Some of you might be wondering what the “X” in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X stands for. Could it be “extreme”? “Extra”? “Extravagant”!? After playing through the third entry in the Project DIVA console and handheld series… we still have no idea. Yet, after spending plenty of time with our favorite digital pop star in her PS4 debut, Project DIVA X delivers a much more streamlined package that integrates nearly all of its many components into its core game play. The vocaloid faithful won’t need any convincing I’m sure, but for rhythm game enthusiasts who might have missed the boat on the whole hologram craze, then trust me when I say that this game is a worthy addition to any gamer’s library who loves to tap away with the rhythm, even if some long standing problems with the series show no signs of changing anytime soon.
Costumes are for more than just looking weird this time around.
Previous games, such as 2014’s Project DIVA F 2nd, were pretty straightforward when it came to progression. Typically, you’d be given a list of songs to complete, and as they were played through, new ones would open up until you eventually uncovered the final song, hopefully obtaining plenty of currency for accessories, decorations for your in game houses, and costumes, (called Modules), on the way. Project DIVA X apparently looked at all of that and realized how ordinary that all was, and Miku and her friends are anything but. Instead of being like most successful pop stars who rest on their laurels, Miku is evolving in what’s presented is a full fledged story mode. Miku’s music is housed within one of five Clouds. The Cloud Prisms, made up of the Classic, Cool, Cute, Elegant, and Quirky Clouds, have all lost their shine, making it so the performers can’t perform. By entering each of these Clouds and singing the five songs within them, Miku and company are tasked with revitalizing each prism and bringing the music back to their world. Each Cloud houses a sixth Main Event once all five main songs are completed, totaling 30 unique tracks. On one hand, that’s fewer than the 40 or so tracks from the last game, but each Main Event delivers the debut of medleys, consisting short versions of four unique songs each. It’s all about perspective.
Cloud based gaming.
Once the beat drops and the music starts, all the details go by the wayside when the notes start flying across the screen. As with previous games, buttons will float over a background performance towards a grey outline of the input, lining up with the rhythm as you press the commands to the beat of the music. Standard taps, sustained notes that ask you to hold and release buttons, flicking the stick for special star shaped icons, and pressing the D-Pad and face buttons simultaneously for certain notes all return, in addition to new Rush commands. Once pressed, Rush commands have you tap the button or stick as fast as possible for a certain amount of time, building up extra points in the process. Spread across four different difficulty modes, the obvious goal is to hit as many notes as possible while building up a high score, but once again, the Cloud Prisms change things up.
Rather than simply filling up a bar to determine if you passed or failed, the main mode is more concerned with how much Voltage you can accumulate during your performance. Essentially your score, Voltage delivers a variety of rewards if you go above and beyond what your requirements ask of you. Doing away with the in game shop, how well you do and your difficulty determine how many items you’ll unlock by the end of the song. Ranging from items that can be gifted to your singers with the return of the game’s light dating sim aspects, to accessories that they can wear during their performances, the game gives you plenty of reason to reach for that high score. If you’re having trouble doing so on your own, Technical Zones and Chance Time both return for that extra potential boost. Technical Zones are special sections of the song that will reward extra points if the entire section is combo’d without missing, but that typically comes with some tricky arrangements. Chance Time on the other hand, used to award extra points, and unlock an extended scene at the end of the song for filling up a meter and hitting the last note in a specific sequence. While the extended scenes do not make a return, they’re replaced with unlocking Modules after a successful completion. Triggering a transformation sequence mid song, your singer will finish up their song with the new outfit in tow, adding it to your collection to use in future performances.
Playing an even bigger role this time around, Modules and accessories are for more than just cosmetic purposes. As with the Clouds, each wearable item is classified as either classic, cool, cute, elegant or quirky, and wearing outfits that match the style of the song you’re singing will reward you with bonus Voltage during the Rhythm Game. Other matching motifs, such as wearing all animal gear, will grant extra boosts as well, which is all aside from the individual perks Modules come equipped with. Ranging from making notes easier to hit, to awarding extra points in certain situations, and even making it easier to find new Modules and Accessories, you’ll often be faced with a choice between optimizing your score, or going for those sweet collectibles. As you uncover new equipment, this will become less of a decision, but early on, it’s hard to decide whether or not you want more item drops with a higher Voltage total, or if you want to increase your chances of getting a rare item by wearing an outfit that doesn’t match the song’s theme.
