Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (PS4) Review

Hatsune Miku, the vocaloid sensation is now available on the Playstation 4.  This marks the first time the game has been 1080p and 60fps, and also the first Hatsune Miku game I have reviewed.

Project Diva X is a rhythm action game, meaning you must press the correct buttons at the correct time in the song.  Most of the requisite notes types are present: pressing the button, holding the button, and mashing the button.  Before you play the game, I strongly suggest you do the tutorial and set the input lag in the options.  It was recommended in the PR email, and is good advice.  It really helped me out, too.  It took me a few minutes to get the input lag just right, but it was time well spent.

At the start of the game, you are charged with completing songs to fill up a song crystal to re-energize it.  Once the first one is done, you can choose another to do.  There are five categories of songs (classic, cute, cool, elegant and quirky), and you have to eventually go through each crystal, unlocking songs and filling them up one by one.  At the end of each one, there is a medley song (which I jokingly referred to as "boss songs"), which is snippets of several songs played together.  Once that is complete, you have finished off the crystal and can move on to the next.

When they are all filled, you do a special event festival to celebrate.  Then, you can replay songs and fill the crystals again a few more times to unlock more event requests.  This time, the amount filled is based off "voltage", which is basically your score for a song.  This is blatantly just making you play the songs again and again, but you can increase the difficulty for more voltage.  There are also special ways to play songs, like having the notes disappear, or moving twice as fast.  Plus, you will probably be playing the songs multiple times to unlock items, so it isn't as bad as it would initially appear.

During the songs, there are two special areas to be aware of.  First is the Technical Zone, which tasks you with hitting every note at a set point in the song.  "Cool" and "Good" will count, but "Safe" does not.  If you hit them all, you get bonus voltage points.  Miss one, and you get nothing.  Sad to say, I rarely hit them all.  The other special part of the song is the "Chance Zone", which gives you a chance to get a new module (basically costumes).  During these parts, every note you hit fills a star that gives a module change (mid song transformation!) if you fill it completely and then hit the star note at the end (the notes where you flick the stick or the touch pad).  Make sure to hit it or you get nothing!  The costumes are per character, but you aren't guaranteed to get a new one, only a chance at a new one.  Sadly, I got the same one three times in a row, even though I already had it.

The game isn't overly hard, but I'm still not very good at it.  After playing a few songs, I got into the groove, so to speak, and started doing much better.  Still, I don't think I have ever perfected a song.  Sometimes the song is just harder for me, and sometimes it's the star notes.  They sometimes have problems registering when I flick the stick, but I don't think it's a controller issue.  Notes are also at various places on the screen, not in one set location, like other rhythm action games that I have played.  Sometimes notes come from the near side of the screen, making you have to react a lot faster.  That's pretty mean.  With all the dancing action and effects taking place on the stage, plus the fancy camera cuts, it can be pretty easy to not be able to see the notes, and thus miss a note.  Combining all of that, it is easy to see why I haven't hit every note in a song.

The modules and accessories you unlock aren't just for show.  Each one matches one of the types of songs.  Equipping them will boost the starting voltage rate for a song, making it easier to gain the required score to complete the stage.  Some combination of accessories give a further bonus if they are themed in some way, for example equipping several animal pieces.  Modules also have different abilities, with the most useful (to me) being the ones that give you a better chance at a new or rare module.

The other items you gain at the end of a song are gifts, which you can give to the various characters to raise their affection.  Sometimes after a song, they will ask for a certain type of item.  Items that raise the character's affection are different per character, which you should expect in any game where you give characters stuff.  I don't know these characters, so I don't know what they would prefer.  A few times I've had them ask for something, such as when I had Luka tell me her throat was dry, and she acted like I was a weirdo for giving her juice.  Yeah, I'm the strange one here...

The first part of the story mode, unlocking each crystal and playing all the songs, takes about 4-5 hours.  Past that, you are looking at many hours to fill up the crystals over and over again, plus unlocking all the modules and accessories for the characters.  I played through the first time on easy, and later on normal.  I actually completed a song on hard, but normal is pretty much my limit.  I'm not that great at the game.  Besides making the songs harder, higher difficulties will let you get more items at the end of a song, and higher voltages also mean less replaying to fill the crystals.

Besides the story mode, there are other things to do.  There is a robust photo mode that lets you dress and pose two characters and take a picture of them.  Concert mode will let you set up songs, pick the performers, and even change camera angles to make your own music videos.  Both of these modes, while extras, are really involved and are great things to include in the game.  Besides unlocking all the stuff, these give the game even more replay value.

Overall, it was fun to play my first Hatsune Miku game, Project Diva X.  The songs are catchy, the game is really pretty, and there is a lot to unlock.  There is a fair amount of grinding if you want to see all the content, and the notes can be hard to make out over all the background action.  Other than that, the game is fun and worth playing for fans of rhythm action games.  I don't think it would be the best one for people's first foray into the genre, though.


The Good:
There are a lot of unlockables, giving you a lot of reasons to replay the songs.

The Bad:
Notes are all over the screen and can be really hard to see with everything going on.

