Hatsune Miku has been pretty big in Japan for a while now. Heck, Hatsune Miku is so big that she has her own live concerts around the world. If you do not know who Hatsune Miku is, she is a fictional singer that uses japanese vocals created by a vocaloid program. While Hatsune Miku has plenty of games in Japan, Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is her first video game debut in Western soil.
Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is rhythm game that has you pressing the PS Vita's face buttons and d-pad, as their respective icons fly onto the screen, the icons will play along in time to the music. There are also sections within the songs that require you to swipe the touch-screen in time to the music, which those icons appear as stars. The game's mechanics are a little bit more simple than others in the same genre.
Dependending on when you tap the buttons you will get different point values. There is awful, bad, safe, good, and cool. There is a Song Energy Gauge, that increases with every good and cool you get. If you do not keep up with the rhythm and get a bunch of awful and bad, the gauge will decrease and you will fail the song. Thankfully everything is perfectly responsive, which is a definite for games in this genre that relies so much on rhythm and skill.
This game will definitely put your rhythm skills to the test, some of the songs on the "Standard" difficulty can be tough. The game includes a "Beginner", "Standard", "Hard", and "Extreme" modes - the latter will make grown men cry. To make the game even more challenging you can enable special "Challenge Items" which let you earn more points. For example one of the most difficult challenges is called Perfectionist which will make you lose song energy if you get anything other than cool, ouch.
The game includes over 30 music tracks that each have their own music video. I have not mentioned this yet, though there is more than just Hatsune Miku. There are 6 different singers that appear in their own music videos, there are even some duets. These characters include,
- Hatsune Miku
- Kagamine Rin
- Kagamine Len
- Megurine Luka
- Kaito
- Meiko
All of the songs are pretty darn catchy. After I would go through one of the many songs it would get stuck in my head and I could not stop humming it. There is a song in particular that all of you guys should know that is in the game, that song is Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!
I mentioned that each song has their own music video, all of these videos are really well made and visually pleasing. Unfortunately the first time around you will not really be able to pay attention to the video since you have to keep all of your focus on the incoming button prompts. Luckily after you complete a song, you can the watch song's music video with no distractions in the "Watch Video" mode.
Outside of the "Rhythm Game" mode there are plenty of other modes to play around with. Some pointless and some enjoyable. The some enjoyable modes include "Edit", "Diva Room", and "Shop".
The "Edit" mode is surprisingly deep, it lets you create your own music videos, button prompts, and dances to any of the songs in the game or you can even use your own .MP3 collection. You can customize the background, choose any of the six characters and customize their dances and even their facial expression during every second of the song.
The "Diva Room" and "Shop" go hand in hand with each other. In the "Diva Room" you can visit each of the singers apartment rooms and interact with the characters. You can become each singers friend by buying them gifts, playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, or petting them - the latter is strange, although that is not the reason I am recommending this mode.
In the shop you can buy items with "Diva Points" that you earn by playing the game. You can purchase items that customize all six of the characters and their rooms. You can buy a bunch of different accessories and clothing, some cool and some goofy. The characters will even wear the clothing during the music videos and they will walk around in their apartment with the clothing on. You can buy a T.V. and a photo album for the apartments, which let you view and make playlists of the songs in the game and view photos that you unlocked.
The pointless modes include the "AR" modes that let you have AR concerts and take AR pictures. Some people might be into this kind of stuff, though I was not too impressed with them. I was also not impressed with the load times, they appear with everything you press on the main menu. They are not terribly long but annoying.
Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is a great game that most fans of the rhythm genre could enjoy. The gameplay might be too simplistic for experts of the genre, as it is pretty basic compared to other games. For people that are interested in a basic rhythm game there are plenty of songs to play which all of them are fun to play, challenging, catchy to listen to, and fun to watch. The game will give you plenty of replay value with the multiple difficulties to master and all of the other extras that the game has.
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