While I was plugging away at iM@S Shiny Festa, I realized two things. First, some of the songs have arrangements that are on beat with calls and certain wota moves, and the button presses corresponds to that. I guess as someone who never really got very far in Ouendan, this is a revelation. I mean, this game can teach potential wotas not only the basics about rhythm and how each songs go, but also on which beat things ought to happen, should one chooses to cheer in that manner.
The other thing I realized, perhaps more important to media consumption, is that games like Shiny Festa actually goes with the franchise. It’s not only just another addition or a spoinoff, but it makes sense. Hanagumi Taisen Columns? Not so much. In Shiny Festa’s case , there’s all this “plot” material which may or may not simply add to the canon of the IP or makes these sort-of virtual, 2D idols more like idols and less like characters from some game or anime. But that’s kind of besides the point. I wonder if this is also the case for Project DIVA?
Then invariably I think about the K-ON PSP game. And how that is really, in a way, another way games can make sense in the big picture–it’s the game that makes the thing they tease you about come true. In that game you get to play and watch the band play their songs–the same songs you hear from their CDs and from the anime–except they’re actually playing it like real musicians. It’s all in-game graphics, not pre-rendered stuff, so you can even create your own set given the components provided you within the game. It doesn’t quite complement K-ON fandom in that way, rather, it’s like the fantasy that comes true.
Now, for iM@S, “fantasy that comes true” would partly be the various concerts and live performances, I think. In my case, it was more a gateway rather than a fulfillment, but nonetheless I probably ought to make time and watch more. Like that 7th Anniversary concert that came out last week.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Project DIVA doesn’t really build on the “canon” of Miku, except perhaps in the sense of the songs and artists featured being “canonized” as top representatives of the brand. Kind of a “best of” sort of canonization in that Sega/Crypton pick the songs (and presumably who gets the royalties if any). Certainly there’s no “GGRKS” in there or some of the other NND meme songs.
Certainly there’s no “plot” as far as story scenes ala Idolmaster (dunno about what’s in Shiny Festa though).
December 10th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
What I’m kind of curious is if the button pressing correlates to calls. In Shiny Festa’s case, it’s kind of funny because on the screen you see either a music video or a “live” footage of the song you play, and the actions you do are on beat. On Normal/regular difficulty especially the beats are often what you’d do if you were just waving your glowsticks around.
Which is eerily parallelled to reality. It’s a reduction of a practice into…2D? I guess.
December 11th, 2012 at 12:18 am
As far as I can tell, not so much. If I imagined myself as a wota I wouldn’t call or waggle to the beats of most Project Diva songs.
If nothing else, if the prompts ARE set to calls (and they certainly are NOT on the highest difficulties, else the calls/stomps would down out the song) the game isn’t overt about it, I doubt it will be until we see some kind of Vita-based microphone prompt that forces you to scream “Miku-san Maji Tenshi”.
They should totally make that happen.
December 11th, 2012 at 7:31 am
I guess vocaloid songs tend to not have the raving crazy calls some of the other stuff have.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:38 am
I think this is besides the point, but I do know people who practice wotagei to Project DIVA songs, so it can happen.
December 17th, 2012 at 7:44 am
And there are crazy miku wotas, yes.