We've witnessed it live and we're talking about it today!... a mere three days after the fact (and two after the Taiko Team offering their own recap on the official blog), but that sure won't stop us for our usual English-based rundown about it, won't it!?
Talking on more general arcade content, the usual 'upcoming-update' notice is being intercepted by the announcement of the Donder Station, a Taiko-themed game center corner to be gradually opened throughout several BanNam-based game center to hold all sorts of events in the future, from big to small!
The first Donder Station joints are heading the pre-existing Bandai Namco Cross Store of Kyoto and the Namco Nagoya Ekimae store, so stop by if you're around the area, for sure!
Right after that, as foretold, a quick primer to what's to come with the Nijiiro Version update that went live today, so go check out our coverage of the original blog entry announcement to catch up to speed.
[UPDATE]: As noted in our bluebird-affine social media account earlier today, reports online have emerged from overseas arcades that the JP-only songs getting released to General Asia machines tomorrow (May 30th), as opposed to today like the original blog post pointed at by mistake.
Alongside the seasonal shop update, the following four tracks will also become available to play for everyone by default, considering the long time they've been available to purchase by now. From Wii games nostalgia to 2022's final Ranking Dojo demonic challenge, there's something for everyone!
We're also caught up on collaboration talk, with one project that is riding on its sunset... but not without a bang! First, the latest round of FOCUS ON Nijisanji Namco Original covers was shown up all rethreading freshly-released content from the last software updates...
...which swiftly moves on to something completely unique for the collaboration project: a 10-person brand new song featuring all the vtuber talents supplying the NO covers these past months! Going by the name of Koko Doko? Tabun Dokka-tou! (ココドコ？多分ドッカ島！), the song will make its debut next Wednesday.
The collaboration song will be also heading to the currently-active Taiko games on the console/mobile front (Dokodon/Rhythm Festival and RHYTHM CONNECT) on the same day of June 5th. Etou and Kimizu also teased how both the custom dancers and puchi charas from the arcade counterpart will be available there, but as the latter unlockables will be a time-limited affair, these would be more talked about in a later foray.
This round-up also closes on a related merchandise prop-up, as four limited Banapassport designs with the FOCUS ON performers will also be available to purchase, both online and at the Bandai Namco stores listed below (in Japanese).
Now that the collab dust has settled, it's time for another kind of reoccurring event roundup...
The long-running World Championship is approaching the heated Finals bout fast, so a quick rundown of the event so far by the hosts is in order to assess its highlights and who we're going to see in a few weeks. First things first, a reminder of how the 32 Finals contenders were selected: 29 high-scorers from the 'Free Age' bracket, the best two players of the 'Elementary and Under' bracket and the winner of 2021's Taiko no Tatsujin Nintendo Switch Version tournament.
For both the arcade-versed tournament elimination/scoring brackets, the Area Elimination ruleset and songs were shown, along the image collages you can see below these lines.
For the scoring results, we could just redirect you to the dedicated ranking areas for both Regular and Junior divisions, like also reported on the post-livestream Taiko Team blog entry... but why the hell not- let's have 'em here, too!
Live on the broadcast was also shown the Top50 standing of Area Elimination tourney competitors all across the eligible areas, not just Japanese players. Not making names myself, but I'm sure to have read a few of those over our Discord server across the years, so congrats for making it in the same- regardless of being a Finals attender-worthy achievement or not!
Being all winners of their respecting Area Elimination store, all people up here will be receiving their own trophy via mail, so look forward to it!
The Finals will be held at the Asakusa Kagekijo theater on July 14th, for the pleasure of a livestreaming audience and a few lucky winners of a lottery campaign to see the Finals that was held last month. Said campaign also warranted a limited giveaway for a couple of special Tetsuo and Cat&Ladle Petit Charas (20 of each), but the arcade team is currently working on another means for a limited campaign to distribute a 'more common' variant of the same Petit Charas for all players, these donning blue ribbons/pompoms as opposed to the raffle winners' red-donning attires.
Right after this, the sudden announcement of the next livestream's broadcasting date at an earlier-than-usual date: June 30th! Look forward to it.
After a slightly-less-eventful "What's In The Box?" segment to answer to questions for arcade-curious donders sending their inputs in, time for the final, much anticipated corner: the Ranking Dojo 2024 reveal (up to 10th-Dan)!
Concurrently with the seasonal Rewards Shop update, June 1st will also bring in the first branch of the mode's Main Course lineup for this year, with the final 10-Dan song being a brand new Namco Original... and from the creator of Chimimouryou, of all people!!!
The all-caps-donning GIGALODOON will also be available as a Rewards Shop unlock for the Summer 2024 lineup update, in order to get more aquainted with the tune outside its 10th-Dan lair. The song was also fully played in the livestream (check at around the 1:22:00 mark for that), but I'm sure by now that the Internet has spawn tens of different uploaded rips of it already (not to mention the official upload)!
This time around, the hands.on first play through this song was done a little bit differently than usual, with the arcade branch director Kimizu playing GIGALODOON's Ura Oni while the camera was lodged at a side view of the drum getting hit.
But for those of you wondering how it went without watching the video... weeelll...
...at least we already have a glance at how many notes does it have (1090 on Ura Oni) as well as knowing for a fact that drumroll-affine special markers will be there. Still, only three more days to actually find out what kind of beast we're squaring off against at...
The final notes of the livestream are about a handful of other minor arcade-related content to receive slight updates in the coming weeks, first being the AI Battle Performance getting retrofit with new/improved aesthethic effects/sound clips.
Up next we have the much-anticipated return of the Rewards-a-plenty time-limited unlock model, allowing arcade veterans and latecomers alike to grab a handful of old customization events, alongside a few exclusive ones!
More details have to be shared at a later date, but we already know that 30 elements will be unlocked after a set number of credit plays: rewards 1-10 are unlocked after a credit, rewards 11-20 will be handed out after 2 credits each while the final 10 will require 3 credit plays instead.
After being asked via previous user-submitted inquiries, the special title unlocks for Gaiden Ranking Dojo course clears will receive their own graphical overhaul! Not only they'll look spiffier, but they'll also be animated... watch the livestream at around the 1:41:00 mark and see it for yourself!
We're heading to a 'last, but not least' closure... and what 'least'-iest least we could get around here than a brand-new original music making contest!? Etou and Kimizu have delivered the news of the lucky yearly trend from Nijiiro's launch year to come back in 2024 as well, but the details for it will be handed out at a later time. (possibly the upcoming end-June livestream?)
And that's a wrap! Later delivery on our part on the blog aside, thanks for sticking with us.
