It has been quite a long while since the release of the preview for the Opening video of the upcoming game, Hatsune Miku – Project DIVA 2 - by SEGA.. Now just a few weeks before the release of the game itself, someone got a chance to grab a video of the full version of the video, with the song being played titled “こっち向いて Baby”..

Now, get ready to be mesmerized by the wonderful and awesome video itself.. Enjoy~

Project DIVA 2 Opening Full Version:

When I watched the whole video, I was totally awed by its wonderful animation, especially the band-singing sequence.. This is also a first time SEGA decided to make a whole Opening PV with a full song.. Unlike the previous “Project DIVA” which plays a shorter version of the song, “The Secret Garden”, the 2nd one plays at a more energetic note and so-called allow players to listen to the cool song composed by “Ryo” himself.. XD

I kinda love it when I saw they put Tako Luka in the video as well apart from the tiny chibi Mikus.. Another thing to note is that Miku, Luka and the Kagamine twins are more detailed in the video itself.. I hope to see something like that if it is possible to play “Project DIVA 2″ on “Dreamy Theater”.. =3

After hearing this, I’m so excited to play the gmae once I received it on its release date which is on the July 29th..

Thanks to “inferno0748″ for the info.. XD

Sega has again released new gameplay videos from the game 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd」.. This time, the videos showcased 3 well-known songs back in the days; “Innocence” by Kazu-P, “Promise” by Samfree & “VOiCE” by Lovely-P. More after the jump~

After the release of the gameplay videos of “PoPiPo” and “Sound”, I had a 50/50 view that they would release more gameplay videos from the game itself.. Although “PoPiPo” do caught my attention with its hyperness, I still don’t feel the vibe for the “Sound” PV in the game, but thats just my own opinion.. XD

This time however, all 3 videos really catch my attention for their own respective reasons, not just for their own unique outfits chosen perfectly for the PVs. So let us begin with the song “Innocence”..

“Innocence” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku:

What I like about this PV is the stage used for the song; it really suits the theme the original animation showed.. However, instead of using the same colour theme, it is more of a white colour scheme, giving a livelier atmosphere..

Moving on to “Promise”~

“Promise” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku & Kagamine Rin:

For this PV, I really like the dance sequence of Rin and Miku.. Although it resembles abit like “Magnet”, it’s really dynamic.. I and Fuzzy still remember the dance sequence from the Thanks Giving concert but it looks way better with the new costumes.. XD

Last but not least, we have “VOiCE”..

“VOiCE” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku:

I particularly love this PV due to the fact that they recreated the room in the mansion, taking every detail that you’ve seen in the original 3DPV itself.. From the furniture to the painting, it is quite accurate.. For this scene, its part of the flashback for Miku who is now wandering around a post-apocalyptic landscape..

Here’s the original PV, in case you’re curious..

I can’t wait for the game to be finally released on the July 29th.. Just one more month to go~ Maybe SEGA will upload more gameplay videos..

Ame no Kisetsu was an event held by Piapro’s KarenT Network based on the rainy season, hence the name.

KarenT, by the way, is a distribution network set up by Piapro, and is also the label budding music artists can publish their works under on stores like the iTunes store. I’ll cover this in greater detail in a future post (if I can, that is).

Anyway, a total of 12 rain-themed tracks were compiled in the event, and previews for each one can be heard in the promotional video above.

I gave each track a listen, and I gotta say, TawashiP’s Hecto-Pastel impresses me the most, with U-ske’s Rain*Sweet*Umbrella getting a close second. It’s kind of refreshing to listen to tracks that aren’t in the VOCALOID Weekly Rankings, or accompanied by an awesome PV.

