Installments in the Daigasso! Band Brothers have proven themselves to be quite formidable pieces of software for the DS and 3DS. While the very first installment was more of a music game than music-creation software, each installment has inched closer to becoming more about making the music than playing around with it. The latest game, Daigasso! Band Brothers P, practically begins by abandoning the playing part and focusing on the creation aspect.
At least, that’s how it felt to me. See, in the previous Daigasso! games, players started with an instant song library. They were right there, you could jump right in, and there was no worrying about to do or play. In Daigasso! Band Brothers P, there’s a tomato system in place. When you buy the game, you have 4 songs in your library and get 100 free tomatoes to download songs from the store in Kyockefeller Square. Those with physical copies get a code, but if you download it from the eShop, like I did, all you have to do is connect the game to the internet to get your tomatoes.
Not that you’re only limited to 100 songs. You’re limited to 100 freebies. 3,000 total can be stored, but you have to pay for more tomatoes to download those when the free tomatoes are gone. This is why Daigasso! Band Brothers P frustrates me.
I picked up the game expecting something more similar to the DS installments. Instead, after initially creating my Vocaloid character persona, I went to the Shiroatway Muz Muz Square to play some music. There was nothing there, so I headed to the Internet. That’s where I found out about the tomato system, and now I’m overwhelmed. Since tomatoes expire in a few months, I essentially have until June to use all 100 on songs that I want.
As a result, I haven’t really spent much time creating or playing music, despite features like the ability to play in online jam sessions with other people, friends or strangers, and having downloaded 65 songs.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I actually have spent plenty of time in Bandval Park playing music with other Daigasso! Band Brothers P players. They have some amazing music, and playing with them lets me hear songs they’ve downloaded and determine if I might want one of them. But, there’s this looming pressure where I feel like I need to be sorting through the songs, deciding which last few are worthy of my remaining 35 tomatoes before I actually get invested in the game.
That said, I should be happy for this momentary distraction. The song creation software in Daigasso! Band Bros. P is more comprehensive than ever before. I should be thankful that pondering over which songs to download is keeping me from floundering while I attempt to compose a coherent and comprehensive song of my own.
At least while I sit, staring at Daigasso! Band Brothers P, the lovely radio stations streaming all kinds of synthesized music provide a nice distraction. And, when I do finally decide to stop browsing, I can really focus on mastering all difficulty levels of my songs. I’ve really only messed around with the touch-screen “beginner” difficulty so far.
Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t recommend Daigasso! Band Brothers P. This is an incredible game and creation tool. There’s so much someone can do if they put in enough effort. I would say that it requires more of an investment than the previous two games. If you’re looking to import a simple rhythm game, this probably isn’t the one for you. Go look at Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 for something less complex.
