Hatsune Miku Graphi Collection’s Comeback & Crypton’s Mobile Games

by · Published · Updated

I woke up late on a calm, lazy Christmas Day (yes I started writing this on Christmas and only just finished now) to find our editor had sent me a post on LINE. This was nothing new, as we send each other numerous work and leisure-related posts every day, but one in particular surprised me:

Translation: “Notice from the Crypton Digital Contents Team.

Join the Piapro Characters and Melopi as the next chapter in your quest to bring back ‘sound’ unfolds… 🌟
A new story from Hatsune Miku Graphi Collection – The Mysterious Musical Comet is on its way!

Keep an eye out for more information coming soon ♪
And don’t forget to give us a follow!”

As someone who loved this game when it was available, I was instantly curious as to how *exactly* Crypton Future Media were intending to bring it back. Not only that, but this whole announcement reminded me of their rather… tumultuous history of making mobile games featuring the Piapro Characters (Hatsune Miku and co.), some of which I’ll talk about in a moment.

Table Of Contents
  1. The Early(ish) Mobile App Scene
  2. 2020 Onwards
  3. The Elephant in the Room…
  4. In conclusion…
  5. Links

※Some translations featured are unofficial, but are done by a human (me).

For anyone unfamiliar, the post linked above came from the official MikuColle X account, which was used as the main channel for announcements during the original game’s run. MikuColle, short for the game’s title, started service in October 2014, on the 28th for Android and 30th for iOS. Featuring a unique story and characters, with main visuals by Japanese artist 7:24 / Inukai, I remember the game world having a beautifully colourful and whimsical feel which captivated fans (including myself).

【Trailer】Hatsune Miku Graphi Collection – The Mysterious Musical Comet

Hatsune Miku Graphi Collection – The Mysterious Musical Comet Official PV

The story centred around the Piapro Characters and “Melopi” the sentient blue music note you can see in the post and videos above. Melopi (based my vague recollections) was the character who helped you navigate the game and stories in it. Due to the effects of a comet, all of the “sound” in the world started behaving strangely, causing people to become distressed. In order to restore things to how they was before, you’d have to help Miku and the team as they travelled across different worlds, all while collecting cards to use to defeat enemies.

Like any gacha game, there would be limited time events, and you could use エール (“cheer”) points to pull for cards featuring commissioned artwork from notable vocalo artists of the time. Not to mention the mix of cute costumes, including those based on popular VOCALOID songs, as well as never-before-seen outfits limited to the game. Some of the comments about the game in English criticise it for not being “deep” enough, but it was still a sad loss for longtime players when the game ended on June 30th 2020.

Thankfully, most of the collectables from the game were preserved by fans: there was an unofficial EN Twitter which provided translations (@MikuColleMMC), and you can still find many (if not all) of the clothing items, cards and events documented on mikucolle.gamerch.com (JP). International fans also worked hard to develop a community of players, as shown by threads on Reddit like this one, back when the game was announced for an English release (a project which would be quietly shelved not long after).

New events would also be announced on the official Mobile Contents Team Blog. As a big fan of the game, I’d try to share updates about the new events on this blog (although looking back, it was certainly a labour of love more than having much journalistic merit).

Source: Crypton Future Media

After service ended, 7:24 / Inukai announced that they got permission to release the “MikuColle Memorial Book”, featuring character designs, concepts and promotional illustrations from the game:

MikuColle Memorial Book. Source: Vocasphere

The game’s official X account hasn’t had an explicit purpose since then, although it would continue to share updates and announcements about other games from the main Crypton Digital Contents Team account, indicating that someone out there was still managing the page.

Which begs the question of what exactly they plan to do with MikuColle now.

I suppose we’ll have to keep an eye out for more information! But as I mentioned, the announcement got me thinking about the current landscape of vocal synth-related mobile games, and more specifically, how bad of a time CFM has had with them over the past few years since MikuColle’s service ended.

The Early(ish) Mobile App Scene

There have been plenty of vocal synth-related mobile apps produced by various developers, ranging from mobile editors (e.g. mobile VOCALOID editor), AR and photography apps, popular game re-skins and fully-fledged games, all of which have ranged in success and longevity. For the Piapro Characters, there were rhythm game apps such as Miku Flick and Music Girl Hatsune Miku released in 2012, though these were quite elementary compared to the Project DIVA games available on Sony consoles at the time. Other apps attempted to step out of the rhythm game box, such as Miku Live Stage Producer (2012), but they still retained the Project DIVA-style models and aesthetics which had become so beloved.

Miku Flick. Source: https://miku.sega.jp/flick/en/

As such, MikuColle‘s emergence in 2014 not only deviated from the vocal synth-related rhythm games which came before it, but being a gacha game, featured regular updates which could *theoretically* keep players invested for a long time.

Another game I have vivid memories of playing was Hatsune Miku: Dreamy Vocal, a Chinese rhythm game developed by Tencent Games released in 2018. It followed a typical rhythm game structure, with many popular VOCALOID songs available to unlock and play. The app featured a great selection of costumes for the characters, some of which still live rent-free in my head (I remember I really wanted to make a cosplay of one of the Rin costumes which was a pair of pyjamas with little ducks on it at the time). The game didn’t have the most ground-breaking concept or graphics, but *did* have an unfortunately short lifespan, being playable from September 2018 to January of 2020. Even as someone living outside of China, who didn’t have the language skills to make the most of the game, I was still quite sad when Dreamy Vocal met its untimely demise. For anyone curious, the official website is still accessible as of writing.

Hatsune Miku: Dreamy Vocal. Source: https://wap.pp.cn/app_z5uncxYqNcxD/

If you’re interested in what archives of this game exist, I recommend checking out Reteulo-V, Shika Miku and VIV – Vocaloid Live Concert‘s playlists, since YouTube seems to house the best English resources I can find.

