Mysterious Keitai Connection Minigame

[Knighttchi's Ballad 1,032]

Oh boy, do I have a strange story for TamaTalk for once. It centers on this:

While I was connecting Sotilde, my Hanerutchi, to my Akai using the same-version connection, suddenly this weird flashing image pops up before the usual connection seeking animation. It flashed between black and white or negative colours and positive colours. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a positive coloured image but I can tell you it looked like a weird Kusatchi creature leaning out of its pot and crying, or possibly just being super anxious. After the flashing was over, it then transitioned to a screen displaying an empty meter at the top with a timer counting down from 9 seconds. It turned out I had to mash the A button in order to fill up the meter before the time ran out. The B button would make a noise but wouldn't fill up the meter and I didn't get to try the C button. Of course, button mashing is hard enough and I failed the first time and was then abruptly transitioned to the usual connection seeking screen. I exited out of the connection but was still in the connection menu so I selected same version connection again. The game reappeared! I tried my best to fill up the meter now that I had effectively unlimited retries unless I exited the menu altogether, as I did later. My button mashing skills were not good enough and at best I was two blocks away from completion. I was also getting nervous about harming Sotilde's device, considering she is a long-living oldie being 3 human years old. That's why I wouldn't have given her to my brother who's got excellent button mashing skills 'cause he'd probably total her.

Now this isn't the first time this event has happened. I know for certain it happened twice on my Akai while I was unfortunately completely flabbergasted and unable to get any pictures because it ended so fast. The first time it happened, I thought I was hallucinating because such a weird, unexplained things started happening to my Tamagotchi for a few, brief confusing seconds and then it was just gone. And of course, the whole line of Japanese at the top made me even more confused. I tried rendering it in romaji using my Japanese connection chart but it looks like some of the characters are either truncated or completely unique. It would have helped if I got the normal picture of it but I can't so I'll have to wait for my next opportunity. I have a feeling this minigame might not be as uncommon as it appeared since I don't do that many connections to begin with, and most people probably don't.

I wonder if this minigame actually requires prior connections or if it might be some special Easter egg intended to be stumbled upon by a bored kid messing around with the connection feature even though they didn't have another tama. Does anybody have any info on this?

[Eggiweg 1,190]

9 hours ago, Knighttchi's Ballad said:

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a positive coloured image but I can tell you it looked like a weird Kusatchi creature leaning out of its pot and crying, or possibly just being super anxious.

MS paint to the rescue! The characters look like a combination of hirigana and katakana れんだスタチ (renda-sutachi?). Maybe it's meant to be read as 連打.

Super interesting find! Please let us know if you find out anything else about it.

Edited September 12, 2020 by Eggiweg

[Knighttchi's Ballad 1,032]

Guys, I think I cracked the code and it actually is super simple after all. In fact, it's one of the Keitai series many hidden features. There are four items on the Keitai variants that can be used by all characters: the balloon, the ball, the jump rope, and the trumpet. What makes these all special is that they have a symbol resembling the connection icon in their menu sprite. I recently learned from the Tamagotchi Wiki's article on the Akai that if both Tamagotchis are playing with the same toy that is one of these four kinds and then they connect, they can play a special minigame. Each toy has a unique minigame and the unique things about these, as the Tamagotchi Wiki notes, is that the user has input into these game. And this input occurs right before the connection as when the user selects the toy, goes over to the connection icon, and chooses the same-version-connection option, the user is then brought to a special screen to influence the game. Both the balloon and the trumpet have unique play methods while the jump rope and the ball use the button mashing game I found! If I had bothered to read further on the Tamagotchi Wiki, I would have read about the 10 second opportunity to fill a meter through button mashing and that the device with the fuller meter wins the game - which immediately ensues after the 10 seconds are up and the devices are made to connect. So the mystery is solved!

Honestly, the Keitai versions are full of surprises from all of the item codes, to these mini games, to being able to beat off shinigamis by visiting the shrines of your deceased tamas, to the grave item which gives a special death scene. No English connection has this depth and the best part of all of this is that the Keitai version don't lose these extras when an external site goes down - which is the case with the V3-V4.5 (the V5 actually has consistent codes for items). Anyway, it makes perfect sense that this discovery happened the way it did because despite seeing that connection symbol countless times, I never connected the dots. I needed to be told there was a special feature because I assumed that based on my experience with English connections, everything should be taken at face value. That's just proof about the programming uniqueness of the Japanese versions. The reason I kept stumbling upon this partial minigame by accident was because - I think unlike the English connections - losing a minigame actually depletes happy hearts on the Keitai versions and thus I made either of mines play with an item to up their hearts before connecting them again. It was always one-sided with usually Sotilde losing eating contests to everybody under the sun which thus led me to believe it was a mechanic unique to only one tama. I never clued into the fact that the reason none of the four items stopped their animations when I clicked a button was because they had a broader function. I'd take advantage of toys increasing hearts frequently and in those moments I pressed a button during an animation, I'd usually just go and check the stats screen (especially because I'm paranoid about Sotilde).

On one hand, I feel a bit foolish making this topic only to learn I had discovered something known but undocument because it was merely a part of something bigger. On the other hand, now people can learn more about why the Keitai tamas are awesome

 

 

[Mandymom 88]

I was confused when you said you connected you had a Hanerutchi connect to an Akai. I looked it up, and they’re both Ketais! Although Ketais can only breed with their specific version, they can connect with other versions in all other ways!

[Eggiweg 1,190]

7 hours ago, Knighttchi's Ballad said:

On one hand, I feel a bit foolish making this topic only to learn I had discovered something known but undocument because it was merely a part of something bigger. On the other hand, now people can learn more about why the Keitai tamas are awesome

 I'm glad you made this topic because I'd never heard of this feature before.

[321Boom 839]

10 hours ago, Eggiweg said:

 I'm glad you made this topic because I'd never heard of this feature before.

I second this, it was a very interesting read  

[Penguin-keeper 2,732]

12 hours ago, Eggiweg said:

 I'm glad you made this topic because I'd never heard of this feature before.

 

2 hours ago, 321Boom said:

I second this, it was a very interesting read  

Yep, this is quality content, and that's exactly what I like to see around here.