After watching X's opening for the umpteenth time, I noticed something... Spoiler They even have the same backgrounds. So Ha2ne Miku becomes Hatsune Miku becomes Ultimate Miku. This is as surprising as realizing the chance time ending to melt in F2nd has miku against the first project diva's menu background was, and hurts the nostalgia just as much. Darn you sega.
So the stories indeed have some, if faint, connection. Ha2ne Miku became an idol from a normal schoolgirl, then became an ultimate goddess that boosts every rate note by 5%. Until one day she got tired of singing the Ultimate Medley and being abused in quests over and over and over, and she suddenly remembers the time when she struggled to find some crystals for their collection, so she time travelled to help her old self...
That's what I wondered as well. They were singing (Beginning Medley??) and bam, blackout, and Miku for no reason suddenly collapses? XD
*gasp* So actually the X storyline is a loop? Like, she collapsed because of the grinding of one player, and then meets another who helps her regain her power, only to collapse again and asking endlessly one after another for help? Like, an evil loop? Oh my Sega...
On top of being stuck in that loop, she's stuck performing the same 30 songs dozens and dozens and dozens of times, the poor soul...
Just a small part. In the first 4 days about 70,000 copies of Project DIVA X were sold. That's a huge amount of Voltage. :T ______________________________________________________________ For me the opening seems like a methaphor for battery charging. ^^
For me, it is less of a darker tone and more of a reflection of the current situation of the Vocaloid fandom right now. I will leave it under the cut. Spoiler At some point in 2015, the utaite Kouhey posted a video on the declining popularity of Vocaloid, which Coleena Wu kindly summarized here:http://papercoleena.tumblr.com/post/123558413480/why-the-popularity-of-vocaloid-has-declined Seeing that, Nanahoshi Orchestra posted a response song, also translated by Coleena Wu here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peOdsZaFmHI In other words, I think the opening is the Vocaloid's point of view of their declining popularity; the fans are going away. And with nobody to sing to, they lose their purpose. The entire gameplay as a whole is us helping the Vocaloids to gain back fans again, which is what I think the Voltage meter refers to. The fans actually viewing and listening to them sing. That would also explain the use of popular songs in the game, they are more effective in getting the fans back, in both using old classics (Hajimete no Oto, for example) and the new songs (Who expected a comeback of Ryo for one song? If you heard of it, wouldn't you check it out?). The elements refer to the types of fans, since the Vocaloid fandom is far and wide and different sections prefer different types of songs, ranging to the sweet Cute songs to the rockish Cool songs and everything else in between. I could be reading between the lines too much, but that is my own take on the game.
The last song you unlock and play on the game is Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku, the last song of Cosmo's medley. In it, Miku sings about accepting her fate as a Vocaloid, and leaving the future to her fans. Once again, Ulitmate Miku, and by extension, everybody else, also accepts their fate as Vocaloids, and leave their future to us.