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Saturday, August 20, 2016

Namco Original Showcase: God Collection Songs

Another of the Taiko Team-announced song series, this cycle of songs has begun during the life span of the Taiko no Tatsujin White Version arcade firmware, with the objective of making original songs that are referencing the Japanese mythology, be it with the title alone or with the song's actual lyrics and themes as well. For the first time in Taiko arcade gaming, this is the very first song series to be formed and grouped into its dedicated custom folder, whose title was soon adopted as this collection of songs' very own series name.

While on this page we'll be primarily focusing our attentions on the songs themselves (and the artists behind those), you can find out more facts about the involved mythology tropes and figures in our multi-parter Feature series (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3).

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-God Collection Series-




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 KUSANAGI aran
Version
Allx5 (200)x6 (407)x7 (569)x9 (745)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko +
 180
 none
 fltlnd


The God Collection series was started as a couple of songs that were simultaneously released for White Version's launch, featuring new-coming talents from the hardcore techno music production club known as HARDCORE TANO*C, the very same one where t+pazolite is one of the main members.

Holding the name of one of Japan's three Imperial Regalia/Sacred Treasures, the full-instrumental track KUSANAGI is made by the nick-named aran, owner of the Otographic Music label and one of the aforementioned club's latest members (joining in 2009). Born in the Saitama prefecture, his creations tend to gravitate around the UK Hardcore style, while also jumping around other musical genres from time to time and, in recent years, taking commissions for the creation of music in other media. One of his first works for rhythm gaming lies in the Groove Coaster song VOLT, with which KUSANAGI is sharing multiple sound samples. Always on Taiko-related grounds, aran also made a remix of t+pazolite's Shiny Kung-fu Revival, which was released in 2015's Ponko2 Girlish CHS album.  For more informations about aran and his works, there are his Twitter and Soundcloud pages.

Despite being a 9* Oni, KUSANAGI's chart is able to pull out some serious curve balls to even the most experienced of players, thanks to its tiring cluster successions and its nasty 1/24 cluster stunts ready to break the combos of those who either don't hit them fast enough or don't properly hand-switch in order to carry on with the following 1/16 portion. For its console debut, KUSANAGI has been used as a boss fight track against the Quetzalcoatl in Dokodon! Mystery Adventure's Story mode.

 Kagutsuchi (カグツチ) Massive New Krew
Version
Allx4 (135)x6 (345)x7 (464)x9 (716)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko +
 162-172
 none
 kagu27


For an original composition titled after the mythological kami of fire, yet another couple of talents from the HARDCORE TANO*C club came forth to take on the Taiko bounty.

Kagutsuchi's creators are the composing duo of Ryosuke Tachibana (橘亮祐) and JAVELIN (most commonly known as 'Jenkins.C'), who together are known as the Massive New Krew. Founded in 2008, the unit was mainly a DJ set duo until the year 2011, when they began composing hardstyle track albums under the Massive Circlez label with original creations, where their use of the "bouncing" heavy bass has been a trademark of theirs for nearly every single song. In a 2015 interview, they revealed that the choice behind their unit's name was made because of the Massive New Krew's initial-based abbreviation (MNK) standing for "something dirty". If you want to know more about the unit's works, there are Massive New Krew's Soundcloud page and the individual Twitter accounts of Tachibana and Jenkins.C.

Much like aran, Massive New Crew's creations have been featured in other forms of media, including the anime series of SHOW BY ROCK! and Groove Coaster with the couple of songs VELVET and Shiva. For the Taiko-related lore, both Tachibana and Jenkins.C were invited to one of the Taiko Team's livestreams together with aran and t+pazolite, in order to talk about their debut Taiko track. Later on, Massive New Krew also made an extended version of Kagutsuchi, which is featured in their Massive CircleZ BEST album.