The SaHD:
I'm too busy watching the notes to be able to read the lyrics.  I have no idea what any of them are.

(Review code for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X was provided by the publisher)

RadioHammer (3DS) Review

RadioHammer is a downloadable rhythm game where you play as one of the DJs from a pirate radio station.  Instead of a traditional beat you have to keep, the "beats" are enemies that you have to hit with your large weapon (usually a hammer), all with some really nice sprite artwork.  The style of the game is unique, and I like it.

However, my favorite part is how it handles the notes.  As mentioned before, they are enemies that your character hits with their weapon.  The closer to the target the note is, the better the points you get.  The note scores range from best to worst is: perfect, great, good and bad.  Scoring a "bad" or missing a note will break your combo.  Each DJ has different enemies that relate to where they are and what they are doing.  MC Wayne has aliens shaped like notes and Simply Lita has zombies.  The first DJ, July Ann, easily has the best enemies.  They are perverts that, if not hit, will run up and flash her.  No, you don't actually see anything, but I think it's hilarious that those are the enemies she has to fight.

The enemies travel across either a high or low track, and you have to attack the appropriate one as they pass the target marker.  Sometimes presents will appear from behind you.  Grabbing the white ones will give you some bonus, like extra life or fever meter.  The green presents are traps, and have the opposite effect.  There's also a fever meter that builds as you attack enemies.  Once it is filled, the background changes for a bit and every hit is a perfect.  The first time I got MC Wayne's I actually messed up, since it is very different from July Ann's.  I expected a change, but not giant people with MC Wayne fist rings.  I was too busy being surprised and laughing to keep the beat that time.

Each stage has up to three stars you can earn.  The first is always completing the stage, but the other two can be things like grabbing all the presents, getting a certain amount of perfect hits, and other similar things.  They don't really do anything other than give you an excuse to replay the level and get them all if you want.  I think I would have preferred it if they could also unlock stages, so if you were struggling on a particular song you could move on to another DJ or something.

The gameplay is not super unique, but I like that it's not very complicated, making it fairly easy to play.  That isn't to say it doesn't get hard, as the game does get difficult.  The notes come faster and more numerous as you progress through the levels.  Plus, while the songs aren't that long by themselves, several levels will link the songs back to back as one, especially right before the boss stage.  These are pretty hard, since you have to make it the whole way through multiple songs with one life bar.  It becomes slightly easier once you realize that the enemy graphic will key you in to some of the rhythm.  One graphic is for a solitary note, another is a pair, and the third look is for a set of three.  I started to do better at the songs once I noticed they weren't just different graphics for the heck of it.

There are three basic ways to play the game.  You can use the touch screen to hit the notes, the face buttons (B, X, etc.) or the d-pad directions.  All of these are listed on the touch screen so you likely won't forget.  You can also use any kind of combination you want of the three, and easily switch mid song.  Well, easily if the song isn't too fast.  I favored the face buttons to hit the notes and the d-pad for the presents.  Although using only the d-pad came in handy for a few harder levels (notably MC Wayne's boss level).

In the story mode, the DJs are unfortunately unlocked sequentially, and that is because each one has harder songs than the next.  The first three DJs each have 3 episodes with 5 songs in them, and the last song of the last episode is the boss fight.  The fourth DJ is a guest character that is basically unlocked when you beat the game.  Once you beat a stage, you can do another version of it, which only has one track, but is much faster and with  more beats.

Other than the story mode, there is also Track Play, where you can play any song by itself.  Doing songs this way rates you with medals instead of stars.  There's also a random mode where you will play a random song at any difficulty.  A jukebox feature lets you listen to any completed song (my favorite is Oriental Girl), and finally there are trophies to earn in the game.

RadioHammer is a pretty fun rhythm game that is easy to pick up and play.  If you are skilled enough, you could beat the game in a day, but there is some replay value in collecting stars of doing Track Play.  If you are like me and not great at the game, you can still make your way through most of it fairly fast.  However, as a $5.99 downloadable game, the length and depth seem right (Note: I received a code for the game).  If you like rhythm games and would like a small game to play for a bit, RadioHammer is a fun and quick choice.

Superbeat XONIC (PS Vita) Review

Superbeat XONiC is a new rhythm game from a relatively new studio.  I'm not too good at these types of games, but I figured I should give it a try anyway.  The notes you have to hit for each song approach a ring at the edge of the Vita's screen.  At first it reminded me of the last rhythm game I played on the Vita, Persona 4 Dancing All Night.  However, XONiC is very different.

For one, the songs are more complicated.  There are four note types: single, swipe, scratch and FX.  Single is just pressing the button, d-pad or appropriate place on the screen when the note is on the ring.  If the note has a tail, then you hold it until the end of the tail.  Simple enough.  Next is the swipe note, which requires you to 'flick' the section of the screen or use the Vita's analog stick and move it in the indicated direction.  This is much harder than it sounds.  For one, it really messes me up to have to transition from buttons to the stick and back so quickly.  I had this problem in Dancing All Night, but I only had to hit the stick since the direction didn't matter.  Now I have to hit in in the right direction and get my fingers back quickly to hit other notes.  It really makes me fumble.  Using the touch screen is 50% better for me.  I can hit the swipe down notes easy enough, but it doesn't always register the up swipes.

