<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > to know if you're an audience before you start playing</h1>
Excluding mobile games, and not counting experimental VR games, if you only look at "orthodox" works, from the "Idol Master: Starlight Stage" on PS4 in 2017, the entire series has not produced a new work for almost 4 years. Therefore, the return of "Idol Master STARlit SEASON/ Idol Master Season" on PS4 and Steam platforms on October 14, 2021 is really exciting, which is why the game has more than 1200 reviews and a 95% positive rating in the Steam store in a short period of time.
That being said, the threshold for the Idol Master STARLIT SEASON itself still exists, so if you are a new friend, there are still some things you must know before starting the game - first of all, this essence is still a fan-oriented, niche work, which can be simply summarized as a more interactive all-age GALGAME from the perspective of gameplay, so most of the time you just need to show your aunt smile and watch the plot happily. And what auto-play plot, press Ctrl fast forward the plot, press Alt to skip and so on button settings are also very common in GALGAME, so the overall rhythm may be a little slow.
Secondly, idols and idol culture are the core of the content, you must at least have a preliminary understanding of this part, if you can get into the pit and then sincerely like it, the effect is the best, on the contrary, if you are not interested in idols, and you have no idea of understanding idol culture, then you may not be the audience of this game. Finally, music is indeed an important part of this work, there are many big-name creators who have written songs for this work, but this is not a music game, more often the player is from the perspective of the finished product appreciator, rather than playing the role of any player.
And when you have the enlightenment to enter the pit, you are faced with the problem of version selection. The 150 yuan difference between the Steam national ordinary version and the deluxe version will make many new students hesitate, but it can be said that unless you really only plan to buy it and play for a few hours to taste it, otherwise it is more cost-effective to start the deluxe version. Although the official also said that the DLC attached to the deluxe version will be sold alone, but buy early and buy late are ultimately to buy, can start at a more preferential price and why not? However, the DLC that has been added or to be added in "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" is certainly far more than those that come with the Deluxe Edition, and the series is known as "DLC Hell" is not a waste.
On the day of the debut of this work, 76 DLCs were listed, looking at this long list, many students immediately said that their heads were as big as a bucket - but this is actually the product of the official display of individual DLC, combination DLC, and full set DLC together, and there will be various relationships between inclusion and inclusion, you just need to remember to "mail sets from everyone", "stage effect sets from everyone", "Dawn Legend Xynon original costume sets", "special props set #01" These 4 DLCs can be exhausted. Because these DLCs inevitably make the wallet bleed, so everyone still does what they can, and recommend students who love "The Idol Master" deeply, or people like me who will have an extreme attack on DLC and are uncomfortable if they do not buy DLC.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > it is important to hold a fan mentality and feel the charm of idol culture</h1>
Since the 1980s, the idol industries in Japan and South Korea have flourished, continued to export culture to the world, and their influence has become more and more "all-round and multi-angle", and the semantic meaning of "idol" itself has gradually shifted. In this era, a hundred flowers of various idols impact various screens, so that most people can never go back to the past in concept - not to mention what professional idol house, even ordinary passers-by mention "idol" will think of those "AKB, J family, girls' generation, EXO, IU" and other famous handsome men and women on the stage, so now the word "idol" and historical figures who say various famous sayings and aphorisms are associated, it feels that the style of painting is completely wrong.
The reason why the "industry" is used to summarize the idol industry is because its evolution process is not different from other traditional industries in essence, it is through the continuous polishing of the production process, and finally forms an efficient assembly line, with the goal of continuously meeting the needs and outputting products that satisfy all kinds of fan groups. However, the biggest difference is that the product carrier of the idol industry is "people", so the form will be richer and more unique, all kinds of movies, TV series, songs, dances can always make people dizzy, but also will bring more enough appeal and unforgettable psychological experience, let people because of love, impulsiveness, hot head ah (?) And so on emotional effects finally willingly pay money - movie tickets, video & music website members, concert tickets, peripheral direct investment, as well as the same clothing, the same hairstyle, these more indirect expenditures, although looking at the single amount is a trickle, but can not stand the frequency of the dense, and then multiplied by the number of people is quite a bit of sand into a tower, and finally formed a huge "idol" market.
In the process of development, the market will also be constantly segmented to meet various strange needs. The shelf life of three-dimensional idols is often relatively short, basically two or three years after the peak period will be iterated, while the two-dimensional idols obviously have a longer life cycle, take the "Idol Master" Immovable C (mistaken) Tenkai Haruka and the first generation C Takasaka Hosaka Nogo of the Lala people next door to take as an example, after more than 10 years, the two people still maintain a certain degree of heat, and are still the spiritual sustenance of many idol houses. However, the two-dimensional idol is often composed of both external image and voice actor, so although the idol house uses paper as a wife, it is likely to extend the favorability to the corresponding voice actor. This also triggered a boom in voice actor idolization in the follow-up, not only the dubbing should be well matched, but also the appearance of beautiful and versatile singing and dancing - for example, my favorite Yukika Temple sister is a former Japanese voice actor who participated in "Light Voice Girl" and "My Sister Is So Cute!" " and many other works, after his comeback from work, he participated in the game adaptation "The Idol Master" in South Korea. KR: Chasing Dreams", participated in the Real Girls Project group, and later debuted in South Korea as a solo singer in 2020, focusing on the CITYPOP style and became famous.
