Project DIVA (1st)
From Project DIVA Addict
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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.