It really can’t be understated just how surprising it is that I’m even reviewing
this game.
Against all odds, virtual idol Hatsune Miku continues to enjoy lasting success outside
her home country of Japan, with three well-received titles released in the West thus far.
Now Miku is back for her PlayStation 4 debut in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X, but is it
a worthy follow-up to everything that has come before?
The answer isn’t as straightforward as you may think.
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first.
The core rhythm gameplay featured in Project DIVA F and F 2nd is back and mostly unchanged
here in Project DIVA X, so if you’re a returning fan, you’ll feel right at home here.
Stated simply, your goal is to press the DualShock 4’s face buttons and flick the analog sticks
in accordance with on-screen prompts while keeping to the rhythm of the song as closely
as possible.
Stay on beat and hit the prompts accurately, and you pass — hit the wrong buttons or
lose the beat, and you fail.
Each song also has Technical Zones and a Chance Time segment that give a huge boost to your
overall score if you complete them successfully.
So far, so normal, which is fine - after all, there’s no point in fixing what was never
broken!
New to Project DIVA X’s rhythm gameplay are “Rush” targets, which have you mashing
a particular button as many times as possible before the target disappears.
Rush targets often coincide with climactic parts of a song where the lead Vocaloid is
holding a note for an extended period of time, so they do a really great job of bringing
you into the experience and making you feel like you’re really part of the on-screen
performance.
Even with the addition of Rush targets, it’s fair to say that Project DIVA’s core gameplay
hasn’t evolved very much over the years.
And yet the bump in hardware power offered by the PS4 means Project DIVA X looks and
plays significantly better than any previous game in the series, with everything running
at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second.
If you’ve spent a lot of time playing the previous Project DIVA games on PS3 or PS Vita,
the improvement is immediately noticeable.
I usually don’t touch on a game’s visual elements until the end of a review, but in
Project DIVA X’s case the improved graphical output directly affects the gameplay in a
positive way while looking fantastic besides.
Loading times are also improved greatly across the board over previous titles, which is another
plus.
In a somewhat surprising shift from prior games, Project DIVA X anchors most of its
content around a new single-player mode that sees you attempting to restore beauty and
tranquility to Miku’s digital world through - what else?
- the power of music.
The decision to introduce a campaign-like element into a series that really didn’t
need it is a bold one, and the results are mixed.
On one hand, the light story elements are as fun as they are unnecessary; watching all
the Vocaloids grow closer to each other as they work to restore their world is silly
but cute, and the short cutscenes never overstay their welcome.
SEGA clearly had a lot of fun with the localization, too, as the dialogue is consistently entertaining
to read.
On the other hand, the campaign mode has been implemented in such a way that it feels like
it’s often at odds with the rest of the game — and yet it’s also the only way
to unlock new songs, Modules, accessories, and stages.
(If you’re new to the Miku vernacular, “Modules” is a fancy way of saying “costumes.”)
Here’s how it works.
The songs in Project DIVA X are divided into one of five “Clouds” according to their
“aura” — Classic, Cool, Cute, Quirky, and Elegant.
These Clouds have lost their energy and need to be recharged with Voltage, which you gain
by playing each song.
Essentially, Voltage replaces traditional points in this mode; the better you play,
the more Voltage you gain.
But it’s not just about how well you play overall.
You can increase your base Voltage multiplier by wearing a Module and accessories that match
a song’s aura - so for example, if you’re playing through the songs in the Quirky Cloud,
having your Vocaloid wear a Quirky costume and Quirky accessories will boost your Voltage
multiplier before you even start playing, setting you up to earn more overall Voltage
than you would have otherwise.
You can also boost your Voltage multiplier in small increments mid-song by hitting special
targets that replace otherwise normal targets in Free Play mode.
It’s easy enough to hit each song’s basic Voltage requirement without doing any of this,
but if you want to fill the Voltage meter multiple times and maximize the number of
goodies you get after a song, you’ll need to put some thought into what your Vocaloid
is wearing before each song.
