Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version is the Vita version of the long-running Taiko no Tatsujin games, a series of rhythm games where you hit the buttons in time with the music based on the prompts. There are two types of notes, the face buttons and direction buttons are used for the red prompts, and the shoulder buttons are used for the blue prompts. There are some different button combinations such as pressing two buttons at the same time or rapidly hitting them, but it is a simple control scheme. It gives you flexibility since you can hit any of the face buttons for the red prompt and any of the shoulder buttons for the blue prompt. There are no other gimmicks such as forced usage of the touch screen or touch pad.
As you’d expect, the game features a Free Play Mode, where you go in, select the song, select the difficulty, and away you go. You can hit the notes and get graded with a Miss, OK, or Great. These will then combine into a score at the end. Of course, it is preferred to not miss any notes and get a full combo. You can also fail songs which will end it prematurely. There are four levels you can pick from, Easy, Normal, Hard and Oni. Easy and Normal are very manageable for most players, while Hard starts to get tough, and Oni requires a lot of practice. Rhythm games live and die by their song lists, and V Version has over 80 songs from a variety of genres. This is probably one of the game’s strongest assets. The song list is grouped into categories such as J-pop, anime, Vocaloid, game, classic and Namco Originals etc. One thing to note is that the anime music is usually the short versions, rather than the full songs, probably due to licensing restrictions. While the game is only in Japanese (or Chinese subtitles if you have the Asian version), the game is easily picked up even if you don’t know the language given the limited amount of text.
With the free play mode, that’ll be enough content for most rhythm games, but V Version goes one extra step by including a story mode called Donder Quest. The story mode is required to unlock all the available songs for free play. The story itself is simple as you’d expect, having the two characters, Don and Katsu, finding a book that ends up transporting them into an alternate world. From there, they help as adventurers to defeat the monsters. Although they must work from the lowest level up to the top to gain the strength and rank required to fight the villain. The story mode is structured as you would expect but there are still a few slight differences. Of note is that the minimum difficulty level is Normal. You will select “Quests” from the menu, which his basically playing through a song to defeat enemies. Successfully hitting the prompts will allow characters to attack, while if you’re only getting Good, or missing them entirely, the enemy will attack. There are prompts inserted into the song that you are not supposed to hit, otherwise you will be attacked. There are also effects where it will obscure the prompts, which are explained by the enemies’ special effects. These don’t occur in the free play mode, and so it allows the story mode to feel different and adds another layer of difficulty.
In the story mode, there are some RPG elements, such as ranks, which are used to progress the story, and equipment which will augment your stats. There are ten ranks in the story, and beating quests will unlock more equipment. Although if you play the songs good enough, you can get by. Equipment still plays a role but not a crucial one where you need to min max the stats. The other thing is that in the quests, you don’t necessarily need to play through the whole track either. It will end when you’ve reached the objective, of which there is a variety such as hitting a certain number of notes, beating the enemy, getting the enemy’s health down to 50%, or achieving a certain score. As you get further into the story, the bosses in each rank do get harder. They’re harder in the sense that their effects are extremely annoying. It basically hides the prompts or moves them in unorthodox manners, so it crosses the line to being overly gimmicky. At least if you keep losing to the boss, then the difficulty is dropped down by lowering their starting health. After the story, which takes a decent number of hours (around 5 hours if you play all the songs), there is a post-game section with harder levels and further unlocks.
The game has a great song selection and variety, and most of the song maps are decent. There are modifiers such as speeding up the notes or inversing the blue and red prompts, that adds more spice. As you complete songs, you will get customization options that can change the appearance of Don. Overall, Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version is a fantastic addition to the series. It’s a big meaty rhythm game that packs way more effort than you’d expect. Not only is there a huge number of songs to play, but there is even a story mode, with its own unique gameplay mechanics. The graphics give the game a fun light-hearted atmosphere, and the sheer amount of content will give you plenty of hours of entertainment.
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