Miracle Girls Festival scratches a Project Diva itch

When people think of Sega music games starring singing anime characters, their minds may jump to the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series. But, it is not the only option. They could also be flocking to Miracle Girls Festival, a PlayStation Vita game which is incredibly similar. Which only makes sense. It runs on the same engine and uses the exact same inputs. The only difference is, it features characters and songs from a number of different anime series instead. Those who have run through all of the Project Diva games released so far could very easily turn to this title for a musical fix.

To start, Miracle Girls Festival is ridiculously import friendly. The main menu actually is entirely in English, easily sending you to the Tour Mode, One-Man Live, Back Stage and Collection sections. The first two are where you go to actually play through the songs. Back Stage lets you get costumes, songs and figure cases, as well as get figures, see play records and go over what you have unlocked. (Some of the text here is in English as well, and that which is not is often accompanied by images so you can see what you are getting.) Collection lets you see figures earned. Even though lyrics and finer details are in Japanese, it is a very simplistic game.

The mechanics are identical to the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series. Icons shaped like the action buttons and directional buttons appear on screen. You either press one or both corresponding to the correct icons when icons and indicators line up in time with various tracks from lots of established series. None of the songs are extraordinarily long, and everything plays similarly to not only Project Diva, but many rhythm games in general. If you know the formula, you will quickly be keeping time.

Even some of the characters could be quite familiar. 47 young women from Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Engaged to the Unidentified, Go! Go! 575, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kin-iro Mosaic, No-Rin, Nyaruko: Crawling with Love, Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono, Vividred Operation, Wake Up, Girls! and YuruYuri. While not all of these series have a huge following outside of Japan, many have them have worldwide notoriety. Their respective anime series could be recognizable, making it easy for people to enjoy the 22 songs in Miracle Girls Festival.

There is one other element of Miracle Girls Festival that makes this a good import option for people who have loved the Project Diva series. When you buy the base game, you are getting everything that matters. While there was DLC released in Japan, all of the extra items were costumes. It is refreshing, considering the Hatsune Miku series can have additional songs that need an extra investment to unlock.

Miracle Girls Festival is an import all PlayStation Vita owners should be aware of when looking to build up their libraries. It has plenty of English in it, the characters and songs might be recognizable and it plays identically to Sega’s Hatsune Miku: Project Diva line. Best of all, you are not missing out on any important exclusive content, as all the add-ons are cosmetic. This is a concert you should consider attending!