Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone Review

We are pretty familiar with the formula of Hatsune Miku games by now. Sega has been releasing them since 2009 on the Playstation Portable. Project Diva Future Tone, which will henceforth be known as PDFT, is a port of the Arcade sequel to the Arcade port of the first Project Diva game. The full game is divided into three downloads. The bast game, comprised of just a couple songs, and two separate download packs that can be purchased in the bundle price of $53.99. Combined there is a total of 227 Hatsune Miku tracks-- Thats one heck of a lot of songs to play through and should keep the biggest Miku fans busy, however there are a few notable fan favorites missing.

Since this is an arcade port there is not single player mode to speak of. The game is very straight forward. When you enter "Rhythm Game" you are presented with all the songs you've purchased and can be scrolled through vertically-- not unlike how Dance Dance Revolution presented it's song line up way back in the late 90's and early 2000's. Songs can be sorted by letter, difficulty, performer, and more. There is no strict path you must follow, play the songs you'd like-- you can even create your own playlist. 

The gameplay is classic Miku, and for better or worse, PDFT doesn't see the need to mix things up at all. One aspect of the sound design really started to bother me the longer I played-- when you press the corresponding button the game makes a very tambourine-like noise, which really pulled me out of the experience. I'm a huge rhythm game fan and the fact that it played the same sound no matter which button I pressed made it feel like I was following along to the beat on the sidelines instead of being a part of the band creating the music by pressing the right buttons. 

If you get tired of playing song after song you can take a break and customize the singers by using currency that you earn after each song. You can acquire new hairstyles, backpacks, wings, hats, animal ears, masks, chibi faces, and more!

Hatsune Miku: PDFT is hard to recommend to anyone but fans of the series, but if you are a fan of Miku there is one heck of a lot of her here to keep you busy for weeks to come.

3.5/5

*Reviewed on PlayStation 4.

**Thanks to Sega for the review copy