It's the last day of the year, which means it's the prime time to have our usual talk on how the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise has fared in the latest 365-ish-days venue! Once again, we'll be picking up the end-2018 Feature format and review the biggest steps into 3-months intervals, with Lokamp chiming in for his personal ups and down on the series' whereabouts.
Bruise up your shoes, as it's time for a memory-lane stroll once more...
1st Trimester
Usually the most dormant portion of a year for franchise enthusiast, 2019's January-to-March travel pretty much fared up to follow such norm, with its gradual news spreading towards the latest addition to the arcade firmware versions family (Green Version) and barely any other 'major' series information updates worth of note in-between.
Despite no new particular spins being given to the latest of the current Taiko line's versions, however, its launch was still built upon the ending of yet another Tenkaichi Otogesai tourney (... more on that later...) and even had some collaboration plans with #C.O.M.P.A.S.S. and the Idolm@ster series' latest spinoff, ready to kick off since its Day 1! To round things off, both home console Taiko releases received their steady wealth of additional content to enjoy, all throughout the year.
Lok-approved:
- Taiko no Tatsujin Green Version - This is a firmware that hasn't played all of its cards from the get-go, but that still doesn't disappoint in the gradual newcomer songs department! With plenty of licensed hits and a healthy streak of pluri-artists original score, it followed up the Blue Version year quite nicely.
- Modern Home Console Taikos' 2019 DLC Support - In a year that has been dire of any official new game announcements for the non-arcade goers, the fact that both the PS4 and the Nintendo Switch Taiko games were supplied with monthly loads of content that, before weighting in their relative qualities to each's own tastes, have been more than a reassuring sign of not leaving console players behind, whether they're from Japan or any other area of the world.
Lok-abominables:
- New rounds of Staff Layouts - Bandai Namco has seen several staffers departures, with the most active layoff period being the start of the year. Taiko Team mascot Anne, alongside some game music composers of decades-old date (Kanako Kakino and Hiroshi Okubo) have left in a mere 3-months span, with more departures to come (some of a different nature, no less) to follow up half-away the year 2019.
- FREEDOM DiVE has become playable in official Taiko games - ... Just read through this and this, I'm beyond bloody caring at this point.
2nd Trimester
Taiko gaming's Spring season of 2019 has been more eager on putting some focus on its latest home console foray, as the Nintendo Switch game's DLC content has started to get more timely-differenciated additional features between both free and paid stuff, with the introduction of new playable modes (starting with the up-pictured Donkatsu Fight local multiplayer mode) and more skilled-players-oriented content picking up the pace from the latter end of this month trilogy.
Luckily, the other gaming fronts in the Taiko scene were not completely dormant either; the PS4 players getting their usual high-end treatment between Donder Packs and license-oriented picks, all the while the newborne Green Version kept lit its torch with renewed interest into licensed picks of many fronts (most notably Vocaloid, BMS and V-tuber-related), rounded up with teases of its signature Banapassport mode, coming a few months later...
Lok-approved:
3rd Trimester
How time flies, we made it to 9 years of blog activity! The Green Version side of the isle took this frame to finalize its feature set with the release of its signature mode -the AI Battle Performance- and its version-linked set of main Ranking Dojo trials, with brand new Gaiden courses coming our during the year's end. Between lazy eggs and licensed songs getting a same-day-release (or something close to that) between arcade and console gaming, you can rest assured that the series' licensing game is still as strong as ever.
Lok-approved:
4th Trimester
Stealing the thumbnail war for 2019's last months is a Switch-related story once again, as players of all regional version were greeted with the series' very first online multiplayer competitive mode in franchise history! Green Version, on the other hand, is waving the year goodbye with renewed support to its Rewards Shop/surprise song release antics with a topping of returning collaborations, from shooty-shooty girls indie bliss to a male idol ensemble that was teased way back in Summer.
Lok-approved:
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And there you have it, 2019 in Taiko gaming! This time around, there's no need for some weird comparison analogies to state a comment on the series' overall progression as of late: it's simply... well... just... floating around.
