Sunday, 30 October 2011

Hatsune miku:Project diva arcade

Gamespot score:n/a

my score:8.3

(+)Pros:-Gorgeous HD remade graphics,-has some different gameplay mechanics that differentiate it from the PSP version,-song selection is even bigger than project diva 2,-constantly updated with patches,-more costumes and unlockables provide replay value.

(-)Cons:-not much gameplay improvements from project diva 2,-some characters still have no damn songs!

Gameplay cost:4 tokens

As promised, heres a game review, and one that I have been holding back for awhile too. Behold, project diva arcade, another one of miku's many spinoff games. Its basically project diva ported from the PSP over to the arcade. It bears many similarities to its PSP counterpart, but on its own right as an arcade game, its pretty awesome. Improved visuals make it one gorgeous looking game, and instead of pressing tiny PSP buttons, you now hit big arcade machine buttons, which actually feels great when you are playing the song. If you enjoyed the PSP project diva games, project diva arcade will definetely make you feel at home.

Four tokens for an arcade game over here in singapore is actually pretty costly, especially for a game like project diva arcade. Most music games cost 3 tokens (jubeat, beatmania, pop n music etc), while awesome ones cost a good solid 4 tokens (drum and guitar freaks etc). Project diva is 4 tokens, it is costly, but well, if you wanna have fun with the vocaloids in awe inspiring HD, I guess thats the price to pay.

Behold! Miku in HD!

First off, I would like to complement the graphics. Altough they are very anime based and are much like the PSP counterparts, they are improved by a HUGE mile in the arcade version. The character models look sharp, and everything seems to be enhanced. Miku and the rest of the vocaloid cast from project diva 2 look great. While the MVs during gameplay are mostly recycled from the PSP games, seeing everything in HD really makes you feel how much effort was spent into making the graphics. As of now, there arent really any arcade games that rivals this in terms of graphics in my opinion, other than lets say....tekken 6 (which still looks to have amazing graphics 2 years later)?﻿

Anyway, the gameplay is similar to that on the PSP, you press buttons that represent the symbols that appear on screen, as you see them float towards an empty black symbol that maches it. Except now, of course, you dont do it small PSP buttons, but on huge arcade buttons that look almost similar to the ones used in pop n music. Each buttons has respective square, triangle, circle and X buttons, and push them one by one. The buttons are pretty big and you probably will have quite the hard pushing all 4 together. It provides a different experience to those familiar with the PSP version.

A new feature for the arcade version, the dual button presses and holds.

Unlike the PSP version, project diva arcade﻿ doesnt have arrow keys or a D-pad, thus, they changed the dual button presses. For the project diva 2, we had to press a button on the D-pad corresponding with the square, triangle, circle and X buttons. In project diva arcade, you press 2 or more buttons together, X with circle, square with X, so on and so forth. Something else thats new is the hold feature...which is quite similar to the project diva 2's long notes. But now, the holding only occurs when you push 2 buttons or more. Holding longer nets you more score, but you can let go as quickly as you can too, theres no penatly. There are also times where songs try to throw triple or quadriple button presses at you, where you push 3 or 4 buttons together.

This may sound intimidating, but since you aren't using thumbs to push buttons, its far easier. Also, another thing worth nothing in project diva arcade, is the fact that you can check your progress through the song more easily. Theres a notable bar below, stating how well you are doing, whats the target line and how much more you need to get to get a "clear" score. The songs in project diva arcade are also pretty good, while most are from previous project diva games (both 1 and 2), there are tons of new songs as well. And as if that isnt enough, the game is constantly upgraded with patches for costumes and songs. I have played till the recent patch that added magnet, and so far, the songs never fail to impress. Costumes are back of course, and they provide more motivation to keep playing and get VP to unlock them.

Look at them costumes and characters!

Project diva arcade seems like a whole new game on its own, but really its just project diva 2 on the arcades. A little bit tweaks to make it work on the arcade and thats it. While its really great, theres really not much improvements in gameplay considering the jump they made from project diva to project diva 2. Another thing to note is that theres still no GOD DAMNED SONGS FOR HAKU, NERU AND SAKINE MEIKO. Come on sega, considering that you even did thier character models and put them in the game, how about adding some songs for them. Did you ever think of that? DID YA?

Well thats all for now folks. In conclusion, project diva arcade is a solid addition to the franchise, and is a great arcade standalone. But I cant help but think the token cost is abit too high, and that more improvements could have gone in here. I mean look at the improvements from project diva to project diva 2, theres an immense improvement there! I think sega could have done MUCH better for project diva arcade. Still, as said, project diva arcade is still a solid release that should more than please hatsune miku, or any vocaloid fans.

Happy gaming!