The concept of synthesised voice shouldn't be foreign to anyone who used Microsoft words, which has its own , Sam. Yet, Yamaha marketed its vocaloids into the realm of otaku culture, kudos to them. This is was done by both introducing a cyber persona (a digital avatar), as well as giving the community the power to create whatever they wished with the vocaloid, resulting in vocaloids' popularity surging virally. Indeed, in the current context, this is the most powerful marketing device.
This been said, however, Yamaha did indeed create a wonderful product, which attracted so many hardcore and not-so-hardcore fans.
Vocaloids have had several cameos in animes and games. (For details, check the Wikipedia page). One which I am familiar with is Kagami cosplaying as Hatsune Miku in Luky Star. (Incidentally, this was the first time I was introduced to Miku by an otaku friend of mine.)
In action
All working fine now.
Presentation
If you are familiar with Japanese anime/game style, you won't be a stranger in this game. Though there are very few characters in this game, but all of them do adopt the J styled character design.
Backgrounds are a bit hit or miss. They are highly vibrant, but at times, may be a little empty. Not a huge set back though.
When there are lots of visuals on display, I did experience some lag. But those are very scarce.
Gameplay
Similar to Guitar Hero series. But instead of queueing vertically, the queued keys falls freely from either top, bottom, left or right of the screen. A little dail also shows up giving the player a sense of how soon the queue will be due. It is a bit hard to explain, but watch the gameplay, and you will know what I mean.
Timing is quite strict. I found there are more leeway after the expected queue than before. i.e., if pressed a fraction of a second later, you might get to keep your combo, whereas if it was pressed a fraction second before the queue, you might break your combo.
Depending on how timely you meet the queues, it can be either awarded as COOL, FINE, SAFE, SAD or WORST. COOL and FINE allows combo counter to build up, whilst SAFE SAD and WORST breaks combo counter. SAD and WORST also depletes the rhythm gauge (akin to the Mood Gauge in guitar heroes series). If emptied, you'll see Miku orz and cries a little.
Getting a COOL clearly scores you more points than FINE or SAFE etc., but the majority of the points are earned either by having a high combo counter, or more importantly, perform as perfectly as you can during the chance time. During chance time, rhythm gauge disappears. Instead, if you comboed successfully, you will earn point accumulatively. That is if you score a combo linker (COOL or FINE) for the 1st note in chance time, you will be awarded 100 points, and the 2nd note, if also a combo linker awards 200pts, 3rd 300pts etc. Clearly, the points adds up very quickly if there are a lot of notes in the chance time AND if you perform a perfect combo. Should you do a combo breaker however (scoring a SAFE, SAD or WORST), you restarts from 100pts.
If you survived the rhythm counter, you will be presented with a result sheet, detailing how many COOL's, FINE's etc., you have gotten, highest combo chain, chance time bonus. Depending on the final point counter, you may be awarded either NOT CLEAR (fail), CLEAR (pass), GREAT (credit) or PERFECT (distinction - comboed entire song).
Unlocks
Initially, only a few songs are avaliable at the beginning (World is mine, Far away, Amenochi Sweet*Drops, Kouya to mori to mahou no uta, The secret garden, Koi suru VOC@LOID,). But as you play them a bit, more songs start to unlock.
Initially, only easy and normal modes are avaliable to be challenged. Upon clearing both easy and normal modes with a GREAT or higher rank, you unlock hard mode.
You also unlock costumes, decorations, wallpapers as you clear more and more songs.
