Megpoid the Music♯

I was actually playing Project Mirai on the 3DS when I thought to myself, "You know what? I'm kinda tired of Miku. I need a change of pace." So I went into the closet of shame™ and dug out my copy of Megpoid the Music# for some GUMI goodness or rather that was the hope. Unfortunately, the reviews are actually accurate this time around and what I instead discovered was a disappointing bag of sour patch kids. (Gumi is the Japanese word for gummi candy and sour referring to the game's quality, I don't dislike sour patch kids... UGH, do I have to explain everything?!)

This is the first game where I didn't even bother to put a tag for the publisher or developer. This seems to be the only game made by ParaPhray and I can't find any other information about them. I guess they quit while they were ahead? Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

First of all the UI looks so damn cheap. I can't really explain it, you just have to see it for yourself. And for some bizarre reason, when you start a song, there's this disgusting sound I just simply can't describe and it's different every time. I don't know if they were trying to emulate a record scratch or if it's just a bug because who wants diarrhea sounds in their game on purpose?

What the FUCK is that sound in the beginning????
Never mind the graphics though, who cares as long as the music and gameplay is good. I could totally excuse the subpar graphics as Megpoid is actually a MUCH better rhythm game than Diva "oh wow, W double press, be still my heart!" games. It requires much more coordination and the ability to press two different buttons simultaneously (GASP!). A far cry from DJMax git gud but definitely more interesting than the Miku series.

The song list is great too as GUMI has a lot of great classics and it's a shame she doesn't quite get the same
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Oh, I'm sorry, did you expect me to finish that sentence? Yeah, well I also expected full GUMI goodness and not this TRUNCATED UNDER 2 MINUTES BS in a rhythm game. The part I enjoyed most about this game was after I turned it off. I was able to look up the song list online and had a good time listening to the FULL versions on Youtube, revisiting the classics I heard before or discovering ones I missed. I even discovered there's an updated 2014 version of hentai bassists playing 十面相. (Obligatory Jhipster comment: not the hentai you're thinking of, but the actual correct usage of the word.)


Ah, brings back memories of good ol' Youtube before it went to shit

Score: 2 yeah, it's barely worth playing at least for the trip down memory lane out of 5

I was able to beat this game in under 3 hours and that was without rushing or anything. After all, EVERY fucking song is truncated. However, after you clear all the songs, you unlock the hardest difficulty level and it's actually really challenging and I'm still working through some of the most difficult songs.

I mean, it's no DJMax but Expert does require some practice
It really is a stupid, wasted opportunity. What could have been a good game with some polish issues was instead ruined by the fact that as soon as you get into a song, it's fucking over. It's a shame this ended up being the first and last GUMI game. Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing IA/VT Colorful but overall I feel like Miku and her crew have been dominating the Vocaloid scene lately and we lost some of the richness of competition.

While this game has far better songs than the first diva game on the PSP released in 2009, it falls short in every other category and given the fact that it released on March of 2013, 7 months AFTER Diva f on the Vita makes this game almost pathetic. I almost did a double-take when I noticed the release date.

What's laughable is there's a menu for DLC that does nothing. Aww, maybe they were hoping to sell the rest of the songs afterwards and it fell through? They should've thrown in some loot boxes with each individual note to get that CA$H MONEY$$$.


Eat me, ParaPhray. You suck and don't deserve GUMI.
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely