Hatsune Miku’s Crypt of the NecroDancer crossover is a perfect fit
Hatsune Miku's latest crossover is with the PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch versions of rhythm dungeon crawler Crypt of the NecroDancer, and it's a blast.
Watch: New Trailer For Space Channel 5 Hatsune Miku DLC, Releases July 27
A new trailer landed for the upcoming Hatsune Miku DLC, coming very soon to Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash.
The DLC pack, officially called the “Space 39 Miku Pack”, is a collaboration with the virtual pop star Hatsune Mike. It will take players “to a stage where you can dance with Ulala and Hatsune Miku, but also allow you to change the looks and outfit to the Hatsune Miku version of Ulala.”
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash was the first game in the franchise in 18 years, and we were excited that the return would be exclusive to PSVR. However, in his review Jamie found the end product quite disappointing. You can read the full review for a better breakdown, but here’s an excerpt:
Developer Grounding seems painfully aware of the risks of dancing around in VR (and the way your PSVR can slide around on your head). It’s an understandable concern, but one that casts a long shadow over Space Channel 5 VR … It’s a softer, less calculated version of the game without any of the original’s immediacy and, to boot, an alarming lack of things to do.
Space Channel 5 VR should have been a glorious return to form, but this cult hit series can’t keep up with the beat set by its competitors. The surprisingly brief campaign coasts on by without ever pushing your skills and, once it’s over, there’s very little else to do. Ulala and co are long overdue a return to the main stage, but this isn’t it.
The Hatsune Miku DLC pack will release next week on July 27.
Will you be buying the Hatsune Miku DLC for Space Channel 5? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post Watch: New Trailer For Space Channel 5 Hatsune Miku DLC, Releases July 27 appeared first on UploadVR.
Hatsune Miku Is Getting Her Very Own VR ‘Amusement Park’ This Summer
Hatsune Miku is a vocaloid software voicebank, or in other words an entirely digital vocal performing artist, with a massive fan following in Japan. This summer, she is getting her very own VR ‘Amusement Park’ dubbed Miku Land Gate that you can visit for free using VirtualCast.
Even if you’ve never seen or heard a performance, chances are if you’ve spent any length of time on the internet over the past decade then you’re probably aware of Hatsune Miku. The character is represented by a teenaged girl avatar with turquoise twintail hair. Her name was created by combining the Japanese words for “first,” “sound,” and “future.”
To reiterate: she is not an avatar controlled by someone singing into a microphone, she is actually entirely digital. As a result, her voice is actually created using Yamaha vocaloid synthesizing technology.
From the sounds of it Miku Land Gate will be like a digital music festival you can visit inside VR. In addition to performances you’ll be able to watch alongside others while wearing VR headsets, there will be areas to explore and even merchandise to purchase.
Unsurprisingly, Hatsune Miku has already appeared across a wide range of VR games and apps such as this music rhythm game on Steam and on PSVR that’s appropriately titled Hatsune Miku VR.
Miku Land Gate will run from August 8th – August 10th 2020 inside VirtualCast. It’s a free event and you can learn more by visiting the official website here.
h/t: VRFocus
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Miku Land Gate is a VR World Opening This Summer Dedicated to Hatsune Miku
Japanese videogame character Hatsune Miku has appeared in a couple of virtual reality (VR) titles over the past few years and this summer she’s going to return with her own world. Called Miku Land Gate, the virtual world will be a limited time event for Hatsune Miku fans.
Hosted on Virtual Cast, a live VR communication service which launched back in 2018, Miku Land Gate is essentially a Hatsune Miku themed amusement park designed Japan-based Takeru Shoji Architects; a firm which normally works on homes and shops.
Virtual Cast is downloadable for free on Steam supporting headsets including Oculus Rift and Valve Index. The PC version of Miku Land Gate will allow users to create their own avatar before heading inside the park. Then they can attend an opening/ending ceremony, interact with other visitors and purchase merchandise. These will be digital and physical products made exclusively for the event.
If you don’t have a PC VR headset then you can always join in via mobile. You’ll need Gugenka’s Holomodels smartphone app (available on iOS/Android) to participate plus the app will be selling a digital life-size Hatsune Miku figure.
As mentioned Miku Land Gate won’t be a permanent virtual attraction as it’ll only run for a couple of days from 8th – 10th August 2020.
