(cw for a very brief mention of self-harm and depression)

It seems like a given for disaffectionate weeblings meandering through cyberspace to eventually run afoul of Vocaloid, the siren song of late-2000s otaku culture that refuses to die, and there's no clearer representative for the brand than the poster child of virtual idols, Hatsune Miku. Through over a decade of image reinvention, musical exploration, and incessant irritation, thousands of producers have used the aquamarine automaton as the mouthpiece for pieces ranging from the goofy to the grotesque, shifting and altering the image of the mascot in tune with the work they produce. In a sense, becoming attached to what is, at its most sincere form, an inanimate face for an audio production tool feels odd, strange, dare I say, cringe. Yet here I am, a terminal victim of the brain virus known as emotional bonding, reminded once again that one of the big moments in coming to terms with my identity was discovering Hatsune Miku.

Retracing my steps, the path is obvious: a teenage girl defined by her constant inconsistency, bound by little more than a modulated soundbank, singing songs of isolation, anxiety, self-loathing, intense misanthropy, undying love and occasional lesbianism. Emotionally torn asunder by a yet-unending depression spiral, yours truly could only break as she found someone who was, in no uncertain terms, just like me (for real for real). But tracking the exact point I realized a hyper-femme soundbank was something beyond a passing interest, instead being a key “being” that I find my self drawn to, something that influenced the art I consider worthwhile, something I find relatability in, is… difficult. Confusing.

… And as much as I want to just tie all of my experiences to sitting alone, listening to embarrassing vent pieces written by producers I really need to tell “it’ll be okay”, what stuck with me was always the games; late nights and early mornings spent playing Project Diva F 2nd with a former best friend, where Rolling Girl lead to me opening up to someone about my own history of self-harm; all-night sessions of Future Tone where the first time I came out as trans was backed by Envy Cat Walk, and outed myself to the dulcet tones of 2D Dream Fever. Inherently difficult times, now remembered with fondness, bitterness, regret.

I guess my experience with Vocaloid, and by association the Project Diva games, is less inherently about the gameplay or mechanics of the game (they’re kino, ludo, cracked, etc) and more the way I connect to the music, the characters, the personal recollection every song has with me. Of the 200 songs in Future Sound and Colorful Tone, the grand majority are dug into my mind, a part of my soul encapsulated into memories that refuse to fade despite my growing memory issues and fear of forgetting the past. The way I feel for the songs, the times attached to them, the irreplaceable history I have with Vocaloid and, almost directly, Hatsune Miku… it’s adoration in its clearest form. For all the regrets I have, of the person I am and the media I’m devoted to, I don’t regret how ingrained the funny computer singer woman has become in my life.

Writing this will never be as deep or as coherent as I want; as hyper-personal as I wish I could be with how Vocaloid has affected me and the course of my life, going into it will never not feel a little fake, a little disingenuous. I can only say that this game, this whole franchise, is a source of my fondest memories. It’s priceless to me, without comparison. I fucking love it.

(this ended up having little to do with the game… play Project Diva Future Tone…)

I love how visually dense this game is, notes flying all over the screen from any possible direction whilst in the background flashy music videos featuring Miku herself play, and yet how the game manages to clearly communicate itself despite this visual density; the notes moving towards their respective pads, spinning clocks on the pads ticking down to the moment you need to press the corresponding button, distances between these pads indicating roughly how big the gaps will be between the notes in the song, and the beat of the music itself, all serve to provide information as to when exactly you're going to have to press those buttons, every single element of this a necessary part of the equation at some point but which indicators are the right ones to rely on in any particular moment is very contextual, depending on exactly which part of this informational cacophony is going to be the easiest bit to parse, something that you have to be able to instinctively adjust to moment-to-moment.