Being a Dokodon! Mystery Dungeon boss track against the Viper Orochi (as well as a serious Dojo Ranking accuracy nightmare on White Version), Kagutsuchi's Oni mode retains a similar difficulty degree to aran's KUSANAGI, with its notechart recipe featuring more 1/24 clusters at a slower-paced base BPM.

 Shiritsu Takama-ga-hara Gakuen Koukou Kouka (私立高天原学園高校・校歌) D.Watt (IOSYS) feat. Np Hiko Inuta & Yamamoto Momiji
Version
Allx4 (164)x6 (342)x7 (586)x9 (829)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko PS4
 188
 none
 takamg


This series's continuation has happened some months after White Version's launch and -just like in that instance- two songs were released at the same time for the newborn series, courtesy of returning composers from the IOSYS doujin circle.

The first of the two songs was composed by D.watt, with Yuuya Kobayashi as Np Hiko Inuta (Np 犬田彦) being the lyricist and monotone member Yamamoto Momiji (山本椛) as the singer. This is one of those tracks where the title already gives out its lyrics' topic in advance (literally meaning 'Private Takama-ga-hara Gakuen High School ・ School Song'), with father of gods Izanagi being the teacher in the fable heavenly grounds' most prestigious institute to the entirety of 1st-generation Japanese gods (神産み, Kamiumi) and islands (国産み, Kumiumi).

According to D.watt in an interview released for a Taiko Team blog entry, the radio-styled song came out from the canned project of a sequel song to IOSYS Aki no Nikushoku Matsuri 2014. with the hardest part of the project being the creation of a lyrics set that can make its listeners feel the "serious fun" of Izanagi in his teaching position while dealing with his many students.

The Oni notechart mostly relies on standard 1/16, but -once again- the adding of an averagely-high base BPM can turn out to be crucial for players to overcome in order to to be stamina'd out by the Izanagi-speaking portions. The students' raw call is the main deal, as some 1/24 clusters may or may not sneak their way in, too!

 My Muscle Heart ~TV Takama-ga-hara-style Anime [Muscular Magical Girl Takeminakata] Main Theme~ / Yuuya Kobayashi (IOSYS) feat. Yamamoto Momiji (monotone)
Version
Allx3 (169)x4 (244)x5 (488)x9 (834)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko PS4
 140-195
 none
 msclht


And the winner for the longest Taiko no Tatsujin song subtitle goes to...

Silliness aside, My Muscle Heart is Yuuya Kobayashi's God Collection track, once again starring Yamamoto Momiji for the main singing role with D.watt as Shichijou Lettuce the lyricist. The tone for this song is quite the different one from D.watt's Japanese God-related song, as the ancient lore has been taken as an inspiration to pitch an opening theme for a fictional Anime series starring magical muscular girl Takeminakata-chan, which is joined after the pilot by Takemikazuchi in her battles for the defense of the town of Ashihara-no-Nakatsu-chou (葦原中町, kinda like Ashihara-no-Nakatsu-Kuni but a town) from external threats.

On the very same Taiko Team blog entry mentioned before, D.watt has pitched this fake Anime series' pilot episode, in order to give a little bit of context to the dialogue that can be heard in the song. The human Nakata Takemi (武御ナカタ) is a young freshman at the first year of junior high whose main interests are sports and muscle training. One day a girl named Kazuchi Takemi (健美カヅチ) hails from an unknown land, befriending Nakata but is actually here to claim control of the town. Nakata, following the cue by Shiro-usagi the bunny fairy (transformed into a mascot charm to protect Nakata, returning the favor of her father), transformed into the muscular magical girl (including protein yogurt and a half-baked transforming spell). She takes on Kazuchi in a contest of strength (in a form resembling the predecessor of sumo) and wins defying the legend (literally). Kazuchi cries in defeat and swears of not returning without winning Nakata. The song ends with Kazuchi joins Nakata's homeroom class at the school, embarking on the twisting plot of the (non-existent) series.