Created by Crypton Future Media, Hatsune Miku has gained quite the following both in its native Japan and abroad thanks to the catchy music, anime style and interactive gameplay in titles like Hatsune Miku VR. For further VR updates on Hatsune Miku, keep reading VRFocus.
The VR Waifu Problem
There is a commonly cited ‘fact’ that the VHS format won the home videotape format wars because it allowed pornography to use the format, while Betamax would not. This is actually an apocryphal story, but nonetheless feeds into the idea that any new form of video storage and distribution will, inevitably, be used for porn. Inevitably, pornography has begun to appear in virtual reality (VR) and even augmented reality (AR). Along with that has come another trend, something I have dubbed ‘Waifu Simulators’.
The most famous of these is Summer Lesson, the PlayStation VR title which had the premise of the player giving lessons to a young woman over the Summer break. As the VRFocus preview noted, this often led to the player being put in awkward psuedo-romantic situations, with the sense of immersion giving the feeling that you are invading the personal space of someone you barely know – this is especially cringe-worthy if the player is much older that the depicted age of the character in Summer Lesson.
There was, predictably, a lot of people commenting that the reviewer, our own Kevin Joyce, didn’t ‘Get’ the videogame and the culture that created it. While they might have a point regarding different cultural viewpoints, there are a number of ways this type of videogame can be described as awkward at best and downright creepy at worst.
There are quite a number of these ‘waifu simulators’ around. Many of which take popular characters from videogames like Shining Resonance, or vocaloid character Hatsune Miku and let players view them in various poses, in different outfits or go on stilted ‘virtual dates’.
Firstly, its notable that the characters featured in these types of videogames are almost always very young, often teenagers. Considering the average age of a PlayStation 4 users is 35, this does raise some red flags.
Secondly, these type of videogames always seem to make an uncomfortable number of assumptions about the player – namely, assuming that they are A) Male B) Straight.
This was particularly odd in Megadimension Neptunia VIIR. Like a lot of RPGs, the Neptunia series draws a lot of female fans, and there are also a lot of LGBT fans of the series. Why then, does its first VR title revert to this straight male default, when its audience is considerably more diverse?
The assumption seems to be that players view these female characters as surrogate girlfriends at best, and objects at worst. There doesn’t seem to be an option to just make friends with these characters, such as the systems in titles such as Persona. Instead you sit through excruciating ‘flirty’ dialogue or accusations you are perving on the characters.
Dating simulators have their place, and when used cleverly the systems in them can even be fun, or even frightening (see Doki Doki Literature Club for an example… or don’t if you are of delicate constitution) but the use of female characters as ‘bait’ to draw in a specific audience feels deeply uncomfortable and regressive.
VR videogames can do so much better than this when it comes to creating relationships with fictional characters. We don’t need them to pose in skimpy outfits to feel close to them.
Hatsune Miku VR auf Steam für Vive und Rift erhältlich [Update]
[Update] Nach PSVR-Spielern kommen nun auch Besitzer einer Oculus Rift und HTC Vive in den Genuss des virtuellen Pop-Idols Hatsune Miku in der virtuellen Realität. Bei dem simpel gehaltenen Rhythmusspiel tanzt und singt der japanische Superstar, allerdings darf man nicht zu viele Inhalte erwarten. So gibt es beispielsweise derzeit lediglich acht Songs. Später sollen neue dazukommen. Bis zum 15. März 2018 lässt sich Hatsune Miku VR mit 20 Prozent Rabatt auf Steam für knapp über 18 Euro erwerben, danach kostet das VR-Spiel 23 Euro.
Originalmeldung vom 27. Februar 2017:
Knapp über eine Woche müssen sich Besitzer eines PC-VR-Headsets noch gedulden, bis sie den virtuellen Superstar Hatsune Miku in einem VR-Titel erleben dürfen. Das japanische Idol hat seinen Auftritt in einem Musik-Rhythmusspiel. Spieler müssen zu ihrer Darbietung mit ihrem Controller Musik-Symbole erhaschen, um eine möglichst hohe Punktzahl abzustauben. Mit der frisch freigeschalteten Seite auf Steam werden nun weitere Details zum Spiel, das am 9. März erscheinen soll, bekannt.
