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Sunday, November 20, 2016

Game Music Showcase: Chain Chronicle Medleys

Released in Japan in early 2014 (and December 2014 for the rest of the world), Chain Chronicle is a portable role-playing game about monster enhancement like many others in the smartphone grounds (Puzzle & Dragons very much included), developed by gumi Inc. (a company, not the Vocaloid) and published by Sega. The game is set in the fantasy world of Yggdra, where the mysterious Black Army is raiding the land after the death of the Holy King, a peaceful monarch who managed to unify the entire world in harmony. Players take the control of their Hero character who has been put in charge of leading the Volunteer Army, an independent group of warriors and strategists who fight to repel the Black Army's troops from the land.

Chain Chronicle's gameplay is set on a 6x3 square-checked field, where the players can move up to 5 ally units and send them to attack the enemy with a wide arrangement of allies joining the Volunteer Army, each with their special abilities and backstories/bonding to be developed by the players through a huge number of quests and Player vs Enemy modes against other Chain Chronicle players. The game was also available for Playstation Vita devices, hence the reason behind the first medley making its debut on V Version. While the main Japanese version of Chain Chronicle is still running strong, the Global version (for Europe and America players) has closed up shop in 2016, on February 29th.

Taiko no Tatsujin and Chain Chronicle have crossedtheir paths in several occasions between 2015 and 2016, thanks to a couple of special collaboration events which lead the most up-to-date Taiko games of the time to get medleys based on the app's BGMs from different portions.

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-Chain Chronicle Medley series-




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 Chain Chronicle Normal Battle Medley (チェインクロニクル 通常バトルメドレー)
Version
All (Regular Ver.)x3 (125)x5 (238)x6 (390)x8 (588)
Taiko + (Short ver.)x3 (61)x5 (119)x6 (202)x8 (250)
 Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko +
 134-158
 none
 chn96n (Regular ver.) / chn96s (Short ver.)


The first of the Chain Chronicle medleys features the two BGM tracks that are normally heard during regular quests in the game: the regular fight BGM "Battle For Justice" and the boss BGM "Beat The Master", followed by the self-explanatory "Victory" jingle. The three tunes, as well as the rest of CC's music, is made by Takahiro Kai (甲斐考博), one of the lead members of Sega's in-house unit, [H.], formerly known as Sega Sound Team (or S. S. T. for short). Before appearing in this medley, Battle For Justice was already being made playable as a Taiko song for the "New Year's Eve Final Quest" Nicovideo live broadcast of December 31st, 2014 (video).

The song's Oni mode features a lot of short hit-balloons and clusters for a notechart which already proves to be a fine stamina tester for un-experienced players. The medley has been made available on Taiko Plus both with the regular song and as a free promotional track, although the latter option ends shortly after the beginning of the 'Beat The Master' BGM.

  Chain Chronicle Normal Battle Medley (チェインクロニクル 通常バトルメドレー)
Version
All (Regular Ver.)


x9 (778)
Taiko + (Short ver.)

x9 (348)
 Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko +
 134-158
 none
 ???


The Normal Battle Medley's Ura Oni mode proves to the Taiko fans that not every single Ura Oni challenge has to feature speed-ups and different cluster spacing to be troublesome! With enhanced clusters and a meatier overall note-count, the alternate Oni mode for the sone is surely geared to tire the players' hands quite quickly! Both the Ura Oni and the other four modes were charted by newcomer notecharter Arihotto (アリーホット).

Surprisingly enough, the Normal Battle Medley's shorter version on Taiko Plus also has a copy of the Ura Oni patterns, making it the first Taiko song to have a Ura Oni for a song's shorter version, rather than a longer one!

 Chain Chronicle Final Showdown Medley (チェインクロニクル 最終決戦メドレー)
Version
Allx4 (135)x6 (314)x6 (484)x8 (713)
 Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko +
 136-172
 none
 chn96b


Continuing the Taiko no Tatsujin x Chain Chronicle collaboration, a second medley has been made available for all the participating games the month after the event's beginning, this time featuring the tracks that are usually heard in plot-crucial battles at the end of the game, such as Book 1's final Main Story quest. The tracks featured are the regular enemy battle 'Facing The Crisis', the final boss track 'King Of The Darkness' and the Victory jingle, all of which -once again- are composed by Takahiro Kai (甲斐考博).

Much like the Normal Battle Medley, Arihotto (アリーホット) has been put in charge of the song's notecharts, with the regular Oni featuring a similarly-styled 8* challenge with lots of 3-note clusters sparkled in.

  Chain Chronicle Final Showdown Medley (チェインクロニクル 最終決戦メドレー)
Version
All


x9 (820)
 Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko +
 136-172
 none
 ???


Another stamina-draining challenge awaits the brave players who dare to select the Final Showdown's Ura Oni mode, featuring this time around some nasty 1/24 clusters to throw off the very last energies of inexperienced players.

 Chain Chronicle Total War Medley (チェインクロニクル 総力戦メドレー)
Version
Allx3 (84)x4 (123)x5 (227)x7 (427)
 Taiko 0 R, Taiko +
 120-159
 none
 chn96t


The mobile RPG Chain Chronicle might be long dead for Western players, but the original Japanese version is still running strong with new updates and features, hence the franchise itself making its collaboration comeback into Taiko no Tatsujin borders once again in 2016. This time around, while Taiko no Tatsujin got this medley as its shared bonus, the Chain Chronicle campaign for the event featured a new set of missions in which Don-Chan himself can be recruited to the player's party! Here's a video of the Taiko brother in action, with the renewed BGM track for the special event.

This third medley features another trio of tracks made by Takahiro Kai (甲斐考博), coming from both the original software version and its "Version 2.0" sequel, dubbed Brave New Continent for the Global release. The two main BGMs used are the mission select/overworld theme 'March Of The Braves' and the later-released 'The Duel Tempest', one of the first songs used for the Japan-exclusive Total War mode, which makes the players clash in a way bigger playing field than the usual size (8x5 squares compared to the usual 6x3 field) and gives the title to this very song medley. Once again, the recurring Victory jingle ends the track.

While the former medleys of this cycle were mostly eager on 1/16 note charting, the Total War Medley's beginning portion also makes place for a portion filled with 1/12 patterns, with 3-note cluster successions still being the major difficulty factor for its Oni mode.

  Chain Chronicle Total War Medley (チェインクロニクル 総力戦メドレー)
Version
All


x9 (635)
 Taiko 0 R, Taiko +
 120-159
 none
 ???


A new CC song compels the presence of an Ura Oni mode, with this one being the newer lowest-note threshold holder among the trilogy. Difficulty-wise, this song can be compared with the Normal Battle Medley in that clusters with more notes (and less time signature trickery) can be quite the contender for this stamina-based challenge.

Back to song series page