Sunday, December 31, 2017

Feature: 2017 - The Year in Hindsight


Another year has come to an end, leading us to the usual tradition of looking back what the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise has granted to its fans in its latest 12 months of activity. The year 2017 has been one of those really eventful ones for the series in recent memory (for better or worse), so join our last chronicle-based efforts of English-spread news casting about the franchise!

As usual, see you after the jump.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Song of the Week! 30 December 2017


For the last song feature of 2017, let's chronicle the story of the very last permanent-deletion tune of this closing year, which -believe it or not- does not involve the arcade scene, for once...

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (28 December 2017) - Happy New Year, da-don!

With the picture above, the Team wishes a head start towards the new year, for what is now the shortest post ever published from their part!

Link to original post

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Behind the Drums: IOSYS

IOSYS logo

*currently Work-In Progress page*

Founded on October 10th, 1998, IOSYS is a music-oriented doujin group basedin the Japanese sub-prefecture of Sapporo, with the bulk of its core contributors coming either from Hokkaido and Kanto. The doujin's main activities are the creation of music and animation clips of all sorts, which are often used to go along with their works, ranging from original songs to parody/cover/tribute renditions of other works in Japanese pop culture. The unit currently counts more than 20 contributors between composers, lyricists, singer and animation/presentation artists.

IOSYS's online rise to popularity came by thanks to their custom arrangements of songs from the Touhou Project series, although in general rhythm gaming its presence can be felt by the original song production portfolio that intertwines many music game series. In Taiko no Tatsujin, the doujin group is more known by its original productions, although playable Touhou-related arrangements tend to be released from time to time as well

Monday, December 25, 2017

Twitter Snippets (December 25 2017): Huis Ten Bosch 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin on Final Stretch... Finally!

After more than 3 years since July 2014 and countless extensions, Huis Ten Bosch's 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin installation is finally going to end on January 28, 2018 with no more extensions. That would mean that if you still haven't got a chance to try it, you might want to catch this last operating month of the attraction.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Across Japan: The AC0 Asia Fan-survey

In parallel with the recent developments of Donders dissatisfied with the stagnant status quo on greater Asia's Taiko no Tatsujin arcade scene, here is another way for your voice to be heard beyond awashing the tournament rankings.

From the creators of the Hiroba-nai Movement, the Taiwanese Donder community also spearheaded a fan-survey targeted at Donders all over the world, to collect your views on the almost-four-years-old Asian version.

(via Google Forms)

When the organizers have compiled the collective views of worldwide Donders (cut-off date is December 31 2017), they will be communicating with Bandai Namco/Taiko Team to hopefully bring about the necessary changes.

This post will be pinned to the top until December 31 2017.

Song of the Week! 24 December 2017


Oh no, I almost forgot to write for the weekly column, when Lokamp is not too available to do so this week! I don't write much of this format other than those times talking about underrated (difficulty-wise) songs like a few Christmases ago, and my online time is also occupied with PuyoQuest and their many events and collabs, like last month when they suddenly collabed with He-...

That's it! That thing is in Taiko no Tatsujin too! I can talk about that!
(Disclaimer: This feature does not have anything to do with PuyoQuest. If you want one that does (marginally), check out this one from last year.)

Friday, December 22, 2017

Across Japan - Canned Heat: December Facebook Tournament Results

With the first foray of the Hiroba-nai Movement concluded, we have created such a scene with 14/20 top names in Oni department and 17/20 in Muzukashii department spotting the ひろばない name. Great job for securing the top ranks... whoever you guys are.

...except the accompanying text post was as canned as ever, simply stating the winners with no additional comment like they used to at the beginning. This also led to a mob of Donders commenting "canned" (likely angrily or exasperatedly) as response.

The next tournament will span the January 13~21, and the song choices be announced on January 10. We'll see everyone regroup then.

Link to original post

Thursday, December 21, 2017

First Video: PS4 Donder Pack Vol. 3 and Yellow ver. Update G/V 10.09



Today marks quite a load of brand new songs and notechart from both PS4-1 and AC0 Yellow ver.! Let's unpack each of them now.

オリジナルミライ Original Mirai (3/3/5/8, notes on Oni)
   feat.マモル (nhhmbase) feat. Mamoru (nhhmbase)
Over the peppy vocals are a nice selection of mid-★8 worthy patterns consisting of mostly triples, with 24th single-color quadruples peppered around. Gets more technical as the guitar solo bridge comes around.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Twitter Snippets (18 December 2017) - t+pazolite's Latest Album: the Full Reveal!

The time of t+pazolite's album-teasing action is over, as its intended release date (the end-of-the-year Comiket of 2017) is approaching fast. With that in mind, have a handy tweet with all the featured songs!

Bearing the title of Good Evening, HOLLOWood, the artist's 4th solo album will have original songs alongside extended editions of tracks that were made for thythm games, as we disclosed in the past: CHUNITHM's Infantoon Fantasy, Groove Coaster's QLWA, the maimai/CHUNITHM cross-over song Contrapasso in a version that labels itself as a "middle-of-the-road" new version and, of course, Taiko no Tatsujin's !!!Chaos Time!!!.

