Hololive Dreams is a rhythm game, but it’s not JUST a rhythm game. Based in the popular virtual VTuber agency hololive, which consists of dozens of digital influencers streaming everything from video games to concerts, hololive Dreams aims to attract players who might not be familiar with (or fans of) music-based gameplay.
The game, which was released on July 23, layers RPG elements on rhythm game base. The hololive Dreams (often abbreviated to “holodri”) development team says this unique combination was an effort to make the game larger in scale while making it more accessible to a bigger audience.
I spoke exclusively with the Producer of hololive Dreams, who goes by the moniker Mr. O, and Mr. K, the Head Supervisor of Gaming Business at COVER, which co-produced the game, about bringing more than 50 virtual talent and 150 songs to a rhythm RPG, the challenges of building a game that features dozens of protagonists, and the rationale for producing both an RPG and a rhythm game simultaneously.
“We wanted this game to be larger in scale than what is generally known for rhythm games,” Mr. O says. “What that means is if someone is not interested in the rhythm aspect of a mobile game, for example, even if they like the IP, it’s not very engaging to play. That is why [with] this game we want to excite people to a whole new level with that extra scale.”
Hololive Dreams takes place on a virtual uninhabited island “somewhere in the ocean,” where players develop their own theme park and complete quests to expand their footprint. The holodori development team says that music is a key component of the gameplay progression.
“Rhythm games are implemented in the gameplay loop in such a way as to it propels you forward and also continues to develop the park,” the team says. “So it gives more purpose to the rhythm game aspect [with] objectives you have to clear in the larger game. So even people who are not specifically enthusiastic about rhythm games, we feel that they can be more motivated to play them within the larger gameplay loop.”
In hololive Dreams there are multiple mini games featuring everything from obstacle courses to Mahjongg.
“We have four mini games that are not rhythm games [of] different genres,” Mr. O says. “One of them is a big rope skipping game, [one is] a puzzle sort of game where if you touch three food ingredients of the same kind, they disappear, [there’s] an obstacle course that you can play with up to 16 people at a time, and a card game [that’s a cross between] poker and Mahjongg.”
Key to the development of the game is the music. With more than 150 titles featured in hololive Dreams, including both covers and hololive originals, the development team says the massive number of songs is a deliberate effort to compete in Japan’s crowded rhythm game market.
“If you look at the smartphone game market in Japan,” Mr O says, “there are many, many rhythm games right now. And we wanted this game to stand on its own and compete with those. So we wanted to have a lot of songs from the start.
“We [also] have 54 [hololive] talents that are participating in this project as playable characters. And having just one song per talent would be a little too empty. So we wanted to have two for each, which brings us up to 108. And we wanted to have ensemble songs. As we added more, the number went up to 150.
“[We wanted] the first song for each talent to be their originals, the songs that represent them as artists. Their famous songs. And then the second one, some of them are covers because it’s part of the appeal of playing a rhythm game.”
The hololive Dreams team says they collaborated extensively with a large roster of hololive VTubers to find the right balance of music.
“We chose the cover songs from a Japanese perspective,” Mr. O says. “Songs that would make a Japanese audience happy. We asked the talents which song[s] they would like [and] talked about it together.
“Every talent in this game is a protagonist. There’s no playing favorites. We wanted to include more [ensemble] songs. We tried our best [and] did what we could to have an even, balanced playing field when it comes to representing [everyone].”
Like many games of its genre and scale, hololive Dreams will feature a regular cadence of events. The team behind the game says that, even though hololive Dreams is available on PC, the events will be more geared toward Android and iOS players.
“Even though we’re releasing this for mobile and PC, the events will be more catered toward the mobile side,” Mr. O says. “It’ll be around three events per month. [The game features] character nurturing elements, so the longer you play with the talent, you grow that character. And with the talent that you grow, if you do live concerts in the game, then you get higher scores. So we’ll have events where people can compete with each other based on these scores.”
The holordori team says that, due to the nature of the game, players can expect an evolving experience, right down to the theme park setting.
“The first two areas that [are] available at the time of release are Harmony Garden and the Mega Sphere respectively,” the team says. “And then after release, we will add a third area and then a fourth area. So we will have these major updates that should draw some attention as the game goes on. The first area features all 54 talents. But from area three on, we will focus on [about] 10 talents per area. So everyone will get the spotlight equally. At the end, we’ll have shined a spotlight on everyone.”
Hololive Dreams is available now on iOS, Android, and PC/Steam.
Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He’s spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
