As you wander around you’ll come across enemies to battle and this is where the game blends in its rhythm-based gameplay. They’re simple tales with characters that often talk for far too long even with when you’re using the skip button to try and hurry them along.Įach location you visit is presented as an open (but relatively straightforward) map with the odd splitting path often yielding the player a chest full with bonus goodies. I’ll be honest, the story of both games wasn’t something I found myself particularly invested in. You’ll follow taiko-drums Don and Katsu as they travel through time and around the world making squeaky noises and meeting a whole cast of other cute, colourful and equally squeaky characters. Whether you’re playing the first Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure or its sequel, the story modes deliver a very similar experience – albeit with the sequel offering a few more quality of life adjustments – both mechanically and from a narrative perspective. Let’s focus first on the first and to be honest more intriguing of the modes. What you’re essentially getting with Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack are two games both delivering a pretty similar package, an RPG-style adventure and a more traditional arcade mode where you’re free to play through the 60-plus song list aiming for the highest score. Whether you’re playing with traditional controls or the drum peripheral, the Taiko no Tatsujin formula offers a challenging time but more importantly a satisfying and fun one. Sit down with the game for five minutes and you’ll soon discover that isn’t the case. Compare that to the four pads and a foot pedal of Rock Band or six buttons and strum bar in the latest Guitar Hero and its hard to argue that initial assumption. The Taiko no Tatsujin series on paper sounds like it’d be a walk in the park, the two inputs required from the player either hitting the skin of a drum or tapping on the rim. Of course, mixing two crazy elements together just for the sake of it doesn’t guarantee a winning formula so does the drumming-based gameplay of the Taiko no Tatsujin series go together with an RPG adventure like peanut butter and chocolate or more like water and oil? When Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack was first announced during a Nintendo Direct Mini earlier this year, it immediately struck a chord with me not just because I love rhythm-based video games but because it also combined it with another genre you’d never really expect, the JPRG.

Taiko no tatsujin web game