My Muscle Heart's Oni mode where the Go-Go Time portions trump the non-highlighted segments in the length department, almost entirely featuring 1/16 cluster formations along the way.

 Yomi no Izanami (黄泉のイザナミ)
Version
Allx4 (222)x6 (331)x7 (680)x8 (858)
 Taiko 0 W, Taiko PS4
 162-172
 none
 izanam


One of White Version's public swan songs (as well as said firmware's very last Don Challenge reward), Yomi no Izanami (lit. 'Izanami of Hades') is the tale of shaman-queen of Yamataikoku Himiko's grandson and her close friend singing about the tragic fate that has occurred to Izanagi's godly spouse Izanami. It's also the bearer of a rare and interesting backstory concerning the very employment of the people being hired for the creation of the song, as revealed by a Taiko Team blog entry!

This is a story involving the two singers behind this song: independent singers Shinno Aya (真野綾) and Yabuki Takane (矢吹高音), the latter of which can also be heard in Namco Original Takara no Oka. The two singers are actually long-time friends in real life after 10 years of dating, so it was an even merrier surprise for both to see that not only the other friend made the cut for Bandai Namco's job application, but that the two would perform together for the very same song! The composer is Production GIW's Hisui (翡翠), which for the song is diverging from his usual style to make a more traditional 4/4 tempo with progressive rock vibes. On the lyrics department, instead, we have another couple of well-known Taiko names: Giu (祇羽) and Yura Hatsuki (葉月ゆら). Each of the two gave its own mark to Yomi no Izanami in different ways with their words; while the former took care to give individuality to the song's main characters with their words reflecting their own personas (Himiko's grandson being dark and mysterious and her friend speaking in old, traditional celebratory terms), the latter refined the whole song's musicality in order to make it more mystical and fantasy-sounding.

Yomi noi Izanami is a tale for the ages in the 8-star Oni tier, as this is the first song of said rating bearing the Ban-Nam note counter, mixing the regular 1/16 rhythms with the experimental, fast-paced 1/12 and 1/24 clusters that can be spotted towards the end.

 Amaterasu (天照) Tatsh a.k.a Zeami
Version
Allx4 (191)x7 (355)x8 (546)x10 (858)
 Taiko 0 W (limited), Taiko 0 R, Taiko PS4
 125-200
 none
 amatrs


Closing the circle of the God Collection (in White Version, at the very least) is the fabled Amaterasu, an instrumental song titled after the major Shinto goddess of the sun and the universe. Dropping the two most used aliases for the song's subtitle with the 'also known as' link, this is the track by Tatsuya Shimizu (清水達也) that made its premiere as the World Championship 2016 winner's exclusive track, with Yosuga -the returning champion from the 2013/2014 tournament- dropping live a Donder-Full Combo in front of the astonished live audience of the event! A month later, the song has been made available to public Taiko Red Version arcades through the firmware's very first update.

While cheesing through a perfect run for the 2016 Taiko world champion has been proven as a concrete reality, your average Taiko player may find the many clusters running at 200 BPM more and more tiresome, despite the cluster formations's hard-to-read factor not being on par with exotic cluster formations appearing in many of his former Taiko creations. The Oni's Max Note count also appears to be the same one of VICTORIA, Cranky's debut Namco Original which also made its premiere at the World Championship 2016.

And speaking of the devil, ...

 VICTORIA Cranky
Version
Allx5 (289)x7 (432)x8 (545)x10 (858)
 Taiko 0 W (limited), Taiko 0 R, Taiko PS4
 185
 none
 crkvic


In a surprise announcement from the Taiko Team, it turns out that the other premiered Namco Original of the WCS2016 Finals turns out to be part of the God Collection, setting a new precedent for this song corner due to the track being titled after a goddess that's not coming from Japanese mythology! Victoria is, in fact, the Roman personification of victory, being the equal identity of Greek mythology's Nike. An extended version of this track is featured in the Rave-SLave 2018 album.

