With 224 songs spread out across to separate game releases and a demo, the biggest problem Project Diva Future Tone for the PlayStation 4 presents to fans of Japanese virtual idol Hatsune Miku is where to start.
Released in Japan in late June, Project Diva Future Tone is a console port of Project Diva Arcade Future Tone, which is a machine in Japan that delivers dancing, singing Hatsune Miku to fans on demand. It combines music from the arcade game series, the PlayStation’s Project Diva series and Project Mirai for the 3DS into one massive pile of rhythm game goodness.
Or at least two piles you can smush together into one big one. The game is available in Japan as two different releases, Future Sound and Colourful Tone, each containing a huge selection of music and even more modules (costumes) for the game’s various characters.
With no announced release and me being a massive fan of music created by everyone and performed by no one, I went ahead and purchased the games through the PlayStation Store via my Japanese account. This involved purchasing a 10,000 Yen card from Play-Asian, entering the core, making the purchases and then sitting and staring the progress bar for an hour or two.
I have never been more joyously overwhelmed.
Two hundred and twenty-four songs, with no particular order to play them in. I scrolled through that list for 15 minutes, marking favourites and songs I’d not heard that I was curious about alike. Then I hopped into the module section to check out the various costume options available to purchase with points earned through play.
Just a very, very small snippet of what’s available.
OK. Songs to play, things to unlock for playing them. That’s all I really wanted.
The gameplay differs slightly from that offered in the Project Diva games, mixing up the circles and Xs with directional keys. The four d-pad buttons and four face buttons are basically interchangeable — X and down are the same, circle and right are the same — giving players some flexibility when it comes to navigating the game’s rhythm section. Slides are performed with shoulder buttons. Holds are not timed, challenging players to earn more points by prolonging them as long as possible. It’s a flexible challenge. I can dig it. It all comes together quite nicely, though eventually I am going to have to spring for one of these from Hori:
Enough talk. Those of you who are really into Hatsune Miku games have either found a way to get Project Diva Future Tone or are desperately hoping for Sega to announce a Western release. In case the rest of you are curious, here’s a video of me playing a bit and talking, which is always fun when playing a timing-sensitive rhythm game.
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9 responses to “Project Diva Future Tone Is Pure Hatsune Miku Rhythm Game Overload”
224 songs? Phew, I had to do a double take there. I’d buy both of them in a heartbeat if they ever got announced for a western release.
Holding out for a Western Release.
Also waiting for Project Diva X (EU) release for Vita.
Same for me, i’m honestly getting nervous about the EU release now =/
Once again I feel vindicated in my decision to set up my Vita with a US PSN account when I got the system back at launch.
I’d have thought it’d be a lock for EU but Sega is a strange company sometimes.
MIKU BEST WAIFU!
Waiting and hoping for an English release too. I don’t think they’ll announce anything until after Project Diva X is out, since this would undercut sales of X so significantly, especially since the song lineup in X isn’t great.
I wouldn’t hold your breath. Licensing for all of those songs will be a nightmare for an international release.
Don’t let a language barrier deter you from buying it. I just got some JP cards from OffGamers because they were cheaper than Play-Asia at the time and bought it on my JP PSN account to play on my AU account.
Besides that, the general producer (Hiroshi Utsumi) resigned shortly after Future Tone was released – that might make it even more difficult for localisation.
Sega owns the game license to all those songs – many were written under commission from Sega. A very good chunk of them are available in the games they’ve bought over already (Project Diva 1,2,X and Project Mirai DX). Additionally many more were performed at her US concerts this year. They can make it happen if they want to. It’s possible we’d miss one or two but the bulk should be quite doable. Especially when Sega and Crypton are having a red hot go at cracking the US market at least. Her concert tour though North America this year sold out at every venue as far as I know so they’re doing something right. (I was at the Seattle one and it was great)
I doubt the general producer of the game has anything to do with the localization – his role is important during actual development only – and besides, that’s not a highly specialized job and not having him around is unlikely to be a showstopper if they want it localized.
The creators of the song holds the copyright for the most part, even more so if they’re under a label. Sega/Crypton still need to go through the license process to make those songs available for localisation.
Many of the songs featured in Future Tone won’t have their copyright licenses available outside of Japan – only the previous songs feature in Project Diva f1/2/x etc will be featured without much work. Sure, it is doable, I never said it wasn’t. But it’ll be one hell of a long, expensive task.
It’s seen by a lot of people that Hiroshi leaving was his last “hurrah” to us fans of the series – what I was getting at there, was he was the one that pushed for one big game just before he left. There might not be anyone as passionate to replace him in that position.
Overall though, grab it off the JP store rather than waiting for something that might not happen for quite some time.