There are six types of notes in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone. The easier songs are appropriately easy (though possibly still a bit difficult for newcomers to the genre), but the hardest songs could potentially turns your hands into pretzels. Songs range from 1 to 10 stars, and every one of the 224 songs have a minimum of 4 difficulty settings (64 have a fifth). In any case, the difficulty is there for the hardcore music game player. I’d prefer if this were not the case, as near perfect play with a single miss in the middle of the song will score worse than technically less accomplished play with several misses towards the end, and thus encourages restarting a song after a single mistake. A broken combo can be really heartbreaking when you’re chasing high scores, as a scoring multiplier resets every time you miss a note. Precise timing is required to score Cool on a note, with slight timing mistakes resulting in a Good that doesn’t break your combo, or a Safe, Bad or Worst/Miss that does. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is definitely closer to the Bemani style of music game that I love. While Guitar Hero and Rock Band gained popularity in the United States, they did not require the kind of precision that was necessary in Bemani titles, and I always felt like they were easy-mode music games by comparison. I would spend countless hours playing Beatmania IIDX and Pop’n Music, and I eventually got good enough that I could score AAA on songs (which requires painfully precise timing). I have been a big fan of music games since Parappa the Rapper, and it was the much more hardcore Bemani titles that really got me into it. I’m sad to say that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is my very first game in the series, and I regret not getting into it sooner. Really, Hatsune Miku is the culmination of literally thousands of composers and songwriters that have created the hundreds of songs that she performs in-game and the tens or even hundreds of thousands of songs that have been created using her voice over the years (not to mention the artists and animators that work on her music videos)! Though it is beyond the scope of this review to go into further detail, I highly recommend you do some additional reading if you’re interested. The simplest way I can describe Hatsune Miku is that she is a virtual pop idol, or a Vocaloid (singing voice synthesizer), though that might be a gross simplification. Each song also has its own, exclusive music video, so don’t be surprised when you see how big the downloads are! Over 200 is practically unheard of, and if you buy both collections, you will have no less than 224 songs, adding up to well over 10 straight hours of music! I can’t understate how much value there is in that… especially in a world where music games like to charge you $2.00 per song as DLC. It’s not unusual for games of this genre to release with 30 or 40 tracks. In music game terms, these games are gigantic. Future Sound is where you will find rock and dance music, while Colorful Tone has a collection of songs that can only be described as “cute.” Both collections have over 100 songs and can be purchased digitally on the PlayStation Store for $29.99 a piece, or together in a bundle for $53.99.
The game will also be released in the West in 2020.Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is a music and rhythm game made up of two collections of songs. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix will be released in Japan on Nintendo Switch on February 13, 2020. By purchasing it, you can gain access to all modules and customization items that you’d normally need to earn points to purchase with in-game. There’s also an Item Unlocker DLC that costs 1,000 yen, which will appear on February 13, 2020. Additionally, four new modules will be available for purchase to go alongside these songs for Miku, Rin, Kaito, and Meiko.ĭLC Pack 1 is currently priced at 900 yen, excluding tax. The DLC pack has a larger focus on songs for the Vocaloids outside of Miku that are popular picks within the fandom. Songs included in the first DLC pack are mostly returning songs from other titles, such as “electro saturator” from Project DIVA Future Tone. (Editor’s note: The price was originally mistakenly labeled as 4,500 yen.) The Season Pass will cost 4,950 yen in Japan. There will be a season pass for additional songs, which will be available alongside the first DLC pack. Sega released details on Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix‘s upcoming DLC schedule, including the contents of the first DLC pack that will appear on February 13, 2020.