[Klashikari]

I should have expected that since the Vita thread is as dead as this one, but to that extent...

Anyway, picked up a cheap vita and received my copy of Diva f last monday, and this is definitely the best title of the franchise.
The Diva Team wasn't joking about the new engine and it is really smooth with toncrap of new animation that make most PV impossible to replicate on previous PSP ones. Facial expressions are vastly improved as well, with unexpected ones (such like tears etc).
The only problem with the graphics, however, is the extremely weird and annoying blurr you have with the characters model in the menus and diva room. They are perfectly fine in the PV, but outside, they look like... well, as if the resolution took a huge dive.

I've seen no framerate drop or any weird off synch notes whatsoever (as usual I guess), and the game kept its difficulty progression curve in check (although I didn't try any extreme yet, currently perfect all easy/normal and going for hard mode).
I'm not really a big fan of the scratch feature, as I often had the obnoxious surprise of having failed input, because the touch screens require a certain "rubbing way" for the game to validate the input (and thus fails at time when the screen become "greasy" due to fingerprints). Also, I have no idea if other players have the same issue, but since the back touch screen is a bit sensible, I cannot set the game using it for the input as non scratch part becomes a chore with a spam of the "scratch note sfx" should you move your fingers a bit. Thus, forced to use the front screen, which can impair your vision obviously...

Content wise, they could obviously put a lil more songs in there (32 tracks is a bit on the low end, especially if you consider the plateform), and I don't get why they put World is Mine and 3 others songs in the AR Live (along with the choregraphy) yet didn't include them as playable tracks.
That said, it goes without saying the tracklist is great, with a good blend of popular songs and niche ones, covering a large choice of genre (Switching between ODDS&ENDS and Sadistic Music Factory is a good example of that), and the PV are a real treat to the eyes: the "writing" and camera angles complement quite well the rythm and lyrics of the songs (ODDS&ENDS and Time Machine are just perfect in that regard). It is just a shame the PV mode does -not- allow you to pause or take screenshot with the game, as you can only enable/disable lyrics (so if you want to take a shot, you will have to use the vita default Home + Start, which is annoying since pausing the game will display the pause menu).

Likewise, they did a good job with all new modules, but pretty much like the songs, it is sort of lackluster (especially if you were spoiled by Diva Extend, which had 3 digits of modules), and I can't say the accessories make up for them, considering they don't exactly change that much the module you are editing.

Edit mode engine had a tremendous boost, and while I have little experience to use it, some result on niconico sure demonstrate how creative you can be with that. However, the problem with edit mode is that, due to the inherent change of save data with the Vita, Sega had to create a edit file sharing mode, and this one doesn't work well as there is absolutely no search engine. As result, you have to either input the uploader ID to see their tracks, or navigate through -hundreds- of pages of edit file, and that includes dud, empty ones (used for the trophy) and other dubious stuff around. So if you want tell your world for example, you have no choice but to check pages and hoping you won't end up with a lame one, or go through niconico, as some people start uploading their PV and put all the information you need.

AR mode and Diva Room are a bag of mixed feelings for me OTOH. AR mode suffers a lot due to a factor that isn't part of the game: the vita camera. Really, you can take a lot of funny shots here and there, but the camera is so bad that you better be lucky that the background isn't messed big time.
Diva room didn't exactly change that much from the previous games, aside of few mini games additions. However, interactions with the vocaloids are -extremely- lackluster, and petting their heads doesn't exactly feel right at some point (especially if you do that with "older" char, like Kaito, Meiko and Luka). Of course, I didn't expect something elaborate considering it is a rythm game at its core, but the feature itself is just pointless.

A lot of efforts has been poured in the game, and any project diva or rythm game fan should try it out, as it is definitely a solid game. It sure has few flaws left and right, but that's minor compared to blast you can have with it.

My current Top 10 songs (not factoring their difficulty/gameplay):
01) ODDS&ENDS
02) ネトゲ廃人シュプレヒコール (Netge Haijin Spechror - Netgame Addicts Sprechror)
03) World End Dancehall
04) Unhappy Refrain
05) Black Rock Shooter
06) 秘密警察 (Himitsu Keisatsu - Secret Police)
07) Freely Tomorrow
08) Cat Food
09) Melancholic
10) ACUTE