For this being a "year of the dragon", there sure are many-a-ways to describe a yearly Taiko journey to the likes of your average RPG plot development...
1st Trimester
Some of the hardest pill for Donders to swallow have also happened during these first very months to count, both with the sales discontinuation of the leftover DLC songs for Taiko no Tatsujin V Version and -most prominently- with the permenent closure of the Taiko no Tatsujin Plus Shinkyoku Tori Houdai app on all applicable platforms, effectively closing down the one title to receive continuous support for the longest time across every other game in the series to date.
Lok-approved:
- Multi-Layered representation - Most of the time we hear about this franchise, it's about its musical catalog and it's reception... but this ending 2024 like a few other years before it bothered to walk the extra mile to diversify official endeavors in more than a way in these evolving times! Not only your average fan-driven livestreams or countless Japanese variety show cameos, now we have more experimental projects to better embrace the franchise and its characters for audiences of varying ages, including the aforementioned WADIVERSE stories and their unique spread. Even online spawn ideas like the web Anime are picked up after a while without its digital presence, as you're about to hear from us in one of our first posts in 2025!
Lok-abominables:
- A Plus Value to the Media Graveyard - As announced during 2023's tail end, the journey of the Taiko no Tatsujin Plus app family that started on iOS platforms more than a dozen years ago (May 2010; it's even older than this very blog, at this point!) has come to a close. More than often, we've seen console releases between a couple of arcade generations in mechanics/features and graphical layouts and the likes, but this behemoth of a game was the only one to live through the 7-14 generation and down to the latest arcade models' first years in circulation!
We've got at the very least a silver lining to the title's departure: anyone who has downloaded songs/DLC data prior to its final update (the one to turn the app's icon to Katsu's face) can still enjoy all previously-purchased content, from here until said device lasts! A shame none of the content exclusive to the Gakkyoku Tori Houdai could survive the End of Service, but at least that's something to leave an app to be more than a digital paperweight... - Coincidental Conundrums - Before we go forward on this point, let me be clear- this is something that is most likely beyond the people behind the Taiko no Tatsujin games' "prediction insights" reach, with this topic being about external companies' matters happening in particular instances in time. It's just... these first few months in particular, we've got official licensed/collaborational content whose timing release window sadly overlapped with the external participating franchises stumbling among the most humbling of debacles, in some ways or another.
We've already seen earlier last month on Song of the Week how the reveal of a new Love Live! playable song has happened a few days after one infamous Love Live gacha's Western simul-announcement of start AND end of operations, but the same Nijisanji collaboration event -while pertaining only the JP-versed talents- was also announced a few days into a giant controversy season, pertaining the English branch! Again, no one outside either agent could foretell such circumstances happening and dampening a bit the humor on each, but this kind of "Bad Timing Brian" caption humor has happened to the Taiko franchice twice in a year... and on the same month, nonetheless!
2nd Trimester
Back to the RPG analogies, the beginning of the so-called midgame is often home of some of the most fortuitous allies for a hero to meet on the quest for the land's greater evil, which is either starting to manifest itself around these times or is moving their very first steps via minions around these times. On the Taiko side, thehere's hardly more "challenging times" than the much-anticipated arcade World Championship tournament, approaching its final phases at long last!
The two livestreams of these month from the Taiko Team hosts were mostly about this, alongside some extra content to tide the wait... I mean, for crying out loud, we got Etou appearing in a song's music video, for this year's unique April Fools stuff!
Lok-approved:
- Lively Game Center Sustainment - This is something that is happening for a few years now and in a behind-the-scenes kind of way that is only manifesting between 2023 and now, but this is something that even someone in the likes of me -a Westerner where arcade gaming culture is close to dead outside amusement/holidays venues- can appreciate for the continuation of one strong-lived reality that even in Japan is suffering blow after blow.
Even in the country popularizing game centers, local news of popular arcades all over Japan hitting closure is an occurrance that is becoming more and more common, and to see Bandai Namco opening more and more branded arcades over old joints closing down (some of these even belonging to illustrious parties, like Sega SAMMY!) and to live them up with Taiko-branded facilities and events (Real Ranking Dojo sessions, in recent memory) is something not only to bring life to the facilities in modern times, but also to make it approachable to people of more than a specific age group! I'm transparently offering a partisan take when stating that rhythm games in general highly contribute to game centers' operations these days, but to see one of such parties invest in what most brush off as a dying sector sure is inspiring! Especially considering what was announced shortly after...
3rd Trimester
Building up from the previous trimester segments, more "fortuitous allies" of sorts for the series (that is to say, collaborative projects) were in the air throughout these months, and around this time it was mostly the turn for Anime fans to have fun with My Hero Academia and (a little bit later) returning One Piece shenanigans. It's also worth noting how the fan-nicknamed TenSura managed to bookend in two rounds both this year's beginning and ending! Noteworthy are also the literal last-minute joining of the PeroPero Games-started Cosmic Radio contest edition for 2024 and the announcement of a brand-new original music contest to boot.
Lok-approved:
- The Global Nijiiro Unification Plan - No doubt about it, the month's biggest plus on my point of view deserved its dedicated paragraphs (and the header picture, duuuh), as the ongoing mission to spread more and more the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise across the world has made its biggest step forward for Westerners yet: actual Nijiiro Version cabinets coming to North America (and possibly Europe, later on)! The NA announcement was first made at the tail end of the TnT World Championship 2024 tournament and would see its very first public presentation near November's end, on the rision hopes to let more and more people enjoy the natural grounds the franchise lies on... and in its most up-to-date fashion yet, Banapassport support and all!
