Games I've Played - Project Diva X

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I'm a bit of a fan of Vocaloid-themed rhythm games. Hatsune Miku Project Diva X released in Japan earlier this year, I imported it and have been playing it a bit.

Project Diva X is the latest in the Project Diva series - which focuses on all six Crypton's Vocaloids - from MEIKO to Megurine Luka, but with a big focus on Hatsune Miku - currently available on Vita, and releasing on PS4 later in the year - with a US release for both confirmed to be available soon after the Japan release of the PS4 version. It introduces new songs, new buttons and a couple of new modes - the main being sort of a Story Mode, where you play through, unlock songs, gain points to fill up areas (something about bringing light to darkness, I think.), unlock modules/costumes... The Free Play mode of previous games returns, but with the limitation that you have to unlock the songs and modules through the Story mode part first. There's also Live Quests - almost missions, where you have to play certain songs, or use certain costumes, or a certain character and get a certain score, which then unlocks something else at the end.

I spent most of my time in the "Story" mode - as that's where the bulk of the unlocks come from - unlike previous Project Diva games, it's the only way to unlock stuff, with each song played giving a chance at unlocking a random module once the "Chance Time" zone is cleared (which, with the amount some characters have, plus the fact that it has the chance to give modules you've already got, can prove to be a bit frustrating.). SEGA do provide a way to unlock all the costumes in one go, but it requires spending real money on - it is, however, quite tempting, and the option I may go for if/when a European release rolls round, as I don't much fancy going through the random unlocks over again just to get everything - especially for a couple of costumes that can only be obtained by getting certain scores on a couple of the hardest songs on Extreme difficulty, and only if you also manage to pass the "Chance Time" zones for them. I've got 17 modules for Miku and 1 module for Rin left to unlock - one of which being to complete the Ultimate Medley on Extreme, which I think I might pass on.

Along with the number of modules available, there's a large range of accessories to unlock (of which, my favourite is the moustache...) and dress up everyone with. These unlock randomly after completing songs in the Story Mode/Live Quest parts - along with items to use in the DIVA Room portion, either to decorate the room with, or to give as gifts to the various Cryptonloids... This in turn makes them happier (if they're given an item they like - for example, ice cream for KAITO, leeks for Miku...), or MORE UNLOCKS, a variety of Events that can occur, each with their own little video. Whilst I've unlocked all the accessories, I'm still missing a number of the room items and events, but this doesn't bug me quite so much, as I don't spend as much of my time in that mode.

But, what's a rhythm game without a song list? Project Diva X contains 24 songs, two of which may be familiar to those who have played other Project Diva/Mirai games, split across 5 different themes (Neutral, Cute, Cool, Beauty and Chaos). It also has 6 Medleys - one for each theme, and the Ultimate medley. I feel the track list is a mixed bag, with a handful of songs I like, but mostly songs I'm not too fussed about. Miku gets the highest billing for songs, having 17 solo songs, sharing two duets, one trio, and appearing in all six medleys - whilst, yes, her name ~is~ on the box, it is a little disappointing to see some of their Vocaloids appear in only one or two songs, in which they have to share the spotlight with another Vocaloid. The medleys are a nice way to have even more songs in the game, but it would have been nice to see some of the songs included be instead their own song.

Overall, Project Diva X is a decent Vocaloid game experience, but I find it easy to burn myself out on it trying to get the unlocks, and not having much of the song list particularly appeal to me. Whilst I'll probably end up picking up both versions if it does get a European release (especially to be able to pick up whatever DLC might be releasing in future), I think I'll pass on importing the PS4 version - instead, I'm looking at picking up Future Tone, a port of the Arcade version for PS4, which is set to contain 220 songs and 340 modules, and all for about £60 (after picking up a couple of JP PSN cards).

Game I've Played - Persona 4 Golden

One game I've picked up and been playing (and completed) in the last couple of weeks has been the Vita's Persona 4 Golden.

My first foray into the Persona series was with Persona 3 Portable, which I picked up on a whim from my local GAME store, ended up getting the download version (as my physical version ended up getting read errors/freezing), and then played through (twice, in fact...). This started my love for the series, and I picked up P4G a while back in a Vita sale - I just have a problem starting games... I can put them off for weeks and weeks, but once I get into it, I'm hooked.

Anyway, Persona 4 Golden...

I really enjoyed it, had a lot of fun with it from start to end. I like the social link part, I like the characters, I like the battle system... It is a fair difference from P3P, atmosphere-wise, it's a lot more upbeat, yet still having serious moments, and it works pretty well (for me, at least), well enough that I just had to keep playing up until the end (making sure to keep an eye on various things to make sure I got one of the good endings, regardless of filling out all the social links).

My only negatives would be regarding the fact that if the main character dies in a battle, then it means a game over, even if other party members are alive, which was a little frustrating late in the game (namely, that true final boss), so I ended up going back and grinding a bit, and then playing the fight a lot more defensively. I also managed to spend a lot of the game without properly upgrading everyone's weapons, as I wasn't sure how to unlock better ones other than from chests (selling various materials at Daidara Metalworks - I was a bit hesitant to sell them, as I thought I'd need them for other things, but once I just went and sold them the first time that made it a lot easier in the future.)

