Hentai_Sama! IDOLM@STER Dearly Star is coming!

As you probably have gathered from this installment's title, it's for the DS.

http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/cs/list/idolmaster/ds/product/

I've been aware of this for quite some time now. At first, I wasn't very interested in yet another watered-down handheld version, but this has made me change my mind :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b51lT6OWB_Q

Bandai Namco knows exactly what buttons to press, touche...

I always wanted to play IDOLM@STER but I never own the platform the games decide to appear on. I hate to admit this but I'm interested in the story of the trap. Surely he can still be an idol and still be male.

Reality Check said:

I hate to admit this but I'm interested in the story of the trap. Surely he can still be an idol and still be male.

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Aside from being male, he's also the cousin of Ritsuko (one of the idols in the previous games). Ritsuko helped him with his debut as a female idol. As for being a male idol, I guess he could have been, but he seems like he really wants to be a "female" idol (besides, it wouldn't really fit in with the rest of the game).

Hentai Sama said:

Aside from being male, he's also the cousin of Ritsuko (one of the idols in the previous games). Ritsuko helped him with his debut as a female idol. As for being a male idol, I guess he could have been, but he seems like he really wants to be a "female" idol (besides, it wouldn't really fit in with the rest of the game).

Click to expand...

Or perhaps it's easier to break into the industry as a female idol than a male one. Whatever the case his story interests me.

Reality Check said:

Or perhaps it's easier to break into the industry as a female idol than a male one. Whatever the case his story interests me.

Click to expand...

That may be, but I'm pretty sure the main reason this plot twist was done is to increase sales/popularity for the game. Traps are very popular among Japanese otaku right now (Idolmaster's target audience).

This game was kinda simpler version of the PSP and Xbox 360 versions of the game and features new idols...I kinda like Ai Hidaka which was voiced by Haruka Tomatsu(she's Nagi's voice actress in Kannagi and she's also in To-Love Ru)..

Oh well its coming in September 17..BTW The Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars is already available for pre-order:


http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-4jgc-71-9g-49-en-15-idolmaster-84-j-70-3gui.html

Alright, I finally got this game today and I love it so far. Playing throught it with Ryo of course.

At the start of Ryo's story, he's at school and one of his male classmates asks him to become his girlfriend. Ryo thinks this is a joke, but then his classmate says he's serious. So then Ryo freaks out, refuses, and then runs off. He later goes to see Ritsuko afterwards, and asks her if she could help him become a male idol in order to make himself more popular with women. Ritsuko reluctantly agrees to help him, and takes him to see the manager of a different idol production company. When they arrive, they find that the manager is upset because one of the female idols that was scheduled to perform couldn't make it. The manager suggests that Ritsuko perform in her place, but she doesn't want to since she's already a member of a different production company. So then Ritsuko gets the idea to have Ryo perform instead, and the manager agrees (not knowing that he's a guy). Ryo is forced to crossdress for the performance, and he's nervous about the whole thing. He manages to perform so well, that the manager asks him to become one of the new idols for the company. This is when Ryo and Ritsuko tell the manager that Ryo is really a guy. The manager thinks this is a joke at first, but then realizes that they're telling the truth. The manager then says that Ryo is so cute, that she'd be happy to accept him as a female idol and keep it a secret. Ryo eventually agrees.

sounds like a winner

Ok, so now that I've been playing this for a while longer :

It's a lot more linear than the original. I guess that was to be expected, since this one has a stronger focus on the characters and their personal stories. Pretty much everything from the original game and Live For You! is there, but downscaled and simplified. There's only 3 training minigames available, one for each of the 3 stats (visual, vocal, and dance). These are basically the same as the equivalent ones in the original game, but simplified and redesigned with the stylus in mind. The touching sequences are still there of course, and there's some new ones where you have to move a 3D model of the main character's head in a certain way with the stylus.

Idol ranks and idol levels aren't very important now. You can't pick which category to audition for, but the only thing winning an audition is good for now is to move the story forward. Also, you can't audition whenever you want. An audition is only available after going through a certain number of "important" promotion events (marked by a "!").

I'm impressed by the amount of voice acting in this game. Almost everything is fully voiced. The exceptions being the new secondary characters and the non-important promotion events. Then there's the 10 songs in the game (more like 30, since each of the 3 main characters sings each one) on top of that. The 3D dancing sequences look pretty good considering the hardware. Also the large amount of accessories and various costumes in the game, so there's quite a bit of content.

Finally, there's the network versus modes with leaderboards, which play almost exactly like L4U!, except that there's only 3 types of cheers instead of 5. Unfortunately, these modes are local wireless only.

I'm enjoying the story (at least the one for the character I'm playiing with), but I miss the more arcadey gameplay of the original. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the multiplayer was internet-based and Nintendo's online infrastructure wasn't so poor. Oh well, glad I bought my copy for half price.