Project Diva - small Review

Toomas already made most of the introductory work, so I'll just share the game experience.

First of all: I am a heavy critic and if you give me a reason to criticise, I will, so don't think that the game is bad just because I point out things that I didn't like.

First of all, the biggest problem - everything is in japanese, making navigation in the menu next to impossible. Selecting songs, saving the progress etc basic navigation will be clear after a few minutes of trial-and-error. Although I would be very grateful for a fan translation or a walkthrough.

One thing that you will notice very soon: this game is HARD. I have had previous experience with Stepmania on the PC and Elite Beats Agents on the DS, but this is by far the hardest of them. Failing the song completely is a task not easily done, but not having enough points to pass as "standard" will be the usual end result. It strongly emphases on combos, with the "chance mode" actually giving you points in an arithmetic calculation: 100, 200, 300 etc for each consecutive good hit.

The gameplay itself is somewhat tricky. In Stepmania, the arrows follow straight lines to fixated target points. In this game, the targets pop up all over the screen, the speed of the flying "arrows" (can't describe them in a better way) varies from song to song and the most difficult aspect: some songs require all 4 action buttons and sometimes with the screen full of buttons, you will end up mashing the wrong one.

Background videos vary from stunning to simple slideshows. Be careful when playing the song Packaged, Miku's dancing is actually so cute that you might lose your combo while staring at her cheerful skipping. Sometimes the background video is too busy and you'll have a hard time seeing the targets. Amazingly, Ievan Polkka didn't have Hachune Miku with her leek, but had a slideshow. For me it would have sufficed if the whole video had been like the original - Hachune Miku shaking her leek and changing facial expressions.

The quality of the gameplay also varies. For example, Packaged has a stunning video, all the targets are placed very accurately and balanced, making the song somewhat difficult, but very reasonable. Then you get a song with a background of random images and completely random targets that sometimes don't even bother to follow the song. In the middle of a slow ballad one can get a row of targets that have to be hit at a pace more suited to grindcore.

A bit more about the difficulty: there are characters and costumes, but to unlock them, you have to be really good, no next to perfect. here is a list of the unlockables. After hours of gameplay I have yet to unlock a single one of them.

There are also a few extras, for example a music player that features Miku in a random (could be selectable, the menu is still in japanese) room and you can select any song the game has. Amazingly, if you have other music in your PSP, it will also play it. It was kinda awkward watching Miku walk around in a library with hard rock in the background.

The final verdict would be: it has flaws, it is the first game, it is awesome. I personally would recommend at least someone in the development crew to play some stepmania. For instance, the song preview works with a button, you can't see the highscores before selecting the game, the gameplay itself could use little revisions etc. But all in all, it is a really great game and I am a nitpicker.

One new song (maybe it isn't new) from the game that I found really good.