Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session: Ghost-based Asynchronous Multiplayer
Taiko no Tatsujin has basically been the exact same game since 2001, and that’s alright.
If you don’t know it, Taiko no Tatsujin is a rhythm game in which you play taiko drums over an array of J-Pop songs. Actually, you probably don’t, because over here you’re probably playing on a controller, where it’s a blister-fast two-button rhythm game. Notes come down a rail at ludicrous speeds, you tap the sequence in and the whole thing feels like aggressively competitive Morse code. It’s been going for over 15 years, and for most of that time it’s been a niche rabbit hole for import snobs to geek over. I got into it on the outstanding 2005 PSP version, myself. Since then the game has looked and felt fundamentally identical with very minor tweaks on each iteration.
But adding to a stale formula is not why Ranked VS is such a great mode. It is legitimate one of the best multiplayer experiences this year, bar none. In Ranked VS you are randomly matched up to another player of the same skill on a random song. You don’t play them live, though, you play a recorded ghost of their performance.
Their unflinching, uncaring ghost.
Only it’s not unflinching and uncaring. The recording was made while they in turn played against the ghost of a third person and unlike an AI they’ll make mistakes. They’ll get nervous. They’ll… well, flinch. And if you don’t, you’ll win. There’s a math to it in this series, to when you miss a beat versus when your opponent does, and how long of a combo you have left to catch up. And even if you both hit every note, Taiko no Tatsujin scores on timing as well as a binary hit/miss, so there’s always a winner and always an incentive for staying focused. The game even records your extra drum hits at the start and end of the songs, so if you want to attempt some communication (or just make noise to distract your rivals) you can do that, too. The person you’re playing with now won’t see it, but you’ll mess with someone else down the line.
And then you end the song, see a cute cartoon drum play bingo for a few seconds, unlocking customization goodies, and move on to the next track. Which starts immediately, because asynchronous play means no matchmaking wait. Do that for half an hour, and you’ll be a sweaty mess, all shaky hands and shattered nerves.
It’s a great testament to iterative design, not because it creeps up from mediocrity to greatness, but because it keeps what works and builds more things that work on top. There’s nothing here that feels like a first attempt or a placeholder. The new content slots right in, at the exact same level of polish as the tried-and-true decades-old core. There’s a little blip set in the periphery of your view to let you know if you’re ahead without having to scan both scoreboards, for instance. Matchmaking starts with a five-song scripted run to get your base rank and then it does a spotless job of providing close matches.
Oh, and one more thing before I call it. This thing gets weird. Look, yeah, I get it, it’s the kind of packaged weird that a certain brand of Japanese nerd fare revels on, but man, Taiko PS4 distills it to a science. There are weird-ass vocaloid songs in there, there are dancing fish and ninja dogs, and there’s… whatever this is.