Alright, I know what you’re thinking: “No way am I going to play this, it looks like it’s for weebs!” And you’re only somewhere between 30% and 40% correct. It was originally a Japanese game with a cute, colourful art style. Behind that, though, is one of the most absurdly difficult rhythm games I’ve ever seen. It’s also one of the easiest if you pick easy difficulty, but come on… Where’s the fun in that?
Project SEKAI (Known globally as HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!) is a visual novel/gacha/rhythm game hybrid developed by Craft Egg, Colorful Palette and SEGA. It was released in Japan on September 30, 2020, and later released to English-speaking countries a year later on September 30, 2021. The main aim of the game is to destroy your fingers hit notes as they fall down the screen to the beat of the music.
Before I start talking about the best part of Project SEKAI, I have to quickly get a couple of parts of the game out of the way. Namely, the visual novel and gacha parts. To put it simply, they’re completely optional. For the visual novel part, while you are forced to read one chapter at the beginning of the game, you can skip it with the menu in the top right. With the gacha, although you do need a full team of cards to play the rhythm game, you’re given a 1-star card of every character as soon as you start the game, so you can just throw some of those into your team. I’m not saying you should completely ignore those parts of the game, in fact, I strongly encourage you to read the story if you find the game’s characters interesting, but this review is all about the rhythm game, so I won’t be going in-depth on anything else.
Without further ado, let’s get started on the rhythm game. Firstly, Project SEKAI has a few different types of notes that will appear during gameplay. There are plain hit notes that you simply tap, transparent hold notes that you tap and then hold and release at the end, flick notes with an arrow above them that you tap and then flick in the direction of the arrow, and thin trace notes that you just need to hold, with no need to tap or release. If a note is golden, it’s a critical note, which gives you more points than a regular note. Lots of notes can be combined like flick holds, which require you to flick at the end of a hold note instead of just releasing, or flick traces that need you to keep moving your finger to hit them. The amount of unique notes keeps the game engaging without having too many to keep track of.
When you hit a note, you’ll get an accuracy rating depending on how close the note was to the judgement line when you hit it: Perfect, Great, Good, Bad, and a Miss if you don’t hit the note. If you get a good or below, you’ll lose your Combo, which tracks the number of notes you’ve hit in a row, and if you get a bad or a miss, then you’ll lose 50 or 80 health points, respectively. Completing a song without your health reaching zero means you’ve cleared the song, and a yellow diamond will appear on the song in the slot corresponding to its difficulty, which we’ll talk about later. If you complete a song without losing your combo, you’ve gotten a full combo, which shows a pink diamond instead of a yellow one, and if you complete a song with only perfect hits, you’ve achieved an all-perfect, which replaces your diamond with a rainbow one. The different levels of achievement are a great way to keep you coming back to songs you’ve already cleared. If you find that your accuracy is low, consider going into your settings to increase your note speed and adjust your timing, and while you’re there, make sure to turn off the cut-in effect.
When selecting a song, you’ll have the option to choose between 6 difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, Master and Append. Excluding Append, each difficulty is harder than the last. Master difficulty, in particular, is only available for a song if you manage to clear that song on Expert difficulty while losing your combo seven or fewer times. Append difficulty is unique since it’s only available on certain songs, and it’s not always harder than Master, although it usually is. The most unique part, however, is the fact that you need to use more than two fingers to clear an Append chart. While almost all songs on Easy through Master difficulty are technically possible with only two fingers, Append will often require you to use between 4 and 6 fingers to complete a song. There are also number ratings for each chart, ranging from 5 to 37. There are 3 Master 37 charts, which are an exception to the rule I just mentioned and require more than two fingers to clear since they were added before Append existed. The vast range of difficulties allows you to enjoy whatever song you want, even if you can’t complete it on a high difficulty.
Along with regular play, you can also participate in Co-op Shows, where you and four other players play together on a voted-on song, pooling your scores together for big rewards. There are two types of co-op rooms that you can join: General rooms, which pair you up with random players, and Pro rooms, which are available for players with a total talent value of 150,000+ and pair you up with players close to your talent level. During certain events, Co-op Shows will become Cheerful Shows. During a Cheerful Show, you’ll be forced to pick a group, and then you and four other people from that group will face off against five people from your opposing group, with a song chosen completely at random.
Since we’re nearing the end of this article, here are some tips and tricks for you, as well as definitions for some words I used that you might not have understood.
- Chart: The sequence of notes that corresponds to a specific difficulty of a specific song.
- Talent: A value determined by the members of your team that affect your rewards, score, and rank. It can be increased by levelling up and upgrading cards in your team or swapping out your cards for higher star ones obtained by rolling the gacha.
- Tip! If you’re worrying about not getting high ranks despite scoring well, that’s normal. Project SEKAI’s scoring system is terrible, and without rolling the gacha for good cards, you won’t get anything higher than a C rank. Instead, try to focus on your accuracy, which is a much better measurement of your skill.
- Tip! While you might not notice any problems with playing using your thumbs, if you’re planning to keep playing, then switch to using your fingers as soon as possible. Higher level charts, while technically possible on thumbs, are only that- TECHNICALLY possible. The sooner you switch to fingers, the less of the game you’ll have to relearn.
Overall, Project SEKAI is a great rhythm game. Whether you’ve never played a rhythm game before or have played several in the past, Project SEKAI is great for people at all skill levels. If you have 6-10 GB free on your phone or tablet, then download Project SEKAI now! That’s not a suggestion. Download it. Now.