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Taiko no Tatsujin (Japanese: 太鼓の達人, Taiko no Tatsujin, lit Taiko Drum Master) is a series of rhythm games created by Namco. (Later Bandai Namco Entertainment and Bandai Namco Amusement.)
Gameplay
Objective
The main objective of the games is to hit a simulated Taiko drum to hit the notes scrolling in from the right side of the screen.
In regular gameplay modes, a gauge, known as the Soul Gauge, fills up as the donder hits the notes precisely enough throughout the song. The main objective is to finish a song with the Soul Gauge filled past the target, which will allow the donder to complete the song with a clear (ノルマクリア). Failure to do so would result in the rest of the session being failed (prior to 2020 in the arcades), with different messages based on the degree of the gauge being filled starting from the 3rd generation era, with "Failed... Try harder, don!" appearing when the gauge is less than 80% towards the target, and "Failed! So close, don!" happening when the donder is at 80% or more closer to the gauge (at any point in later console versions).
Prior to the fourth generation era, any remaining songs are all wasted when a song is failed. However, from 7 onwards, the game can give the player an opportunity to play another song, either through revival roulette (7-10) or revival drumroll (11-Green). Revival drumroll could range from 20-80 strokes required in Kantan to Muzukashii difficulty, and 35-120 strokes in Oni difficulty (with an additional 10% (11) or 100% (12-14) to immediately grant revival by the end of the second generation era). However, the number of strokes required is set to the maximum possible in the third generation era.
Controls
The arcade releases are equipped with the simulated Taiko drums with pressure sensors built into the face and rim of the drums to register hits in the game. Two pairs of bachi sticks (tied to the arcade cabinets) are included to register hits by hitting the face or the side of the Taiko drums. Being pressure-based, hitting the Taiko drum more forcefully will register big note hits (which can be also done by hitting both left and right sides of the face or rim of the drums) instead of the regular note hits.
The console releases mainly use buttons to play, with certain game entries providing support for additional methods of input such as a dedicated TaTaCon, touchscreen, and motion control.
Notes
The notes consist mainly of red and blue notes. The red Don note requires a hit on the face of the drum, while the blue Ka note requires a hit on the rim instead.
There are other types of notes that require quick consecutive hits on the drum, such as the yellow drum rolling bar note, the balloon note, and the Yam/Kusudama/Mallet notes.
There are also big notes for both red, blue, and drum rolling notes. Hitting the big notes by hitting the drum on both sides or hitting the drum hard enough (on for Arcade releases) will earn twice as many points as a regular note.
Difficulties
In most games, there are four difficulty notecharts provided for each song: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme.
Extra track
Some songs, like 'Senbonzakura' and 'Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin', have Extra tracks that are usually harder than the regular tracks.
On early arcade releases prior to Taiko no Tatsujin (2011), unlocking the Extra tracks can only be done while on the title screen. Donders can unlock it by hitting both left and right rims of the drum alternately 20 times.
Starting from Taiko no Tatsujin (2011) onward for arcade releases, the Extra track is only available on Extreme difficulty. To select the Extra Extreme difficulty, donders would have to hit the right rim of the drum 10 times while on the difficulty selection screen with Extreme difficulty selected.
The method for playing Extra tracks on console releases varies between releases.
Path Divergence
Some songs have the path divergence feature, which has at least two different note parts that will switch depending on how well a donder plays the song.
Trivia
- The Nintendo GameCube console did not porting to Taiko no Tatsujin games instead; there's a rhythm game series called Donkey Konga, published by Nintendo and developed by Namco.
External link
- Taiko no Tatsujin official portal site (Japanese)