In a 3-parter Japanese interview that was released shortly after the US distribution's reveal (click here), the ongoing director of the franchise's arcade branch has shared the ambitious goal of ending up at the time of said interview with at least 10.000 Taiko cabinets across the world, with approximately 4.700 models already being operative in Japan and about 900 more in other largely-Asia-based areas. Let's hope the road to such an accomplishment will lead to more and more people having fun with the series, regardless of ultimately meeting it or not!
Lok-middling:
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The Fool of Tatsuji-wari - Not having a steady reach to the arcade scene in 1st-person myself, I'm not perceiving the following point as quite a huge negative, but considering the big feedback buzz I've independently read online about it, it'd be a disservice not to point this out somehow.
The yearly Ranking Dojo main course revamp has ended on September with a Tatsujin course that brought back the fearsome Dairokuten Maou as the final hidden song, now geared up with a tremendous Ura Oni to boot. However, between general players and even a few composers (for former songs in Taiko, even!) a few critiques have been leveled about this one choice from the usual norm, not much for not having a brand-new, hidden song as the final contender (at least, not for the majority of the random impressions I've read about) but for the former Tatsujin song's return per-se, deeming the original 10* Oni already perfect in doing its job as the ultimate skills gatekeeper (for its release time) and a few even lamenting its Ura falling on the "note overchart-y" side of modern Taiko top dogs.
Again, not being a big arcade player myself, I can't vouch that big of a sentiment in either direction, so I'm just going to quote the same Demon King of the Sixth Heaven from another franchise and go with "It can't be helped"... - Rhythm (Dis)Connect - Alongside the really exciting
happenings of the arcade tourney's epilogue, we've also come to know
about the impending End of Service for the latest mobile Taiko no
Tatsujin game, RHYTHM CONNECT. While bringing really unique elements to
the Taiko-browsing experience with unique menu browsing means and the
few perks brought in by the portrait-orientation gameplay, this kinda
sits me on the middle of the "bad spectrum" for news to be revealed,
just for a reason: the writing was on the wall, sadly.
We've seen how via social-media-driven broadcasts it has been tried to gauge interest and feedback on how to improve the game, but the ad-heavy monetization approach that the game had since the beginning has eventually lead to more ways to economically mantain the game, mostly via the in-game coins also being used as the means for playing the latest songs on top of all the loops to be able to play on any difficulty, with Oni and Ura Oni gated away regardless if you paid for skipping ADs or not. What came BAD out of this, however, is something to talk about a bit later on...
4th Trimester
We arrive at last at the very final confrontation between the hero and the villain, which for Taiko gaming's final trimester in 2024 was not in form of a god-of-almost-everything like in your average JRPG, but it's for boss songs! Building up from Nijiiro's yearly Ranking Dojo renewal, we ended up with December and cosMo@BouSouP supplying quite the fearsome Original gauntlets at its very end, Ura charting and brand-new compositions on toe! This was also the window that saw the Donderful/Rhythm Festival ports for PC and Sony/Microsoft systems, supporting 120FPS action and (largely) the same Taiko Music Pass support the pre-existing Nintendo Switch version already had.
We've also gotten a few more returning operations, including the yearly Touhou Project incursion and the third story in the WADIVERSE project. North American Taiko no Tatsujin cabs are also starting to get operative across the country, so watch out if you're planning a trip to one of its game centers, from now on!
Lok-approved:
- Taiko-mon Go to the (Questant) Polls - Last year for the 4th Trimester, I''ve highly praised the people behind Taiko games being so involved into spreading the Taiko joy across both broadcasts and live events. This year at the same time frame, my appreciation goes to another aspect running strong in parallel with such effort, which is to say the gathering of Donders' opinions on many topics, now involving more and more countries in the process!
On top of the regular arcade-versed questions asked for Taiko livestreams, more and more topics are being asked from the next mold composition for arcade cabs' drums to even song suggestions feedback for future portings, both for console DLCs and arcades. Not even that, said polls are more than often presented in more language to better reach out all Asian players currently polled in! We've also got feedback requests that cater to specific versions as well, such as the players of the China-exclusive Nijiiro arcade firmware that has just turned one year old, both for impressions to how operations are run as well as name suggestions for an upcoming Namco Original!
Lok-abominables:
- The Drumming Portable Void - The real loss about RHYTHM CONNECT's End of Service notice (and its effective application, earlier this December) is the fact that arguably the biggest portable gaming userbase is now effectively devoid of unique Taiko games to be enjoyed on the go, barring of course the multi-platform releases that can be also enjoyed on computer/home console setups (the Apple-affine Pop Tap Beat and again, Rhythm Festival). We've had for the better part of 14 years a reliable iOS game that would eventually end up on Android devices and the fact that it's follow-up only barely made it beyond a full year is disheartening by comparison.
Whenever Taiko-on-the-go is on the Taiko Team's cards or not, let's hope at the very least it has long-standing legs that make it enjoyable in some capacity after it expires, once again if franchise memory...
That pretty much covers it, for this year! Like for past forays, we don't dwell that much on past trends that are perpetrated across years -be those positive or negative- but our look on the most-immediate past to count is always to fix a "checkpoint" of sorts to branch forward to whatever new things are up in store, both for us to research on and for you to find out! Most long-running RPG series, in fact, sure are keen to keep their bases covered for eventual sequel. A mighty dragon may have been slain, but God knows what kinds of events are about to slither in... in more than a way!
Until then, have a good one! See you in 2025.