On the arcade grounds, sure, business is ran as usual content-wise, despite some of the more egregious departures that damper its potential on the newcoming-songs spectrum, but little to no room for new series projects talk has been laid about, aside from their many event-limited venues and collaboratiove talk. Mainly, this refers to no new console games on site, leaving just the hints of the next firmware enough of an interest fuel for fans to keep being engaged with the series. I mean sure, both the most recent console games have got their share of love, no doubt about it; however, it's kinda undeniable at this point to state how the series as a whole is sitting on life support, right now. Especially if you're not an arcade goer, only the DLC train will keep you up and running into the mood for some modern druming; once it'll be over, you'd be asking "Well then, what's next?", but what happens when you got nothing as an answer to that question? Would that mean that the series, as a whole... might be approaching the end of the road, with this being the tentative year where you can see the end of its tracks from a great distance?
I myself don't know the answer to these questions and more, always rounded around the duration of any given tradition or product over time. Nothing's bound to last forever, and relatively news-less years like 2019 has been for Taiko gaming might further strengthen such worries on our subject on hand. Hope, however, still shines through, with the few gold nuggets we got this year alone as well as the series managing to surpass the 10-million combined milestone of console games sold overall! And who knows, what little we know about this upcoming arcade model's revamped parts might be looked at in the future as the first spark of "that one arcade" which started a series reinassance period with plenty of exciting things to talk about, for years to come!... as we stand right now, however, we're pretty much left in the dark, dealing with the daily breadcrumbs that are being spread in a less-frequent manner about official Taiko media, with nothing but speculations of what may come next.
The wait will rage on... but alongside the way, we renew our hopes in being able to take you out on this journey side by side, reporting on what the incoming year 2020 has in store for its fans, of all ages and nations. See you on the other side, and happy new year!
Taiko gaming's Spring season of 2019 has been more eager on putting some focus on its latest home console foray, as the Nintendo Switch game's DLC content has started to get more timely-differenciated additional features between both free and paid stuff, with the introduction of new playable modes (starting with the up-pictured Donkatsu Fight local multiplayer mode) and more skilled-players-oriented content picking up the pace from the latter end of this month trilogy.
Luckily, the other gaming fronts in the Taiko scene were not completely dormant either; the PS4 players getting their usual high-end treatment between Donder Packs and license-oriented picks, all the while the newborne Green Version kept lit its torch with renewed interest into licensed picks of many fronts (most notably Vocaloid, BMS and V-tuber-related), rounded up with teases of its signature Banapassport mode, coming a few months later...
Lok-approved:
- Surprise Saturday Newcomers - While this is definitely an inherited feature from the past arcade firmware days, it sure is nice to see how this tradition has lived on with the next year, not only for that new songs from that one-or-two artists that music game-affine people may already become galvanized about hearing more from, but also for an already-mentioned new outlook on popular BMS-spawn picks, be it for a new difficulty bump or some meme magic on display. (Or to just piss me off with overrated FREEDOM DiVE shit again)
Sometimes, I wonder if our long-running Song of the Week feature series falling on a Saturday is (partly) to thank for these surprise additions all falling into a specific day of the week... Let alone, that very same day...
Lok-abominable:
- Synchronica's Series Shutdown - From time to time, the Taiko no Tatsujin series has had more than one affair with Bandai Namco's other music game experience for the arcade goer, so it's a tad sad -even as bystanders- to be made aware of its indefinite closure in advance, right at the Autumn season's doors. Still, here's to the people who more closely followed it...
Lok... Uuuuh...
- Out-of-Japan Content Synchronication/Communication Gap - ..This is a topic that for this very year is.. kinda odd to talk about for me as a whole: I can't class it as a total disaster to frown upon, but I can't file it as a resounding success either.
