Even though Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA is far from the traditional rhythm game, it found success by combining her popular music with interesting music videos. As the series continues to grow, the latest entry, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone, hopes to offer a must have experience for fans. With a new direction, tons of content and plenty of things to do, is Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone a must for fans or is it an attempt at easy money?
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone starts by moving in a different direction than previous entries in the series. So if you’re looking for a story or the ability to interact with the Vocaloids, you’re simply out of luck. This would be a sad choice if Future Tone didn’t make up for this with an overwhelming amount of content.
While previous entries in the series have had around 30 songs, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone offers over 200 total songs. Roughly half of them are part of the Colorful Tone DLC, with the other half being part of the Future Sound DLC. These DLC packs include songs from previous Project DIVA, Project Mirai and arcade games. This means well versed fans will know what to expect, where as newcomers will likely see a bunch of songs they’ve never heard before.
As for song diversity, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone offers all a fan could hope for. Not only are the most notable songs of games past included, all the costumes and accessories are also there too. Best of all, the RNG based unlock system has been replaced with a simple in-game shop. Based off your song performance you’ll receive credits, which can be used to purchase costumes, hair styles and accessories. So you can quickly unlock your favorite costumes, make your ideal character and then slowly purchase the rest or simply ignore the system.
Even though Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone offers a lot of content, it’s geared more towards hardcore players than casual ones. For starters, most of the songs do not have an easy version, with some songs lacking a normal version for an easy one and all songs containing a hard and extreme version, with some including an even more difficult version. The songs are also arranged in a way where normal would be closer to hard by Project DIVA X’s standards than normal.
This is largely due to the changes in controls. Contrary to previous titles, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone removes dual and star inputs and instead asks for multiple inputs, triggers/thumb stick inputs and holds. The difference between dual and multiple inputs is that you’re never asked to input up and triangle at the same time, but you might be asked to push circle/right and X/down. This makes it harder to press the inputs, in addition to making it harder to go from that to another input. Holds work in a similar way, where you gain additional points for holding that specific input until you release or you hit the maximum amount of points.
To go along with this, the songs make it clear how well you perform. Every song will give you an exact percentage, show you which award you’re on track to receive and so forth. For some this information can be exciting, but for others it’s frustrating. Like even if you get a perfect you’ll still receive a score below 100 percent unless you get cool for every input.
If this sounds up your ally, then you’re going to love some of the side modes. Since every song is harder than previous entries, you can enter practice mode and try your luck. In practice mode you can skip to a part that gives you trouble and practice the inputs without the music video or just try your luck at the whole song. This is perfect if you simply can’t do one part or don’t want to bother with another part. Songs also have a no fail setting, allowing you to try a song you might not be able to finish, but fully experience with the music video included.
From here, there is also a leaderboard to see where you stack up next to other players in terms of completion. Sadly, it does not show you who’s the best at each song or where you fall on a small scale, but it’s still cool that you can view your overall progress next to other places and work to improve it.
Verdict
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone might be the simplest release, but it easily offers the best bang for your buck. With over 200 songs to experience for a price below $60, it’s hard to argue. Especially since every song comes complete with a music video, various difficulties and countless costumes to unlock. Sure, a lot of the content is rehashed and it’s far from the most accessible entry in the series, it’s hard to deny the overall value and is an absolute must for fans of Miku and the game alike.
[Editor’s Note: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone was reviewed on PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