I also spent a ~lot~ of money on the various costumes for everyone, I really like the fact that costumes are separate to the armour, compared to P3P, as then I could make everyone wear whatever, whilst still being able to use any of the armours.

Anyway, I played and I played, got the True Ending and had planned to get started on another RPG... Which was then foiled as I pretty much immediately started the New Game+, whoops! xD At least I know I'm gonna enjoy playing it again.

In other Persona news, I picked up Arena Ultimax (I'm not really a fighting game person, but I still enjoy it, mostly based on the character roster...) and am hoping to pick up Q sometime... And then with Dancing All Night coming sometime in the future, and then 5 as well... There's so much to play!

Games I've played - A bit of everything

So, in the last week I've not particularly played any games through to completion, just been playing bits and pieces of a variety of things, mostly mobile...

To start, I've been playing various Angry Birds games, mostly Stella and Epic, and doing a variety of things on them. With Stella, I have finished the first two sets of levels, having got three stars on all of them, and awaiting the update that brings in a new set of levels to play. This was somewhat challenging, but I really like the way the various birds abilities work, and I had a lot of fun with it. On the other hand, is Epic, a spin-off that swaps the bird-flinging for a RPG adventure. I only tried it out as siblings are addicted to it, levelling up their birds, doing the levels, the arena stuff, and I quite like it, too. Unfortunately, I ran into a bug that means that it's not recognising that I've got birds, so I can't do any more levels until it gets updated. So, for now, I'm playing it on one of my siblings' devices. xD

From mobile, to mobile-esque games, Pokemon Shuffle. It's a match-3(or more) game, with a Pokemon twist. I'm not completely taken by it (even though I was a huge fan of Link and Link Battle that came before), but for a little game to just play every so often during the day, it's okay. Some levels get pretty hard, though, so it's spending a while trying to catch more, or just level everything up a bit.

Then, to Vita (and PS3, kinda). Project Diva F 2nd has been in my play list again, thanks to new DLC releasing this month (two songs just gone, then another four to come before the end of the month). It's always fun to play, I really enjoy it, one of my favourite games from last year (which shows, as I ~kinda~ ended up with three copies of the game, one import, two local).

Finally, I've made a start on Citizens of Earth, after having tried out the demo of it on Vita, and enjoying it enough to pick up the full game. Not got much in the way of thoughts on it, yet, having only played a couple of hours, but I'm still enjoying it, it seems somewhat Earthbound-y, in the style, as well as almost being a parody of similar RPG games.

Anyway, that was mostly my stuff for the week, a bit of a variety there, but need to try and work towards finishing more games... xD

Games I've Played - Tearaway

So, one thing that may help to keep me putting stuff on here is a series on various games I've been playing recently, even just a little. Mostly a summary of my thoughts, what I enjoyed, what I didn't. No real huge review style thingy, just some random thoughts I want to say about a game.

I'm gonna begin with a game that I picked up recently off of a Vita sale - and that is Tearaway, a little game by Media Molecule, otherwise known for LittleBigPlanet.

I hadn't read much about it beforehand, just seen little bits here and there and it seemed like a bit of a sweet little game, and I had enjoyed the LBP games, so I hopped on the sale, got it downloaded and started playing. And it's a lovely charming little game, I really like the papercraft artstyle, and the customisation thing, but I'm not so down on the huge use of the camera and the microphone. If they had been little things, or optional, I would've been happier, but when I have to stop playing for a while because of the loud noise the camera makes when taking pictures, and no option to skip that part, it's frustrating. And the microphone didn't seem to work as the recorded bits were just crackly noises, so... I mean, I love being able to create my own designs, decorate things my own way, but there was so much reliance on the camera that it was annoying.

Otherwise, the controls were good enough to get used to fairly quickly, and the combination of the sweet little story and the nice artstyle makes it a nice little game. Yes, it's short, can be played through once in a few hours, but it looks like there's quite a few bits to get, collectable wise (something I'm not particularly bothered by), which will add to replays, plus all the options for customisation...

If I had moved a few pics over from my Vita, I would share some of them here, but unfortunately I didn't... Either way, I had a lot of fun with the customisation, creating accessories, that sort of thing, but after finishing the story of it, I'm not sure if I'll particularly go back to it for any length of time... Those camera and mic bits put me off from it a bit.

It's worth a play if the camera and mic stuff doesn't bother you as much as it bothered me, as it is, as I've said a few times, a really sweet and charming little game.

Welcome!

Well, I've done it. I've started a blog. I think I'll try to update it every so often like when I add something exciting to my Twitter page (@Rorru).

So, Bisylizzie here, as I usually go as round the internets.

I'll probably start off with stuff relating to games I've played, possibly do little bits about things I've bought/received...

We'll see!