Similar to the swipe note is the scratch note.  These are a kind of magenta color.  Scratch notes require you to either tilt the stick in the direction noted or slide your fingers in the direction noted.  These can be tricky with the touch screen, but only if you move too slow.  You don't have to follow the placement of the note so much as register that you are moving in the proper direction.  The last note is FX, and these require you to push the L or R Buttons as indicated.  These only show up on the 6Trax FX difficulty, talked about below, so I wasn't able to see them.

Overall I felt the touch screen was much easier to play the game with, since switching from the buttons and d-pad to the sticks messed me up a lot.  That said, I still had trouble getting the swipes to register all the time (if there was too much friction, my finger wouldn't slide enough to register).  The game can also be played on the PSTV, but I imagine it would be harder with a bigger screen.  It might be easier to hit the swipe and slide notes, though.

In the upper left hand side of the screen, there is a health gauge that depletes when you miss a note.  If it empties, you fail the song but still get to play it the rest of the way through.  Hitting notes will slowly fill it up.  The upper right hand side has the Fever meter.  As you hit notes, this meter builds up until it is full.  Once full, you go into Fever mode, where you get a point multiplier on each hit note.  Notes hit on the ring will give Superbeat rank, which is worth the most points.  Hitting it a little too early will net you a Good rank, and missing it entirely will get a Break.  At the end of the song, there is a judgment ranking that is higher the more Superbeats you hit.

One of the two play modes is called Stage.  You choose your type/difficulty and play three songs in a row.  You can select the next song from the list they have, which sadly doesn't have all the songs you have unlocked.  It might be a balance thing, I don't know.  Anyway, the three difficulties are 4Trax, 6Trax, and 6Trax FX.  The "Trax" are the outer sections of the ring that have notes.  So, for 4Trax, there are two sections per side, up and down.  This is the mode I am most comfortable with.  Next is 6Trax, which has up, side and down.  Here's where the touch screen didn't do as much good.  I don't know if my fingers are too fat or my aim is bad, but I had some trouble getting the game to register my hits correctly, mostly because they are much smaller areas.  Plus, the top and bottom both use green for the single notes so you can't just match colors to try and keep the buttons straight.  With a lot more practice, I could get good at 6Trax, but I'll probably try to stick with 4Trax and not embarrass myself too much.

6Trax FX is the hardest in the game.  It wisely has to be unlocked, so sadly I didn't get to try it and get humiliated.  6Trax did that enough.  In Stage there is one final option called Freestyle that allows you to pick any song and play it.  However, it will not track your highest score for that song.  It does keep your combo even after you finish a song, so you could conceivably max out the combo with enough tenacity (or a DJ shield).  I honestly would have preferred an option to just play one song, and keep the score for it, instead of stringing a combo along or having to play 3 songs back to back, but sadly XONiC doesn't have that option.

The second play mode is World Tour.  This mode groups together challenges for you to complete on a song or group of songs.  There are easy, medium and hard of each challenge, but it mostly equates to song difficulty.  Each set of challenges is unlocked once you reach a certain DJ level, and each one rewards you with an icon or beat sound.  It's not as hard as I initially thought, since certain DJs will help you power through some early challenges.  The shield skill in particular helped me.  However, some of the extra challenges can be tough.

For example, one early set on "easy" had the fade-in notes.  Meaning, I would only get to see the note when it was close to the ring.  This was still pretty early in the World Tour mode, and it felt like too much of an extra thing to throw on there for the "easy" challenge.  The core challenge was to not miss more than 20 notes, and this made it harder.  Strangely, the "normal" challenge didn't have the fade-in, and was actually easier.  The hard challenge in that set was really hard for me, but mostly because the song had a ton of notes and went really fast.  It just feels unbalanced, since it's still pretty early and I have to play harder songs.  I dread to see what the later ones are.

As mentioned before, you can unlock new DJs and note sounds.  They are awarded when your DJ level increases, or you complete a challenge in World Tour.  Each DJ has two skills that help you.  There is extra health, increased experience, break shields, etc.  I personally favored the extra experience so it was faster to unlock more DJ icons.  Once I figured out what shield did, I loved it too.  It really helped me complete some challenges and get higher scores.  I still wasn't better at the game, but I felt better.  The note sounds you unlock change up what the note sounds like when you hit it.  Pretty basic, but it is nice and you get a lot of options.

Superbeat XONiC has many songs to choose from, and even some I wouldn't have expected (there's a song from Guilty Gear Xrd).  It's a good mix of many styles, from pop to R&B to Hardcore.  It would take a lot of time to play through them all and raise your DJ level high enough to unlock all the World Tour stages, and finish them.  It will also take a lot of skill.  Maybe a bit less with a good DJ icon.  I liked a lot of the songs, even if I wasn't very good at the game.  However, fans of rhythm games should definitely check it out.