Hatsune Miku VR Review

 

Hatsune Miku is a vocaloid. What’s a vocaloid you ask? A vocaloid is a virtual music idol that sings and dances to music made using a voice synthesizer. Miku is just the most popular one and the one that made vocaloid such a big thing today. Since the rise of vocaloids, there have been many rhythm based video games based on this music sensation. All off which are very traditional when it comes to rhythm game: controller buttons prompts move on the screen, tap said button at a specific time and repeat all while watching a music video. Hatsune Miku VR for PC changes that formula quite a bit…and not for the better.

Hatsune Miku VR puts you into the virtual world of the vocaloids. Miku in particular is known for her dance routine, so it makes sense to make a game that simulates this aspect. After choosing a song you are transported to a stage and greeted by the Diva herself, Hatsune Miku. While on the stage floor you will notice four speakers on the background. Two to the left and two to the right. The two closest to you are about the same height as your arms, while the two furthest speakers are high above you. Once the song starts musical notes will burst out from the speakers hurling towards you. Your goal is to raise your VR controllers, which are now magic wands, to where the music notes will land. So pretty much you will be moving your arms about in tune with the music either by your side or up high further away from your body. Occasionally there are some music notes with a rainbow of notes following them. When these zoom by you, you will want to move your wand in a motion to go with said notes. This adds another level of immersion to the game, mimicking motion that the Diva herself will perform. That in all is the game. Not much more to it, which is a serious problem. This mechanic just isn’t that much fun. It gets old and tiring real fast. I mean literally tiring. The songs are the full versions, so some songs last up to four minutes and waving around not so light VR controllers in each hand vigorously is a good workout, but tuckers you out real fast. I had to take a break after every couple songs to prevent my arms from feeling pain from wailing them around so much.

The music itself in Hatsune Miku VR is great, well as long as you like Vocaloid music. If you’re even interested in this game, I expect you do. It’s upbeat and has some of Miku’s most popular hits over the years, but the real problem lies with the amount of songs. There are only a total of eight songs. With a normal and hard difficulty you can get some more out of these, but  that is a very small list for a music game that retails at $25 USD. Developer Crypton Future Media has stated that more songs are on the way, but no word if these songs will be a free update for the game or if they will be paid DLC. You can pretty much play the game in its entirety in about 30 minutes. Other than the ability to play the songs, the only other features are the Tutorial, which gives you a brief rundown on how to play the game, and Music Video mode, which lets you choose a song and watch Miku dance. This is exactly like the normal game, but you can focus on looking at Miku instead of playing the actual game.

This game will also win no rewards in presentation. Hatsune Miku VR graphics are bare bones and honestly look worse than most of the past Miku PlayStation Vita games. With Miku as your sole physical character and only a few stages for her to strut her stuff, it’s hard to say much great about the games aesthetics. Even the menus are basic and not much to look at. With a theme about vocaloids and seeing how great past games have looked and presented themselves, it’s sad to say this game just doesn’t look great.  The game runs smoothly which is a must for a VR game and it is very colorful, but that’s where the compliments start and finish.

As a whole, Hatsune Miku VR has potential. If they added at least three times as many songs and maybe add some sort of button mechanic to the music game itself, this can be a blast. But as it stands right now this game is just very shallow with little to do and just isn’t that much fun. Though there aren’t much in the ways of VR music games, there are far better VR experiences to choose from. If this was a free to play game that starts you with eight songs with feature songs as DLC I would be more forgiving and say to give this a shot. At the very least it’s a good cardio workout. Seeing as how this is a paid title, however,I just can’t personally recommend this game unless you are a diehard Miku fan and just want to see her with your fancy headset.