This track comes from the hands of Hiroshi 'cranky' Watanabe (渡辺宏), an independent composer whose earliest works online are dated as far as 1998, being one of the amateur song-makers for the PC beatmania simulation program BM98, acronim for Bee-Emm-Queue-Hatchy and later on for the more-commonly-known 'Be-Music 98'. During those years, his main musical production was heavilly inspired by the works of Japanese rock band TM Network, but he developed his own style as time passed by with his own Dance-Rave musical approach, up to unleashing what has become the viral Flash animation '1000キタ━━━━(゜∀゜)━━━━ッ!!' which used his song Party 4 U.

Cranky went on a hiatus period in the early 2000s, which ended with his participation for the 2009 edition of  THE BMS OF FIGHTERS, a recurring event aimed to the creators of BMS files (acronym for 'Be-Music Simulator', the successor file extension to BM98 which is nowadays the standard for Bemani sim files). Nowadays, he's still in activity for both solo and collaboration pieces with many other independent musicians over the years, as well as being the holder of his own music label, Feline Groove. Plus, as his label and Twitter profile handle aren't enough of a hint, cranky is definitely a lover of cats and alpacas! For the song VICTORIA, he teamed up with independent composer and singer (as well as his real-life wife) Ryoko 'Pico' Watanabe (渡辺良子), with which usually creates songs under the fictional unit name of VILA.

Flashforwarding to a few years after VICTORIA's release, it was later revealed by Cranky himself via a public tweet (link) that the song is part of  an author-driven song seriealization as well, not only fitting the God Collection inclusion criteria in Taiko but also sharing the composing style and the -TORIA part of its title with other compositions of his, made with pico for different music game series. VICTORIA is the second in line of this peculiar trend, following Crossbeats REV.'s HISTORIA and being succeded by SOUND VOLTEX's LECTORIA.

Compared to Zeami's Amaterasu, VICTORIA puts a bigger emphasis on smaller 1/16 clusters for its Oni mode, (partially) leaving to the averagely-higher BPM speed to do the rest of the work for stamina-daraining means. There also are some mono-color 1/24 cluster spikes towards the end, so be careful!

 8OROCHI REDALiCE
Version
Allx5 (266)x7 (442)x8 (686)x10 (958)
 Taiko 0 R (promo only), Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4
 200.8
 none
 orochi


The continuation of this peculiar series on Red Version went on thanks to another Taiko no Tatsujin-related tournament, with another full-instrumental track whose number-punny name references the legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed dragon Yamata no Orochi from Japanese mythology. It also marks the Namco Original debut of yet another artist for this series showcase: Yoshikazu 'REDALiCE' Nagai (永井良和).

Born September 15th, 1980, this is one of the most known composers in the independent J-Core scene as he's been the founder of several music labels that have grouped a wide assortment of Core-related artists along the years, with most of his earliest works finding spikes of popularity in many of the bemani music game series. His music production has been inspired by the DanceDanceRevolution song BOOM BOOM DOLLAR (K.O.G.G3 MIX), which led him to the music-making scene in many aspects, the most prominent of which being -again- original -core music under his HARDCORE TANO*C music label and Touhou Project arrangements under the SAISEN TURN parody duo with Masayoshi Minoshima (簑島正佳) and the ALiCE'S EMOTiON label (of which he's the founder). For what concerns the REDALiCE alias, the related website and Twitter pages are good starting points for more informations about his works, alongside this page from bemani wiki Remywiki listing all his works that have been featured in Konami's many music series.

After the artist's debut in Taiko lore with the SOUND VOLTEX transplant song Masakari Blade during the third Tenkaichi Otogesai tournament, the very same event also hosted 8OROCHI as the Winner Showcase award for the tourney's winner, with a public release slated to Yellow Version months later. During its creation, the song was known by the temporary name of 'Masakano Blade' (マサカノブレイド), as an additional reference to the SDVX-transplanted track.

