Project Heartbeat

I have lost a lot of my vsion in July 2024 and was quite upset to not be able to play one of my favorite games anymore, (Project Diva). Even with the mods they now have, it still isn't enough to make it playable for me.
I asked around and someone recommended me this game, and I will say that I am able to paly Project Diva once again! The dimming of backgrounds and no music video helps with my light sensitivity, and the ability to make the notes bigger helps so much.
Being able to import project diva songs with all the added stuff from above just makes me excited to be able to play my favorite game again.
It did take me a bit to configure it just like how I like on PlayStation, but eventually I got it all set correctly.
Thank you for all your hard work!

The game lacks the essential juice that makes rhythm games engaging. In rhythm games, JUICE IS EVERYTHING. It's the instant feedback from the game and overall fluidity of the UI that synchronizes with the music that make the game feel satisfying and fun with each played chart. The Project Heartbeat menus feel bland and generic, and the visualizer during the charts is dull, making it hard to feel excited while playing.
Take osu! as an example: its UI is responsive, dynamic, and playful. There's a visualizer in the menu representing the audio waves, subtle glowing cues when beats change—everything about it screams, "Play me! You're awesome!" Feels like the whole interface is alive and flows with the rhythm. This game would really benefit from borrowing some of that energy, or even better, from taking a step back and thinking about what makes rhythm games so appealing in the first place: their visuals, their JUICE.
Mechanically, the game is solid. But in terms of visuals it feels really bland. And in rhythm games, looking and feeling bland is a death sentence. Players want to be engaged by the visuals and feedback, not just the mechanics. Without that, the game becomes uninviting.
Oh, and the scoring system is strange compared to Diva Megamix.

What a FANTASTIC platform for button mashing rhythm players.
Really appreciate the work the community has made on the DIVA skin and various charts.
In my skill level which is max 9 on songs I listen to all the time and live in my brain there are plenty of charts in the community which provide a fair challenge to better my skills.
Thank you so much for making this EIRTeam and community! <3

I really enjoy this game. Huge workshop potential and you can import your songs from PPD and Mega mix+ (including mods) onto heartbeat 9/10

Not for me sadly.
I will use osu! terms to describe why I can't really play this well.
The approach rate of the objects is very long, thus there are always a lot of objects on the screen.
The timing window can be changed, but that doesn't mean it will change how quickly the flying objects approach.
Also similar to osu!taiko, I get the keys confused. That one is mostly just practice, but I've tried this in other games too, and it's sadly just not for me.
I would like to see more than just BPM and difficulty when selecting a song.
For example the timing window, approach rate, note per second.
I do like that it shows beforehand what kind of notes are gonna be in the chat.
Wish I could rate it neutral tbh for me at least.

I largely recommend Project Heartbeat...if you've played Project Diva and like Project Diva. PD is a lot easier to get into since its arcade-y and super beginner friendly, compared to Project Heartbeat, which is largely community driven, there are a few official maps that are really well done and have all difficulty levels, but once you want to actually play the whole purpose of its existence, the community content, it gets a LOT more dicey if you don't already like Project Diva type gameplay (especially since a lot of community maps are EXTREMELY HARD for no reason, just awfully mapped (I'm not one to talk...I've made two bad maps myself, but it is still something that you need to be willing to sift through).

Now with that said, this is even BETTER than Project Diva in a rhythm game sense to me, while I started (and still do) play Project Diva for the Miku game aspect, Project Heartbeat is just a lot better *technically* in its engine and hit registration. Also because it doesn't have any 3D rendered background like a lot of Project Diva songs have, it means the game will basically run flawlessly since the background will just be a static image or video.

Something that I honestly really love PH for is the autodetection of Project Diva and Project Diva mods if they're installed on your PC, it doesn't make too much sense for me to use, but if I just feel like playing a map on a better engine I can just hop into PH and play it here instead. It's also useful to just download a bunch of mods that are incompatible with each other within Project Diva that PH will read just fine.

As much as I dislike the amount of Extreme 8*+ levels and the amount of songs that I want to play but just can't because of some mapper's quirks, I'd rather have the option than not, and it is legitimately just a "skill issue" of mine at that point. The in built workshop support is really good, being able to both subscribe from the Steam Workshop site, or the inbuilt Workshop browser is a nice touch as well. The ability to just not download the video for songs is also useful for the people who upload disgusting "60fps upscaled" background footage for their map (or possibly stolen PPD map).

as a rhythm player playing mainly arcaea, I have to admit that this game is really good! I hope that the game will continue grow!