Tag: Hatsune Miku

Tokyo Game Show 2019 Highlights

Editorial Team

Just two days after a typhoon ripped through the area, game developers, distributors, gamers, and otaku alike filed into the Makuhari Messe Convention Center just outside of Tokyo, to attend the Tokyo Game Show 2019. While there were slightly fewer companies attending this year, TGS 2019 did see a new record of 2,417 booths (2,338 last year) which means plenty of games to try, and things to see.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

The largest promotional event was Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, being shown-off at both the Sony PlayStation and Square Enix booth. The original Final Fantasy VII was released on the PlayStation One in 1997, and is arguable one of the most beloved titles in the series. Visitors at the Sony booth could have their picture taken while wielding Cloud Strife’s massive sword.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

The other big title this year was Capcom’s Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion, which is actually a game in itself than simply an expansion. While Sony had playable demos of the game, the Capcom booth displayed life-sized monsters. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne was released last week.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

This year, SEGA combined their booth with their subsidiary Atlas, promoting the upcoming Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Persona 5 Royal, both for the PS4, as well as the Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games for the Nintendo Switch. Other titles included the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva MegaMix for the Switch, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim for the PS4, as well as games in their SEGA Partners division including Granblue Fantasy: Versus, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Shenmue III, and Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

Konami continues to make its comeback with such upcoming titles as Contra: Rogue Corps, and Super Bomberman R. Though most of their efforts are being put into the mobile gaming market, with such playable games as Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, Dance Dance Revolution, and Beat Mania II DX.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

Due to the lack of room, this year saw a lot less arcade-targeted VR titles, and more home oriented ones, including the dancing game Space Channel 5, and a meteor shooting game by students at Kobe Denshi College. Also, with over 4 million units sold, Sony is far from giving up on their PlayStation VR, with such playable games as Marvel’s Iron Man VR, Concrete Genie, and a new Hatsune Miku VR game.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

One of the cooler VR accessories I saw were the Cybershoes by a Kickstarter group. Resembling beach sandals, you strap them to your feet or shoes, sit in a chair, and simulate walking or running while playing your favorite VR title. Simple but effective.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

With all those extra booths this year, the Indie game area was packed tight with playable titles. Some that I played included Magical Girl’s Chronicle: Magusphere, which combined the cuteness of magical girls with the violence of blowing up tanks and enemies with guns and bazookas. And Liberated by Polish company Walkabout, where you literally play through the panels of a graphic novel. Both games will be out on the PS4 next year.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

Overall, there were no big surprises this year at the Tokyo Game Show 2019, but still had plenty to offer and gave us a peak at what’s to come.

Tokyo Game Show 2019

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written by Damon Finos

Hatsune Miku Project Diva X Trophy Guide

Editorial Team

Hatsune Miku Project Diva X Trophy Guide. Difficulty: ***  A music rhythm game featuring the vocaloid characters Hatsune Miku and her friends. The Platinum is both time-consuming and quite challenging, requiring all songs to be cleared on Extreme mode.

Game Name Difficulty Trophies Developer Country Bronze Silver Gold Online DLC
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X *** 31 SEGA / Crypton Future Media Japan 10 15 5 0 0

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X is a music rhythm game featuring the vocaloid characters Hatsune Miku and her friends, and is the tenth entry in the Project Diva series. The game removes the Link Stars and Double Star notes which were introduced in Project Diva f 2nd, but adds Rush Notes where players rapidly press a certain button to increase their score. Diva Points have also been removed, and instead modules are collected through Module Drops. The game also adds a Live Quest Mode which involves completing quests in a more story-like scenario told through interactions with the characters and visual novel style dialogues. The base game includes 30 playable songs.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X received mainly positive reviews with an average score of 79%, praised for its added Live Quest story mode, presentation, and visuals, though criticized by some for a lack in song selection, and the removal of Diva Points which forces players to replay specific songs to acquire modules.

If you've played previous games in the Project Diva series and unlocked those Platinums, then you should have a general idea of what is involved for Project Diva X. However, this game is arguably more difficult than previous titles, as you will need to clear all the songs on Extreme difficulty, as well as one song on Difficulty with three challenge effects. For this, you will need to be skilled at using both the regular buttons as well as the D-pad simultaneously to hit enough notes. Overall, the Platinum is both time-consuming and demands some serious music rhythm gaming skills, but still doable with enough patience and practice.

