Every year, Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan and Asia conducts an award ceremony that honors games of particular commercial success released on PlayStation. Last year, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Yakuza 5 received distinction.
This year’s winners have been announced, and SEGA games are well-represented!
Yesterday Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live (for PlayStation VR) already received an update, bringing the game to version 1.02. A few hours ago the game’s 3rd (and at least for now, final) Stage has been added to the EU PlayStation Store. Like the previous 2 Stages, its adds 7 new tracks and a few additional modules to the game. It also adds Vocaloids MEIKO and KAITO to the list of characters. We assume the US PlayStation Store will also receive the 3rd Stage within the next 24 hours.
After reviewing Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live’s 1st Stage, it’s now time for my review of the 2nd Stage. Given how much overlap there is between the 1st and 2nd Stage, I’ll only be talking about the differences compared to the 1st Stage here. As such, you may want to read my first review before this one if you’re not familiar with the game.
In a recent article, Yakuza Fan points out that Yakuza 6 is on the list of games that will support the PlayStation 4 Pro (illustrated by a “PS4 Pro Enhanced” label), rendering the game at 4K. It’s unclear at this point if it’s native 4K or if they’ll opt for some form of upscaling from 1800P.
However, aside from Yakuza 6, the list also includes three other SEGA games: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X HD, Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live and Valkyria; Azure Revolution. From what I can gather from the remarks on the list, the update for Project DIVA X HD was actually already released in Japan. It’s unclear what benefits the games will get from PS4 Pro, but we can at least assume an increased resolution on 4K TVs, and improved anti-aliasing on 1080P TVs by means of downsampling. At this point it’s not clear if Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X received an update in the West, but we’ll update the article if or when we learn more.
UPDATE: more details on Project DIVA X HD and VR Future Live enhancements were posted in an update on the official SEGA feat. Hatsune Miku blog.
SEGA has just issued a press release stating that Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live 2nd Stage is now available on the PlayStation Store in Europe and the Americas. The 2nd stage adds 6 new tracks, and also introduces the characters Rin, Len and Luka. You don’t have to own the 1st Stage in order to buy the 2nd one, but do note that the game is only playable with PlayStation VR. If you’d like to learn more about the game, you can read our review of the 1st stage here!
SEGA of Japan has posted a new Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live gameplay video, featuring the song Shake It! from the 2nd Stage DLC that will be released on November 10 in Japan. The 2nd Stage introduces the characters Lin and Ren to the game (the 1st Stage only featured Hatsune Miku). Aside from that, nothing new was shown in terms of gameplay, so for now it appears the new Stage will only add more songs, characters and modules to the game. You can view the video below! As for the West, the release date of the 2nd Stage hasn’t been announced yet.
Back in June 2015, SEGA first unveiled its “SEGA feat. HATSUNE MIKU Project: VR Tech DEMO”, for Project Morpheus. That tech demo turned into an actual game, called Hatsune Miku; VR Future Live, which was released a few days ago as a launch title for PlayStation VR. It’s not the first time that SEGA has tried to replicate the feel of a live Hatsune Miku concert. In Hatsune Miku; Project DIVA F 2nd, the Studio mode allowed you to view a “live” performance as well, from different camera angles. In Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X, some of the Event Requests were in front of a “live” audience that sang along with the tunes at times. But these never came close to recreating the feel of an actual Hatsune Miku concert.
SEGA of America has released the launch trailer for Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live, which was released earlier today in the Americas and Europe. You can view the trailer below, as well as a video with our own playthrough of the 1st Stage! While VR Future Live is a free download, it doesn’t actually contain any content. These are available separately as “Stages”. The game’s 1st Stage is available now for $14.99/€14.99 on the PlayStation Store. Stage 2 will be released sometime in November, and Stage 3 in December. A demo is available as well, containing one song (Weekender Girl). The full version of Stage 1 contains 7 songs in total. For more information, check out our previous article. You can also expect an article with my impressions on the game soon!
Today marks the launch of PlayStation VR, and that also means that Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is now also available worldwide. I’m currently playing the game, and you can expect my first impressions in an article later today. A free demo is available as well on the PlayStation Store, which includes the song “Weekender Girl”. Meanwhile, Sega has also announced that the 2nd stage for Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live will be released on November 10 in Japan. We also get a few new screenshots of the new stage, which you can view below. As you can see, the 2nd stage will also include Rin, Len and Luka (the 1st Stage features Miku only). Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X should also have been updated to support VR in its Concert Editor mode, but it doesn’t appear to be active yet on my US copy of the game.
SEGA of America has announced that the release date of Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is now October 13, which coincides with the launch of Sony’s PlayStation VR headset. Until now, the release date had been planned for October 14, one day after the launch of PS VR. We also received a few new details about the game, in particular the amount of songs in the game as well as the pricing.