Taiko no Tatsujin is a franchise that has been around for two decades within a vast array of platforms ranging from its first official home console, the Playstation 2 or even the likes of handhelds such as the Playstation Portable, Playstation Vita, Nintendo DS and more recently the Nintendo Switch which is currently the only platform Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is available on. But with that being said, Rhythm Festival despite being the latest issue for the franchise does very little in the way to make an impact among its competitors and prequels.
The latest entry provides more of the same with its tried-and-tested formula however it does give a revamped Don Katsu Fight from the previous entry dubbed as the Great Drum Toy War which we’ll get into more detail later. Unlike previous entries though, Rhythm Festival now also has a subscription-based music pass much like Just Dance Unlimited where you get to access hundreds of songs as long as you’re able to cough up the dough on a monthly basis. And as a huge fan of rhythm games, the base game’s over 70 songs will never be enough… period.
Your FIVE stops to being the best Taiko Master
Rhythm Festival takes place in the fictional city of Omiko, where you will meet Kumo-kyun a fluffy cloud that’ll be your companion along the way to becoming the very best Taiko Master. Within said fictional city are also five key points such as the Thunder Shrine where you’ll be playing the Taiko Mode as well as the new Improvement Support system which it’s able to section up a song into tinier bits to practice on while also providing other helpful tools like slowing a song down or showing a replay of your best playthrough to give a better idea on where you’re messing up. Other areas include Dondoko Town or its online mode where you can battle players from around the world in room matches or ranked. However, what’s disappointing here is room matches don’t really allow you to invite a friend over directly and finding a random room at any point in time is harder than finding a needle in a haystack. You also have the “Store” which as the name suggests is your one-stop shop for buying stuff like outfits, toys and nameplates to customize your DON-chan in the “My Room” section.
Last but not least, Taiko Land is the final key area of Omiko City where the aforementioned Great Drum Toy War is stationed alongside the DON-chan Band. This revamped Don Katsu Fight gives players more progressive gameplay with increasing difficulty through missions that pits you against characters in the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise. Battling such characters would then award you with “toys” that have different effects from making notes disappear or pop up fake notes to even ramping up the speed of the notes for a set amount of time. And having this sort of freedom to choose your loadout on how you’d approach missions or even online opponents give the much-needed Don Katsu Fight a bit more oomph.
DON-chan Band however is their idea of a rock band style of cooperative play for up to four players with each player or AI being assigned to a specific set of instruments that may or may not be an actual instrument and really just kaiju sounds or something. This team play makes up for a fun couch coop experience, especially with its varied difficulty among each instrument however it only has a handful of songs available in the band mode rather than the entire playlist.
From nostalgic to straight-up banger… Taiko’s song line-up is easily my favourite part of the game
But for me, probably the most exciting bit when it comes to a rhythm game is the quality and quantity of the banger soundtracks included in the box and Rhythm Festival came in swinging. There are over 70 songs in total right out of the gate with hit tracks from Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen and Persona 5 but it also never stops showing off classics like Butter-Fly from the first Digimon Adventure anime. And while there are some of it that I will probably never even bother with, the wide variety of genres from pop songs like DDU-DU DDU-DU or Zenzenzense to VOCALOID, classical and game music makes up a very unique and interesting line-up not to mention the other unlockable songs as you progress through the game’s story as well as having hundreds more in the Taiko Music Pass or paid DLCs that can be bought separately.
As for the gameplay itself, there are multiple control modes that were also present in the older version, Drum n’ Fun. Controller mode allows you to use a mix of your face buttons, directional buttons and L/R triggers in three distinct setups while removing your joy-cons out of the handheld will give you the option to use your controllers for motion control which in easier difficulties is bearable for the most part but having to go through hard and extreme becomes more of a nightmare to get all your inputs recognized and on time. It’s at best a novelty left untouched. Speaking of touch… The handheld mode also allows you to tap on your handheld’s screen to imitate the feel of drumming but probably the most worthwhile option is having an actual officially licensed taiko drum at tableside just make sure not to start drumming in the middle of the night.
Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is ultimately a fun game with tons of variety in its song selection while playing it safe rather than making something more unique to what it already had. It’s not going to give you more than what you would’ve already expected from the franchise but that’s okay. The banger tracks and varied difficulty along with its party modes like DON-chan Band and Great Drum Toy War offers some form of variety to the classic formula while unlocking items like outfits through missions and the game’s reward system can give the game at least more to get you going for a while longer.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/Taiko-no-Tatsujin-Rhythm-Festival-2170788.html
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