Counting exactly 100 more notes than both Amaterasu and VICTORIA, this 10-star Oni challenge feels more like a difficulty continuation of Masakari Blade's Oni, with more complex cluster passages scrolling towards the player while familiar pattern elements from the former REDALiCE transplant also show up, such as the 1/6 dkkd clusters. The notecharts were made by Taiko Team leader Etou, who stated to be inspired to put in all charts as much references to the number 8 as possible, from single clusters to max combo values.

  8OROCHI REDALiCE
Version
All


x10 (1001)
 Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4
 200.8
 none
 ???


For its public debut, Etou also charted a Ura Oni difficulty setting for 8OROCHI, a first among the God Collection tracks. While some of the aggressive pattern formations are brought back note-per-note, the major twist of this Ura Oni lies on the visual scrolling speed trickery that is employed during the track, most notably including single notes being spliec in at x3 scrolling speed and the 1/12 clusters now coming at the player in a high-to-low scrolling treatment, from x3 back to x1 the regular BPM speed.

Those who are hunting for the best score possible on this track, however, will also have to deal with the fierce pre-final Go-Go Time portion, where consecutive note stanzas are hosting short hit-balloons spliced in with the last 1/12 clusters! Each of these balloons require less hits to be burst, starting from 8 to 7, 6, 5 and so on, until a giant Don note is used instead.

 Geki-un! Shichifuku Happy Crew (激運!七福ハッピークルー) Yuuya Kobayashi (IOSYS) feat. Yamamoto Momiji (monotone)
Version
Allx4 (123)x5 (205)x7 (526)x9 (777)
 Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4, Taiko +
 180
 none
 7fuku


The day after 8OROCHI's public debut on Yellow Version, the same arcade release saw the first outlet renewal for its reworked Rewards Shop unlocking system. Wouldn't you know it, yet another God Collection piece made its debut as one of the Summer '17 purchasable items!

The same artist crew from IOSYS that brought us previous modern Namco Originals such as My Muscle Heart has made a song about the shichifukujin (七 福神) deities, known in the West as the Seven Lucky Gods and rooted in several Eastern-spread religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. One of these seven godly figures, the Hindu-related Benzaiten (弁才天/弁財天), is also referenced right at the beginning of the song.

With more than 4/5 of the song being enshrouded in-game by Go-Go Time zones, this upbeat song's Oni mode sports a familiar-looking max combo value by squeezing lots of 1/16 clusters with a bigger focus on more complex clusters than harder trials of the same ballpark, such as Yami no Mahou Shoujo. The returning special combo number has its own meaning, though, considering that the song itself is about the Seven Lucky Gods!

 Tsukuyomi (月読命) Tatsh a.k.a Zeami
Version
Allx5 (192)x7 (299)x8 (513)x10 (973)
 Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4
 105-210
 none
 tuku43


For our next entry of this series, here's one of the very few instances of a song in Taiko no Tatsujin making its debut without any kind of advance notice beforehand whatsoever! After making a song that is titled after the sun goddess in Shinto culture, Zeami's next full-instrumental work for the Taiko series was intentionally released on July 17th in 2017, exactly one year after the World Championship 2016's Finals! Despite the full name of the moon deity being displayed for the title, both Zeami and the Taiko Team insist that the song's name has to be read as Tsukuyomi rather than the expected Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.

The third Tatsh-labeled song in Taiko games' overall music library fares as an alternate take to the charting style of Amaterasu, as hit-balloons are now replaced with drumrolls and the 1/24 cluster spike ratio has been softened in favor more more recurrent, stamina-draining cluster formations that flow at a slightly-higher BPM value for great part of the song's running time.

 Susanoo (須佐之男) Tatsh a.k.a Zeami
Version
Allx5 (176)x7 (252)x8 (404)x10 (686)
 Taiko 0 B, Taiko PS4
 90-180
 none
 ???


