Deemo: The Last Recital from PM Studios and actiil is a rhythm based game on PlayStation Vita. It features over 100 songs to play and gorgeous hand-drawn artwork for its story. Want to learn more? Then read our Deemo: The Last Recital review!

 

The game kicks off with an animated intro showing Deemo playing a melody on the piano. He is all alone in a large castle… until one day when a girl suddenly falls from the sky. The poor girl can’t remember who she is or what has happened to her. Deemo then tries to help the girl return to wherever it is she’s from. As you play and unlock new songs in the game, you will get new cutscenes that move the story along.

You’ll then get a chance to play the first song in the game: Dream from Rabpit, a slow melody that will serve as the game’s tutorial stage. You can change the difficulty between Easy, Normal and Hard by clicking on the note icon on the left part of the screen, but I suggest you first play on easy to get the hang of things. You can also customize the speed at which notes move on the screen, but you should leave it at 1 for the first handful of songs.

The gameplay is very simple. You will either need to tap the single notes as they move from the upper part of the screen of the lower black line close to the bottom of the screen, or you will need to slide your finger when notes in progression show up. The tap notes are black while the slide notes are a shiny white so that you can easily tell them apart. You might sometimes need to tap two notes at the same time, and the more in tune you tap and slide to the beat, and the more on top of the line you hit the notes, the better your score.

Hitting notes perfectly will get you a Charming score, while not missing a single note will allow you to increase your combo count. Once the song is over you will get to see how many Charming hits you had as well as how long your combo was, and if you want to you can replay a song to try and get all Charming hits and a perfect combo. As you can imagine, getting all Charming hits is the best you can do for a song since it will, in turn, give you a full combo. Practice hard and learn each song’s pattern and beat to progress in your adventure.

If you like the game’s gameplay mechanics and want to go past it’s over 100 songs, you can click on the store icon in the main menu to check out the many extra songs up for purchase. You can buy them in collections and volumes that include five songs at $3.99 per collection or volume, or you can go for bundles that give you a discount on the game’s DLC. For example, there’s one massive bundle available at $34.99 that includes a ton of songs, which is ideal for those of you who really take a liking to what Deemo has to offer.

The team is certainly thankful for players’ support, which is why there is also some free DLC up for grabs in the PSN store. The free DLC can be played after completing the main story, and each pack includes four free songs, for a total of 12 bonus songs in total. Free is always good, and 12 extra songs to play (which, taking into consideration the value of each pack means the free songs would have cost around $9.99) is certainly good news.

Deemo: The Last Recital is a solid portable rhythm game with easy to learn but hard to master gameplay mechanics and a ton of content to enjoy. Sure, in essence, this is an enhanced port of a previously mobile-only release, but the transition to the PS Vita has been great for the experience. There’s a ton of songs to master, and the available songs are outstanding – and if you complete all of them you have a huge batch of songs up for purchase. If you’re a fan of rhythm games, then Deemo: The Last Recital will definitely scratch that itch.

Disclaimer
This Deemo: The Last Recital review is based on a PlayStation Vita copy provided by actiil.