2020 Onwards

Without going into detail about every single Miku-themed mobile game out there, what *did* stand out to me was how the landscape changed during- and post-2020.

While many of the earliest apps featuring Hatsune Miku had shut down by that year, what would follow would mark a significant turning point in the form of many simplistic games being released, which lacked any real substance (especially those from CFM’s own games division).

One such example is Hatsune Miku Logic Paint, which was released in March of 2020; a Picross reskin, MikuLogi was an easy, somewhat addictive mobile game where completing a level would give the player a digital artwork featuring the Piapro characters. These artworks were pre-existing works from the age of MikuColle, and so aside from the initial novelty of the game, as much as it was good for killing time, the game was not terribly exciting and had virtually no replay value for me.

Hatsune Miku Logic Paint. Sources: Left & Centre – CFM
Right – VocaSphere

A new game from ATeam, Hatsune Miku Tap Wonder, was announced on January 24th, to be released later in July the same year. Before its release, significant emphasis was put into “developing the game as a community”, such as through song and illustration contests, with Tap Wonder even recruiting fans to to join an influencer program to promote the game on social media (the VocaSphere team was actually involved in this, to an extent). An idle clicker-style game, Miku Tap, relied on users generating “voltage” to create concerts and progress through stages. Despite sustained efforts to promote the app, it felt as though most discussion surrounding the game had died down not long after release, and it closed down in January 2024. Looking back at our articles covering the game, most of the embedded Tweets don’t display properly anymore, indicating that the official Twitter account was deleted.

Tap wonder pre-registration

Hatsune Miku Tap Wonder. Source: CFM

Another new mobile game by the name of Hatsune Miku Amiguru Jump was released in August of 2020. Characterised by an even simpler concept and UI, it is an endless platformer where you collect coins by carefully timing jumps to advance to the highest level possible. Spending said coins allows you to open a box to unlock one of 27 outfits for the playable characters. The aesthetic is rather cute, with the vocal synths designed to look like knitted dolls, but beyond that, I found it rather tedious to play after a while.

Hatsune Miku Amiguru Jump. Source: CFM

The Elephant in the Room…

Though reading this ramble *might* cause one to think that the landscape of VOCALOID games was quite bleak at the time, September 30th 2020 brought the long-awaited start of Project SEKAI – classed as the newest addition to the Project DIVA franchise, and indisputably the most popular and successful mobile game featuring Hatsune Miku to date. With versions available in multiple regions and languages, a familiar UI and gameplay system, a host of new stories, songs, covers (non-VOCALOID) characters, and now a sellout animated movie, one might think that this juggernaut of Crypton’s would render any other endeavours into gaming unnecessary. But since their in-house gaming division isn’t the developer, that meant they could work on other projects…

Project SEKAI Promotional Art. Source: Project SEKAI Official Twitter (JP)

The Crypton Digital Contents team would forge on with making casual mobile games over the coming years. Re-using the aesthetic from Amiguru Jump, Hatsune Miku: Amiguru Train, released on December 16th 2020, tasks players with steering the Cryptonloids riding cute carts through a course to attain a high score. What stuck with me more than the game itself was how annoying the adverts were in the free version, but maybe that was just me.

Hatsune Miku Amiguru Train. Source: CFM

This trend of releasing “cozy” mobile games continued into the following year, with Hatsune Miku Tycoon coming out in June. Compared to the “Amiguru” games, this being a multiplayer game meant that it had somewhat higher replay value. As someone who was unfamiliar with the card game, it provided a relatively easy way to learn the rules, and for those more confident who like VOCALOID, Hatsune Miku Tycoon probably makes for a reasonable investment of your time.

Hatsune Miku Tycoon. Source: CFM

While most of the games released in 2020 onwards are still available to download (aside from Miku Tap), the recent announcement surrounding MikuColle is the first indication of a (potential) new mobile game in a few years.

Looking at Crypton Future Media Games’ roster of games, it’s clear that they have been focusing on moving from cozy mobile to cozy console games, with Hatsune Miku Logic Paint receiving a revamped version in July 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, and new games Hatsune Miku Connecting Puzzle TAMAGOTORI and Hatsune Miku Jigsaw Puzzle in 2022.

Wait, that reminds me…

What about this game??

Hatsune Miku: Mysterious Stars and Pieces of Wishes. Source: CFM

It looks familiar, right? Released in 2023, and featuring the art of 7:24 / Inukai and the same naming structure to MikuColle, Hatsune Miku: Mysterious Stars and Pieces of Wishes appeared as the potential succcessor to MikuColle. The purchase pages says that Amiguru Jump and Amiguru Train are included as minigames, which doesn’t fill me with much enthusiam, though I have yet to play the game, so I can’t judge it just yet.

The Crypton Digital Contents Team posted a video where Melopi appears in the game, but none of the Piapro Characters recognise them… If it’s not already been addressed in The Planet Of Wonder, then maybe this will be a starting point for the new game?

In conclusion…

So… will Crypton’s gaming division attempt to bring MikuColle back as an RPG-style gacha game?

Probably not. Though fans would apparently be happy if this was the case, there would be little value in the long term, unless they could make a gacha game engaging enough to encourage us to dig into our wallets. Perhaps, considering what’s been a rather difficult time for the Crypton Digital Contents team over the past five years, I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much.

Regardless, to round things off I’ll link the commemorative artwork that 7:24 / Inukai posted to celebrate the new game’s announcement:

Was anyone else as excited as me when they found out about this announcement? What do you think they’re going to do with the new game? I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates, that’s for sure.

Links

MikuColle

Crypton Digital Contents Team

Crypton Future Media

Tags: