Project DIVA (1st)

Release Date JP: 2009-07-02 Songs Included 36 (32 unique) 14 additional in Edit Mode DLC Songs 27 (16 exclusive)

Screenshot of Project DIVA on the PSP

Screenshot of Dreamy Theater on the PS3

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA was the first entry in the Project DIVA series, even pre-dating the arcade game. It was released in 2009 with no plans for international release. Sega also released Dreamy Theater, which allowed players to play the songs on their PS3s.

Game Play

Project DIVA mostly follows the direction set throughout the rest of the series. However, it does not feature the multi-notes that the arcade would introduce nor the doubles that the later home game releases would introduce. In addition, the game pad does not serve as an allegory to the face buttons. This isn't generally a problem until you get to the 2 hardest songs in the game, at which point the songs become impossible to play with the standard thumb-pressing style used for game pads and handhelds.

Of particular note, there is no Extreme difficulty setting. Given the lack of use of the d-pad, this is probably for the best.

Accuracy rating (COOL, FINE, etc.) is displayed in the lower right of the screen instead of with the combo counter. This makes it hard to tell if your timing is off as your eyes have to wander away from the main play area to see. Sega would later shift the accuracy rating to appear alongside the combo counter.

Scoring

The original Project DIVA game set the tone for scoring during normal play. However, Chance Time in this entry ends up placing an undue importance of getting a perfect combo when it comes up. Because of the high bonuses that are awarded, some songs can not be passed unless you get a perfect Chance Time.

Achievement rating (STANDARD, GREAT, EXCELLENT) is based on what percentage your score is compared to the maximum score possible.

PV Style

If the PVs in Project Diva seem a bit "generic" that's because Sega was going for sets that could be re-used across multiple PVs. While the home games would not see much re-use of these sets, quite a few of the early arcade PVs would. Sega would quickly shift focus away from generic re-usable sets and focus more on dedicated sets for each PV for each song.

Project Diva also features a few PVs which are merely image slide shows. As the arcade would go on to feature full-motion video PVs, it's conceivable Sega wanted to do this for the PSP but could not due to both limitation of the PSP hardware and of hardware video acceleration at the time of the PSP's launch. Sega turned the limitation into an opportunity by featuring fan-made art into these slide show PVs.

Framerate

The original Project Diva for PSP is notorious for frame skipping. Sega was building their own engine from scratch for this series, and they wanted the graphics to be impressive for the system and its time. Unfotunately this means that actual game play can suffer as the framerate dips as low as 15fps at times.

Dreamy Theater

Sega released a "partner" game called Dreamy Theater for the PS3. The game required a save file from Project Diva on the PSP, which the game would check for (via USB connection) every time you started it up. High scores and module unlocks were carried over from the save file on the PSP into the PS3 game, but the reverse was not possible.