Each Module also has a passive skill associated with it, such as raising your Voltage multiplier
by a set amount each time you pull off an 100 combo or increasing your odds of scoring
a new accessory after a song.
So by tying the use of Modules and accessories to the gameplay in this manner, Project DIVA
X actively rewards players for customizing the Vocaloids’ appearance when, before,
there was no reason to bother playing dress-up unless you just wanted to.
Ultimately, these elements all combine to provide a fresh new spin on traditional Project
DIVA gameplay, and that’s a good thing.
But I said before that I feel pretty mixed about this campaign mode, so what’s the
problem?
Well, to start with, you’re forced to play each song on Easy or Normal on your first
time through the campaign, which means returning veterans are in for a major slog at first.
And once you’ve done that, the game essentially asks you to play through the whole campaign
again on a harder difficulty just to unlock one final song, and by then you’ve already
probably figured out that scores aren’t recorded at all in the campaign mode - so
no matter how many songs you might have already gotten a perfect full combo on, you’ll have
to do it again in Free Play for it to really count.
So let’s say that at that point, you switch over to Free Play mode to start honing your
skills on each song, taking on higher difficulties and posting high scores.
Well, hopefully you don’t care about continuing to unlock more Modules, accessories, stages,
and gallery art, because with the removal of both Diva Points and an in-game shop to
spend them in, you can only keep earning new stuff via the campaign mode… where your
score isn’t counted at all.
See what I’m getting at?
In this way, Project DIVA X often feels like it’s at odds with itself, especially in
terms of player progression.
Fortunately, once you do have everything unlocked in Free Play mode, Project DIVA X excels as
much as the series always has at being as approachable for newcomers as it is challenging
for veterans.
Each song in the game can be played on one of four difficulty levels; “easy” and
“normal” will be manageable for most people with a little practice, but taking on the
“hard” and especially “extreme” charts will require dedication as you grapple with
concepts like alternating between the face buttons and D-pad for eighth and sixteenth
notes.
Unfortunately, there’s one major problem that exists at the core of Project DIVA X,
constantly radiating outward to worsen the issues I outlined above.
That problem, simply put, is a surprisingly lean song list.
Let’s do some basic math, shall we?
The first Project DIVA F came packed with 38 songs, while F 2nd kicked things up a notch
with 40 songs in the base game and a further 16 available as DLC.
Project MIRAI DX also impressed with a total of 48 songs, all on one little 3DS card.
Project DIVA X, meanwhile, only brings a meager 24 songs to the party.
Now to be fair, almost every song in Project DIVA X is new and hasn’t appeared in a prior
game, and there are also six playable medleys that are made up of snippets of songs from
other Project DIVA games, but the medleys just aren’t as fun to play - I’d trade
them for a few more full songs any day.
So with a song list that’s only 24 songs and six medleys strong, it’s got to be packed
full of crowd-pleasing hits, right?
Well… musical taste is entirely subjective, so your mileage will vary, but personally
I’d say I really enjoy about 60% of the songs in Project DIVA X, with the other 40%
not really doing it for me.
The music itself consists of the usual Vocaloid assortment of dancy, hook-laden electro pop,
slower-paced love ballads, high-energy J-rock, driving techno, and total genre-defying weirdness
that can only be described as “Vocaloid music.”
No song list will totally please any one person, of course, but with prior games I never felt
like it was a big deal when I came across a song I didn’t like because there were
so many others to choose from.
But because Project DIVA X has so few songs to begin with, it felt like a major disappointment
each time I found one that didn’t resonate with me.
Project DIVA X’s song list disappoints even more if you consider anyone other than Miku
herself your favorite Vocaloid.
Rin, Len, Luka, Meiko, and Kaito are all left out in the cold with a mere one song each,
although they do get to contribute backup vocals in a few of Miku’s songs.
