Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PlayStation 3)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): August 27, 2013
- Release Date (EU): September 4, 2013
- Release Date (JP): March 7, 2013
- Publisher: Sega
- Developer: Sega, Crypton Future Media
- Genres: Rhythm
- Also For: PlayStation Vita
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F is one of those games that you never thought would be released in the west. Starting as a simple program voice synthesizer, it evolved into something big that no one would ever imagine.
First it filled concert halls in Japan and then moved to the gaming industry, and for the first time the game is getting localized in the west which i will be reviewing.
Last year, Sega asked fans on Facebook if they would want to see the PS3 sequel in USA and Europe. It was supported by lots of fans and because of that, Sega began localizing Hatsune Miku games in west.
They began with Project Diva F for the PS3, which would later be released on the Vita as well.
Project Diva F is a rhythm game revolving around the Virtual Pop Diva Hatsune Miku and their friends. Singing and dancing in over 30 songs, you are supposed to press buttons to the beat of the song, which sometimes goes with the rhythm of the voice or instruments. The controls are formed of simple button presses which are sometimes meant to be pressed or to be held until the snake ends. Other than Face targets there are the Arrow targets and Star targets.
Arrow targets are triggered by pressing the arrow and in the same time the corresponding face button on the controller, while Star targets are triggered by flicking one of the analogs to any side.
Everything works fine except for the Star targets. The analogs don't need to be flicked with the rhythm and can be flicked randomly. It gets clunky when there are more than 3 star targets one after another and flicking too fast will make the game register that you flicked more than you actually did.
Each song has 2 Technical Zones in which you have to get the full combo. If you do succeed, you will be prized with bonus points. If you fail to press even one note during the Technical Zone you will fail it and no bonus points will be given.
The Chance Time occurs once in a song. You are supposed to fill the star gauge by normally playing the game, and if you succeed, you will unlock the alternate ending for the song. They both matter because if you fail them you're going to end up losing Grade Points, which determine your grade in the game.
1 Technical Zone gives you 3 Grade Points, while Chance Time gives you 5 Grade points. The other 89 Grade points are determined by how well you sync to the rhythm of the song.
Cool is when you’re perfectly synched. Good is when you're a bit late on timing. Safe is completely late, and Bad and Awful are when you totally fail to sync with the rhythm.
Afterwards, is the results screen, where you will be able to see how many Grade Points you earned during the song,which determines your final grade. 80 Grade Points will give you a Standard grade, 90 for a Great grade, 95 an Extreme grade, and 100 gets you a Perfect grade. Anything lower than 80 means that you failed the song.
The song list consists of 38 songs, most of which are of the Pop genre, with a few Rock songs as well.
Some of the more popular songs that are in the game are Cat Food,Remote Controller and Senbonzakura, while other less popular ones like Nostalgic,Megane, and Ashes to Ashes are included. The game has one of the best song compilation in the series, sitting next to Project Diva 2nd(PSP). The songs are made from some new and famous artists like Mitchie-M,Junkey, and OSTER Project.
All songs are Romanized, which means that none of them are translated to English.
After you clear songs, depending on your grade, you will unlock higher difficulties,new songs to play and customizable items, which can be set on the character in game. There’s a huge variety of items to choose from. You can customize the characters clothes,head,face,chest, and back area as well as having the option to save it as a preset in the game for later use.
The game might come across as too easy, and for those who think it is, there are Challenge Items.
The option to use Rhythm Game Items is automatically open and can be used to up the difficulty of the songs to the four difficulty modes; Easy,Normal,Hard and Extreme.
Rhythm Game Items are divided to Help and Challenge Items. Help Items, like it says, helps the player during the gameplay. They can change the Star targets to R1L1/R2L2,restore your song energy when it drops to zero, and other features.
The Challenge Items increase the difficulty by making the targets appear later than normal, make the song energy deplete faster than it should, or make you lose song energy if you get Good or lower notes.