It's good custom, however, to take a gander at the last two tracks, which are remixes for two of the music-game-famed tracks we've just disclosed. Sure enough, one of the two is !!!Chaos Time!!!, which is going to have a remixed version made by Rei Furuba (古葉玲), the latest addition to the HARDCORE TANO*C label as the nick-named Kobaryo.


During the same day, t+pazolite also revealed that there's going to be a mini-album to serve as a follow-up to the incoming release, containing 4 mystery songs and slated to a Comiket 94 (Summer 2018) release.

Across Japan (December 18 2017) - Among Copyrighted Ashes of the Non-existent Plaza: Yellow ver. Asia G/V 8.04 Update

Hotly off the grill with the first instance of the Hiroba-nai Movement, the upcoming update to Asia's Yellow ver. cabinet still failed to bring all of the addition from Japan's G/V x.xx update to greater Asia, leaving out the usual suspects (J-POP, non-BNEI animes). The lack of an "update image" is also a point of contention among the more riled-up Donders for the dwindling effort towards the overseas crowd, but we'll leave that at this.

If you forget the full list, we have copied the relevant parts from our last post to reproduce after the jump.

Link to original post

Sunday, December 17, 2017

How to Really Name Your Player Profile on Taiko no Tatsujin HD Arcade



Remember when we say this in our Hiroba-nai Movement post?

"[the ability to change player name] is especially helpful for outside Japan when Donders not knowing Japanese might have just spammed a random name like あああああ (aaaaa) or the default どんちゃん (Don-chan) [...]"

Yeah, we kinda didn't fully instruct the Donders not knowing Japanese who want to participate in the movement how to actually set your player name to your heart's desire, which is probably the most important step when we want to flood the monthly tournament rankings with the key phrase of ひろばない (lit. no Hiroba). Here are we giving a follow-up post to explain just that.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Song of the Week! 16 December 2017


Today's double-feature topic is about seeing how song-addition scheming trends on both console and arcades may be disrupted from time to time with a 'black sheep' crossing to the opposite shore.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (December 14 2017): A Groovy Update for a Smooth Winter - Yellow ver. Version x.xx Update


The first official Namco Taiko Blog after the singularity is the announcement for the next Yellow ver. version update and the next season change for the Don Medal Rewards Shop, both of which are coming December 21.

UPDATE (15/12/17) - Post-script notice added.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Kero⑨Destiny Lyrics



Arrangement: NYO
Lyrics: bit
Vocals: Ameko (あめこ) aka Meramipop (めらみぽっぷ)

*credits to the song's entry page on the Touhou Wiki for the English translation of the song!*

Monday, December 11, 2017

Site Announcement: Yes, We Mod The Comments

But not to remove the genuine and enthusiastic discussion from fellow Donders. We are doing this only to remove cruddy spam comments like this, eww:

Yeah, us relaying the news about World Hobby Fair 2013 from Namco Taiko Blog really helped you in 2017. (Comment since removed from view and into the spam folder)

Speaking of blog post comments, since Blogger does not have a by-comment we check them very, very infrequently especially if it is not on the first page: only once in a reeeeeeeeaaaal while in fact. Yes, we have advertized many a times that this is one of the ways you can engage with us, yet we should have been open about that dismal frequency.

This is far from being the best way to alert us like the mass video mislinking incident earlier this year, especially not with multiple comments in months/years-old posts and especially not with "attitude". We will reserve the right to deal with (including deleting, at a minimal scale hopefully) comments that border on unconstructive spamming.

We found this only in late May long after we ourselves found the problem. Considering the actual context of what was happening, this got really morbidly insensitive all of a sudden.
(Please note that we have since deleted this and related comments for the less-than-stellar language, even while we appreciate it coming from a more-than-enthusiastic Donder.)

Here is a list of better ways that give you as much as 76.5% better chances to urgently find us in a jiffy for a blog incident:

And once again, in case one of the automated spammers stayed long enough to read this message... Please go away and don't spam us any more; we don't have the traffic that you seek.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Song of the Week! 9 December 2017


Today's weekly feature is Idolm@ster-themed, as we take a look at a couple of songs that have been composed in two different "game generations" of the franchise from each other.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Across Japan (December 7 2017) - The Hiroba-nai Movement: Last Straw over the Camel's (non-existent) Plaza

We're making the "official part" of this post quick. Announced on December 6, Asia version's December 2017 Facebook Tournament will be:

Facebook Tournament: December 12~17 2017
    Results Announcement: December 21 2017
セイクリッド ルイン Sacred Ruin x9
濃紅 Koi-kurenai x7
   黒沢ダイスケ × 小寺可南子 Daisuke Kurosawa × Kanako Kotera

So what makes us suddenly picking back up the Asia ver. Facebook Tournaments scope after a two-month hiatus? That's because we are hoping to take that opportunity to bring awareness to the Hiroba-nai Movement that started just today (December 7) by veteran Taiwanese Donders including Shoushou, Woolala and Gumin.