Yet again, a tournament-closer Namco Original has been titled after a deity for said competition's winner to enjoy in advance... and yet again, it's from Tatsuya Shimizu! Named after the sea/storms Shinto god Susanoo-no-Mikoto, this song made its debut for the 4th Tenkaichi Otogesai's conclusion of the Taiko branch, with the composer titling his third Taiko song in a row with both of his most known aliases! With Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, Susanoo is the last of the Three Noble Children to have a song named after him on Taiko (and by the same composer, no less!) and much like with Tsukuyomi, the song's title has to be read in its abridged 'Susanoo' form, rather than going for the full name.

The last of the Noble Children songs to be released is also the one with the least amount of notes on Oni mode by quite the huge margin, making up for the lesser-hits difficulty degree with subtle scrolling speed changes that are sure to be changing the tides of the play every now and then!

 Hinaru Medjed no Hinaru Yuu'utsu (秘ナルメジェドノ悲ナル憂鬱) Yuuya Kobayashi (IOSYS) feat. Momiji Yamamoto (monotone)
Version
Allx4 (176)x5 (245)x7 (408)x10 (818)
 Taiko 0 B, Taiko PS4
 180-210
 none
 medjed


From the same IOSYS-based ensemble that brought us My Muscle Heart also comes a God Collection song that is not about deities from the Japanese folklore! Hinaru Medjed no Hinaru Yuu'utsu (lit. 'Medjed's Secret and Sad Melancholy') is one of Blue Version's Summer Rewards Shop song newcomers, themed and titled after the namesake Egyptian deity from the Book of the Dead.

Averaging at over 200 BPM, every single cluster has enough potencial for random misses, coupled with some scrolling trickery in selected portions. Watch out for those 1/24 cluster bursts, too!

 Behemoth DJ Myosuke
Version
Allx5 (194)x7 (261)x8 (459)x10 (999)
 Taiko 0 B
 160-190
 none
 ???


Blue Version has been quite a prolific hive for God Collection songs, be it for either event previews, public updates or seasonal Rewards Shop unlockables! Just like the Medjed song, another of these tunes comes from the last of the three categories, being the second Namco Original from quite a prominent member in the HARDCORE TANO*C circle...

Born Myosuke Urata (official website link), the nick-named DJ Myosuke is one of the prominent ambassadors of the mainstream hardcore and gabba scene in Japan, both boasting contributions to different labels as well as leading/directing several acts on its own; as of now, however, nothing has been made public of his former past, aside from his musical accomplisments. DJ Myosuke has founded three different acts between 2010 and 2014, whose works were also shared on their respective Bandcamp profiles: Psycho Filth Records (2010), Japanese Stream Hardcore (2011) and FREAKING WORKS (2014). These acts' popularity has led the artist to spread hardcore music through a series of themed festivals of his creation -HARDGATE- as well as publishing for overseas labels (Third Movement; the Australian Dogfight Records) and hardcore units like 1994's Rotterdam Techno Corps, for which he officially remixed some of the band's former hits! DJ Myosuke's musical works can also be found on his official Youtube channel, as well as his SoundCloud page.

As anticipated earlier, DJ Myosuke is also a prominent member of the HARDCORE TANO*C label, under which nomenclature he also became the director of the HARDCORE TANO*C HARD sub-label, mainly oriended around -core and gabba music. Since his afficiation with the main label, the artist already had the opportunity to leave his mark in music gaming, with beatmania IIDX as its starting point (Valgus and Devil's Gear, among others) and shortly after, REFLEC BEAT (I Am No One). His works outside of Taiko and IIDX fields can also be spotted for other comapnies' music games, including Taito's Groove Coaster (MAD FREAKS) and Marvelous's WACCA.

Roughly a year after the release of HARDCORE no Kokoroe, DJ Myosuke was called back in Taiko fields to make yet another song, named after a grass-eating mythological beast from the Old Testament. The Namco Original Behemoth was also released in the same year as a full-length single by the artist himself, who also took care of uploading the official Taiko cut of the song on Youtube (link), in a similar fashion to the tracks made by INSPION members for Taiko gaming.

