project mirai (series)
Hatsune Miku Project Mirai also known as Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai was released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. It is a rhythm game created by both Sega and Crypton Future Media as a spin-off of the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series of Vocaloid rhythm games.
Gameplay
The game is based on a series of singing synthesizer software and primarily based on Crypton Vocaloids such as Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Gumi from Internet Co. However, as the game is still a spin-off from the original Project Diva series, there are numerous differences in the game’s art style, gameplay mechanics, an augmented reality mode, and a My Room mode where players get to interact with their modules in a room. The game’s primary gameplay is based on a “Chance Circle System” where players are required to press the buttons in sync with the timing of the appearing circles. Similar to its previous series, players are rated on their accuracy on a scale and displayed on the bottom of the screen. The music and style of animation follow closely to its previous games, but with enhanced 3D effects and additional minor changes.
Game development
Technically, development of the game began in mid-2010 although it was only officially announced as Hastune Miku -Project Mirai- in September 2011. Two months later in November, Famitsu unveiled the game's final name: Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai. This marked the first time in the franchises lifetime that a game has changed its original name. Along with its release date of March 8, 2012, a limited edition went on sale at the same time which included a Nendoroid Puchi figure as an additional add-on.
Song List
| # | Song | Singer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Time (Watashi no Jikan) | Hatsune Miku | Kuchibashi-P |
| 2 | Reverse Rainbow (Sakasama Reinboo) | Kagamine Rin | Sunzriver-P |
| 3 | Tricolor Airline | Hatsune Miku/Kagamine Rin/Megurine Luka/MEIKO | Atsuzou-kun |
| 4 | Animal Divination | Hatsune Miku/Kagamine Rin/Megurine Luka/MEIKO | Scop |
| 5 | No Logic | Megurine Luka | JimmyThumb-P |
| 6 | on the rocks | KAITO/MEIKO | OSTER Project |
| 7 | Mousou Sketch | Hatsune Miku | 40meterP/Signal-P (Rin ver.) |
| 8 | Daughter of Evil (Aku no Musume) | Kagamine Rin | Akuno-P |
| 9 | Servant of Evil (Aku no Meshitsukai) | Kagamine Len | Akuno-P |
| 10 | SING&SMILE | Hatsune Miku/Kagamine Rin/Megurine Luka/MEIKO/KAITO | Re:nG |
| 11 | PIANO*GIRL | Hatsune Miku | OSTER Project |
| 12 | Melancholic | Kagamine Rin | Junky |
| 13 | HELLO/HOW ARE YOU | Hatsune Miku | Hoehoe-P |
| 14 | LOL -lots of laugh- | Hatsune Miku | Ken |
| 15 | Deep Sea Girl (Shinkai Shoujo) | Hatsune Miku | Yuuyu-P |
| 16 | Your Heat (Kimi no Taion) | Hatsune Miku | Kuwagata-P |
| 17 | Matryoshka | Hatsune Miku | Hachi |
| 18 | Happy Synthesizer | Megurine Luka/Gumi | EasyPop |
| 19 | Dream Dream (Yume Yume) | Hatsune Miku | DECO*27 |
| 20 | Clover♣Club | Hatsune Miku | Yuuyu-P |
Sequels
With the success of Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai, Sega and Crypton released Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 in Japan on November 28, 2013, with no international release planned. Similar to the original title, the game primarily used Crypton-licensed Vocaloids and the gameplay essentially remained the same.
One major gameplay change was the use of touch screen controls, where players would tap the bottom of the 3DS screen. Increased marker speed was also implemented.
The game also featured a mini-game based on the Puyo Puyo puzzle game series, affectionately titled, Puyo Puyo 39.
In 2015, Sega released Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai Deluxe for the global market. This game was essentially Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 but with updated features. All music videos were removed, in favor of real-time animations, one additional song "Nice To Meet You, Mr. Earthling" (はじめまして地球人さん, Hajimemashite Chikyuujin-san) was added to the song list, note charts were slightly modified and were fully debugged, six songs were given an exclusive higher difficulty, and an additional mini-game based on Othello was included.
Sales in Japan for the Deluxe version of the game were far lower than expected, with fans citing the lack of large amounts of updates compared to its predecessor, however overseas sales of the game were modest. Overseas fans who were finally able to play the game praised the quality of animations for the 3DS and the cuteness of the characters and real-time animated video sequences.