Post-Xmas Blues - Arcade and Taiko Music Pass Farewell Songs

The holidays will come and go... but so are going to be a fistful of songs, very early into the new year. Going in order of reveal, here are the latest trio of licenses to leave Nijiiro Version, as revealed in the Taiko Team blog entry predating the public release of CRUXNAUT, cosMo@BouSouP's latest Namco Original.

Nijiiro Ver. Farewell Songs

	Title
2025/01/22 (all locales)
	Strawberry☆Planet Strawberry Prince/NayutalieN ストロベリー☆プラネット！／ すとぷり / ナユタン星人 Nijiiro Ver. Exclusive	★3	★3	★3	★6
	Ai ni Dekiru-koto wa Mada Aru Kai Weathering with You 愛にできることはまだあるかい／「天気の子」より 　　Also in: NS1 (DLC), NS2 (MP)	★2	★2	★4	★5	★8
	Zenryoku Batankyu Osomatsu-san 全力バタンキュー／「おそ松さん」より 　　Also in: PS4, NS1 (DLC), NS2 (MP)	★2	★4	★6	★8

Farewell Timeline (all times are JST/UTC+9)

Time	Milestone
2025/01/03 00:00	Farewell Tracks unusable in Donder Hiroba tournaments and challenges
2025/01/22 02:00	Crowns and score ranks obtained from Farewell Tracks removed from totals in Donder Hiroba
2025/01/22 07:00	Farewell Tracks no longer playable  Scores and rankings of Farewell Tracks removed from view in Donder Hiroba Liked Tracks slot and Favourite Track reverted to none if Farewell Tracks was selected

---------------------------------------------------------

Below, on the other hand, are the Taiko Music Pass songs to be removed in 2025's first months, revealing two Farewell rounds at once while adding at the same time the Ura Oni of  Carmen Prelude, alongside the latest round of TMP removals that was applied yesterday (link).

Taiko Music Pass Farewell Tracks

	Title
2025/01/30
	Tsuki to Taiyou 月と太陽	★3	★4	★5	★8
	Stairway Generation Gintama 　　「銀魂」より	★3	★4	★6	★7
	TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT Bleach 　　「BLEACH」より	★3	★5	★8	★8
	Totsugeki Rock Naruto Shippuden 突撃ロック／「NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝」より	★2	★3	★5	★8
2024/02/27
	Digital Mole デジタルモグラ	★2	★3	★4	★7
	BLAZING Gundam: Reconguista in G 　　「Ｇのレコンギスタ」より	★4	★6	★6	★7
	Houki Kumo Yakitate! Japan ホウキ雲／「焼きたて!!ジャぱん」より	★3	★4	★5	★6
	Blood Circulator Naruto Shippuden ブラッドサーキュレーター／「NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝」より	★2	★4	★5	★7
	Toumei Datta Sekai Naruto Shippuden 透明だった世界／「NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝」より	★3	★4	★5	★6

• Farewell Tracks will not be playable in all modes
• Scores and crowns achieved will be removed from view
• Farewell Tracks will disappear from playlist(s) if previously set
• If a Farewell Track is set as My Battle Track in online modes, the slot will be reverted to the default (Natsu Matsuri)
• Titles obtained from playing Farewell Tracks (e.g. "(track) Lover" from playing the track 30 times) will still be usable even after removal.

Sources
Taiko no Tatsujin official blog (2024/12/20)
Taiko no Tatsujin Donderful Festival Official Website - Farewell sub-section

Namco Taiko Blog (October 12th, 2023) - Early Autumn's Nijiiro Perfect Licensem@ster Class

 

Rising from the ashes of the heated Year4 Ranking Dojo conclusion, Nijiiro Version's happenings for the next few weeks are sure to bring up some spice to this Autumn's arcade scene!