While it is of course Miku’s name on the box and she should be the star, prior Project
DIVA games have done a much better job spreading the love between every Vocaloid while still
keeping Miku in the spotlight.
Simply put: if you’re a fan of any Vocaloid other than Miku herself, there’s very little
for you here — and that’s saying a lot for a game that already has significantly
fewer songs than any prior Western game in the series.
So what happens when you combine the franchise’s smallest song list yet with a new campaign
mode that completely separates unlocking more Modules, accessories, gallery art, and other
goodies from posting better grades and chasing high scores?
Well, burnout happens.
It’s not that the songs in Project DIVA X aren’t fun to play, but when there are
so few of them to begin with and the game forces you to play each one twice just to
have every song and medley available in Free Play mode…
well, the game starts feeling like a grind in a way that no previous Project DIVA game
ever has.
Aside from the core Free Play and campaign modes, you are occasionally called upon to
complete “Event Requests.”
These either challenge you to complete certain songs under specific conditions or ask you
to put together your own “Music Festival” by selecting a series of three songs as well
as the Vocaloids, Modules, and accessories used for each one.
These pop up infrequently enough that they’re kind of fun when they do, but ultimately you’re
still drawing from the same small pool of songs, so the Event Requests don’t really
alleviate the feelings of burnout and repetition I described earlier.
You can also design your own music videos in the surprisingly robust Concert Editor.
When I say “robust,” I really mean it — you’re able to make very fine adjustments
to things like camera angles, lighting, and stage effects at any point in the song alongside
more general choices like which Vocaloids are performing and which Modules they’re
wearing.
There’s also a Photo Studio that gives you plenty of tools to design almost any Vocaloid
screenshot you can dream of, which you can then save and share elsewhere if you so desire.
These modes are easily ignored if you have no interest in them, of course, but they’re
worth pointing out for those who get a lot of use out of them.
The light dating sim elements of the previous titles have been toned down and streamlined
in Project DIVA X.
You can still increase your friendship level with each Vocaloid, but instead of creepily
rubbing them on the head or playing weird minigames with them, you now grow closer to
them simply by giving them gifts that you win after completing songs in the campaign
mode.
Much of the strategy has been taken out of the gift-giving, too — while each Vocaloid
still has their own individual preferences, you can give them gifts as often as you want,
with no “cooldown” period like in previous games.
While there are very slight gameplay benefits to increasing your friendship with the Vocaloids,
they’re so negligible that you can safely overlook this aspect of the game if you want
and not feel like you’re missing out.
Before I wrap up, I should touch on the game’s DLC, which so far consists of two songs, a
small assortment of various “Snow Miku” Modules, and an accessory.
The modules and accessory will really only appeal to the most hardcore Miku fans, but
the two songs — “Sharing The World” and “Hand in Hand” — are both absolutely
stellar and well worth purchasing if you’re open to the idea of buying DLC at all.
Hopefully there are more DLC songs coming down the road, because Project DIVA X really
needs some to help fill out its small song list — though whether or not you’d be
willing to pay for them is an entirely different discussion.
Ultimately, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X just left me feeling kind of “meh,” because
it’s just not as complete a package as its predecessors.
While the gameplay itself is better than ever thanks to the addition of Rush targets and
a doubled frame rate over previous titles, the surprisingly small song list seriously
undercuts Project DIVA X’s lasting appeal — especially considering the fact that the
new campaign mode, fun as it can be, exists entirely at odds with the traditional Free
Play mode.
I mean, look - if all you have is a PS4 and you want a nice taste of the uniquely engaging
rhythm gameplay and unbelievably happy vibes that only Miku can offer, Project DIVA X is
still a decent entry point into the series.
But if you have access to a PS3 or 3DS, the three Miku games already available across
those platfotms all offer considerably more content for an equal or lower price.
Quite frankly, the first lady of digital pop deserved more for her PS4 debut.
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