When SEGA released the original Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F for the PlayStation 3 in late
2013, it was obvious they were taking a huge risk; really, what were the odds of a niche
rhythm game starring Japan’s biggest digital pop idol selling well in the U.S. and Europe?
Clearly aware of how unlikely that seemed, SEGA initially did not localize the Vita version
of the game, and when they did earlier this year, it was a digital-only release.
Clearly the odds mean nothing to Miku and her fellow Vocaloids, though, because the
game sold very well – well enough for SEGA to announce the sequel for Western release
with little delay.
Fast-forward to today, and that sequel - Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd – is set to arrive
on store shelves in less than a week.
Of course, this is one of those games where you know if you’re interested or not pretty
much right away just from its overall concept.
If the thought of digital idols with colorful anime hair and huge anime eyes singing fast-paced
Japanese pop songs makes you want to scream and start calling people “weeaboos,” look
elsewhere – this isn’t the game for you, and no positive review will convince you otherwise.
For the rest of us who either love this stuff or are open to it and enjoy a great rhythm
game to boot, get ready to spend a lot of time with Miku and friends!
Not too much has changed from the previous game, which is fine by me; this is a classic
example of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The core of Project Diva F 2nd is still the Rhythm Game, which is where you’ll press
buttons to the beat of around 40 new and fan-favorite songs according to icons that appear on-screen.
This isn’t as straightforward as it may sound, though; unlike other rhythm games like
DanceDanceRevolution or Beatmania IIDX where the icons mostly appear in the same location,
the icons in Project DIVA can appear anywhere on the screen and in various patterns such
that seeing the icons in time to know what to press in the first place can often be more
difficult than keeping the beat going correctly.
This is made even more challenging due to the fact that it’s often very hard not to
get distracted by the Vocaloids singing and dancing in some preposterously colorful, psychedelic
music videos in the background.
I have wished on occasion that it was possible to dim those videos a bit in order to be able
to focus on the icons a little more easily, but that’s also part of the inherent challenge
and one of the many reasons these games are so charming, so in the end I’m not complaining.
As a rhythm game veteran, I can tell you one thing for sure: these games are not for the
faint of heart.
Many of the songs can be surprisingly tough for newcomers even on the default Normal difficulty,
while the Hard and Extreme versions of songs will keep even rhythm game pros on their toes
by requiring you to press a wider range of buttons to more complex beats.
For example, while easier levels may mostly focus on having you press just two buttons,
more challenging difficulties will make you press all four face buttons in rapid sequence
– often in tandem with their respective direction on the D-pad – while also flicking
the analog sticks when star-shaped icons appear.
It can be a lot to handle for the uninitiated, which is why I definitely recommend starting
with the Easy difficulty if you’re a newbie so you don’t get frustrated and burned out.
While you can use items before playing a song to make the game easier in various ways, these
are only temporary solutions and, if you’re like me, you’ll want to be good enough to
succeed without any outside assistance.
The star Vocaloids Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, Meiko, and Kaito
are all present and accounted for in Project DIVA F 2nd, with all of them having their
own signature songs in the roster.
The majority of the songs is headlined by Miku, of course – she is the star, after
all – but all of the other Vocaloids do get their own time in the spotlight.
There are around 40 songs to be discovered, played, and mastered overall, split between
entirely new songs and fan-favorite tunes that are returning from the original Project
DIVA games for PSP, which were never released in the west.
Speaking personally, I feel that the songs in Project DIVA F 2nd are a little more inconsistent
than those in the first Project DIVA F; there are a lot of excellent tunes here, but I’m
not finding quite as many of them to be as irresistibly catchy and replayable as I did
in the previous game.
Of course, musical taste is subjective and your mileage may vary here.
Taken as a whole, Project DIVA F 2nd still has a great collection of music, covering
everything from bouncy electro-pop to dramatic love ballads, hard rock anthems, and more.
Completing a song earns you Diva Points, which can be spent at the in-game shop on various
costumes and accessories for the Vocaloids, decorations for their rooms, and different
skins for the user interface.
There’s an insane amount of stuff to unlock here that can be used to customize the Vocaloids
down to the smallest detail, so much so that the game generously offers to let you transfer
a lot of the stuff you’ve collected in the first game so you don’t have to start over
from scratch.
You can also visit the Vocaloids in their rooms, give them gifts, and play with them
in order to make them friendlier to you, lending this aspect of the game a light dating-sim
quality.
For those who are turned off by this sort of stuff, it’s important to note that it’s
all completely optional and avoidable; I’ve almost totally ignored it just because the
core Rhythm Game is what I enjoy, but that aspect of the game is there in a big way for
those who want it.
There’s also a bunch of other stuff to do outside the main Rhythm Game and simulation
elements.
You can create and tweak your own note charts and music videos for all the game’s songs
in an incredibly robust editing mode and share your creations online; you can position and
pose the Vocaloids against various backgrounds and take photos of them, which you can also
share with others; you can watch the Vocaloids perform songs onstage in front of an audience
and change the camera angles, almost as if you’re watching them do a live show…
there’s no shortage of content and things to do in Project DIVA F 2nd, whether you want
to stick to the main Rhythm Game like me or focus on the simulation, editing, and producing
elements.
You could do a lot of this stuff in the previous Project DIVA F as well, which does emphasize
the idea that there really isn’t much that’s actually “new” to this sequel.
While that’s true, SEGA has actually done a lot of nipping and tucking behind the scenes
and made a bunch of small technical improvements that make Project DIVA F 2nd a better game
than its predecessor.
The timing in the Rhythm Game is ever so slightly better than before and loading times have
been improved across the board, especially in the PS3 version, making it easier than
ever to jump into a song with minimal wait time.
Cross Save is also supported now, so you can share your progress across the PS3 and Vita
versions if you’re hardcore enough to own them both.
In one of my favorite new additions, Project DIVA F 2nd includes the option to display
English subtitles for most of the songs, which is great for those of us who don’t speak
Japanese but would like to know just what these Vocaloids are singing about as they
fill our ears with such catchy music.
Finally, the game even allows you to import your save data from the Japanese version of
Project DIVA F 2nd – a particularly cool nod to hardcore fans who likely bought the
Japanese version out of concern that there would never be a Western release.
SEGA really understands Miku’s Western audience, and it shows.
While the game is available and great on both the PS3 and Vita, I recommend playing it on
the Vita if you can.
The strikingly colorful music videos really pop on the Vita’s screen, and I find the
core Rhythm Game to be slightly easier and more fun to play with the Vita’s face buttons
than the DualShock 3.
The Vita version also allows you to choose between flicking the analog sticks, the touch
screen, or the rear touch pad to hit star marks, which is a helpful option to have.
On the other hand, the PS3 version’s loading times are a little better and I found the
Vita version’s Augmented Reality photo studio and live performance modes to be of little
use compared to their non-AR counterparts in the PS3 version, so choose the platform
that best suits the parts of the game you care about most.
If you couldn’t tell by now, I love Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd.
There’s not much to complain about here, and I’m not the kind of reviewer who thinks
“more of the same” is a bad thing when that “same” was great to begin with.
You already know if you’re the kind of person who is down with the essence of what Hatsune
Miku is, and if you are, this game is not to be missed.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Hatsune Miku and
all things gaming.