Popular Post slash Posted January 7, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted January 7, 2017 (edited) So...we're getting a localization for Future Tone! And it's out in just 3 days! I know there are a lot of Project Diva fans on here, and since I've had the Japanese version since launch, I thought I'd start a thread giving some tips on tackling and discussing this beast of a game. Anyone who has played F, F2nd, and X will feel familiar with the gameplay, but as most of you know, this is a port of the IRL arcade box version. The rhythm game, while similar, is different from the aforementioned Miku games. This will be a pretty long post, so to be efficient, I'll post each point in a spoiler tag just to keep the overall OP cleaner. I also understand that this can be a potential guide as well, but I figured putting this in a thread would be better for discussion and can avoid cluttering guide comments with it. Maybe I'll turn it into a guide at some point, if I can refine this later on. 1. Trophies: Spoiler Extremely straight forward, honestly no real need for explanation to get them as they're clearly stated in the descriptions. Most will come naturally. According to @DesuDesuNya, it appears for the Music Video Aficionado trophies, watching the PVs via the playlist function will not unlock them. I personally watched each one individually so I was not aware. 2. Aesthetic: Spoiler The default setting for the notes in Future Tone replace the and with up and left arrows respectively, while keeping the and . When you see the arrows, these are not the same as F, F2nd and X in that you must press the face button and its respective d-pad arrow at the same time. The arrow keys are purely cosmetic and you can change them to and respectively. I recommend doing this just for consistency's sake. But it's totally up to whatever works for you! You can change and to arrows too, if you want. All modules are available to buy with VP points you earn for clearing songs, similar to some of the previous games. Don't worry, you'll have more than enough points to get everything you want. VP points add up very quickly. You can press and at the same time on the module selection screen to immediately get to the song's recommended module. You can also swap module heads, so you can come up with some unique combos. You can find these options by pressing in the song menu, where you can also find other settings such button sounds and macros (will get to later). 3. Macros and Holding: Spoiler Macros customization is what sets Future Tone apart from the previous games. The default controller set up assigns slide notes to both bumpers and triggers. While this is okay for songs on hard difficulty and below, I highly recommended committing to using the analog sticks exclusively for the slide notes regardless of difficulty. Since there are 6 different slide combinations, it's impossible to assign each one to a trigger or bumper anyway. Save them for the macros and get used to using the sticks. Also, keep in mind that for long slides, you can let go of the stick when the entire track turns blue. Another difference is the way hold notes are set up in Future Tone. In the previous games, hold notes had tails where you had to hold and let go of the note. In Future Tone, it simply says "HOLD" underneath the note and the longer you hold it down, the more points you accrue. If you manage to hold the note for the maximum amount of time, you'll receive a huge point bonus. Hold notes will break by letting it go or pressing a note that's the same as the one you are holding. Holds for other notes will also come as well, so you can build up to double, triple and quadruple holds. This is why macros are so important, as it frees up both thumbs to hit other notes comfortably while still gaining the point bonuses from holding down notes. So how should one assign these macros? There are endless possibilities, but here are a couple options I found useful. Since using triggers and bumpers on a Diva game is a little foreign because the previous games didn't utilize them, I needed to get used to them first. I used this to start, which I found to be a solid and friendly setup: This way, when you see a hold note, press down the corresponding trigger or bumper, and continue playing the rest of the song without awkwardly claw gripping the controller to hold down notes. However, I only used this configuration for only a couple days and changed to my current macros below: You're probably thinking this makes no sense. In Future Tone, you can transfer holds between corresponding buttons. For example, while holding down , you can hold down the corresponding , let go of , and the hold will remain intact. So with these macros, after pressing a hold note, I'll transfer it to either or , which is technically holding down all 4 buttons. When another incoming hold note comes, I will hit the note, transfer the hold to whichever trigger is free, then let go of the trigger I was previously holding. Rinse and repeat. This way, no matter what notes come, I will always maintain and build up holds. As for my bumpers, I change them to whatever is most convenient for the current song and many times I don't even use them. The quad triggers are the most important parts here. Even though I talked about this for a long time, this is my personal way to play the game. Experiment with the macros and see what works best for you. Though, I will still stand by using analog sticks for the slide notes . 