The tracks are on sale on several sites, though if you can’t read moonrunes (that probably means most of you), you can get the tracks from HearJapan:

• Rain*Sweet*Umbrella by U-ske
• Ame, Irodoreba by wato
• my rain by Wonderful★opportunity!
• Hecto-Pastel by TawashiP
• Broken rain by ShinjouP
• Ameoto to Itsuwari no Waltz by KidP
• skip;drop by BIRUGE
• Rainy Day by ValP
• Saka no Machi to Ame by Inashiki Joshu
• Ameoto Kishikan by X-Plorez
• in the rain by TeraKomuroP
• Amedoki Lover by Buriru

Each track in each album costs 150 JPY, including the off-vocal/instrumental tracks, though you have the option of purchasing each track separately. Do keep that in mind, especially if you’re short on cash.

HearJapan took the liberty of forwarding us their press release too. The page they linked to seems a little corrupted though, so here’s what they intended to show you:

As June brings rain to Japan, HearJapan brings rain-themed Vocaloid tracks to your ears!

The rainy season in Japan (known as “tsuyu” or “plum rain”) begins roughly around June and runs through July. It is a time when things slow down and some people might spend a little more time inside with someone special.

HearJapan is enjoying this time with a shower of new Vocaloid material. 12 new releases have just landed from a wide range of artists working in many different genres. For instance, there’s the traditional sounding folk of “Saka no Machi to Ame” by InashikiJoshu that features a duet with Hatsune Miku and MEIKO on vocals. Buriru’s “Amedoki Lover” celebrates having to be stuck inside together with a jazzy number. If it’s a dance party you’re looking for, the cue up the euro-trance track “Ameoto Kishikan” by X-Plorex. Or if it’s something more literal your want, then the gently shimmering “Broken Rain” by Shinjou-P is sure to evoke pleasant visions of the gently falling rain.

So take a moment to admire the rain, or simply enjoy the comforts inside, with your favorite Vocaloid tunes from HearJapan as the soundtrack.

Yokohama, Japan – June 8th, 2010

Sources:

• NotCliche (Yup, it’s a first for us too, guys)
• HearJapan (Press Release)

P.S. I personally feel the rainy seasons here suck, what with the flash floods and all.

At last, the designers behind Project DIVA have finally rendered the rest of the contest winners’ entries.

Let’s see how they look in 3D.

Angel Miku by Tomio

This one turned out as epic as I expected. Check out all those wings! I can’t wait to see this one dancing to a trance song.

Nurse+Spacy (Miku) by 奈良立鹿

Just to clarify, this one’s Miku. She barely resembles her, though.

Young Adult Dancer (Len) by only1

And then there’s this. I’m not sure how you can turn something so cool into something so…trap-worthy, but there you have it. Well done, SEGA. I suppose the Len fangirls will be all over this one. *runs*

Left to right:
Shirt and Tie and Glasses (KAITO) by あさひ
Geisha Style (Luka) by OHSE
Untitled (Rin) by eb
Idol Style (Miku) by 帯之

So now that there aren’t any more fan-made costumes to look forward to, it’s time to eagerly wait for the rest of the official costumes for the Project DIVA sequel. They’re probably not going to showcase them prior to the game’s release though, so you’ll probably see them only when you get the game yourself. Or if someone else does and uploads a few in-game videos or something.

Left to right:
White (Miku) by しんれい
Lady Luka by 箱（はこ）
70′s Moga (Modern Girl) Retro Pop (Meiko) by 志乃
Winter Ballad (Miku) by 壱飼ハノ

I just hope they don’t pull a fast one and make most of the rest of the costumes consist of the same one, only recoloured (read: P-Style). I mean, they will do it anyway (or at least just include the original P-Style), but I just hope they don’t overdo it. Seriously.

Here’s hoping. >w<

UPDATE: Apparently the developers thought it fit to re-render a couple of the costumes (namely the untitled Rin costume, and Luka’s Geisha Style) for Miku:

Sources:

• NotCliche
• Vocaloidism
• Piapro Developer Blog [1], [2]

I’ve been to both of these events in the last few weekends, and I felt I should write about them before covering Street Fest which occurred only last weekend.

They’re not getting dedicated posts though since they were actually pretty meh, more on that later.

Licence2Play

Licence2Play was held from the 28th to the 30th of May. It’s a local gaming convention held annually, and this year it was held at the Expo.

I’ll be completely honest though. I went to the Expo for one reason (and one reason only):

No %^$#, GameAxis.

The StarCraft 2 beta is actually pretty cool; you can pull a lot more “stunts” with all the new abilities and units Blizzard put into the game. I mean, Supply Depots that double as gates? Whoa.

…of course being terrible at RTSes, I got trashed in both my online matches. ^_^;

The other thing I tried was Samsung’s 3D LED TV technology. On paper, adding a 3rd dimension you can actually see (i.e. depth) to your 2-dimensional games sounds good and all, but I found it’s rather disorienting me after a while. Looking straight down into the ground (in-game) somehow also causes it to look unnaturally uneven.

Moving on, the rest of the booths were either:

• Online gaming
• Technology (including unrelated stuff like printers, etc), taking up about half the entire hall
• Competition areas

There’s really nothing else noteworthy; I didn’t stick around long enough to watch any of the, except for NLB which somehow managed to earn itself a booth there. You could actually borrow books from the booth (which is kinda digressing from the point of a gaming convention).

I had hoped the event would have at least wow-ed me, but it actually felt more boring than last year. Now that I think about it, there wasn’t much of a crowd at this year’s event too.

STARFEST

STARFEST is an anime/toy fair organized by the Singapore Cosplay Club, and it was held between the 31st of May to the 6th of June. Despite partly being an anime fair, the fair held a cosplay event only on the 5th of June. In fact, all the “good stuff” (maid cafe photoshoot, doujinshi booths) all coincided on that day, so (naturally) I went to take a look on that day.

Before I continue, I must confess that the quality of the photos absolutely suck, thanks to the fabulous combination my shaky hands and an iPhone camera. I won’t be held responsible, though, if your eyes bleed from the blurriness and/or pixelation.

The “toy” part involved several exhibitors putting up their items on sale. There were Alice88th, selling their jointed dolls, and Black Tactical, showcasing their replica weapon series.

Custom Workz was also there, selling their load of Masked Rider merchandise, and showing scenes from the net spinoffs of the All Riders vs. Great Shocker movie. I really should get around to watching that.

There was a small booth showcasing some remote-controlled model itasha. Fortunately (for me), they weren’t being driven around, so I could take this clear shot of the Miku-themed ones. Why no Rin love? ( *A*)

Anyway, yes, there was a maid cafe photoshoot booth. It was just a promotion for a maid cafe, officially named “Cawaii Koohii Maid Cafe”, that will open in September this year, on the fifth floor of Funan. Yeah, very “Akihabara”, I know. >_>

And yes, I know it’s supposed to be spelt “Kawaii Koohii”, unless there’s some deep meaning behind the ‘C’ that I haven’t quite grasped.

The cosplay event was actually a series of performances held by the semi-finalists of the World Cosplay Summit. While their outfits were accurate (as far as I could tell), their performances felt really lacking and a little rushed. It wasn’t until much later when I found out that they weren’t doing their best that day; they did way better during the actual competition in Korea.

Also, there was apparently no space for a backstage area, so the organisers had little choice but to have the performing cosplayers set themselves up out in front of the stage. This also meant photographers had to squeeze into a small section in front of the stage to snap photos. Someone obviously didn’t think this one through.

That’s not to say the performers were the only ones cosplaying though; there were a lot more cosplayers roaming around that day. Once again, apologies for the crappy quality.

All in all, cosplay aside, this event was okay, but felt a little…lacking. Hearing that the performers weren’t exactly doing their best was also a major turnoff. The toy booths didn’t really appeal to me either. The cosplayers didn’t have much room to work with in the mall; it was impossible to take a clear photo without any interference whatsoever (i.e. people in the background).

While I did mention there were supposed to be doujinshi booths that day, I failed to see any of them. Did anyone else who attended see them and their merchandise? Just curious.

You can also check out additional coverage at The Banzai! Effect.

