Hatsune Miku – The Planet Of Wonder And Fragments Of Wishes (PC)

Geoffrey Wright | May 2, 2024 | Review | No Comments

Going a little under the radar and finally releasing to steam last week on April 22nd, Hatsune Miku & Co find themselves in a new 16-Bit styled adventure that takes the characters out from the rhythm game into something different. Does this change of pace work out for the vocaloids? Lets find out…

Hatsune Miku and the rest of the vocaloid crew are on their way home from a prize-winning cosmic cruise when they hit a snag, or, I should say, something hits them, as a collision with a shooting star causes the spaceship to crash. Landing on an unknown world, it’s up to Miku & friends to help the local inhabitants in the hope their ship can be repaired and they can get back home safely.

The story is at least a fun tale of the vocaloids side-adventure. Most time spent with the game will be in the activities/job requests, which includes 9 mini games alongside the mobile games Hatsune Miku Amiguru Jump and Hatsune Miku Amiguru Train. Unfortunately the game will only really last a few hours, depending on how much you want to collect coins to buy everything, but you should at least be done with the game before repetition kicks in too much.

To go with the cute and carefree story is a visual style to complement. For the most part, it’ll look like it’s been pulled straight from the SNES, with chunky sprites and a colourful palette. The town you’ll be exploring has some nice details to it, and there’s some animated aspects that give it a busier look than just having static scenes. These visuals carry over to the mini-games too. Each has a somewhat different 2D style, and there’s some 3D here and there, but they are all bright and colourful still.

Audio is suitably retro with regards to beeps & boops instead of voice acting for the story sections, there’s also an exclusive Miku track for the title song, as well as some additional tunes to unlock during the game. There’s probably not much reason to talk performance given the low specification the game has (2Ghz CPU/4GB ram/DX11 GPU) and its 2D leanings. A 4K playthrough should be easy enough even for a Ryzen APU, even the integrated Intel HD at work could manage full HD.

Playing out like a classic 16-Bit RPG/Adventure game, for the most part you’ll be exploring the local town and looking for characters in need of help. When you meet up with one of the various character, the game will switch out to a mini-game of sorts, with several different ones available. From parachuting to safety or carrying goods down a breezy pathway, there’s all manner of other ways you can earn some gold coins, especially with activity milestones to complete with each task as well.

The gold earned during these activities are what you’ll be using to buy additional goodies from the store like music, characters and costumes. It can be a bit of grind to get a decent amount of coinage, not because its necessarily difficult, more that most activities can be frustrating. The simpler ones generally work better, but others like the sliding puzzle style Miku post, or the iffy handling Amiguru train, can annoy. This is the main issue as there aren’t many mini-games, and you certainly won’t enjoy all of them, so getting everything the game has to offer will likely have you grinding just a few mini-games.

As a vocaloid fan, taking a break from the rhythm games to get a mini-adventure with the crew seemed perfect. It looks suitably cute and has some wholesome charm; there is also some fun to be had with a few of the mini-games, but it’s a tough sell, in truth. Unfortunately, there’s just not much to the game given that it will only last a few hours, even if you search for all the items, which could be a bitter pill to swallow given the £25 asking price. Fans will find the game enjoyable at the right price, though. I’m just not sure it’ll draw in a new crowd to introduce them to the world of vocaloid.