There's one side effect to the Rhythm Game Items, Help items decrease Diva Points in the results screen or can even decrease your grade while Challenge Items increase the amount of Diva Points you get by 2 3 or 4 times. Diva Points are the currency of the game, which are used to buy new items in game. For newcomers, the Challenge items might be a bit difficult, but veterans probably won’t have any problems.
I have mixed feelings about the graphics in the game. It does support up to 1080p native resolution, but the game looks too simple. Textures in some songs are high and in others are low in resolution, creating an odd conflict.
There's also no shadows, and shaders are almost nonexistent. Clothes and hair don't have enough physics and doesn't look natural when the character is moving. Some colors also tend to look a bit washed out in certain songs.
The reasoning for the low textures though, is most likely because it was originally a PS Vita game.
Even with those complaints, Sega really hit the mark with the art style. The characters have a slick anime look and with the F engine, they added facial expression, giving the characters realistic expressions, while also keeping to the anime-ish nature of the design.
Besides the rhythm part of the game, there are other modes included, such as Diva Room,Edit Mode, and Studio.
In Diva Room, you visit the room of the Vocaloids and interact with their daily lives, like feeding them or communicating with them. Its not like Tamagotchi, and most likely you won't be even bothered with the Diva Room because it doesn't affect anything in the rhythm portion of the game. The only reason why you would be there is to perfect the game to get all the room items, which brings me to the other point. You can modify the Vocaloids rooms, like putting beach or Halloween theme in them as well as the corresponding chairs,tables,shelves, and etcetera.
Communication is based by an Affinity LV which goes up or down with depending the things you do to them. Poking them will decrease the Affinity LV, while rubbing their faces will increase it. Other ways to increase it, is by giving them gifts or watching Item Events which occur when specific items are placed in the room. Once the Affinity gauge fills up, your Friendship LV will rise by 1. Max LV is Crown (aka 6) and for each LV you are rewarded specific character items themed by the corresponding character (Miku banner, Miku paperdoll etc.)
Studio consists of Live Studio and Photo Studio.
In Live Studio, you can watch " Live " performances of some songs that are in the game, and some that are not. You can change the angles of camera during the performances and that's about it. It’s really unnecessary and it didn't make me feel like I'm on a " Live " performance (I guess that's what they aimed for?)
Photo Studio in other hand,might be considered fun. You can use your pics (copied to the PS3) and put Miku in various poses and facial expression to get a bit of a gag in it.
And last but not least, the Edit Mode. Its used to make your own songs for the game by simply copying your mp3 file to the PS3. The editing consists of PV and the rhythm portion.
In the PV portion, you can set the placement of the singer,and add in special effects like snowstorm, sunshine, etc. Also included options are camera angles,dance animations, and other similar stuff that you would need for it. The thing is, that the edited PV will never be as good as the real PVs that are made by Sega,because its limited with preset dance animations and facial expressions.
In the rhythm portion you can set the BPM (Beat Per Minute) of the song and the notes the way you want. It might be confusing at the start, but after a while you will get the hang of it. The editor's not perfect because its hard to know if you have set the note in the right place, so you are forced to start the game test to see if it is. Camera angles are set by axis, which might not be convenient for every player but still its a huge improvement from the previous incarnations. Once you make your song, you have the option to share it online on PSN (Optional). You can download songs from other players too, but the game doesn't provide you with the mp3 file so you're supposed to hunt it down online.
All in all, the game's good. It isn't at its fully graphically polished, and there are a bit of hiccups in the controls, but the soundtrack outshines all of it. That’s what matters most. If you're someone who wants something wacky and different than usual to play, then Proejct Diva F is the game for you. Vocaloid fans will for sure enjoy the game, and I recommend the game for all of the newcomers to the rhythm game genre.
They began with Project Diva F for the PS3, which would later be released on the Vita as well.
