HMPDF-Site-Launch

Prior to playing Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f for the first time, I’d never heard of “vocaloids,” which are a synthesizing program for singing. Not only is it used to correct real voices, but also to create virtual singers. These vocaloids aren’t really found in the US, but they’re actually fairly popular in Japan. So what do vocaloids have to do with this game? Well, pretty much everything.

The main character of this music rhythm game is Hatsune Miku, one of several vocaloids who you’ll be seeing and hearing during the span of the game. Hatsune and her friends all take turns in the spotlight singing songs that you’ll have to match the notes to so you can rack up the highest score possible.

Miku-2Hatsune Miku is most comparable to the Rock Band Unplugged PSP game that came out in 2009. If you’re still unfamiliar with that game, just imagine Rock Band or Guitar Hero without the plastic instruments and just using a controller. Button prompts fly across the screen, and you have to press them when they match up with the beat of the song. Sometimes you’ll even have to swipe the touch screen or combine directional buttons with the face buttons to hit a note.

Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you won’t just be staring at one static grid. Buttons will literally fly all over the screen, so you’ll have to pay close attention to where they land, as the game likes to trick the player into thinking one note comes before another. This makes Hatsune Miku a much more difficult rhythm game than most of the more popular titles in the genre, but the various difficulties make it easy to learn and grow as a player, which is a welcome feature. While I initially could never get deep into the hard and extreme songs, my extended time with the game allowed me to better understand button prompts and following tempos. I beat every song on normal, and before I knew it, I could beat almost any song on hard.

One of the major issues with Hatsune Miku is its incredibly distracting background music videos. While they are certainly entertaining, their flashiness gets in the way of the gameplay. Sometimes background change quickly, and that drastic change can make following notes a near impossibility. There are even some songs that have backgrounds with similar colors to the buttons, so they can get lost in the background, which made me not only lose my combo, but also my patience.

During my time with Hatsune Miku, I actually experienced a bit of eye fatigue. There’s so much going on during the game with the music video flashing in the background and notes flying from all directions that it becomes almost too much to handle for long periods of play time. I found myself having to take breaks every so often so my eyes could recover. While this didn’t happen a lot, it did happen enough that I did want to mention it as a concern.

Miku-6

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything worthwhile outside of the main rhythm game. You can visit each vocaloid in their respective rooms, give them gifts, build friendships, and even play rock, paper, scissors with them, but it doesn’t have much weight with the rest of the game. There aren’t any secret back stories or cool items to receive for spending time with the vocaloids, so it’s strange that this section was included outside of being padding to make the game have more options.

The game does feature a decent array of customization options for those looking to personalize the look of the vocaloids and their rooms. With each song you beat, you earn Diva Points, which can be spent on new outfits, accessories, furniture, and various other items. These outfits can be used during the music videos, so if you’d like to give your favorite vocaloid a bit of a makeover, you certainly can.

While I was never a big fan of Japanese music, I found myself replaying several songs in Hatsune Miku, because I grew to love them. With 32 songs in total across four difficulties, there’s plenty to play and master, and soon you may just find yourself singing along while playing.

Hatsune Miku isn’t perfect, and some of the extra content seems a little useless, but Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f is an undeniably fun experience, and is a great example of portable music rhythm games done right.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation Vita game Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f by Sega.

Did you like this? Share it:
Portable Pop Stars | Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f Review
Positives
  • Great music
  • Fun Challenge
Negatives
  • Distracting backgrounds
  • Extra content holds little value
8Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)
0.0

About The Author

Josh is a Senior Editor for New Gamer Nation. He'd love to chat with you about games on Twitter.