Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

The Idolm@ster 2 is a Music Rhythm and management game by Namco, The game involves you being the producer of 765 Pro an idol production company. The goal of the game is the get your idols to the top of the charts and to gain them fans. With fans and comes money which you can use to buy new costumes and accessories for your idols. Over the 54 weeks you have the chance to release 5 singles into the record charts these are the songs you will perform in events and gain you money. At the end of the game there is an awards show which unlocks certain trophies if you were able to get so many fans or so many record sales.

The Management

The game is 54 weeks long and week gives you 3 action points. You are given a map of Japan which is split into 6 areas. The 6 areas have different events in which you can participate in to gain fans and money. There are different types of events live shows which will take up a week's activities these will gain you fans and money , there are also festivals where you have to go up against another band and involves beating the other idols scores which are on the opposite stage to you. The last performance option is auditions which are hold every so often and gain you a larger fan base across Japan if you pass. The none performance side involve interviews which you can send a single idol to an interview or game show. It will ask you a question on Japanese geography getting it right will make the idol happy and increase the bond you have with your group. The smaller events in the game are the lessons and shopping.

Lessons

In the Idolm@ster your group will have a level this will increase your idols score in performance and increases the amount of points you get in each section of the performance which I'll get into in a minute. There are 3 lessons singing, dancing and visual these are also the 3 stats that can be increased to increase your level. Singing lessons involve pressing the right button as it passes a certain stop pressing the right buttons in order will increase a bar at the top which increases how much your stats go up. The singing can be sped up to get extra sets of notes in to get a perfect. Dancing is probably the most fun to do The dancing involves you having to press their feet either left or right using L1 and R1, a list of steps will come up and you have you have to press them in time with the beat. The final lesson is visual the 3 girls will stand in front of you and a colour box will be at the bottom with lots of smaller boxes of different colour flying around you above you have to press the 3 boxes above to pass the round and the points.

The performances

The three stats Vocals, Dancing and visual are used during the performances. During the performance the Girls will dance and there will be 3 circles at the bottom one for each of the 3 stats the higher that stat the more points you get. The circles will fill up you have to press the corresponding button in time for the beat to get points. The more points you get will fill up a bar at the top when it fills you can press R1 to get a special which earns you a lot of points.

Keeping your idols happy

The Idolm@ster 2 is hard to keep 3 girls happy and with your task being in Japanese it even harder. Every morning the 3 girls you picked will walk in and say good morning. You then get to talk to an idol which gives you the option of 2 responses getting the right one will make them happy and increase performance and saying something wrong will upset them. If you keep upsetting them it can darken the mood in the group and decrease performance and can even end up with your idol not turning up to work. To increase their mood you need to get the write responses which involve guessing it's a real social minefield some times. There are few times where you have to give responses during interviews, mornings, evenings before going on stage and a characters story parts. Having a great relationship with your idols will increase their affection for you, as this increase in level the more times you can use a special move in a performance which increase points. You can increase the mood with your idols by getting the auditions, taking them shopping or giving them the day off.

Graphics

The graphics are great and very anime styled, the costumes look great and the animation is also great I couldn't see any problems or glitches. There aren't any cut scenes but the game does PV's which are video of your idols performance. The dances are very well animated and have been done for solo performances a duet a trio or a five member performance which have been animated very well.

Music and sound

The songs music is very good as it is a music game but only offers about 20 tracks but there are more available as DLC which I'll get on to in a bit. The in game music is great and not too repetitive. The voice acting and singing is superb and you can tell the differences in the songs depending on who is singing.

Summary

The game is fantastic and is one of my highlights of 2011. The music is great and their funs to play after you get the hang of it. There are nine idols to choice which isn't all of the idols in the idolm@ster the other three are in a rival band but can join as guests if you beat them. There are a lot of costumes and they're pretty awesome, most of them are different for each idol which adds some difference to your plays. All in all its really enjoyable but there is a huge but and a big moan with the game. The game is extremely expensive, I got mine for £70, it is usually £80 if your in the US you can expect to pay about $100-120 for the game. The second big complaint I have is DLC its extremely expensive for an extra costume its 1500Yen which is about £12 ($15) for a single costume so the DLC is extremely expensive to tell the everything to do with the game including the game is expensive.

Its a great game and I really enjoyed it but you've got to ask yourself if you want to spend that much money on it. So I'd recommend trying the Demo on the Japanese Playstation network first.


+ Great game play
+ Great Characters
+ Performances are fun to play
+ Great Music

- The Games a social minefield
- Game is really expensive
- DLC is a rip off