, Battle -Denkousekka- (lit. 'Lightning Stone') is composed by Kenji Ito and arranged by Yuzo Koshiro (古代祐三). The song was part of one of the collaboration-oriented operations with Dokodon! Mystery Adventure, with the song itself becoming a freely-downloadable song (together with Walking Through The Towers) for a limited time, paired up with the Cross universe's Tamazo being available as a Story mode team mate. The same character made its venture on arcades as well, when its Petit Chara was unlockable as part of one of Red Version's event, as a means to commemorate Battle -Denkousekka-'s arcade debut. The Taiko edit of this song also includes the games' boss warning in the beginning and the 'dungeon clear' jingle at the end!
Charted by Marimo Institute (まりも研究所), this is by far the track on this song showcase with the major number of BPM shifts and scrolling speed alterations (as in, at least more than 1 value for each), with the patterns themselves not straying that much far away from the standards set by the former 8*-rated Oni challenges. Its song ID of puzdx1 leads to intend that this song is intended to be the first one coming from the Cross games to Taiko, ... or, at the very least, that such intention was in the air among the Taiko games staff members at some point.
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