Image credit: Colorful Palette/SEGA
As a lifelong fan of survival horror and strategy games, if you’d have told me that I’d be obsessing over HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE, I would’ve asked you if you’d managed to slip into an alternate dimension. Lo and behold, though, this rhythm game has utterly enchanted me.
While some elements of the game are far better than others, COLORFUL STAGE has quickly become part of my daily gaming routine as both a gacha geek and rhythm game lover. Here’s Kyusai’s full review of HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE, completed on an iPad Pro.
Energetic, sparkly charts
HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE is a charming VSRG – a vertical scrolling rhythm game – that features a slew of popular vocaloids, like MEIKO, KAITO, Megurine Luka, and, of course, the titular Hatsune Miku.
The core gameplay involves hitting tiles to the beat, tapping, sliding, and swiping on the falling tiles as songs play alongside their music videos. Players are scored on their accuracy and how high they can stack combos, with performances being graded from C to S, and there’s a life mechanic, too.
If you miss too many notes or swipe in the wrong direction, you’ll lose Life – if you lose all of your Life in a song, you won’t be able to beat the song. However, you can still finish a song with no Life and get minimal rewards, along with a grade. It won’t be marked as complete for you, though.
There’s a huge variety of songs in the game, ranging from soft, melodic rock, to ludicrously fast-paced pop. Regardless of your music taste and preferences in singers, there’ll be a group of songs or specific artist set to suit you.
Combos are the name of the game in COLORFUL STAGE. The scoring may feel harsh at first – it did for me as a new player – as anything above a C is unlikely to be achieved if you don’t hit a Full Combo, or at least get close to this.
As you spend more time with the game and level up your favorite singers, enhancing their special abilities in the process, hitting higher combos will become more achievable. Some characters help restore life, others increase your accuracy percentage – having a varied team will help you thrive.
Speaking of teams, while COLORFUL STAGE may appear to be a single-player game at first, there’s a thriving multiplayer community tied to the game. You can play in groups of five via the co-op mode, and even unlock a ranked mode once you start nailing Expert difficulty songs.
I found the co-op mode to be mildly intimidating at first, as I didn’t want to mess up in front of the more experienced players, but it’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. Hitting combos and performing well means you can enhance your teammates’ experiences as well, and it’s satisfying to complete a tricky song with other people.
Content for all kinds of players
There’s a veritable mountain of content in HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!, with a full story mode and a life sim alongside the rhythm game content.
The story mode consists of a frankly ridiculous amount of interactive narrative episodes to watch, each centering around a specific vocaloid or group of characters. Watching episodes feels like watching a relaxing TV show; they’re not deeply interactive or intense in nature, and come with an auto-play option so you can kick back and enjoy them.
One frustration I have with the story mode in COLORFUL STAGE is that it’s the primary source of Music Tickets, which are the resources you’ll need to pick up new songs. I’m personally not too interested in the stories in-game; they’re not badly written and the visuals are lovely, but it’s not the sort of story I tend to get engrossed in.
I play the game for its rhythm game content primarily, and having to watch through hours of stories to get new songs is annoying – to be very honest, I put a story on auto play and leave it to roll through while I go and do something else.
If you like slice-of-life visual novels and anime, you’ll likely enjoy this aspect of the game much more than I do. I’d love to see better ways to earn Music Tickets in-game outside of this mode, though.
There’s also a life sim mode, where you control a tiny character in your own personal world, collecting resources and crafting items to decorate a cute home. Different singers and groups will be able to visit your character here, and you’ll also be able to take your character to see virtual shows, too.
It’s not Animal Crossing by any means, but it’s a cute addition to an already content-packed game, and I’ve found it’s a fun break from rhythm gameplay if I need to reset my brain between co-op sessions.
I play HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! on my iPad Pro, and I’ve found performance to be generally smooth throughout. I’ll get occasional frame drops during songs and there are infrequent server issues, but outside of these quirks, the game runs well and looks fantastic.
The visuals in COLORFUL STAGE are stunning, including everything from the different gacha skins to the variety of music videos that play in the background of song charts. It’s a cute and colorful game, and I always love getting to unlock new songs so I can see the music videos that go with them.
If you’re looking for a mobile or tablet-friendly rhythm game to pick up, I can’t recommend HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! highly enough. It’s a fun and engaging game with a ridiculous amount of content, and it’s encouraged me to spend more time with the rhythm game genre, despite it being outside of my usual wheelhouse.
FAQs
COLORFUL STAGE is both a single-player game and a multiplayer game. You can play through it entirely solo if desired, or take on co-op challenges with players around the world, depending on your gameplay preferences.
Yes, Project Sekai or COLORFUL STAGE is a gacha game. The gacha doesn’t necessarily make up a core part of the gameplay loop – you could play it without using the gacha – but it’s a frequently updated section of the game.
Yes, COLORFUL STAGE is a free-to-play game. While you can spend money on it, similar to Pokémon TCG Pocket, it’s not a necessity as you can access all the key content without it.
Yes, Project Sekai is HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! – the two titles mean the same thing. Project Sekai is more commonly used by fans, but both are used to describe the game.
