Eating Games with Curry: Project Diva f

Project Diva f

Sega has a history of not localizing their more niche games, so “Sega hates us” has become a common joke amongst the Western fanbase. One franchise that had never been given the chance to shine in English-speaking fanbases is the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva games that debuted on the PSP and sold like hotcakes in Japan. Last year, they finally localized Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f for the PS3, with the Vita digital version arriving soon after. And then they realized that *gasp*, there are people who enjoy Vocaloid music and rhythm games in North America! The game sold well enough for them to localize the second game, coming to North American shores this November. This time the Vita version gets a physical print run too.

The first thing I realized is that the Playstation Vita has the best buttons I have ever had the pleasure of pressing on a handheld device. They’re very responsive and appropriately clicky–easier to press than the 3DS’ too-tight buttons and more satisfying to push than the PSP’s mushy ones. The second thing I learned was that playing a fast-paced rhythm game for over three hours straight on a bare Vita when I was extremely rusty with my fingers will give me blisters in weird places the next day. So I made sure to always play this game with a grip that makes the Vita feel like a PS3 controller. Haven’t had blisters since then. Oh, and I discovered how out of the loop I was with Vocaloid music. I feel like some old fogey who doesn’t understand teenagers and their weird pop music. The only song I actually knew on the song list prior to playing the game was Black Rock Shooter.

Regardless of whether you know the songs or not, you’d have to admit that most of the tracklist is very suitable for a rhythm game. They’re catchy and fun to tap to, and will be stuck in your head whether you like it or not. The Vocaloids’ electronic voices may sound strange to the average person at first, but they’ve got a highly addicting charm that draws you back.

As a rhythm game, Project Diva is pretty basic in terms of mechanics. Notes representing the Playstation buttons X, O, Triangle, and Square will fall down, and you must hit the correct button when the falling note overlaps with its respective “slot” that appears on screen. There are four difficulty modes, making this game suitable for beginner and experts alike (pardon the line that sounds like something from the description on the back of a game case). Actually, replace “expert” with “guy who can steadily mash buttons at high speed for long periods of time” because that’s what some songs on extreme feel like. Needless to say, there are quite a number of songs on that difficulty that I can’t do.

There is a life bar that decreases as you miss notes and refills as you hit them well. If you lose all life before the song ends, you automatically fail and get taken out of the song. A complaint of mine is the lack of a training mode where you can observe and try the song patterns you constantly fail at without getting booted out by failing too much, but I guess that would make the game too easy. You are graded on how well you did at the end of the song. There’s also a passing line of 80% in terms of grade and further lines at 90, 95, and 100 for Good, Excellent, and Perfect ratings. Depending on you difficulty and rating, you also get rewarded DP, which can be used to purchase items and character modules.

What makes Project Diva easy to pick up for newcomers to the genre is that it only features prominent use of the four buttons on the right (although you can actually use the corresponding direction on the D-Pad if you’re better with your left hand) and the touch screen (or analog stick on the PS3 version) for “scratch notes,” which appear occasionally and usually all in one chunk (rarely does mixing of button notes and scratch notes occur on difficulties below Extreme). Scratch notes are in the shape of stars, and you must flick the touch screen to hit them. You can flick in any direction, regardless of which way the note is traveling on screen. There are also double notes where you must hit a button and its corresponding D-Pad direction at the same time. This is the only time you’ll need to use the D-Pad, except in some fast songs on Extreme where using both hands is the only way you can hit all the notes unless you are this:

Most songs just have you following the lead vocal (and sometimes lead instrumental) in beat, and you only have one line of notes to pay attention to, unlike some rhythm games that have multiple threads of button patterns you need to keep track of. This makes it a lot simpler to grasp than other games in the genre, like DJ MAX. I still die on Easy in that game, despite Project Diva being a cakewalk up to Normal and comfortably challenging on Hard. Rhythm game experts would probably find the game easy until Extreme.

The Platinum trophy is actually very easy to get, in contrary to what I expected. This game is very friendly to the unskilled, in that you barely even need to touch Extreme to unlock everything and get all the trophies. You only need to clear all songs on Hard and one song (any song) on Extreme to unlock everything, and that’s it for skill-based trophies. The rest consist of grinding for DP to buy items and modules.

Aside from the main rhythm game, there’s also a feature where you can visit the Vocaloids’ rooms and interact with them by petting their heads, remodeling their furniture, and giving them gifts. Some of the events are pretty entertaining.

I recommend this game to people who like mashing buttons.

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