Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival Review (Lone)
Rhythm games are generally expensive. But if you think about it, licensing and distributing songs, especially songs that are as well known and popular as the ones that Taiko offers, is EXPENSIVE. The reason Guitar Hero and Rockband died out in the west is because they couldn't convince their consumers to help pay for more licensing. The reason Japanese rhythm games haven't hit markets outside of Japan is much the same reason: no one here wants to pay more for more charts.
Other community-charted rhythm games are actually distributing through piracy. To keep things above board, moderators have to reject charts if the chart contains a song from an artist or studio that's likely to send a cease and desist. All the other songs on there either have express permission from the artist, the artist doesn't care and is chill, or the artist doesn't actually have the capital to legally fight the piracy (Also why the songs on those all feel like obtuse selections).
If you want to get into rhythm games, you have to know that. Another note, yes, a lot of these songs are covers. That's mainly caused by copyright. If the song is original, Bandai can own the right to both the composition and the performance. But if it's, say, an anime opening, the performance is usually protected by a studio and Japanese copyright law. Some of these covers deviate more from the originals than others. I can't tell a difference in Idol, but god DAMN Bling-Bang-Bang-Born sounds so different it's disorienting. If that's a dealbreaker for you, then keep that in mind. (For the record, Guitar Hero and Rockband is also all covers.)
About the game itself, it's deceptively simple, but it has a lot more grit behind it than you'd expect. Despite being a game that could get away with being called a two button rhythm game, the patterns and strings of notes can leave you reeling. You have to get some muscle memory before you can clear songs on harder difficulties.
As for gripes that I have about this game...having to download DLC songs one at a time, not really having the option to pay more to have DLC songs permanently (I'm just super adverse to subscriptions, even if they're actually better for my wallet than buying all songs as DLC), only being able to assign 1 keyboard key to each drum hitzone...
Still, I'm glad that I can play a Taiko game without pirating it through something like Osu!taiko. Bandai does a really good job with their franchise, and they definitely deserve my money. This game is genuinely the best taiko experience you can have in the west...unless you're one of those lucky fucks that has a Round 1 near you. Tch.