Hatsune Miku VR: Steam-Seite freigeschaltet
PSVR-Spieler sind beim Stöbern nach VR-Titeln im Sony Store schon sicherlich über Hatsune Miku gestolpert. Ab dem 9. März 2018 dürfen auch Besitzer einer Oculus Rift oder HTC Vive dem virtuellen Popstar in der virtuellen Realität auf der virtuellen Bühne erleben. Wie üblich bleibt es naheliegend beim Musikgenre – während Miku singt und tanzt, erscheinen Noten, die der Spieler treffen muss. Allerdings erscheinen auch andere Symbole, um den Schwierigkeitsgrad zu erhöhen. Wem das alles zu hektisch ist, der kann sich auch zurücklehnen und einfach nur den Auftritt von Miku genießen.
Auf der frischen Steam-Seite listen Entwickler Crypton Future Media und Publisher Degica einige Details zu fünf Songs auf. Insgesamt wird es acht Lieder geben, wobei später neue hinzukommen sollen. Etwas schmal fällt auch die Bandbreite an Schwierigkeitsgraden aus, gerade mal zwei werden zur Auswahl stehen. Der Preis für den VR-Titel ist noch nicht bekannt, spätestens am 9. März 2018 sollte man ihn aber erfahren. Dann soll das Spiel offiziell auf Steam für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive erscheinen.
Wer Lust hat, Konzerttickets in Mexiko oder Amerika zu gewinnen und eine Hatsune-Miku-Figur abzustauben, kann noch 20 Tage lang an einem Miku-VR-Giveaway teilnehmen.
Der Beitrag Hatsune Miku VR auf Steam für Vive und Rift erhältlich [Update] zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!
‘Hatsune Miku VR’ Rhythm Game for Rift & Vive to Launch March 9th, Teaser Trailer Here
Hatsune Miku, the impossibly saccharine anime pop vocaloid, is coming to SteamVR headsets in a new rhythm game from creators Degica Games and Crypton Future Media.
Update (02/27/18): The Steam link is live, and launch date is confirmed for March 9th, 2018. Check out Hatsune Miku VR here on Steam.
Original article (01/19/18): First reported by Gematsu, Hatsune Miku VR will be landing on SteamVR headsets in spring 2018. Developers Degica Games say in the promo announcing the game that it will feature songs by “various famous Hatsune Miku artists.”
Degica spells out the list of upcoming features:
- Rhythm action game using VR controllers
- Enjoy Miku’s original dance while playing the game
- Eight songs with two difficulties for intense dance action (more songs to be added later)
- Support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
- Game available in English, Japanese, and Chinese
This isn’t the Japanese CG starlet’s first foray into VR. Crypton Future Media, the inventors/rights holders, have licensed Hatsune Miku’s likeness to a number of VR ‘concerts’ across including PSVR (Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live), and both Gear VR and Daydream via the VR Cruise app (Gear VR version, Daydream version).
Since there’s only eight songs to choose from, we don’t expect this to be high on the list of ‘must plays’, but if you’re a Hatsune Miku superfan, you might want to keep this link handy to check for when the game finally arrives on Steam. You can also sign up for future updates through Degica’s website.
The post ‘Hatsune Miku VR’ Rhythm Game for Rift & Vive to Launch March 9th, Teaser Trailer Here appeared first on Road to VR.
A Cafe Offering AR Dates With Vocaloid Idol
Japan is one of the major places where new technology is eagerly embraced by the populace. From computers to videogame consoles to cell phones, Japan has long been at the forefront of developing technology, s its no surprise to find they have begun rolling out virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences to the wider populace. In this particular case, it allows customers of the Blue Leaf Cafe to go on a virtual date.
The Blue Leaf cafe is offering customers the chance to spend time with a virtual friend – specifically, to go on a date with world-famous virtual music idol, Hatsune Miku. Hatsune Miku is the digital persona of a singing synthesiser application commonly known as Vocaloid. The character created for the vocaloid software has become famous worldwide, releasing albums and performing on stage as a virtual projection and even getting her own rhythm game videogame series. As such, she has become the most successful virtual idol in the world.
The Hatsune Miku ‘virtual date’ promo will be available at the Blue Leaf Cafe in Sendai City from 8th and 9th of July, and again from the 15th-17th July, 2017. The cafe will have custom smartphones available that come pre-installed with an augmented reality (AR) app titled ‘Miku Stroll Cafe Edition’ which allows customers to see and interact with Miku.
Although fans can only spend time with Miku for five days, the Blue Leaf cafe will be offering Miku-themed products for sale from 8th-31st July, 2017. Some of the products are in celebration of the character’s 10th Anniversary, which will be in August of 2017.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on developments in VR and AR technology.