Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is a rhythm based game whose main visual mechanic is a virtual pop idol preforming in a music video while the player attempts their best to not fail an insane barrage of button presses. The game is unapologetically Japanese, it is difficult (on the easiest settings), and none of the music is something that will ever be heard on American radio. Those things are some of the aspects of the game that make it awesome, and that is before considering that the complete pack comes with over 200 songs.
The return on investment in this game is probably the most surprising thing about this title. It has almost three times the amount of songs included that most other games in the same genre offer for a similar price, with way more replayability. Rock Band, for instance, normally comes with about 80-90 songs on a good day, this title decided to pack in well over 200. Granted, this doesn’t come with the plastic instruments, and has an entirely different music video for every single song that is played, so they aren’t exactly one to one comparisons, but it is pretty much the closest that you are going to get.
The largest weakness is that just recently a slightly better Hatsune Miku game was released, Project Diva X. The problem is that game managed to address most issues that newcomers would have with the series, aside the constant insanity, including the difficulty spikes and general importance of setting the delay of the TV (which this game doesn’t stress the importance of enough). It is hard to fault a long running series for giving the most dedicated fans exactly what they want, while the new comers were just presented a special order product not that long ago.
While this probably isn’t the Miku game that anyone should be recommending to their friends to jump into the series, it is probably the one that everyone should be grabbing as their second game—mainly because it certainly feels like the most definitive version that we have gotten in the west yet. The only faults with this game lie in the fact of the core of what it is, and not in the offering, as what it offers is pure rhythm, pure adorability, and so much in return for the price of entry.
PC Editor. I am amazing and super awesome. I also fight crime in my free time
So. Many. Songs!