Project DIVA MEGA39's

[nocturnal YL]

The update is out, and I just tried touch play. The touch screen is too sensitive and I keep missing slide and chain slide notes as a result. Still pretty fun though, and once again proving that Nintendo Switch's hardware capability (this time the touch screen) isn't as bad as I imagined at first.

It's also awkward that the system menu does not support touch scren control now that the main game can be played with touch. Project DIVA Arcade has touch control for the menu, so this game (same codebase) really has no excuse not to.

[Nester the Lark]

In related news, the Space Channel 5 VR game will apparently be getting Hatsune Miku DLC on July 27.

This seems so natural for a crossover, I feel like it should've happened a lot sooner. Also, I love Miku's SC5 outfit.

[nocturnal YL]

Quite surprising to not see this earlier, given the kind of game Space Channel 5 is. There are modules based on Space Channel 5 in the Arcade-based Project DIVA games too.

I can't get used to this model, but I guess that fits the SC5 style better. Naturally, I'm more used to the DIVA Arcade version. (Same for PSO2, by the way.)

[nocturnal YL]

Finally!

The next set of Project DIVA MEGA39's DLC has been announced in a livestream. Including:

• Extra Song Pack Season Pass 2
  5 extra song packs including more Future Tone ports and 4 new songs (no original PV, unfortunately), including Bless Your Breath (Music & Lyrics by WADATAKEAKI) and BRING IT ON (Music by Giga　Lyrics by Reol). Will be released on 16 July (Extra Song Pack 7th), 20 August (8th, 9th) and 17 September (10th, 11th).
• SEGA Song Pack
  Includes Quartet of Multiple Futures -Quartet Theme-, LIKE THE WIND and AFTER BURNER, plus an extra T-shirt design by KEI (the illustrator, not the musician). Will be released on 16 July for free. …What's happened to Magical Sound Shower? (I know it's a contest submission; maybe that's the reason?)
• Extra Song Pack "MEGA39's"
  Future Tone DLC featuring the base game songs from MEGA39's and the Catch the Wave module. This will be available on 2 July, exactly one year after it was first announced.
• In addition, new songs introduced in Extra Song Pack Season Pass 2 will also be available as Future Tone DLC within 2020.

The livestream has also revealed that this game has sold 250,000 copies worldwide.

That's actually a bit better than I expected. I thought a livestream announced a week early would include big announcements, but I didn't expect actual new songs. And I thought the songs based on SEGA arcade wouldn't make it at all. Glad I'm wrong. Now if only we can also get the contest songs…

[nocturnal YL]

(This doesn't have anything to do with the Switch version of the game, but I'm not going to rename this thread for this single post.)

Finally! I got a perfect in Meiteki Cybernetics (EXTRA EXTREME ★9)! This is my 2nd ★9 perfect, with the first being Saihate.

Original song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=64TRC_6m-7I

This song is my favourite in Project DIVA Future Tone DX, a least before Mega Mix came out and brought the new songs to FT as DLC. This song is from the legendary Luka master Otetsu, and what really got me attached is the lyrics. It's an anti-war song, which makes it feel a lot more serious than most of the other songs, which don't really get any darker than deaths of (imaginary) individuals or subjecting a population to oppression in a fantasy setting.

The rhythm game chart in Project DIVA is quite interesting to me. When I started playing the game, I couldn't even survive this song, let alone getting a perfect. As I got better at the game, I started to see this song as one of my major goals. It started to feel like I can have a chance of perfecting it and all I need is just a little extra practice. In particular, refer to the following video:



This person is one of the world's best Project DIVA players. (I may replace this with my own capture when I get the chance.)

EDIT — 9 months later, I finally uploaded my playthrough:

EDIT END

1:30, notes 219-232 — Just a simple set of quick, alternating button presses, but I do sometimes mess up when I'm in a panic.

1:38, notes 248-254, and 3:16, notes 541-560 — Actually quite easy once I know what to do. Take △□×△□×○×□△ for example, I just have to divide it into 3 parts: △□× (input △←×), △□× (same) and ○×□△ (input ○×□△ because there's no time for my brain to think how to alternate), making use of the generally lenient timing of Project DIVA.

1:44, notes 277-289 — The reason why it took me 4 years to perfect this. I'm most definitely not a fan of triplets in this game, and it's surprisingly cheese-proof and I can't just spam right slide and × in quick succession, despite sliders being very lenient. I tried several alternate input methods, like R1 ↓ × R1 ↓ × R1 ↓ × R1 ↓ × R1 and placing my right hand on the controller like it's an arcade gamepad, but in the end it's just a combination of staying calm and luck (I still had a lot of FINEs in this part) that got me through.

With a few near-perfects before, I knew it was just a matter of time and my willingness to keep playing the same song that my brain very much wants to tune out (and I don't play this song exclusively for my sanity's sake). When I saw the combo counter and realised that I got through the tough part, it didn't feel real as I thought my timing was quite off. I managed to focus on the game and avoid messing up the remaining part (happened once before), and here we are.

Naturally, even with this done I still have other songs I want to perfect (Alien Alien EXTREME ★8.5, Greenlights Serenade EXTREME ★8.5, disruptive diva EXTRA EXTREME ★8.5, Remote Controller EXTREME ★8, to name a few). But I can feel at ease now. Actually, I decided to stop all of my other gaming activities (except Switch Sports online test and Kirby demo) to force some progress on DIVA FT, since I've barely touched it after August 2020, with things like Atelier, Ys and Project DIVA Mega Mix eating up my time (if I play other games in between DIVA sessions, said other games will steal my full attention). And it's working.

I may still play DIVA FT for a bit, but now I'm relatively fine with the idea of moving on.

[nocturnal YL]

So SEGA has announced that they're moving the game to Steam.

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MEGA39's+ is available today!

info.miku.sega.jp/16632

This game includes all 178 songs from the Switch version, plus a DLC pack that raises the total song count to 250. But as the announcement post warns, there will be no new songs, and parity between MEGA39's+, Future Tone DX and Arcade will not be attained. (Future Tone DX for PS4 has 252 songs, and there are 2 Arcade songs that aren't there, meaning that there are 254 songs ever made for the DIVA Arcade engine.)

Kagamine Hachi-Hachi Hana no Kassen, an Arcade song that did not make it to PS4, is now back!

The PV Photo Mode and the original shader are available in the Steam version, but Mix Mode and touch screen play will be removed.

The DLC pack will also be made available for the Switch version at a later date.


Not exactly the kind of news I expect or want, to be honest. I'd very much prefer to see new songs, or maybe a home console port of SEKAI (Colorful Palette developed the mobile game, and if BanG Dream! had a Switch port…), but I'm somewhat relieved to see traditional DIVA not *completely* dead. I thought they'd never look back once SEKAI proved to be successful.

On the plus side, this will be good news for modders. Custom DIVA charts have been a favourite pastime for advanced players, and the game being on PC would be great news to them.