First Video: Daisuki na Taiko no Ne

It's one more day's worth of waiting for its First Video landing around here, and you'll soon find out why is that! Soshina's 20th Anniversary Taiko no Tatsujin song starring Don-chan as the singer is a peppy parade that leaves little to no breathing room no matter the flavor of Oni mode you're about to pick. And if you're wondering what's the Taiko ambassador's gimmick of choice for his Ura Oni charting... the short answer is, ask it to the song itself!

The choice of lyrics for Daisuki na Taiko no Ne is not a mere lip service to many of the most popular Namco Original tunes to date, as the Ura Oni charting is up to match 1-on-1 each song mention with a portion of its most memorable Taiko Oni notechart, a-la Taik-color but on a much bigger scale. So much so that the official MV on YouTube that just launched today it turned out to be a long version of the song! While, alas, not being officially playable as of yet, see if you can guess the notechart patterns without paying attention to the song's lyrics for an added layer of Taiko challenge!

	Title
	Daisuki na Taiko no Ne Taiko no Tatsujin 20th Anniversary Song/Soshina feat. Don-chan 一世風靡 / 太鼓の達人20周年記念ソング /粗品 feat. どんちゃん	★3	★6	★7	★8 (795)	★9* (876)

*: Rated as a ★10 on Taiko Plus/STH

Twitter Snippets (May 1st-7th, 2020) - Nijiiro Ver.'s 3rd Song Poll and Donder's Streaming Aid

【お知らせ】太鼓の達人 ニジイロVer. 収録楽曲要望アンケート実施！#おうち時間 で、太鼓の達人に収録して欲しい曲を教えてくれませんか？
いよいよ第３回！今回は【ボーカロイドTM】曲です！アンケートサイトはコチラ⇒https://t.co/gt2nYMTdiP
アンケート期間：2020/5/7～5/13まで#taiko765 pic.twitter.com/ccGe1HGcZ5

— 太鼓の達人 (@taiko_team) May 7, 2020

A new public poll for the Taiko Team's song-suggestion trend is now live, this time around -as previously advertised- asking its participants which Vocaloid song would be the best suited to join Nijiiro Version in the future. While we're wondering which song genre is the next one in line for such polls, you have a week of time from today (that is, until May 13th) to punch in your idea!

【太鼓の達人のバーチャル背景をお届けします♪】
これからのGW、お友だちとのビデオチャットなどに使ってみてください！
※使用上のお願い
個人利用を目的として提供しております。商用、企業宣伝などへの利用はできません。また、再配布、複製などはご遠慮ください。 #taiko765 pic.twitter.com/SN6kEwiBrl

— 太鼓の達人 (@taiko_team) May 1, 2020

A week prior to this, Bandai Namco has joined the trend of other companies of publicly releasing some tailor-fit wallpapers for streaming background purposes with some of their gaming franchises, Taiko no Tatsujin very much included.

We're posting this bit of news today, however, as the related wallpapers are not only available in the above-embeded link, but also in its newly-opened dedicated section of the Taiko no Tatsujin official website as well! As long as these are not used for any commercial purposes, feel free to spread some Taiko silliness in video chats during such health-forsaken times...

First Video: Taik-color

	Title
	Taik-color タイコロール／steμ feat. siroa	★5	★6	★7	★10 (876)

As you should know from the featured Namco Taiko Blog post, Taik-color is like a big closing credits (i.e. ending roll) song for the whole of 3rd generation. Similar to its lyrics mentioning all the versions and their special features, the actual song and notechart took samples directly from iconic songs from each version:

• Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu -Gekijouban- for base AC0 (Ura notechart quoted)
• Fly away for KATSU-DON
• Hurtling Boys for Sorairo ver.
• Sotsu Omeshiki for Momoiro ver.
• Day by Day! for Kimidori ver.
• !!!Chaos Time!!! for Murasaki ver.
• Gloria for White ver.
• VICTORIA for Red ver.
• Taiko Drum Monster for Yellow ver. (retrofitted to 16th)
• Toymatic☆Parade!! for Blue ver.
• Connect Colors for Green ver.