There’s something oddly rewarding about matching outfits.
After enough of the Cloud Prisms are restored, requests will start to become available. These special missions typically give you more freedom with your progression, where you’ll be asked to pick a song, perform a certain song, or put together a custom medley to perform for rare rewards. Like the main stages, you’ll be able to choose who performs each stage between Megurine Luka, Kaito, Meiko, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, and Miku herself, with their own Modules to customize the show with. After you go through the main game and beyond, more of these requests become available, truly placing you in that role of manager and producer that the game hands over to you. Combined with the return of the Concert Editor, where you can adjust the camera angles and presentation of performances, you’ll be able to find all the best ways for Miku to shine.
These are all positive strides for sure, which makes it all the more frustrating that some long standing issues with the game are still present as we enter the game’s third outing. Most noticeably, our biggest complaint before was somehow made worse in the form of hard to see buttons that make it easy to miss. Backgrounds seem even more vibrant and colorful this time around, which will often lead to the green, red, blue and pink face buttons camouflaging with the background. During medleys, there have been times where the new song title has obstructed my view of the prompts, putting an end to a 100 note plus combo. And as rewarding as it is to see the transformation sequence and a potential new Module unlock after a successful Chance Time, the flashing lights, new costume, and notification saying if the drop was new or rare, make it harder to pay attention to what’s going on on-screen. It’s not like this issue is unknown to the developers either, since they’ll have often mapped confusing sequence in on purpose, whether it’s buttons flying in circles, out of sequence, or even overlapping each other, so that what looks like one button press ends up being two or three. I don’t know how to fix it, but the interface needs some kind of change going forward.
That’s not to say that all of the past issues haven’t been improved on, but many of them feel like half measures. Completed Cloud songs become available in Free Play for a more traditional style, and thankfully, both Hard and Extreme are immediately available in this mode, rather than having to beat each subsequent difficulty. Yet, in the Clouds, where you’ll be spending most of your time, you can’t go back to completed Clouds or leave the ones you started until after you finish the main portion of the story. While there, the highest mode you can play is Normal Mode, so Miku veterans are going to have to wait for about four hours before showing off those skills. The unlock system is definitely an improvement, giving players something to work for and receiving instant rewards rather than grinding endlessly for money, but having what you get be completely up to chance becomes a nightmare for completionists who need that one last outfit. Considering that you’ll have gear to unlock for all six characters, you start to see the problem, especially when certain post song scenes will have your Vocaloid ask for a certain type of item. If you don’t have it, you can’t buy it, and have no way to keep from disappointing them. If there was a combination of the two systems, where maybe duplicate outfits would be exchanged for money to buy what you’re missing, then we’d have a perfect medium. Maybe next time?
Be thankful for moments like these when you can see what’s happening.
Lastly, a pet peeve of mine lately is when games will force you to play through the entire story again to get a “true” ending. Project DIVA X kind of does this by asking you to accumulate enough Voltage in each category after completing the main portion of the game to unlock the final song, which is essentially a second play through. It’s not as tedious as some games, since this time around, you can play the harder difficulties and unlock new equipment and challenges along the way, (like smaller notes or invisible prompts), but it’s not the best feeling when the game leads you to believe you’re at the grand finale, only to have the rug pulled from under you. At the very least, it does go by faster since you won’t have to watch the cutscenes that take place at certain points in each Cloud, each of which asks you to make inconcequential choices while watching the performers work out basic problems about what it means to be “cool” or “quirky”. Coming off like a weekday morning kid’s show, the dialogue and problem/solution structure comes off as simultaneously charming and odd in its simplicity. It’s like watching Eureka’s Catle at age 30… Anybody?
Some odd choices and persistent issues notwithstanding, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X is the highlight of the series, seamlessly integrating its quick play progression, item unlocks, dating sim mechanics, and character customization into one overarching mode. Unlocking new equipment adds an extra incentive to continuously playing the game’s 30 tracks on top of the rewarding harder difficulties, and with only two of the songs being repeats, (even those of which have reworked game play), longtime fans will have plenty to look forward to. Even rhythm game fans in general will find plenty to love, with plenty of catchy tunes to carry you through to that next Module. Being a slave to the whims of luck, having to play the game more than once to see its end, and being the third game in a row to obstruct our view from the button prompts all hold DIVA X back to an extent, but not enough to keep it from being a fantastic music game.
Final Score: 4/5