I also love how you can play notes on either side of the controller. The notes presented on-screen will always describe a specific button on a specific side of the controller, and typically act as solid suggestions for how you should be doing things, but the two sides of the controller itself are functionally identical when it comes to these inputs so once you get comfortable with the controls it starts to make sense to shift notes from one side to the other, ignoring what the game says and turning that triangle note into an up note for example, in moments where it makes things easier for you. Eventually this becomes so second nature that you stop seeing that triangle note as a triangle note in the first place as you freely flow back and forth from side to side; it's a really satisfying way for the game to work mechanically, and that evolution with how you approach and see it is a lot of fun to go through.

So mechanically this game is incredibly sound and among the better rhythm games I've encountered. Despite that I found myself falling off of Project Diva Future Tone quite fast? Part of the problem is a thing I often struggle at with arcade-y videogames which is that I don't find seeking a higher score particularly motivating, and when there's nothing resembling a campaign mode to work through then that's all there really is to do here; try and get better, complete higher difficulties and get those higher scores whilst doing essentially the same thing over and over. It's not really for me. I also say this as someone who has only a passing familiarity with Hatsune Miku, and who hasn't really listened to said music in several years, but I wish the song list here was more aggressively curated. There's over 200 songs here, and some of them are great, but there's also a lot of stuff that reads as filler to my unfamiliar ears and at times this can lead to the experience of playing this game turning into a bit of a blur for me. All of this means that despite my strong initial impressions of Project Diva Future Tone I just haven't played that much of it and struggle to imagine playing that much more.

Not sure why they got rid of the entire mechanic of sustained note holds from the previous titles/all rhythm games... it's weird!!!! The addition of the touch pad slides is very fun and feedbacky but the multi-button hold mechanic they introduced to make up for the removed single-holds is so unnecessarily visually confusing in its presentation and always trips me up despite the fact that I'm, ahem, GREAT at these games!!!!

Other than that this is peak Project Diva, with an incredible and full tracklist of catchy dance bops and unlistenable frenzied robot squealing in postmodern time signatures--as it should be!!! These are still some of the best made rhythm games on the market.

Also Meiko needs to get her BORING ass retired she is not pulling her weight and is clearly outshined by EVERYONE!!!!!!! Nobody wants another narcoleptic ballad about her feeling sentimental at Christmas or wtf EVER!!!!! An absolute dud. She flopped.

i should preface this by saying i am not the greatest rhythm gamer. i'm ok, ie, i can hold my own on master songs in love live: school idol festival as a thumbs player and have come close to full comboing some of them (i get really hand cramp when i play so i don't play so much), and i tend to do well enough in rhythm games but without this preface you'll probably read this and go "idk i didn't have that problem maybe you're just bad :/" and the internet tends to just go "the game's easy what are you talking about :)" at these things. this dlsclaimer is to say yes, i know i'm bad at these games. let's go uhhh pro-con list

pros:
-pretty music videos (not as much of a pro as they weren't made for the game)
-game makes the timing windows very clear via note spacing AND lil timers on each note
-can be very addictive
-VER good music
-i really love the customisation

cons:
-ik they're optional bonuses but nothing good ever comes from holding down hold notes. it only ever throws me off my rhythm
-the timing window for notes seems to be a lot more unforgiving then any other game i've played? yknow how sometimes you just zone out and enter a matrix-like trance where your hand goes for the right button despite you not even having consciously registered the note? i don't get that in this game so often because the timing window seems to be small enough i can't get the chains of "great" notes i need for it.
-likewise, many rhythm games often have notes characteristically "early", "on time", or "late" compared to the actual beat but. i haven't noticed any real consistent tendency for it
-beatmaps seem to map to the vocals instead of the backing instruments like basically most rhythm games do
-dual press notes mess me up bc there's often too much going on on screen for me to register which buttons i need to press before it's too late
-i would say some music videos are flashy enough that i get too distracted to see the next notes coming, but that's again, not this game's fault, as the videos weren't made for this game
-the note hit sounds/sfx just. don't feel that satisfying?? this may play a role in why i can't get my timings right

Future Tone is really weird to explain, as a home console port of the arcade game, it's the most comprehensive Project DIVA experience, containing 220+ songs from the previous games and the hardest charts and mechanics in the series, and that's it's problem.

