Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is very much a best of rhythm game, with the game containing over 200 songs from the previous SEGA published Hatsune Miku titles, songs include Weekender Girl, Tell your world, and This World is Mine. This means for Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid fans, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is the complete rhythm experience.

For those unfamiliar with Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid, Vocaloid is a voice synthesiser program that allows you to create music by typing and recording you own lyrics and melodies, and once you have completed your song, the song is sung by Hatsune Miku or one of five other Vocaloid mascots. The six mascots are Hatsune Miku, MEIKO, KAITO, Megurine Luka, Kagamine Len, and Kagamine Rin.

The Vocaloid software is popular in Japan with live shows featuring the digital stars via projection screen to create the illusion of a 3D hologram. Vocaloid has also grown in popularity in western countries, with Vocaloid concerts taking place in the United States of America.

Back to Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone. As I said there are over 200 songs, but there is a slight catch to getting all the songs. To be able to get all 200+ songs you need to purchase two add-on packs, Future Sound and Colourful Tone, which are €54.99 in a bundle or €29.99 each. However, while the add-ons could be considered pricey, the base game is free, so in many ways, the add-ons just unlock the full game. Included with the 200+ songs are 340+ unique costume modules and accessories, which you can equip to each of the six characters.

In terms of how the game works, it is your standard rhythm game. As the music plays symbols begin to float from various sides of the screen and you need to press the button they represent as they pass over their static counterpart. While this all sounds simple, in reality, it can be rather challenging as the speed of the song determines how fast the symbols move and how quickly you need to press the button, in higher difficulty modes the game throws in more randomly bunched symbols and confusing patterns.

If pressing buttons at the right time wasn’t made tricky enough by varied speed, the videos that play in the background tend to be flashy and distracting, with some making it almost impossible to see the location of the static symbol.

So, besides the rhythm and the ability to dress up your character, what else does Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone offer? Well, each song has a practice mode and the ability to view the song’s music video and read the song’s lyrics, which are in romaji, the ability to view the video on its own works in with the playlist mode, which allows you to listen to your favourite songs one after the other.

Apart from what I mentioned, there is nothing else on offer. As Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone lacks the edit mode and Diva room, which were present in previous Hatsune Miku titles. For those curious the edit mode allowed you to create your own rhythm game routines and videos, while the Diva room allowed you to interact with the various Vocaloid.

Conclusion

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is the best Vocaloid game to date, with easy to use and understand controls, and a large catalogue of songs.

Score: 9/10

Pros	Cons
+ Over 200 songs and over 340 costumes	– Lack of additional modes
+ Easy to use and understand controls

Developer	Publisher	Genre	Rating	Platform	Release date
SEGA	SEGA	Rhtyhm	12+	PlayStation 4	January 10, 2017

*A review code was provided by the game’s publisher.*

For more information on Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone, visit http://miku.sega.com/futuretone/.