Expect anywhere between 120-150 hours for the Platinum, heavily depending on skills.

NOTE: The trophies on the PS4 share the same list with those on the PS Vita.

We recommend starting with the Tutorial, whether you're experienced with the Project Diva games or not. It only takes a few minutes, and will not only teach you the basic mechanics of the game, but introduce the new Rush Notes. This will also unlock the Welcome To DIVA! trophy. The Tutorial can be found under the Options menu.

Also, if you're playing this on the PlayStation 4, you may also want to head into Simple Timing Calibration under Options to ensure there's no lag between your controller and the TV.

Next, start by playing through Quest Mode on whichever level you feel comfortable with. Play through and clear each song, while also doing the Festival requests, and the random event requests that pop up. During this playthrough, you will be accumulating volts and so should naturally unlock the 1 Million Volts trophy, and depending on your level of difficulty, the 10 Million Volts trophy. After you complete the Quest Mode, be sure to watch the end credits to unlock the Hey, You Win! trophy. If you happen to skip the credits, you can see them again by selecting Credits under the Options menu.

Next, it's time to start grinding. Begin by continuing to earn voltage in order to get more crystals for each cloud. There are five clouds each with six songs, bringing the total to 30 songs. As you go, you will unlock Events, Missions, and Festivals. Your ultimate goal here is to unlock the Crystal's Glow trophy. Also, if you feel ready to do this on Hard mode, you can unlock the Grand Gallery trophy for obtaining all the illustrations, which can only be done on Hard.

After all this, you should now have the full song list in Free Play. You will need to clear all the songs on Normal for the Intermediate Player trophy, all of them on Hard for the Advanced Player, and a song using three challenge items for the Challenger trophy. Also, be sure to watch all the song PV's for the Cinema Snob trophy. You will also eventually need to clear all the songs Extreme difficulty, and one song on Extreme difficulty with three challenge items, as part of the Event Organizer trophy. Though it's up to you if you wish to do this now or a little later.

From this point on, it's a matter of mopping-up what is left. This will probably include becoming BFFs with each of the characters for their respective trophies, unlocking all the modules, and eventually the Event Organizer trophy. Be sure to check out the Hatsune Miku Project Diva X trophy guide links under our Links tab to help you.

Good luck!

Aranlyde has a detailed Trophy Guide here:
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/hatsune-miku-project-diva-x/guide/

And a great Trophy Guide by supPinK:
https://psnprofiles.com/guide/4933-hatsune-miku-project-diva-x-trophy-guide#Crystals-Inspiration

An Accessory Coordination FAQ by Ouha-chan:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/180602-hatsune-miku-project-diva-x/faqs/73802

An Event Guide by Lupeyroo:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/180602-hatsune-miku-project-diva-x/faqs/73822

aces4839 created a Gift FAQ here:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/180602-hatsune-miku-project-diva-x/faqs/74697

A Module FAQ by aces4839:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/180602-hatsune-miku-project-diva-x/faqs/76127

Lastly, here's a basic Trophy List:
https://www.truetrophies.com/game/Hatsune-Miku-Project-DIVA-X/trophies

Hatsune Miku Project Diva f Trophy Guide

Editorial Team

Hatsune Miku Project Diva f Trophy Guide. Difficulty: ***  A music rhythm game featuring the Vocaloid CG idol Hatsune Miku. The Platinum requires both skills as well as time and some grinding.

Game Name Difficulty Trophies Developer Country Bronze Silver Gold Online DLC
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f *** 29 SEGA Japan 11 12 5 2 0

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f is a rhythm game, first released for the Vita in Japan in August 2012, then ported onto the PS3 seven months later. It was released in North America in August 2013, and a few days later in Europe.

The game features Vocaloid CG Idol Miku Hatsune, along with her friends, who star in a series of unique songs and digitally created music videos. Symbols fly across the screen, in which the player must hit the corresponding button when the symbol passes over their mark, according to the beat of the music. The game includes various modes of difficulty, the Vocaloid's "room" where one can interact with the characters, and an Edit mode where players can create their own rhythm challenges and upload them to an online community.