In truth, all of the Arcade DIVA games are the weakest in the series with boring charts, game design that prioritises difficulty and score chasing over musical catharsis and very little extra material beyond spamming charts.

It's the rhythm purist's Project DIVA, with nothing more for genre fanatics who desire that little bit more.

Despite the frankly enormous song list, I don't think Future Tone is the best Diva. The arcade mechanics don't translate well to the Playstation controller, and Extreme mode is RIDICULOUSLY hard. I played on Extreme mode in all previous Playstation Diva games and yet I find it impossible it in this one. It makes me feel like a noob even though I've been with the series for a long time LOL. It's great that we get so many songs, but I hope they go back to making dedicated Diva games for the Playstation consoles instead of just porting the arcade mode again like they did with the Switch one.

That said, on Hard I do still find this game to be very fun and I appreciate that we have just so many songs to play, despite the poor balancing and other weird changes. (I miss the old Hold notes and "double" notes!) The module customization is also great! It's fun to be able to mix and match hairstyles with costumes. Also, points for Tricolore Airline because Tricolore Airline <3

so much of it starts at the communal living room tv; ours was given to us by a roommate's estranged ex and promptly forgotten, and in some karmic retribution for never returning it we must hit the power button at least five times just to get it to finally boot. when not in the grips of hours of youtube -- we affectionally call it tooba, or scron, or other nonsense conjured in a weed-fueled haze -- there's always games splashed across the screen. sometimes it's gamepass oddities, sometimes it's whatever yawning ps4 epic I'm trudging through, but often it's a rhythm game. everyone I live with is caught up in some sort of rhythm game grind, whether it's ddr, iidx, taiko, or, of course, project diva. we all rotate through our selection, cheer each other on when someone ranks high, and discuss our strategies from song to song. without pd and how it captivated us I don't think we'd have this amazing shared hobby in the same way we do now!

back when I moved in, I had reached the end of my megamix grind and figured the new house wouldn't exactly be amenable to daily sessions. I'm already an atypical vocaloid fan: I never listened to any of the music back when it was most popular in my middle school years and I never ran in any social circles with fans of miku. I was already knee-deep in snobby rym elitism by the time I hit high school and I looked down on vocaloids as a gimmick; a fad corresponding with the rise of social media and video upload sites and not worth my time. it wasn't until I discovered the sega ties that I become interested at all, and my girlfriend's long adoration of the games from the import days on psp pushed me over the edge into full-on fandom. it hit at the perfect time after a year of reevaluating my music taste during lockdown and reinvigorating my desire for musical exploration and eclecticism, and I couldn't help but fall in love with the musical virtuosity of the numerous pseudonymous producers who shared their hobby with the world.

but I certainly didn't expect for my roommates to be as passionate, and after a few early sessions on the aforementioned living room tv I could tell it wasn't going to last. those watching would compliment my skill, but after a couple songs I could tell I was killing the vibe, and besides, you can't really hold a conversation while playing a rhythm game! so I shelved the game indefinitely and moved onto different games. yakuza was the complete opposite at the time: the cutscenes were engaging and easy to understand and the gameplay favored a leisurely pace where I could easily chat or leave in the middle of as session. project diva faded into the back of my mind.

after a couple months however, the fire was reignited. we began weekly jaunts to our local barcade to throw down on an ancient DDR Extreme cabinet; struggling to hear the backbeat over the rickety pinball machines and an unfortunately loud guitar hero 3 setup. the itch followed us home, and soon enough my roommates were inquiring about that "colorful game with the japanese girl" that I used to play. I shook off my rust and began playing again, pleased at how months of inactivity had given me a fresh perspective on the game. my roommates began dipping their toes in as well. much of this is due to project diva being one of the absolute best arcade rhythm games for controller play. many other games simply don't hit the same on a pad, whereas project diva's psp origins gave its arcade counterpart a leg up on transferring home. whereas the cabinet plays a bit like pop'n music with added holds and slides, the home ports incentivize smart left/right hand independence for complex note patterns as well as holding down buttons on one hand while playing the melody with the other. few other rhythm games can attest to such a smooth conversion to console play.