Behemoth's Oni chart draws some parallels with !!!Chaos Time!!!'s Oni mode, seeing as both songs ravel into integrating multiple timing signatures for its note clusters as well as integrating slow-down and speed-up sections, although Behemoth's visual approach is not as eye-straining as the hardest mode for the t+pazolite song. Keep an eye at that very-end segment, though!

 Clotho (Clotho クロートー) Tatsh feat. Yu Oda
Version
Allx5 (235)x7 (385)x7 (560)x10 (983)
 Taiko 0 B
 185
 none
 ???


The year 2018's last newcomer song for Blue Version also appears to be related to God Collection tropes, seeing how it's named after one of the three Moirai systers from the Greek mythos.

Clotho is the first Tatsh-signed song from Tatsuya Shimizu in Taiko to feature a female vocal lead for it: Yu Oda (小田ユウ). Born September 16th and formerly known under the Chieri Oda (おだ ちえり) alias, this artist has been a recurring vocalist collaborator for many videogame-related doujin circles across the years, including Tatsh's very own (TatshMusicCircle) in recent memory. With the aid of said composer's base creations, Yu Oda's voice was already well spread in music gaming with crossbeats Rev.'s EVERYTHING and VOEZ's SMILE GENERATION, alongside the creation of several Touhou Project-related works like White World... a song which also ended up getting a playable port in Groove Coaser, later on (video)!

Artist/Taiko notechart factoids aside, Clotho is a remarkable song for a peculiar trivia alone: the time interval between its playable release and its extended version's commercial debuts is one of the shortest ever recorded in franchise history! The song, in fact, was released for public Blue Version arcades a mere two days before the beginning of the 95th edition of the hobbyist-fueled Comiket fair (December 30th, 2018), during which venue was publically released TatshMusicCircle's GEMINI album, which featured Clotho's extended version alongside other music gaming-renowned tracks. Talk about sudden!

The last 10-star Oni of 2018 happens to be one of the pure-1/16 notecharts that heavily relies on long clusters succeding one after another with little to no break areas, combining the commonplace trend of tracks like Ao no Senritsu with one of the 'signature' ending deathstreams from former Zeami/Tatsh Taiko works.

 Amphit◇rite (アムピト◇リーテー) Kaneko Chiharu
Version
Allx5 (201)x7 (308)x7 (486)x10 (833)
 Taiko 0 G
 110-220
 none
 ???


Green Version's outlook to the divine pantheon takes a gander to the sea, thanks to the labor of the independent composer Kaneko Chiharu (かねこちはる) and the AI Battle Performance mode that has sealed her creation as one of its unlockable treats for Banapassport players.

Titled after the wife of Poseidon from Greek mythology, Amphit◇rite lulls players away with a quite generous selection of tempo signatures for clusters arranged under a wide array of scrolling speed changes which, aside for some Don-heavy note streams, rely on the player's skills of reading irregular rhythms in chart form. Once you take a step into Go-Go Time territory, though, only a steel-trained stamina management will save a succesful performance at this song's Oni mode!

 poxei♦︎DOON Kaneko Chiharu
Version
All


x10 (1210)
 Taiko 0 G (Ranking Dojo only)
 ???
 none
 ???


Binded by the spades symbol (and curiously enough with an inverted black&white color scheme from the previous song), Amphitrite's divine husband and ruler of the seas sleeps beneath the darkest layers of Green Version's Tatsujin Ranking Dojo course, only to be awakened by those who manage to stay in the clear quote criteria for the previous two max-difficulty treats...

What awaits at the end of the road is a speed demon that is not afraid to throw players off the road with relentless consecutive cluster passages, complete with multiple 1/12 and 1/24 shifts just to catch off-guard those who strive for a better note accuracy!

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