The game received high praise, particularly in Japan, with an average score of 92% for its variety in activities, fun challenge, high replay value, and overall great presentation.

The difficulty really depends on your skills. If you're good at these kinds of rhythm games, the difficulty rating could be brought down to a 2-star, though you will need to do lots of grinding to earn Diva Points, which are used to purchase all the necessary furniture, costumes and accessories for the Vocaloid rooms and characters.

Overall, expect to spend anywhere between 30 to 60 hours, depending on your skills.

We recommend beginning with the tutorial, in which you'll learn the ropes of the game, as well as earn your first trophy.

From there, start on Normal mode and work your way through all 32 songs. Also, take not of the Entertainer trophy, in which you need to unlock each song's Chance Time. This is when, towards the end of the song - and if your score is high enough - a large, colorful star will appear. Hit it at the appropriate time, and the music video will change. The game doesn't keep track of which songs you succeeded in the Chance Time, so you will need to do this on your own.

Once you've completed Normal mode, repeat the same thing on Hard. Once that's done, you will need to clear at least one song on Expert for another trophy.

From here on out, you'll have some grinding to do, in order to earn loads of Diva Points. If your skills are good enough, we recommend playing on Hard for even Expert to acquire the most number of points. These are used to purchase all the furniture and accessories for the Vocaloid's rooms, as well as all the Modules (excluding the individual pieces of costumes).

In addition, there are a few miscellaneous trophies to gather, such as using the Edit room feature. Check out the Hatsune Miku Project Diva f trophy guide links under our Links tab for further details.

Here's a great Trophy Guide, by MsFuruba. It's for the Vita version, but other than the AV trophy, they're the same as those on the PS3:
http://www.ps3trophies.org/game/hatsune-miku-project-diva-f/guide/

Another great Trophy Guide, this one by andyscout:
http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/hatsune-miku-project-diva-f/175552-miku-hatsune-project-diva-f-trophy-guide-road-map.html

IGN has a simple Trophy Guide:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/hatsune-miku-project-diva-f/Trophy_Guide

And PSN Profiles has a few Useful Tips:
http://psnprofiles.com/guide/2094-Hatsune-Miku-Project-DIVA-F

This Wiki guide is all you need to know about the Diva Room, including boosting the Vocaloid's affection, and the Event Collection:
https://projectdiva.wikispaces.com/DIVA+Room+%28%C6%92%29

This is the first part of a Let's Play video by Intech36, in case you get stuck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKV7LisZaTA

Lastly, here's a basic Trophy List:
http://ps3trophies.com/trophies/04679-hatsune-miku-project-diva-f

What Is MMD?

Editorial Team

If you happen to search for “MMD” in either Youtube or Japan’s Niconico, you’ll find over a hundred thousand videos of CG girls – many of them starring Miku Hatsune – dancing and singing to J-pop music.  These short videos, however, are not created by professionals but made by amateurs.

MMD is an acronym for MikuMikuDance, a free animation software originally created by Yu Higuchi with the Vocaloid character Miku Hatsune in mind.

What is Vocaloid and who is Miku Hatsune, you might ask?  In a nutshell, Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer which allows the user to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and a melody.  Miku Hatsune was created as the software’s mascot, and has since risen to Japanese Idol stardom.

So while the Vocaloid software allows you to create the music, MMD lets you create the CG videos.  3-D models like Miku Hatsune can either be downloaded freely, or created by the more experienced designers.  The character’s facial expressions and movements are rather simple to create, compared with more complex programs such as Maya or Poser, and MMD even allows users to create motion capture with Microsoft’s Kinect.

Here in Japan, the 10th MMD Cup was recently held; a fan-run online contest of MMD videos with over 500 amateur contenders.  Even the advertising has jumped on the MikuMikuDance-wagon, such as the Lawson convenience store chain with its original Vocaloid character promoting its oden.

What’s the future for MMD?  Its popularity only seems to be on the rise, and while the software supports both Japanese and English, its growing fandom in the global market for 3-D anime hobbyists has encouraged accessibility in other languages to be in the works.  While Japan is well known for its high quality animation, their 3-D film studio struggles to compete with such big-budges films by Pixar and Dreamworks.  Perhaps MikuMikuDance is a way for Japan to sneak in through the back door to the competition arena.

 

by Damon Finos