We sure are aware for years on how Taiko cabinets between the JP models and the General-Asia ones are separated by months-wide gaps (which, to give credit where credit it's due, have been getting shorter every now and then) and we've seen the struggle to catch up as quick as possible, but on the Western console games talk, the communication from their main channels has been sparse all throughout the year and DLC releases have been either right on date with JP (especially on PS4) or delayed beyond belief for whatever reason. EU/US players of the Nintendo Switch game, for example, will see months later a simultaneous release of an additional mode with the JP version, but on the same page they also had to wait four more months in comparison to Japan to even see traces of the Donkatsu Fight mode!
I can surely see the effort on making up-to-date content for everyone while getting everyone on the news about it in a more timely manner, but it's apparent how in some areas they've been lacking still, be it for select time-framed elements or for still-ongoing events...
How time flies, we made it to 9 years of blog activity! The Green Version side of the isle took this frame to finalize its feature set with the release of its signature mode -the AI Battle Performance- and its version-linked set of main Ranking Dojo trials, with brand new Gaiden courses coming our during the year's end. Between lazy eggs and licensed songs getting a same-day-release (or something close to that) between arcade and console gaming, you can rest assured that the series' licensing game is still as strong as ever.
Lok-approved:
- PS4's (continuing) Stellar DLC Journey - It really bears repeating on my part: for seasoned fans of the series, it's good to be a PS4 owner, two years on. Even if some kind of "time bomb" for the game's DLC delivery has been set with the PS5 release far on the horizon, the same kind of quality treatment from Year 1 has been succesfully carried over with monthly song lots that guarantee both hard picks and console/series overall first. Let's not forget that even the latest '2000' song made its debut on Session de Dodon ga Don under this trimester, folks!
- Traces of a New Taiko Generation - Under these months we've also fetched some preliminary intel about Green Version's succeeding firmware and judging by the heavy hardware updates required for this transition, we might be right behind the corners of a new arcade generation! Just trying to imagine what new dazzling technical improvements and other kinds of features is enough to lift up hopes for the game center rooms gaming to come!...
...just please... Don't bleach 90% of current arcades' song list a-la Taiko 2-14 transitions and day-1 Taikos of the current arcade line... pretty please..?
Lok-abominables:
- No New Console Taikos in Sight - Yeah, I still keep the continued support of the PS4 and NSwitch games in high regards, but coming through a year without any concrete hints of new Taiko console games to enjoy is kinda worrying... Aside from the occasional signature modes newer console Taikos spruce up, each physical release comes with its unique song list blend that, the day its related system has its online-related shops/functionalities gone and are no longer playable on the arcades, won't disappear for good and will still be playable through official means, with no emulators of sorts. Keeping games alive with DLCs for years sure is nice and spiffy, but the content preservation match will surely be lost by going on for a lot of time by just pumping up the same releases, when the related online stores will shut down.
And sure, during this trimester we spotted a new trademark being placed for what we can speculate being for a new European Taiko game release, but we still got nothing else concrete on our hands, to this day... - The End of the Tenkaichi Otogesai Tournament Series - What we concretely got, on the other hand, was the news on the definitive closure of the Tenkaichi Otogesai tournament line, one that was eagerly looked forward to by a number of fans from multiple music gaming series for the prospect of an hot-boiled competition on top of new juicy song reveals and, almost an alien concept to the Taiko series beforehand, music gaming song transplants from other non-proprietary series.
For those who can still rock out their arcade skills in Japan, we have reported about new competitions for both arcade and console players as single-series affair, but the crossed-over nature that was the glue linking together Tenkaichi Otogesai fans is not to be found on the more modern competitive offerings. And for us Taiko fans, that just puts on a huge question mark on when (or even, if) will we have again more playable, crossed-over content from the other active music gaming giants at Konami's, Sega's, Taito's, ...
Stealing the thumbnail war for 2019's last months is a Switch-related story once again, as players of all regional version were greeted with the series' very first online multiplayer competitive mode in franchise history! Green Version, on the other hand, is waving the year goodbye with renewed support to its Rewards Shop/surprise song release antics with a topping of returning collaborations, from shooty-shooty girls indie bliss to a male idol ensemble that was teased way back in Summer.
