School idol festival

Gamer reviews for School idol festival

A treat for Love Live fans!

A treat for Love Live fans!

Love Live! School Idol Festival (or simply called Love Live SIF) is a rhythm game for the android and iOS published by Bushiroad and Klab was initially released last year in its original Japanese version. An English version was made available on May 12, 2014, to cater the franchise’s English-speaking fans. Love Live! is a Japanese multimedia project developed in cooperation by ASCII Media Works' Degenki G's Magazine, the music label Lantis, and the anime studio Sunrise. So far, the project has successfully released music CD's, AMVs (anime music videos), an anime series now running two seasons, a manga adaption, a card game and now a video game. The game is targeted towards the fans of the series, anime enthusiasts and basically fans of rhythm games. So far, the game enjoys a very high rating from thousands of users as of this review’s post. The game is free to download and will require constant internet connection.

Love Live’s story focuses on the idol group μ's (pronounced 'muse') which is composed of nine high school girls and their collaborative effort to prevent their girls-only school, Otonokizaka High School from closing due to the small number of enrollment applications. To entice new students in enrolling in their school, the main heroine, Kousaka Honoka had a bright idea of forming her own idol group that will represent the school. Despite not having any experience in singing, dancing or how an idol group is supposed to function, she involves her close friends Minami Kotori and Sonoda Umi. The three of them form μ's core group. As the group slowly and steadily become popular, their numbers grew with new members from all levels in their school.

In the game, you’ll select one of the nine μ's members to become group’s helper (or manager in a way, based on the tasks you have to take over). The game offers two modes: Live Show and Story. Live is the game’s rhythm mode while the Story mode follows the girls’ lives as school idols and allows the player to interact with them through RPG-sque dialogue screens. Players need to shuffle between two modes as they progress in the game. Clearing Live Shows will unlock more Story chapters and increase your level. Clearing the Story mode will unlock more songs for Live Shows.

As soon as you login, you’ll get a daily sign in bonus. You can get these once a day and are limited in number. There will be regular times that the game will download updates which will prompt you to restart the game. After the sign in bonus screen, you’ll get another screen where the announcements, updates and errors will be displayed.

In the Home screen, you’ll see the different tabs at the bottom which will allow you to conveniently switch screens. Story launches the Story Mode, Members will bring you to the screen where you can manage your groups’ formations, send them to practice, remove unwanted members or set your favorites. The Live Show launches the Live Show mode. Scout will bring you to a screen where you can scout ordinary students or Honor Students to add to your group. The shop brings you to the screen where you can spend Love Gems to restore your LP, increase your member limit or Purchase Love Gems.

You can scout one regular student a day. Further regular scouting requires Friend Points, which you’ll get during Live Show performances. In ordinary scouting, you still have the chance to get a Rare student card. Rare students have skills that can be beneficial during Live Shows. These are also different versions of μ's members. Honor Students scouting will ensure that you’ll get a rare card. You’ll get a free Honor Student scout when you first play the game. Further scouting using this option will require you to spend Love Gems which serve as the game’s premium currency.

In the Members menu, you can modify the group’s formation. Each group can consist of 9 members and you can manage up to 5 groups. Practice mode allows you to improve your selected member’s level by using other members as Practice Partners. One character can have up to 10 practice partners. Take note however, that practice partners are “used up” and will be gone forever. Each practice partner can give bonus EXP to the character you sent to practice. It’s not free however; you have to pay a corresponding amount of gold for each practice partner. In the Special Practice menu, you can combine two exact copies of the character to Idolize them. Idolized member will change in appearance and will allow you to deepen your bonds with them to unlock their Side Stories. The Leave Group menu will allow you to part ways with members while the Member List will allow you to view the members of your club and set your favorite ones.

Players can do Live Shows as long as they have LP. This is the gauge in the upper right corner that is decreased whenever you attempt to complete a song. This gauge goes down whether you succeed or fail the show. This gauge however slowly replenishes over time. Your LP increases as you level up, allowing you to perform more songs.

In this mode, players have to press the rhythm icons appearing from the center of the screen as they overlap the one or two of the nine member icons. Depending on your timing, your touch assessment will be “Perfect”, “Great”, “Bad” or “Miss”. Similar to other rhythm titles, the more perfect or great taps you do, the better your score will be. Consecutive “Great” and “Perfect” taps will build a combo and will continue to build as long as you don’t have “Bad” or “Miss”. As you earn scores, your Rank Gauge for that song increases as well. Higher ranks require more “Perfect” taps while getting the best rank requires all icons to be pressed at the perfect timing. If you have “Miss” or “Bad” taps, your stamina gauge in the upper left corner of the screen will decrease. If your stamina runs out, the show will fail and you’ll have to try again. Stamina can be restored through special member skills.

After the song, your performance will be assessed depending on the combo you’ve made. All nine members will also get Bond Points after a successful Live Show. Your bond deepens the most with the set Leader. Maximize Idolized Members bonds to unlock their side story. Clearing their side story will give you a Love Gem, which is the game’s premium currency. You’ll also earn EXP (experience) from successful shows. When enough EXP is acquired, your level goes up. This increases your LP and fully recovers it at the same time. There are also Song Goals, which will give you more Gold and Friend Points depending on your rank at the end of the song. Increased difficulty versions of the song will be unlocked as well. The other difficulty versions of the song have their own Song Goals so its possible to earn multiple rewards in a single song. You’ll also get new club members, even the duplicate versions of the idols you already have in your team.

The game’s visuals sticks to the official art and character designs which makes it an eye-candy for fans of the franchise or simple anime-enthusiasts alike. The game is entirely ad-free and the menu is simple but conveniently laid out, allowing users to change screens easily. The Story Mode sequences are not fully animated but the character portraits change their reactions accordingly.

The game’s music library consists of the songs released by μ's in their individual music CDs or those featured in the anime. The songs’ quality is great and fans will surely enjoy playing Live Shows while listening to the songs they love. The Story Mode is also fully voiced by the original voice actresses, giving the game a more genuine feel to it.

Love Live SIF is a great-looking game but it’s not a game from everyone. Casual players with no idea of the franchise or not a fan of the music/rhythm genre may not find the game worthwhile. However, since the game’s target market is the franchise’s large fanbase, it won’t disappoint fans.

Like any other titles that need constant connection, it will be difficult to play the game while on the go, unless you’re carrying a mobile wifi device or you have access to fast, stable internet. Great visuals, great sound/music, free to download, zero ads and engaging gameplay makes Love Live SIF a treat for any Love Live fan or players who like anime and rhythm/music games.

4.7 / 5.0
 
Review by Paul | May 16th 2014

Total Reviews: 1


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Review by GuestOct 30th 2015

Except for occasional bugs, this game is simply to best game made.

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