initial interest quickly ballooned into full-on fanaticism. my roommates were listening to the songs during their daily commutes and passing the controller back and forth for hours after work. they were sussing out songs I had never even heard of and introducing me to new favorites I continue to play up to now, in no small part thanks to my roommate purchasing future tone. though I have dozens of hours in pdft, I've actually never owned my own copy... I currently play my girlfriend's copy thanks to her having my ps4 as her "primary" console, and my first time getting to really sink my teeth into it was on my roommate's ps4. he quickly got me out of the comfort zone I was in and had me exploring all the songs unique to pdft's home port, and I would often come home to our subwoofer blaring and him grinding out songs on the couch. pdft encompasses nearly every song ever released for the arcade game when DLC is counted (this also includes the megamix exclusives), and moving outside the curated pdmm list reveals some interesting tidbits about the game's history. early charts from before the future tone overhaul are much rougher and often have more linear visual patterns, revealing a lack of confidence in the concept on the part of developers. higher-level songs are also subject to some blatantly confusing note spam that seems built to obfuscate the patterns rather; see saihate on extreme for instance. thankfully many of these songs received revision charts listed as "extra extreme", and some of the best charts in the game lie here. with added slides and more intuitive and interesting visual patterns, many of the older songs shine.

eventually our enthusiasm died down, and we moved on to different games. once I had a chance to do free play on the cabinet at magfest, it felt underwhelming returning to the pad and the limitations it imposes, and now that I have a iidx ps2 controller at my disposal my daily grind has shifted (as of this week I can finally do 7s!!). no matter what else we play, we'll always come back to diva once in a while just to remind ourselves of the fun we had. my roommate's girlfriend had just moved in with us when we began playing in earnest, and she herself has become truly infatuated with miku. during a difficult period in her life she took to therapeutically playing the game and embracing the nuanced mixture of joy and despair layered throughout the many tracks. their room is now adorned with miku figurines of all types, and she's gone as far as to get a mini arcade controller for the switch so she can grind between trips to our local round 1! it's a connection that I would not have imagined us having, and getting to introduce her to the older console games has been a blast too.

a few weekends ago my girlfriend informed me that pdft actually has master courses similar to iidx's kyu/dan system; I was completely shocked by this. I sat down and handily took out the 9.5* course (an unexpected full combo on envy catwalk had me feeling rather smug even given my lackluster performance on po pi po and saihate), and I gave my best shot at the 10* course too, though I'll likely never be able to clear intense voice on pad despite my best efforts. being able to even tackle these courses felt like a monument to how much effort I've put into learning these games over the last year, and a sense of finality hung over me as I worked through the courses. it gave me a second to reflect on my history with this game and how it gave me so many experiences I never would have experienced otherwise. I've never had another game connect me to the people I share space with in quite the same way, to the point where we have miku fridge magnets and stickers as decorations around our townhouse. I'm eagerly awaiting having a project diva cabinet in my city soon (within the next month... jubeat too!), but I know a few months from now I'll be drawn back into the fold on my ps4, perhaps I'll actually pick up the dlc and work on some of those harder charts I've never been able to try, maybe I'll finally get requiem for the phantasm exex since I always eat shit when I try it at the arcade, or try gothic and loneliness exex for the first time... so much still left to explore! this game truly does not stop, and soon enough I'll have to roll out the concert yet again and pump those tracks through our halls, even if just for a night.

As far as rhythm games go, I think very few series’ gameplay compare in quality to the Project DIVA series. The note timings are tight, and all the visual effects associated with playing well are satisfying. What sets Future Tone apart from the rest of the series is the sheer amount of content for the asking price. Previous games in the series have averaged about 30-40 songs. Future Tone contains a mix of songs from previous Project DIVA games, the Mirai series, and the arcade to bring it up to 226 tracks. This is something I could not have ever imagined SEGA doing and I’m sure I’ll find myself continuing to come back to it. If you are looking to jump into the Project DIVA franchise, I really can’t recommend any other game over this one.