Lok-approved:
- Online Matchmaking Bliss - Taiko no Tatsujin has had its first foray into the online multiplayer scene, and it's a relieving one at that! Sure, it's not an already-perfect package due to the lack of features (eg.: no Friends-only matches, only up to two players, can't play DLC songs unless both players own them) and the fact of being locked down to a set of weekly song selection are a bit of a downer, but we can already say this system works fine, something that not every videogame with online elements can truly claim at their first shot.
Plus, we console-only players get to experience one of the true-and-hard battle marks of an arcade multiplayer match in an official home Taiko game: knowing how much I suck on the accuracy department... but knowing that live, as you play with strangers that are leagues better than you! HAR-Har-har, I crack myself up... - Taiko Time's Wish List Spotlight - A side project I cooked up for most of December's Song of the Week features, I had a bit of fun in talking about out-of-Taiko songs that both staffers and our readers would be eager to see them officially playable in the series! No matter how plausible or far-fetched our spotlighted requests have come and gone, it was a nice change of pace to talk about even more other topics on the Internet.
And aye, who knows if the staffers are up for another round next year! In the eventuality that possibility ever comes to fruition, you might be eager on pondering about an eventual 'wish list' request of yours... that's right, even you who are reading these very lines!
Lok-abominables:
- Untimely Updates, from the Team and from Us - In a double-whammy, here's a nice reminder on us being unreliable on timely updates coverage, just as much as the Bandai Namco-delegated people have been on their news updates for non-Japanese releases.
Sure, it hasn't been nice scouting every now and then in the off-chance some content gets ported to the Western version on a timely manner, but our own IRL committments have often left the same-period news coverage over here to be... a little shoddy at times. Hell, I myself forgot to frequently update some freshly-released content alongside the blog's sections and the Ace Combat showcase has been orphan of the Roca Roja feature for the longest time! Once again, for our faults on these and more, we humbly apologise to you, folks.
And there you have it, 2019 in Taiko gaming! This time around, there's no need for some weird comparison analogies to state a comment on the series' overall progression as of late: it's simply... well... just... floating around.
On the arcade grounds, sure, business is ran as usual content-wise, despite some of the more egregious departures that damper its potential on the newcoming-songs spectrum, but little to no room for new series projects talk has been laid about, aside from their many event-limited venues and collaboratiove talk. Mainly, this refers to no new console games on site, leaving just the hints of the next firmware enough of an interest fuel for fans to keep being engaged with the series. I mean sure, both the most recent console games have got their share of love, no doubt about it; however, it's kinda undeniable at this point to state how the series as a whole is sitting on life support, right now. Especially if you're not an arcade goer, only the DLC train will keep you up and running into the mood for some modern druming; once it'll be over, you'd be asking "Well then, what's next?", but what happens when you got nothing as an answer to that question? Would that mean that the series, as a whole... might be approaching the end of the road, with this being the tentative year where you can see the end of its tracks from a great distance?
I myself don't know the answer to these questions and more, always rounded around the duration of any given tradition or product over time. Nothing's bound to last forever, and relatively news-less years like 2019 has been for Taiko gaming might further strengthen such worries on our subject on hand. Hope, however, still shines through, with the few gold nuggets we got this year alone as well as the series managing to surpass the 10-million combined milestone of console games sold overall! And who knows, what little we know about this upcoming arcade model's revamped parts might be looked at in the future as the first spark of "that one arcade" which started a series reinassance period with plenty of exciting things to talk about, for years to come!... as we stand right now, however, we're pretty much left in the dark, dealing with the daily breadcrumbs that are being spread in a less-frequent manner about official Taiko media, with nothing but speculations of what may come next.
The wait will rage on... but alongside the way, we renew our hopes in being able to take you out on this journey side by side, reporting on what the incoming year 2020 has in store for its fans, of all ages and nations. See you on the other side, and happy new year!
