This fun and rewarding rhythm game is trapped within its limited appeal outside of Japan
+ Character animation and backgrounds look great
+ Solid track list
+ Easy learning curve with plenty of challenge that offers plenty of unlockables
+ Beautiful art in loadings
Negative
- Standard selling price is overpriced
- Only hard mode uses all buttons
- Backgrounds can be quite distracting
Project Diva 2nd is the second rhythm game based on Japan's most loved virtual idol that is immensely popular. For anyone outside the land of its creation, this may be quite an overpriced title to import but if that barrier is lowered, Project Diva 2nd is a challenging and enjoyable rhythm game that is beautiful, accessible and rewarding.
The gameplay of Project Diva 2nd is quite simple and accessible. All that is required is to press the button that comes from the side of the screen and accurately pressing that button in the grey icons that appear. As simple as it looks, it's not. As you press the button when it presses over the grey icon of the same shape, the game indicates whether it's "cool, fine, safe, bad, or worst" depending on the timing you hit the button. D-pad arrows are used with a colored button, and hold and release icons pop from time to time. The game is quite challenging and slightly unbalanced. Easy mode requires only the input of one button; the circle. So all you need to go is have your thumb button always ready to press the circle button whenever needed, and the occasional right arrow together with the circle button. Higher modes quite two and more buttons which can be challenging, aside from the fact that non-gamers playing the game are going to find the game to be challenging on the Easy difficulty.
Hitting enough "cool" and "fine" notes increases your chances of clearing the song, which when you do so unlocks more songs and Vocaloids besides the popular virtual idol, which include Luka, Rin and Len, Kaito and many others. With each cleared song, the game rewards you with new unlockables to keep you going. When you choose a Vocaloid, the character in the background changes from the default character to the character you have chosen. Subsequently, male Vocaloids will still have a female Vocaloid singing in the background which is kind of awkward.
Other modes available include Edit Mode, where you can edit the songs and unfortunately it's a bit out of reach for anyone who doesn't understand Japanese. From the shop you can buy stuff to put in the Diva rooms for each character which in itself isn't quite a good distraction since there aren't much ways to enjoy yourself in doing so. Luckily the main portion of the gameplay is quite solid and the constant stream of unlockable songs keeps you around with a solid tracklist of 70+ songs.
Each background of each song is beautiful decorated and detailed, and the Vocaloid is dancing, walking, moving showing incredible fluid animation; it's like what you'd expect in a high quality music video. Such beautiful art is admirable; unfortunately it is distracting when playing the actual song. The Vocaloids movement is eye catching so it is difficult to solely focus on the song at hand. An interesting thing is that there is a large amount of attractive art when the short loadings appear, finally making the time staring at load times worth it. Whether you'll like the soundtrack, it depends how much you like J-Pop and Miku music. I'm not going to go in unnecessary detail but the soundtrack is good and well varied.
Outside of Japan, only people associated with the anime world and Japan related stuff may be 'aware' of this popular diva. This rhythm game for the PSP offers a good deal of content with excellent soundtrack, visuals and gameplay. It is still difficult to recommend to novice American/European players because of the game's standard price and shipping, but if by any chance, you have a little liking to the long blue-haired idol, give this game a try.
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Graphics = 8.4
Striking visuals and backgrounds that sometimes distract from the actual gameplay.
Sound = 8.6
A rhythm game must have good music, and as far as I'm concerned, this game has good Japanese music. It depends on one's taste.
Presentation = 8.2
To import a new copy of the game, it's expensive and it's in a language European and Americans find it difficult to understand especially when the kanji symbols are used. The colorful art when the game loads is a nice innovation.
Gameplay = 8.0
Simple and accessible with tough difficulty to sum it up. The fact that you use only one button for the easiest difficulty kind of gets repetitive. A nice stream of constant unlockables when succeeding and additional help items to help you succeed in songs.
Modes = 7.3
The main mode revolves around the actual gameplay. Diva Room and the Shop don't really add much.
Recommendation Level = Below Average
This is unfortunately one of those game that have a very low probability of reaching worldwide audience. Nonetheless, it's quite a good game in everything the game tries.
OVERALL = 81 / 100
This fun and rewarding rhythm game is trapped within its limited appeal outside of Japan.