Outside of the familiar section, Taik-color plays similar to Blessed Bouquet Buskers, where patterns are straightforward and only speed and stamina are points of challenge.

In punny goroawase trivia, other than the obvious 876 combo count, the low-speed parts at the start and end are at 87.6 BPM and the high-speed middle is at 187.6 BPM.

Note for title hunters: Oni Full Combo title is "'Hit the Taiko to Start!'" (「太鼓をたたいてスタート！」)

Namco Taiko Blog (February 18 2020): A Colorful Carpet Towards The End And Byond

Now that the Donder community is sufficiently hyped about the 4th generation version, it's time to start tying things off for Green ver., like a brand new song coming February 21 2020 right on the 19th anniversary for the first Taiko no Tatsujin arcade:

	Title
	Taik-color タイコロール／steμ feat. siroa	★?	★?	★?	★?

Key: red = series debut; blue = arcade debut

On the surface, the title involves "Taiko" (タイコ) and "roll" (ロール) as in drumroll), but maybe more importantly "color" (コロール, read like Spanish or Italian as [ko-LORE]) signifying the end of the color version systems. So yes, no apparent connection with Taiko Time that closed out the 2nd generation on AC14.

The song was pitched almost one year ago, around which was also the middle of development for Green ver.'s AI Battle Performance mode and the beginning for the new 4th-generation version/Nijiiro ver. firmware. steμ expressed the for a commemoration song bridging the generations to deliver the gratitude for all the Donders that have been sticking with the 3rd-generation color versions, to be made by everyone in the Taiko Team. While not everyone in the team gets it immediately, steμ's passion spread through the team with continued efforts and the song is finally realized.

Meanwhile, Connect Colors also began its production cycle at about the same time as Taik-color, and steμ is involved in sound direction work for both songs. While strictly speaking the two songs do not have deep-level connections beyond the theme of colors, the common point of steμ may have got themes and messages hinted in Connect Colors to be linked into Taik-color.

While the subtitle only has "steμ feat. siroa" like Taiko Drum Monster, this song is really a team effort. Aside from steμ's composition and siroa's vocal, Taik-color also features SueP on the guitar, Masubuchi on the bass, and a chorus that is the whole Taiko Team led by notecharters MKP and uintHara.

Going with that sentiment be the lyrics filled with Taiko no Tatsujin terms and all the names of 3rd-generation color versions. In 20/20 hindsight, both completion titles for Challenge! Green Gaiden (5) and (6) are also used in the song, fulfilling the hint that the two trials contain hidden messages.

To read the accounts by Etou, steμ and siroa in their originality as well as the full set of lyrics, check out the original post.

First Video: Caribbean Knight

Mix up Hayabusa's speedup/slowdown contrasting charting portion with some consecutive small/big note alternations a-la Ura Swan lake, dress it up with a stable scrolling speed enhancement all throughout the play and presto, here's the recipe for the latest member of the 10-star Oni club.

	Title
	Caribbean Knight 　　Taiji	★5	★7	★7	★10 (806)

Twitter Snippets (January 31 2020): Righteously Raiding the High C(ombo)s

日付に誤りがありました。お詫びして訂正いたします。
【お知らせ（ゲームセンター）】太鼓の達人 グリーンVer.
2020/2/1（土）から、ナムコオリジナル「Ｃａｒｉｂｂｅａｎ Ｋｎｉｇｈｔ　/　Ｔａｉｊｉ」」が遊べるドーン♪おたのしみに!https://t.co/6zuZf832br#taiko765

— 太鼓の達人 (@taiko_team) January 31, 2020

Apparently involving no pirates and no Arabian origins, Taiji's second foray into Taiko no Tatsujin drops tomorrow on February 1. (NB. the tweet is a second try since the Taiko Team goofed the date on the first try)

	Title
	Caribbean Knight 　　Taiji	★?	★?	★?	★?

Key: red = series debut; blue = console debut