Controls
Project Diva F is a rhythm game revolving around the Virtual Pop Diva Hatsune Miku and their friends. Singing and dancing in over 30 songs, you are supposed to press buttons to the beat of the song, which sometimes goes with the rhythm of the voice or instruments. The controls are formed of simple button presses which are sometimes meant to be pressed or to be held until the snake ends. Other than Face targets there are the Arrow targets and Star targets.
Arrow targets are triggered by pressing the arrow and in the same time the corresponding face button on the controller, while Star targets are triggered by flicking one of the analogs to any side.
Everything works fine except for the Star targets. The analogs don't need to be flicked with the rhythm and can be flicked randomly. It gets clunky when there are more than 3 star targets one after another and flicking too fast will make the game register that you flicked more than you actually did.
During the gameplay you will see the Technical Zones and Chance Time.Each song has 2 Technical Zones in which you have to get the full combo. If you do succeed, you will be prized with bonus points. If you fail to press even one note during the Technical Zone you will fail it and no bonus points will be given.
The Chance Time occurs once in a song. You are supposed to fill the star gauge by normally playing the game, and if you succeed, you will unlock the alternate ending for the song. They both matter because if you fail them you're going to end up losing Grade Points, which determine your grade in the game.
1 Technical Zone gives you 3 Grade Points, while Chance Time gives you 5 Grade points. The other 89 Grade points are determined by how well you sync to the rhythm of the song.
Cool is when you’re perfectly synched. Good is when you're a bit late on timing. Safe is completely late, and Bad and Awful are when you totally fail to sync with the rhythm.
Afterwards, is the results screen, where you will be able to see how many Grade Points you earned during the song,which determines your final grade. 80 Grade Points will give you a Standard grade, 90 for a Great grade, 95 an Extreme grade, and 100 gets you a Perfect grade. Anything lower than 80 means that you failed the song.
Music and Content
The song list consists of 38 songs, most of which are of the Pop genre, with a few Rock songs as well.
Some of the more popular songs that are in the game are Cat Food,Remote Controller and Senbonzakura, while other less popular ones like Nostalgic,Megane, and Ashes to Ashes are included. The game has one of the best song compilation in the series, sitting next to Project Diva 2nd(PSP). The songs are made from some new and famous artists like Mitchie-M,Junkey, and OSTER Project.
All songs are Romanized, which means that none of them are translated to English.
After you clear songs, depending on your grade, you will unlock higher difficulties,new songs to play and customizable items, which can be set on the character in game. There’s a huge variety of items to choose from. You can customize the characters clothes,head,face,chest, and back area as well as having the option to save it as a preset in the game for later use.
The game might come across as too easy, and for those who think it is, there are Challenge Items.
The option to use Rhythm Game Items is automatically open and can be used to up the difficulty of the songs to the four difficulty modes; Easy,Normal,Hard and Extreme.
Rhythm Game Items are divided to Help and Challenge Items. Help Items, like it says, helps the player during the gameplay. They can change the Star targets to R1L1/R2L2,restore your song energy when it drops to zero, and other features.
The Challenge Items increase the difficulty by making the targets appear later than normal, make the song energy deplete faster than it should, or make you lose song energy if you get Good or lower notes.
There's one side effect to the Rhythm Game Items, Help items decrease Diva Points in the results screen or can even decrease your grade while Challenge Items increase the amount of Diva Points you get by 2 3 or 4 times. Diva Points are the currency of the game, which are used to buy new items in game. For newcomers, the Challenge items might be a bit difficult, but veterans probably won’t have any problems.
Graphics
I have mixed feelings about the graphics in the game. It does support up to 1080p native resolution, but the game looks too simple. Textures in some songs are high and in others are low in resolution, creating an odd conflict.
There's also no shadows, and shaders are almost nonexistent. Clothes and hair don't have enough physics and doesn't look natural when the character is moving. Some colors also tend to look a bit washed out in certain songs.
The reasoning for the low textures though, is most likely because it was originally a PS Vita game.
Even with those complaints, Sega really hit the mark with the art style. The characters have a slick anime look and with the F engine, they added facial expression, giving the characters realistic expressions, while also keeping to the anime-ish nature of the design.
Game Modes
Besides the rhythm part of the game, there are other modes included, such as Diva Room,Edit Mode, and Studio.
In Diva Room, you visit the room of the Vocaloids and interact with their daily lives, like feeding them or communicating with them. Its not like Tamagotchi, and most likely you won't be even bothered with the Diva Room because it doesn't affect anything in the rhythm portion of the game. The only reason why you would be there is to perfect the game to get all the room items, which brings me to the other point. You can modify the Vocaloids rooms, like putting beach or Halloween theme in them as well as the corresponding chairs,tables,shelves, and etcetera.
Communication is based by an Affinity LV which goes up or down with depending the things you do to them. Poking them will decrease the Affinity LV, while rubbing their faces will increase it. Other ways to increase it, is by giving them gifts or watching Item Events which occur when specific items are placed in the room. Once the Affinity gauge fills up, your Friendship LV will rise by 1. Max LV is Crown (aka 6) and for each LV you are rewarded specific character items themed by the corresponding character (Miku banner, Miku paperdoll etc.)
Studio consists of Live Studio and Photo Studio.
In Live Studio, you can watch " Live " performances of some songs that are in the game, and some that are not. You can change the angles of camera during the performances and that's about it. It’s really unnecessary and it didn't make me feel like I'm on a " Live " performance (I guess that's what they aimed for?)
Photo Studio in other hand,might be considered fun. You can use your pics (copied to the PS3) and put Miku in various poses and facial expression to get a bit of a gag in it.
And last but not least, the Edit Mode. Its used to make your own songs for the game by simply copying your mp3 file to the PS3. The editing consists of PV and the rhythm portion.
In the PV portion, you can set the placement of the singer,and add in special effects like snowstorm, sunshine, etc. Also included options are camera angles,dance animations, and other similar stuff that you would need for it. The thing is, that the edited PV will never be as good as the real PVs that are made by Sega,because its limited with preset dance animations and facial expressions.
In the rhythm portion you can set the BPM (Beat Per Minute) of the song and the notes the way you want. It might be confusing at the start, but after a while you will get the hang of it. The editor's not perfect because its hard to know if you have set the note in the right place, so you are forced to start the game test to see if it is. Camera angles are set by axis, which might not be convenient for every player but still its a huge improvement from the previous incarnations. Once you make your song, you have the option to share it online on PSN (Optional). You can download songs from other players too, but the game doesn't provide you with the mp3 file so you're supposed to hunt it down online.
All in all, the game's good. It isn't at its fully graphically polished, and there are a bit of hiccups in the controls, but the soundtrack outshines all of it. That’s what matters most. If you're someone who wants something wacky and different than usual to play, then Proejct Diva F is the game for you. Vocaloid fans will for sure enjoy the game, and I recommend the game for all of the newcomers to the rhythm game genre.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Great art style
- Awesome song compilation
- Easy and accessible gameplay
What I Didn't Like ...
- Simple graphics
- No rhythm needed for star targets
7
Gameplay
A game that's easy to pick up and play, with a variety of Pop n' Rock songs.
Controls feel solid and there's enough content for a rhythm game.
The only downside would be the star targets which don't need to be flicked with the rhythm.
7
Presentation
Everything is simple to navigate, and the game is well explained. Its slick anime style makes the game unique and other than low textures during some songs, there's nothing wrong with it.
8
Lasting Appeal
The game has everything what a rhythm game needs. The graphics might not be fully polished and the game might be a bit easy for veterans, but the kick-ass soundtrack, which matters the most for a rhythm game, makes it great.
7.5
out of 10
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