 
Promotional posters for the movement (left: Chinese, right: Japanese)
Source: original post on Shoushou's Facebook

"Hiroba-nai" (ひろばない) literally means "No Hiroba", and aims to express the dissatisfaction with the still-lingering absence of Donder Hiroba support for greater Asian Donders. If you forgot what it was about (likely due to the aforementioned absence), the Donder Hiroba gives many supporting functionalities to HD-arcade Donders including:
  • Player name changing. This is especially helpful for outside Japan when Donders not knowing Japanese might have just spammed a random name like あああああ (aaaaa) or the default どんちゃん (Don-chan), but have to be stuck with that for god knows how long.
  • Better customization options, including titles/title parts and the more expansive four-part outfit system
  • Additional song acquisition means (Katsu Medal Shop)
  • Donder-held tournaments and challenge gauntlets
  • and more!
Yes, it was quite a godsend already when greater Asia got a (nonetheless smaller) export of the awaited HD arcade back in 2014 after AC14. However, the absence of Donder Hiroba created such an inconvenience compared with other arcade music/rhythm game franchise, leaving veteran and budding arcade Donders alike greatly discouraged. Attempts have been made by many to express such views via letters, social media and more but was still in vain.

The main requirement for this movement is simple:
  1. Purchase, or otherwise obtain, another Banapassport or Aime card
  2. Set the player name to be "Hiroba-nai" (ひろばない)
  3. Try your best at each of the coming monthly Facebook tournament on that account
  4. Snap your participating result(s) and post to social media and the result announcement post on the official Asia ver. Facebook
The main idea is that hopefully the name/message is will be taking over the top 20 rankings in both departments. That said, do not be discouraged even if you think/know you are not going to rank in: it's the thought (and the total number of players to do so, which Taiko Team should be seeing) that counts.

We suggest you check out the original post on Shoushou's Facebook (in traditional Chinese) which comes with the above promotional poster designs in (traditional) Chinese and Japanese for your easy spreading.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Twitter Snippets (6 December 2017) - VERTeX in CHUNITHM


As Sega's Konami-enhanced arcade series CHUNITHM has started to sink its teeth into the Tenkaichi Otogesai's crossover-y treats, one Sega-spawn track from the 1st edition is about to be ported into the game tomorrow, as Hiro's VERTeX becomes a publicly-available track.

Tune in tomorrow for the first video recordings of the song in action!

UPDATE (09/12/17): And here's a no-hit video of VERTeX's Master mode.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Tenkaichi Otogesai 4 Block Qualifiers Song Choices Are In

With the Block Qualifiers happening on the 16th and 17th of this month, it is time the song choices for the fourth Tenkaichi Otogesai be announced. And for Taiko no Tatsujin, here are the songs that are slated to show the competitors' skills:

Tenkaichi Otogesai 4 Block Qualifiers: Taiko no Tatsujin Yellow ver.
StageSong(s)
Preliminary Taiko Drum Monster
Semi-finals 極圏 Kyokuken
3rd-place Decider 怒槌 Ikazuchi
Finals Scarlet Lance
Playoffs
(if 4th and 5th are tied
in the Preliminary)
セイクリッド ルイン Sacred Ruin
毒LOCANdy♡ DokuLO CANdy♡
朱の旋律 Aka no Senritsu

You can take a look at the full list at the Tenkaichi Otogesai site for the rest of the games' selections.

As a bonus fact, in all three other JAEPO-level games, our dear Sacred Ruin is used for the Semi-finals. Coincidence? Maybe.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Twitter Snippets (4 December 2017) - New Taiko x IDOLiSH7 Collaboration Teaser


Outside from the weird oddity of the Taiko Team's Twitter account becoming flagged for "potentially sensitive content", today's note-worthy element to point out is the latest reminder to the future IDOLiSH7 collaboration event, now complete with not-blacked-out collaboration art and tentative custom dancers/petit charas!

We now do know that this event will kick in sometime during Spring 2018.

Kagayaki o Motomete Lyrics



Artist: Versus
  Vocals: Fuuko (ふーこ)
  Guitar: Carlos (カルロス)
  Bass: Taicha (たいちゃー)

Japanese lyrics sourced from original Creofuga submission.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Song of the Week! 2 December 2017


As we caught notice weeks ago, Yellow Version arcades are about to permanently lose some other songs... for the third time in the lifespan of a single arcade version, a questionable first in HD Taiko gaming.

To better impress the mileage of this dubious milestone in the series' arcade history, we have a triple feature with the three Anime licenses that are about to leave official Taiko gaming for good next Wednesday...

Taiko Plus/STH - December '17 GTH Additions


The next batch of Gakkyoku Tori Houdai additions save some of the upcoming removals from Yellow ver. ... but they were not the AC0 exclusives so what's the point :/

Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: December 1 2017
24 karats TRIBE OF GOLD
365日のラブストーリー。 365 Nichi no Love Story.
LET'S GO OUT
ロシア民謡メドレー Russian Folk Medley
朱の旋律 Aka no Senritsu
真・画竜点睛 Shin Garyoutensei (+Ura)