Now let’s take a look at the second Project DIVA DLC.

Motto Okawari, Rin, Len, Luka will contain a total of 18 song sequences for Rin, Len and Luka (hence the name).

The official song listing is as follows:

• 「Nayuta no Kanata Made」 – Tsurishi-P (Len)
• 「Sandscrapper – The Desert Line Express-」 -　Mikusagi-P (Len)
• 「RING×RING×RING」 – OSTER project (Rin)
• 「Li-li-li-li-I like you, I love you」 – Jevanni-P/Mr.DDR (Rin)
• 「MobiRe SenS@tion (C.A.LLME-EDIT)」 – sasakure.UK (Rin)
• 「Bucchigiri-ni-shiteageru♪」 – ika_mo/Bucchigiri-P (Rin)
• 「Transmit」 – Dios/Signal-P (Rin)
• 「Jiko Ken-o」 – Ginsaku (Rin)
• 「Why Don’t You Call Me Yet?」 – Live-P (Rin)
• 「RIP=RELEASE」 – minato(Ryuusei-P) (Luka)
• 「Palette」 – Yuyoyuppe, meola (Luka)
• 「The Wanderlast (A.R.MAGE-EDIT)」 – sasakure.UK (Luka)
• 「Meguri-hime Buyoukyoku」 – No.D (Luka)
• 「filozofio」 – Pandolist-P (Luka)
• 「Luka Luka★Night Fever」 – samfree (Luka)
• 「Akahitoha」 -　WhiteFlame (Luka)
• 「No Logic」 -　Jimmy-Thumb-P (Luka)
• 「Toeto」 – Travolta (Luka)

It seems like Len’s getting the short end of the stick here, what with Luka and Rin dominating his couple of songs with their 9 and 7 respectively. XD

Like its predecessor, the music pack comes with a couple of custom themes (for Rin/Len and Luka) and high-quality rendered videos of all the included sequences. It’s also compatible with the PS3 Dreamy Theater add-on (mostly due to the way it works, but I’m starting to sound like a broken record here).

And finally, the Toeto mini-game is included. Unlike the Hello, Planet mini-game, this one doesn’t appear to have a linear story; instead you can dress, play, and talk to Luka Toeto (think Tamagotchi). I find it hilarious that they included a Project DIVA-like rhythm game in there, and that the rest of the VOCALOIDs make cameos in their default outfits.

The game’s slated for release for digital download on the 1st of July this year, and will cost you 3,000 JPY (1,000 more than the previous one).

Sources:

• moetron
• Images from GAME Watch

Also, credit goes to inferno0748 for the heads up. Thankies! ^_^

As you all know, Sega’s PSP rhythm game DLC data for your PS3, titled 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- “Dreamy Theater“」 will make your gaming experience more interesting. You’ll be able to play as your favorite virtual singing idols in full HD, from Hatsune Miku to Megurine Luka~ All you need is your PSP and the 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA-」 game, connected to the Playstation 3 system.

Although there isnt any news if this will also be compatible with the upcoming 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd」 PSP game which is coming out in July, I doubt Sega will forget about doing the same for the 2nd game.. XD 「Dreamy Theater」 will be available for purchase on June 24th at the Japanese Playstation Store; priced at 3,000 Yen or at about SGD$45.

A promotional video was just released quite recently by Sega and its available to view below. Enjoy~

Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- “Dreamy Theater” PV:

UPDATE: Longer version here:

By the way, it’s out right now.

Yup, SEGA released another promotional video for the game. It’s the longest and most extensive so far, so check it out.

The first game is definitely paling in comparison now. Two-handed controls, duets, duets with costumes, the improved “DIVA Room”, you name it, they have it. There’s even a short demonstration on the in-game editor features too; if you wanted to make Miku wave her leeks in a fire, you can now! >_>

Also, not only is there a matching set and costume for kz’s yellow, but apparently there’s a miniaturized city set for 40mP’s 巨大少女 as well? Holy damn, SEGA’s definitely not going easy on this one.

