There’s no denying the infectious enthusiasm that spills out of Japan’s beloved hologram “Vocaloid” pop star. I don’t speak Japanese and I have no idea what any of her songs actually mean, but I feel enraptured by the performance of virtual idol with a synthesized voice as she entertains thousands of live human beings. We’re living in anime, and if Hatsune Miku can crack a smile out of a bewildered David Letterman, there’s some kind of spark worth examining.
Project Mirai DX, Hatsune Miku’s first 3DS game, closely follows a style developed by her Project Diva F outings on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It performs as a rhythm game like Elite Beat Agents or Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, but it’s also a full-blown lifestyle simulator, dedicating as much time and energy to dealing with Hatsune Miku’s friends as it does engaging it’s sizeable playlist. Whether or not you respond to this decision determines your level of applied interest in Project Mirai DX.
A shift in style is consistent with Project Mirai DX’s thematic expansion. Hatsune Miku and her troupe of Vocaloids have dropped any semblance of realism and adopted a more contemporary Nendoroid style. I’m not entirely sure why the 3DS audience demands the presence of large-headed characters—Persona Q and Animal Crossing’s success might have something to do with it—but it mostly fits inside Project Mirai DX’s framework. It’s visually insane, and the father away it can get from reality, the better.
Project Mirai DX’s brand of rhythm action conforms to genre norms, albeit under the novelty of two distinct methods of input. New to Hatsune Miku (and expected of its platform) is the ability to touch the bottom screen in sync with the rhythm line on the top screen. A line will twist, turn, and wind across the top screen, and carry with it a rapid medley of touch circle prompts. Three selectable difficulties dictate how many different prompts are a part of each song, and each prompt corresponds to a different part of the touchscreen. Certain prompts even demand you hold the stylus down, or wind it around in circles. Essentially, you’re responding to the rapid succession of information on the top screen with your own physical motion on the bottom screen.
For rhythm traditionalists, a completely separate button mode is also available. This retains Project Mirai DX’s four levels of difficulty, but assigns each prompt to a different face button. It also makes use of the d-pad and circle pad for more tricky maneuvers. Button mode worked fine when I tried it, but it seemed tough to go back to after starting and playing a few hours in touch mode. I felt like because Project Mirai DX’s was on 3DS, I should embrace the advantages of its native platform. This line of thinking goes south sometimes—notably when I tried to play the 2009 Punch-Out!! with the Wii Balance Board—but it felt at home on Project Mirai DX.
Project Mirai DX’s songs are relatively easy to see to completion, but require a significant amount of dedication to earn better scores. The likelihood that its hardest difficulty will be a barrier to those entrenched in other rhythm games is low, but, having not played one of those since Elite Beat Agents, it took me quite a while to start pulling off decent ranks. Once I got my rhythm and my brain adapted to Project Mirai DX’s chaotic pace, I was fine and pulling off B’s with consistency. I didn’t feel the need to push for a higher grade, but it’s there if the demand arises.
I have a tense relationship with Project Mirai DX’s brand of engagement. Each song is wonderfully rendered with a different Vocaloid dancing and singing around entirely different sets and backgrounds. Someone put a lot of work into animating them along with nearly fifty songs, and Project Mirai DX is reluctant to recycle a lot of its art. It also looks great with the 3DS’s 3D slider maxed out.
The only problem is that I can’t look at any of it. Maxing out 3D, and the shifting position of my standard 3DS XL, makes it extremely hard to see (and then tap) button prompts on the lower screen. Likewise, I can’t actually look at any of the performances flowing through the screen because I’m staring at a rapidly shifting line the entire time I play! The line usually “flows” in rhythm with the song, it’s about as basic as it gets, but short of learning every beat by heart there’s no feasible way to look anywhere else. Project Mirai DX unlocks a cinematic of each song after you beat it, so you can watch it without worrying being distracted, but this kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
I do not know the solution to this problem, and I can only assume that rhythm genre aficionados are OK with how it’s being handled. In days gone by, with PaRappa the Rapper, I got so good at the game I didn’t need to look at the prompts and PaRappa also accounted for competent improvisation. With Project Mirai DX, I feel like I’m just staring at a line and banging out percussive instruments while everything else happens around me. I’m not a participant; I’m just there to make some noise.
While tapping along with songs is at the center of Project Mirai DX, there’s quite a bit to do in the periphery. You begin the game by selecting one of Hatsune Miku’s best friends, and then you…give them…stuff. Earning Mirai Points from the rhythm game, you can buy them new outfits, new furniture for their apartment, and even treats to make them happy. You can also hang out with them and go on some sort of pseudo-date to the local mall, or even longer vacations. All of these things conceivably make your partner happy, but I’d be hard pressed to say they make me happy. I get it, this is part of the larger culture surrounding Hatsune Miku, but it’s never really spoken to me.
A couple other extraneous modes did a bit better to capture my attention. Choreographing my own dance routine was fun, or at least in the sense that it let me assign a series of ridiculous animations to an equally dumb song I punched out. Part of hanging out with your friend includes options to play a pretty great version of Puyo Puyo and an OK take on Othello. I don’t claim to know why those are there, but it’s not a bad value-add to a rhythm game, of all things.
Project Mirai DX is unabashed in its appeal to a highly specific demographic. Those expecting a blistering rhythm game may feel mystified by all of the surrounding distractions and disappointed at the lack of an extreme difficulty level. These are valid complaints, but they also feel incongruous with Project Mirai DX’s stated objectives. It’s here to challenge you and show you a good time, complete with the slice-of-life fluff endemic to Hatsune Miku’s unstoppable energy. Super-fans are going to devour it whole while others may be left wondering what to do with all the extra items on their plate. Ultimately I can appreciate it, even if I have to push some of it back.
