The final Taiko no Tatsujin livestream of the year is here, at long last! Behind the jump lies all the English-commentary walkthrough to what you can see on the video above these lines, sporting a particular titling format that may or may not be related to what's been unveiled inside...
As per customary tradition, the first topic is the upcoming arcade update, one we've already covered in abridged-y fashion in the past days (see here!). But as you know, we don't need Billy Mays catchphrases of sorts to tell you there's more to it on this retelling!
Indeed, this update will also see the latest seasonal Rewards Shop rotation in effect, adding for a limited time the following songs as Don Medal-redeemable items for Banapassport plyaers.
Worth nothing is the inclusion of a brand-new original song for the holidays named Chrimbo! (くりんぼ！), one that had a short preview in the livestream (at around the 10-minute mark) that is already posted on the same official channel, earlier today!
With the new seasonal Rewards Shop lineup, a few of the older redeemable items via Katsu Medals will be unlocked for everyone to play, this time also including two Ura Oni charts that made their debut in select Ranking Dojo Gaiden courses in the past.
For the lack of a better term, the retelling of the ongoing arcade collaboration events (this year's Touhou Project and 2nd TenSura campaigns) was followed by the Taiko equal of vacation postcards from all over the world, recapping the events in the past few months where Taiko no Tatsujin's presence was heard the most!
Up first is a few snaps from Orlando's IAAPA Expo amusement exhibit, the first foray in which the tentative Nijiiro arcades for Western audiences were first shown off.
Right here, we got a collage of photos from the latest Real Ranking Dojo events across the latest Namco-owned arcades! These down here are from the Namco Umeda Store.
Coming up now are screens from the Taiko no Tatsujin music panel at this year's Amusement Music Fes, the once which also had the Sotokanda Literature High School performers from the Denonbu musical project performing.
More importantly, however, when on Earth will be otherwise able to see together the mascots of Taiko no Tatsujin and Bubble Bobble like this!?
Last but not least is the collage from Amusement Expo 2024, the first foray in which the fabled drum pugrade kit was first showcased to the public. Something to quickly tie in with the livestream run at hand...
Indeed, in quite the rare moment across official Taiko no Tatsujin media, we're getting some insight upon the ongoing development and schematics with the arcade Taiko drums in the ongoing scenario. More specifically, it's time to talk about the upcoming official modification to the drums' reactive side, the ones to receive tens of thousand hits every year!
For the first time since the arcade series' inception, the material of the hitting surface of the ongoing cabinets' Taiko drums will be converted to a different wooden derivate in the so-called Medium-Density Fiberboard (or MDF for short) as a measure to increase the hit accuracy as well as their durability. Not only that, the mod will also introduce a countermeasure frame to mitigate the chances of static electricity pikes (usually common while playing in dry seasons) and a heigh-adjustment wassier that can change in increments of 0.2 mm for arcade owners to better adjust its height when assembled.
After that, a series of comparison pictures were made to showcase the structural differences between the older model on the left -used since the series' very beginning (made in Veneer Plywood)- and the upcoming MDF-based hitting surface on the right.
Down here, on the other hand, are the two wooden products after durability testing for each, further showcasing the newly-introduced artifical wood's properties after being stressed over time (and with heavy weights!).
Down here, on the other hand, are pictures of the new panels with the new static-isolation frames installed, as well as the new soldiering spots to allow an even more precise height calibration when assempling the drum for stores.
Since conveying the ever-topical "how does it feel?" first impressions is harder to experience from a number of Donders behind their digital monitor of choice, it was instead shown a video reel of highly-skilled players from the concluded World Championship 2024 Finals to come over and try the new hitting surfaces and give their impressions about the perceived differences. Skip to about the 43rd-minute mark to see this from the livestream video yourself!
Etou and Kimizu also showed on-stream the feedback gathered by bringing in two Nijiiro cabinets, each with one of the drums having the new MDF-based hitting surfaces and the other left with the franchise-opening ones made in plymouth. It wasn't disclosed to the public which one was which in order not to cloud judgement and the resulting first impressione were gathered for both drums in both cabs.
The graph slideshows the percentage of people playing which of the two cabs (left) and which one of the two drums were (by players' assumption) the one with the new hitting surface (red for 1P/Left side, blue for 2P/Right side, green for 'Unsure'); on the other, instead, are some impressions from people trying both drums of either arcade at the venue. After a video reveal, it was proved how the assumption of people's guesses pending towards the 1P side of each were correct!
To close this segment, a few Namco arcades were listed as the first places to start implementing the MDF-made hitting surface mod to the public en large.
Of course, the middle portion is right about the time we get the returning "What in the box?" portion for arcade-versed user questions for the Taiko hosts to reply... but before that, a couple of slides profiling an upcoming social media campaign's goods that can be won (to be disclosed at a later date) and brand-new official arcade screen separators, said to roll out alongside the MDF surface implementations!
After being done with the box-drawn portion, there's some other unfinished business to talk about: the 2024 Music Recruitment Contest's thrilling conclusion! With both General User Vote phases out of the way, the winners (yep, we've got 2 of them!) were revealed by popular Donder demand.
The first of the two winners is returning contest winner Katagiri's music submission, also featuring one overseas composer who (and pardon the external gaming lingo butchering) found deliverance in that external song-contest light of about three years ago. Joining Katagiri and Frums's combined efforts is also Juggernaut.'s Senko Tenbu (閃光天舞), making its creator's Taiko debut in the project.
Expect those two to appear alongside the other nine judges-picked winners, in a future Weekend Warrior Nijiiro Version incursion near you! For those wandering, the Bronze/Silver Honorable Mentions are yet to come on the contest's website, in the following weeks.
With this year's music contest out of our way, the reason of having that weirdly worded-out "2024+1(st month of) 2025" is laid bare open. For those who weren't satisfied for just the "Emma Ura Oni" meme to be put to rest once and for all, another high-speculation-topic for Ura candidates was finally out of the way, with 4+1 no Sorezore no Mirai receiving its own today!
The Ura Oni in question is already out and until we update the Dec '24 First Video Portal, you can have a taste of its inner-workings here. For those who want to keep it a surprise before going to play it on an arcade, let's just say it's a worthy Ura Oni for a 20th Taiko anniversary songs... and that applies to ALL of its forks!
For the stream's attenders, the first (partial) look at the Ura Oni in question was ushered in with a spoonful of Youtube chat gambling, as viewers were asked to guess which of the three conditions on display would Kimizu/No.11 be able to achieve on his first playthrough on this challenge. If the arcade Taiko director would manage to get the most-voted option at the end of the play (even with song failure), every active Banapassport user would receive a unique title for the accomplishment
The most voted option out of the three was the third one, "end with a Max Combo of 50 and higher", leading to...
...a triumphing victory, leading to everyone receiving the title below free of charge.
For the record, only voting Option 1 (score more than 500k points) would have ended with a loss, as Kimizu also managed to surpass the 100-or-more-drumrolls challenge on his way.
The final stream's final thing to talk about is quite likely the final original song that Taiko arcades are going to get in 2024: another brand-new Namco Original for everyone, from the same cosMo@BouSouP that also supplied the Exhibition song for the 2024 arcade tournament's closure! The customary short preview clip for it was aired at around the 1:47:00 mark.
Right on cue, we also end up with a slide bearing its creator's thoughts about it, being asked by Etou to make "a high-difficulty song with good eye" and ending up in the end with what the renowned Vocalo-P composer deems to be his most difficult for Taiko no Tatsujin yet, both in terms of speed and density.
As many would assume, the title of this song and the aforementioned WCS2024 Exhibition tune are related by the mention of scientifical names for constellations in opposing hemispheres, with POLARiSNAUT's Polaris star for the Northern Sky and CRUXNAUT's Crux constellation of the Southern Sky. You can hardly get more cosMo-ical than that!
That wraps up this livestream run, with this year on toe with that. Let's hope for a slitheringly-exciting 2025 coming up!
...okay, not really, there was a minor announcement for the final pre-multiplatform-release Rhythm Festival JP-only tournament for the younger ones, but you didn't hear anything.....
