Today, we've got a fresh music gaming collaboration look-back on our shores. So much time has passed since the target series has landed into the Taikoverse, to the point that it had all the time to go through a full-on cabinet overhaul, Taiko-arcade-generation-leap style!
Valsqotch owl*tree feat. chi*tree / maimai Deluxe
owl＊tree feat.chi＊tree 「maimai でらっくす」より
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y6) NS2 (MP) |  | ★5 254 | ★7 375 | ★8 633 | ★10 1057 | - |
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valsqo (Valsqotch)One of my biggest regrets for this ending year is the incapability on my part to regale you with a December-long event in the likes of past years's Drumvent Calendars, "thanks" to a few ongoing, spine-chilling pains (in the truest sense of the expression) that are still hindering my everyday endeavors, much less work with tablet-sized-and-under devices to post on this very blog. Nevertheless, it's nice to see how in some stroke of luck, we got one of our readers of yore's wishes getting reciprocated... somehow, with a foreign rhythm game song that happens to share seriality and lead composer of such a request! While we've already gone through the composer in greater lenghts in that occasion (see here), a few more choice words won't hurt to see where it's at in the grander scheme of otoge things.
Behind this song donning such a curious name lies one of the long-date doujin composers of many aliases and humble bemani music game origins: Kennosuke Ono (website; X accounts for the onoken and owl*tree aliases), working in the doujin scene since 2001 and noverer of a new anime soundtrack works under his belt, from Higurashi no naku koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に) to Accel World (アクセル・ワールド) and CHAOS;CHILD. Outside of the more-common onoken alias, an abridged name/surname portmanteau combo, most of the artist's aliases are based on the titles of some of his earlier songs, most prominently the Ax and felys ones that are mostly spotted across pop'n music games. For Sega's non-Miku music game trilogy, however, the nickname chosen pays homage to the same company in owl*tree (pronounce: 'O(wl)*Toorii'), referencing Sega Japan's former Otorii headquarter in Tokyo. The connection between artist and alias was unveiled by Internet sleuths circa 2020 (again, see the linked Drumvent feature to find out more about it!), but the official reveal from the same Ono happened in late 2023 during that year's Amusement Game Fes concert, the same event which would eventually see even Bandai Namco artists and Taiko-related folks to join in later editions, soon after!
Like penned in the incipit for today, it's been quite a while since Taiko no Tatsujin has received songs from Sega's maimai series, back in the years of the Tenkaichi Otogesai cross-rhythm-game tornament line. Much time has passed since then, to the point the next maimai songs we receive in a mutual-exchange way were delivered after a major revision to the arcade line in question! This is the maimai Deluxe (maimai でらっくす), publicly debuting on July 11th, 2019 and spanning six major firmware revisions ever since with a 'PLUS' mid-life patch for each. The key aspect of the Deluxe cabinet line is the addition of a touchscreen-capable monitor, integrating the pre-existing gameplay of tapping the monitor's 8 outer rim for pink notes and sliders with new touchscreen-based notes in the center. Regrettably, however, the hardware-linked recording cameras of the original line couldn't be ported over due to those being built tailor-fit for the old models, so a simpler camera for pre/post gameplay selfies was implemented on its stead, with a free lodging on its place to place a smartphone and do the recording oneself.
Valsqotch is the fourth onoken song in maimai, originally introduced as the maimai Deluxe National Finals song for the 2019 edition of the KING of Performai tournament line. In a way, it mirrors one of the Taiko additions to Sega's turf from this year's exchange of songs, as the crossed-over Hurtling Boys got famously added under similar tourney-powered circumstances, back in 2013's TnT World Championship! Under the 'chi*tree' alias lies Chiho Saito (斎藤千穂), a violinist with credits for a number of projects in the 2010s, from videogames and most notably Square-Enix's (Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age; Kingdom Hearts's HD collections) to a few anime shows, including CHAOS;HEAD again. This song was also released for a maimai Deluxe collaboration pack in Peropero's Muse Dash, released in February 2023 and available for a limited time to purchase (link). Much like a lot of the earlier owl*tree works, a long version of this song does exist as part of February 2020's pvq album release.
It's a low base BPM, sure, but the frantic small clusters barrage and the fluctuating scrolling speed modifiers (up to x3 speed!) more than compensate for a challenge worthy of the top-starred status, mostly comparable to Sakuzyo's MagiCatz and another certain Sega-ported treat of yesteryear. This song and Oshama Scramble! both reached Donderful/Rhythm Festival's Taiko Music Pass service before the Nijiiro Version porting, but the final dozen-or-so beat stanzas' relentress giant note spam makes it anything but console-unfriendly for those top-score-achievers out there!
