Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega39’s devs talk song selection and the new Joy-Con mode

Famitsu recently had the chance to talk to Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega39 creative producer Makoto Osaki and producer/director Keiichi Matsunami about their work on the Switch title. Check out info on both the song selection and new Joy-Con mode below, courtesy of a translation from NintendoEverything.

F: So now I want to get some details about the content of the game. The songs included span a ten year songs history, as well as including theme songs from the previous games. How did you choose those 100 songs?

Osaki: Even though the most recently released song in a game is the ‘Sand Planet feat. Hatsune Miku’, included in Future Tone DX, that song was released in 2017. Since Mega39’s is being released in 2020, if we didn’t include any new songs, then that would mean that 2-3 year period had been barren. But at the same time, songs change with the times, so we wanted to do something that responded to that… That’s why we have chosen songs that represent that long history, and also included some new ones. Then we looked at songs that would be fun to play with the Joy-Con. They were the two focal points.

Matsunami: The truth is that we really wanted to include all of the songs, but we had to think about ROM and development time.

F: I’d also like to ask about the new mode. Maybe you can’t give specifics, but there are play elements distinctive to the Joy-Con, right?

Osaki: Just to avoid confusion, I want to assure players that the modes from the previous games are still there as they were. But then there is a new mode separate from that.

Matsunami: There was a lot of trial an error involved in getting the controls right for that mode, but the end is finally in sight. Since we are releasing on a new piece of hardware, we wanted to offer something really new. Look forward to it.

Osaki: The new mode will actually be available to play at the ‘Hatsune Miku Magical Mira 2019’ event in Tokyo. We hope players will try it for themselves and let us know what they think. I think it was definitely worthwhile having doing the same with Project Mirai 2. A lot of people filled out the feedback questionnaires for us then too.