4. Hold Switching: Spoiler As mentioned earlier, while holding down a note, there will be many opportunities to start with a single hold, then build to a double, then triple, then quadruple. However, doing so sometimes isn't the best idea. Take a look at this section in Knife (please excuse Miku for.....whatever she's wearing ): As you can see, I am holding and there is a hold for coming up. I could combine the 2 to make a double combo, but looking at the track, there are more notes coming up. This means if I were to combine and , the double hold would end as soon I hit the upcoming and I would stop receiving bonus points. So in this case, it is best to break the hold you have on and start a new one with . This way, you can keep playing the song and still build up hold bonus points. This is called hold switching, and they are critical in maximizing your points. Another example is in earlier in the song: Here, you can see I have a triple hold and there are holds for and coming up. If I were to combine my previous triple hold with the , the quad combo would end with the and holds. This means I would be playing the next portion of the song with a double bonus. Now this isn't too bad, but by breaking the hold, I can start a new combo with and would be playing the next part with a triple bonus instead, which is much better. Keep an eye out for opportunities like this. Though not all songs have hold switches, doing them in songs will greatly help your score. You'll be surprised at how much improvement you can have just by doing one. 5. Complicated Notes: Spoiler Since this is a port of the IRL arcade, understanding its layout is crucial for succeeding in songs in the PS4 version. The arcade lays the buttons in a straight line like so: . Due to there only being 4 buttons, you will never have notes where you press a face button and its corresponding d-pad arrow at the same time like in the previous games. You will however see 6 double note combos, 3 triple note combos, and the quad combo. They will also come at you very quickly at times. It can get really overwhelming, but do not fret, there are always patterns to recognize and it's made even easier to do so in practice mode! Let's check out slump here: Those double notes come in quick succession, but you can immediately see that is a common note. In this situation, you can have one thumb dedicated to pressing while having the other thumb press and . Because of the nature of the IRL arcade set up, this kind of pattern is seen in literally every single song, so recognizing common notes is key. This applies to much more complicated note patterns as well. Here's something that comes up near the end of Saihate, one of the harder songs in the game: Off the bat, this looks pretty gruesome. But keeping the common note rule in mind, and are present in that entire string of notes. A good way to tackle this is pressing and with one thumb (I personally use this tactic) while using the other to hit and accordingly. Or, assign + to a macros! Whatever is best for you! 6. Score Attacking and the Leaderboard: Spoiler Unlike the previous games, Future Tone ranks you via final point total rather than straight accuracy. I know this sounds counter intuitive since higher accuracy should yield more points, but this is not the case in Future Tone because of the hold notes. A 100% on a song in Future Tone is when you get a COOL on every single note without any hold notes. Because of this, it's possible to score <100% on a perfect and get >100% on an excellent. As previously mentioned, points via hold notes rack up very quickly, and doing so for a quad hold yields a significant point bonus. This is why in order to score attack, sacrificing notes is sometimes necessary to earn high scores and place high the leaderboards. Take Clover Club for example. This is what I scored on a perfect: However, when I did the score attack route, this is what I ended up with: Even though my perfect was at 105.18%, I beat my perfect final score by about 4000 points despite missing 22 notes. Notice the difference in hold category (the one under challenge time). In this situation, the bonus points I received from hold notes made up for the missed notes and then some. This method placed me pretty high on the leaderboards as well (a little humble bragging ): *It should be noted that leaderboards are only available for songs on Hard, Extreme and Extra Extreme difficulties* Minimizing my number of FINEs will obviously give me a higher score to close the pretty significant gap between me and hyodoo. Another example of sacrificing notes happens at the end of The Skeleton Orchestra and Lilia. Here, a quad hold appears near the end, with a quad note combo coming immediately afterwards. In this case, you should intentionally miss that final quad combo in order to maintain that previous quad hold, as the huge bonus you'll receive will more than make up for it. One should keep in mind that not all songs require you to sacrifice notes to maximize points, it varies. Hand in Hand, for example, doesn't have anything fancy; a perfect with as few FINEs as possible will yield you the max points for that song. Experiment, play around, and see where you can sneak in a few more points with the hold notes to boost your score. I myself am continuing to find ways to use this system to maximize my final scores. So if you find any of them, feel free to let me know . Also, the leaderboards will unfortunately not be shared between the Japanese and Western versions, which does give me some incentive to double dip, even though I originally planned not to . Woof, that was a lot....I know this was pretty long but I hope you find it helpful as you dive into Future Tone. There are a ton of songs here, 232 to be exact, including 2 DLC packs and there's still a 3rd one planned. This game is a love letter to Project Diva fans, providing seemingly endless replayable content. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Let me know if anything was too confusing as well. I re-read this over and over but I'm sure there's still some errors in there somewhere. Edited January 13, 2017 by slash *added screenshots for hold switching * added a quick note regarding a trophy* 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Undead Wolf Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 I was waiting for you to post this ever since you mentioned it! Nice work! I had no idea Future Tone was so different. It looks like I have a lot to learn if I want to get even half decent at the game. I really appreciate you going through the effort of explaining it all so even someone like me can understand. I followed the topic so I can keep coming back to it when I start the game. I'm sure that I'll have more questions then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 7, 2017 Author Share Posted January 7, 2017 15 minutes ago, Undead Wolf said: I was waiting for you to post this ever since you mentioned it! Nice work! I had no idea Future Tone was so different. It looks like I have a lot to learn if I want to get even half decent at the game. I really appreciate you going through the effort of explaining it all so even someone like me can understand. I followed the topic so I can keep coming back to it when I start the game. I'm sure that I'll have more questions then. Of course, anytime! It actually snuck up on me and it kinda just hit me that the localization is just around the corner. Future Tone admittedly does take a while to get used to the differences, especially the hold system. But keep at it, and you'll be climbing up the leaderboards soon! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zanreo Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 (edited) Thanks for letting me know, will be useful when I get it :3 Also great to finally see a project diva trophy list that's not just all "you earned this title!" with no explanation about how to get it Edited January 9, 2017 by Zanreo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisty123 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) I never looked into it while playing the Japanese version but I recall a post saying you can turn off some of the arcade style functions. Granted at the start the mulit touch buttons were doing my head in and due to this I just played all the songs on Hard mode. But you do get use to them after a while. Edited January 10, 2017 by fisty123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 8 hours ago, fisty123 said: I never looked into it while playing the Japanese version but I recall a post saying you can turn off some of the arcade style functions. Granted at the start the mulit touch buttons were doing my head in and due to this I just played all the songs on Hard mode. But you do get use to them after a while. I'm curious, what kind of functions was it saying you can turn off? This is a port of the arcade, so being able to turn off multi notes would kind of be silly tbh since they're a major part of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisty123 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, slash said: I'm curious, what kind of functions was it saying you can turn off? This is a port of the arcade, so being able to turn off multi notes would kind of be silly tbh since they're a major part of the game. The post I seen a while back must of been a lie, I can not find anything in the options to allow you to turn them off on or under song settings. Beyond turning the Multi Press Assist on and off that is about it which by default is turned on. I don't think its needed once you do enough of them you get used to the multi touch buttons. EDIT: However detection assist means as long as you push the right amount of buttons your life gauge will not drop even if you push the wrong buttons. I was not aware of this. Edited January 10, 2017 by fisty123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 47 minutes ago, fisty123 said: The post I seen a while back must of been a lie, I can not find anything in the options to allow you to turn them off on or under song settings. Beyond turning the Multi Press Assist on and off that is about it which by default is turned on. I don't think its needed once you do enough of them you get used to the multi touch buttons. EDIT: However detection assist means as long as you push the right amount of buttons your life gauge will not drop even if you push the wrong buttons. I was not aware of this. Oh I see, gotcha. As for wrong notes, your life gauge will still drop, but the penalty for doing so is significantly less. It's a tactic used in score attacking songs to extend certain hold notes for bonuses. Without this, score attacking would be nigh impossible since missing a note entirely severely depletes your health bar. You might see WRONG written in red, and health wise that's much better than a WORST. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xionx Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Awesome post. i downloaded this night and played 3 or 4 songs . I just love the huge amount of songs . Im more a Hard player than Extreme but this game motivates me to get better (leaderbord is always motivation). Remapping R1-2 and L1-2 is pretty much the most important tip. the doable notes are still overwhelming sometimes but i guess learning a specific song is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnAndKalene Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I can't find it in the store, which is weird. I have the Jap version but I want the English version too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisty123 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 1 hour ago, slash said: As for wrong notes, your life gauge will still drop, but the penalty for doing so is significantly less. It's a tactic used in score attacking songs to extend certain hold notes for bonuses. Without this, score attacking would be nigh impossible since missing a note entirely severely depletes your health bar. You might see WRONG written in red, and health wise that's much better than a WORST. This is what I thought, but when you push the help button in the options in the English version it has that is does not drop at all. Ah well I am more of enjoy the game so I will stick to hard more like last time with some songs I enjoy on Extreme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zanreo Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Got this shortly after it was out in the shop and really enjoying it so far So many songs... Also it's significantly harder, even several Hard songs kicked my ass x3 Fun to try these new game mechanics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) 9 hours ago, kalenemariesmith said: I can't find it in the store, which is weird. I have the Jap version but I want the English version too. Yeah, the NA store wasn't updated until a couple hours ago. Should be up now! 6 hours ago, Zanreo said: Got this shortly after it was out in the shop and really enjoying it so far So many songs... Also it's significantly harder, even several Hard songs kicked my ass x3 Fun to try these new game mechanics! Yeaaaah it's definitely harder than the previous games. Since it is an arcade, it's made to entice you to spend some more money to try the song again some songs in Future Tone on hard are legit tougher than some songs on extreme in the previous games Edited January 10, 2017 by slash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunchCannon54 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Apparently there's only two songs in the free version. Considering the fact that the large purchases are classed as DLC on here can you earn the base game trophies with just the two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 1 hour ago, LunchCannon54 said: Apparently there's only two songs in the free version. Considering the fact that the large purchases are classed as DLC on here can you earn the base game trophies with just the two? That's a good question, actually. One would think so, though I'm not sure if they lock module selection until you get one of the packs. The other trophies are definitely possible, though playing for 39 minutes with only 2 songs seems a little tedious . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihiris- Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Welp, haven't played a Hatsune Miku game since Project Diva f so I'm gonna have to give this a download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gage Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 8 minutes ago, slash said: That's a good question, actually. One would think so, though I'm not sure if they lock module selection until you get one of the packs. The other trophies are definitely possible, though playing for 39 minutes with only 2 songs seems a little tedious . You can do everything in the base list with the free songs, though that'd be moderately boring seeing as you only have two songs and have to play them for 40 minutes total for the one trophy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xionx Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 On 7.1.2017 at 9:55 PM, slash said: Unlike the previous games, Future Tone ranks you via final point total rather than straight accuracy. I know this sounds counter intuitive since higher accuracy should yield more points, but this is not the case in Future Tone because of the hold notes. A 100% on a song in Future Tone is when you get a COOL on every single note without any hold notes. Because of this, it's possible to score <100% on a perfect and get >100% on an excellent. As previously mentioned, points via hold notes rack up very quickly, and doing so for a quad hold yields a significant point bonus. This is why in order to score attack, sacrificing notes is sometimes necessary to earn high scores and place high the leaderboards. So what score is he saving? Lets say you get perfect , and after you get excellent with more points . It will show the higher score right? but is it also overwriting the perfect? is it impossible to save the Perfect rank because its impossible to get higher score with the Perfect? . I mean tbh i will never come in this situation , because i can maybe Perfect "normal" songs and not much higher. But it would e interesting . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 2 hours ago, Xionx said: So what score is he saving? Lets say you get perfect , and after you get excellent with more points . It will show the higher score right? but is it also overwriting the perfect? is it impossible to save the Perfect rank because its impossible to get higher score with the Perfect? . I mean tbh i will never come in this situation , because i can maybe Perfect "normal" songs and not much higher. But it would e interesting . Nope, the game will always save the highest rank you've ever gotten in a song in both % and points. So for my example in Clover Club, even though my score attack trumped my perfect with an excellent, the excellent badge will never override the perfect one. However, the high score will override, and you can see your personal best on the bottom right of the song selection screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xionx Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 1 minute ago, slash said: Nope, the game will always save the highest rank you've ever gotten in a song in both % and points. So for my example in Clover Club, even though my score attack trumped my perfect with an excellent, the excellent badge will never override the perfect one. However, the high score will override, and you can see your personal best on the bottom right of the song selection screen. Ok thats pretty much what i expected . showing both "bests" even if its on different runs. I have maybe another small question for you . There is something called "survival course" in leaderbord section . How can you play these survival mode? do i have to unlock the extremes first i guess , because they include extreme songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slash Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, Xionx said: Ok thats pretty much what i expected . showing both "bests" even if its on different runs. I have maybe another small question for you . There is something called "survival course" in leaderbord section . How can you play these survival mode? do i have to unlock the extremes first i guess , because they include extreme songs. You can get to Survival Course by holding down and at the same time on the song selection screen. You don't have to unlock extreme modes to play. Pressing the options button while on the song selection menu will give you a breakdown of how to navigate the game as well. If you have any questions, you'll probably find your answer there . Edited January 13, 2017 by slash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegirlruka Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 On 1/7/2017 at 3:55 PM, slash said: Unlike the previous games, Future Tone ranks you via final point total rather than straight accuracy. I know this sounds counter intuitive since higher accuracy should yield more points, but this is not the case in Future Tone because of the hold notes. A 100% on a song in Future Tone is when you get a COOL on every single note without any hold notes. Because of this, it's possible to score <100% on a perfect and get >100% on an excellent. As previously mentioned, points via hold notes rack up very quickly, and doing so for a quad hold yields a significant point bonus. This is why in order to score attack, sacrificing notes is sometimes necessary to earn high scores and place high the leaderboards. I think I've noticed that the extra percentage seems to stop increasing when I have enough points to get a standard grade on a song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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