Also, to refresh your memory (and mine), the video confirms over 100 costumes and over 50 songs. Dunno whether they’ll include all the old ones in the first game, though.

Also, the keen-eyed will notice this new costume in the new PV. It’s actually part of the second batch of costumes from the SEGA x Piapro contest.

This one just screams the Nostalogic PV. I know it’s not the same costume, but it sure does remind me of the one Yumiko wore.

This costume warrants my one and only reaction: ( *A*)

And here are the rest of them. There are still 10 more un-converted contest winner submissions, so stay tuned, since we’ll post them as the later batches are released.

…not to mention that we’re only about halfway from 100 costumes, even with the costumes in the first game added in.

If you’ve yet to pre-order the game, get it now! You don’t even have to get the first game, just get this more superior one! ( *A*)/

Also, protip: if you ever need a load of 1280×720 VOCALOID wallpapers, check out the accepted “Now Loading” screens on Piapro.

Sources:

• The Banzai Effect!
• moetron
• Piapro Developer Blog

I realize that so far we’ve never dedicated a post to Dreamy Theater; so far we’ve peppered what we’ve heard here and there in our other Project DIVA posts.

Better late than never I suppose.

Project DIVA Dreamy Theater is an add-on for the Project DIVA PSP game, though it’s strictly for the PS3 platform. New and confused? Read on, otherwise, just skip to the end for the newer info.

Project DIVA Dreamy Theater is like a cross between a port and an expansion pack. You download and install the game on your PS3, hook up your PSP and start playing your favourite sequences in full HD. Dreamy Theater takes advantage of the PS3′s hardware, so be prepared for some eye candy (and none of the lag the PSP version has been said to give, too).

The game supports all the songs and modules(costumes) from the first game, and you can also import any custom sequences you’ve created on the PSP. This also means that the Miku Uta, Okawari and Motto Okawari Rin/Len/Luka(still unreleased) music packs are also supported, since they’re imported into the PSP game the same way.

The game also comes with a “My Best” playlist mode, which lets you set up a playlist of your favourite sequences, sit back and watch them play in order.

And now the newest bit of info: the add-on’s slated for release on the 24th of July, and will be priced at 3,000 JPY (approximately 46 SGD). You didn’t think this was a freebie, did you?

Also, there’s been some worry going around about whether the USB cable connecting the PSP to the PS3′s too short to act as a controller cable, so let me bring up a video from an old post.

Unless I’m really that short-sighted, I’d say that lady’s playing the game using a regular PS3 controller. There you go. Now stop worrying over that, and start worrying instead about whether you’re man enough to spend all that moolah to get this game up and running in your household. =3

Additionally, support for the 2nd PSP game hasn’t been announced yet, so we probably won’t be able to see duet sequences on the PS3 anytime soon.

Sources:

• The Banzai Effect!
• andriasang.com
• moetron
• Official site

Just a few days after SEGA released the opening movie preview of the one of their anticipated game, 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd」, they released another new video.. This video showcases some of the songs that will be available for play in the new game.. Not only that, you can play the songs with the characters in their respective unique outfits..

Project DIVA 2 – New Songs + Costumes:

There are a total of 5 songs showcase in the video and I have to say they are quite interesting to try when the game is out.. To those who don’t know the songs, they are~

*Video song list (By order in video):

* 「Colorful x Melody」 – Team MOER ~ (Illustration by nezuki)
* 「Roshin Yuukai / meltdown」 – iroha(sasaki)/kuma(alfred) ~ (Illustration by nagimiso.SYS)
* 「Just Be Friends」 – Dixie Flatline ~ (Illustration by Yunomi)
* 「Yellow」 – kz (livetune) ~ (Illustration by redjuice)
* 「Kocchi Muite Baby」 – ryo (supercell) ~ (Illustration by KEI)

Preorders for the game are still open, so do order before they are out of stock.. Project DIVA 2 will be in stores on July 29th.

Source: Moetron