In addition, Vtuber virtual idol is also a trend that has to be mentioned today, not to mention Jiaran and Jiaxin candy, even the industry's big take Akimoto Yasushi has long played a 22/7 virtual idol combination, and the famous SM entertainment has also made a real + virtual aespa girl group in 2020, and the popularization of the arbitrage people has become more and more intense and even has the signs of becoming a general trend. Do not look at the regular army of large companies, generally speaking, the appearance of the real person behind the skin jacket may not be up to standard, or for various reasons, I cannot appear in the real image, but after putting on a layer of two-dimensional skin and then making a voice changer, it also plays the role of an idol. The threshold of the idol industry has been greatly lowered, but it still takes great talent, hard work and luck to climb to the top of the pyramid.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > idol themes are rare, and the producer plot is interesting</h1>
Of course, just for the sake of the game, understanding idols and idol culture does not need to be so deep, the so-called fan mentality is to let you like the characters in "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON", so that you can have a better sense of substitution, rather than really becoming an idol house. In today's idol popularity, pure idol theme game works are still rare in the market, more is to meet with idols and then fiery love and other clichés, and then subdivided into the producer, idol cultivation category is very, very rare, but also shows how precious the "Idol Master" series experience is.
In this game, we play the big brother of the producer who returned to 765 from abroad - this game limits the gender of the producer to male, so we want Lily to expand (?). Students may be disappointed. After setting the name, our players will be called "XXXX" P, this P letter is derived from the initials of the English producer "Producer", and the famous artist Tomohisa Yamashita "Yamayama P" "Pink" is not the same thing at all. This time, the purpose of our players' return is also very simple, that is, to lead the idols belonging to a number of offices to the "Star Glory Dome" and strive to make the girls become japan's top idols.
Although the plot looks unremarkable, if you know the Japanese and Korean idol industry better, you will find it realistic and easy to substitute - for example, the 29 people who appeared in "Idol Master STARlit SEASON" this time look spectacular, but they can only be considered medium in reality. This game is centered on 13 people in 765 honkai, which in reality is only the number of a squad. Groups like AKB and the various 48 series groups that spin off are often dozens or hundreds of people, which is a benchmark against the size of the entire firm and the entire idol of the "Idol Master" series. Of course, the real group will also include a large number of informal members, in Japan called graduate students in Korea called trainees, generally in the dance and other occasions these graduate students, trainees have the opportunity to appear, if you want to emerge must pass the form of selection meetings and so on, and become a real idol is even more difficult. Only in this game, this process is slightly simplified, everyone is already an idol, but there is a distinction between candidates, and the choice is completely left to the player.
The joint participation plan of 346 and 283 firms is also a very common setting in reality, and everyone concentrates on the most shining idols to promote them, which helps to enhance the competitiveness of the group and quickly gather popularity. Although the origins are different, everyone is still moving towards the same goal of "realizing dreams and making big red and red". Of course, there will definitely be differences in this process, for example, the operation will definitely be intentionally or unintentionally inclined to the members of their own firm, and it is not uncommon for the same team to successfully use various means to dump each other, in reality this is something that belongs to the dark side of the entertainment industry, and the performance in the game will be more artistic, considering the psychological endurance of such processing is still necessary.
The "Star Glory Dome" is obviously also set up in reference to various dome gymnasiums in Japan. The most famous of these is the Tokyo Dome Stadium, which can hold concerts at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, which is a proper first-line and big thing to have the qualifications, and the so-called ultimate dream for idols. Just like AKB often mentioned this in the early days, the well-known "1830m" refers to the distance from the AKB Theater in Akihabara to the Dome, a short distance they walked for 7 years to achieve their goal, "1830m" is also used as the title of the fourth album, which can be said to be very inspirational.
The existence of these elements full of visual sense is enough to immerse many new students, including me, and start the road of producers - although I myself know the IP of the entire "Idol Master", the animation has long seen various tracks and heard them, but this "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" is indeed my first time to play the series of works, and the first experience of the game that officially entered the pit feels quite good.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > personally participate in cultivating idols and experience various moments together</h1>
Although the producer has a lot of say in the Japanese and Korean idol industry, the key to everything lies in the idol itself. As the saying goes, it is difficult for a woman to cook without rice, even if you draw a cake for fans, you must first plant wheat, and if you don't plant wheat, it is basically a pure fraud. So from the first step, how do we determine that a person has the potential to become an idol? What kind of scouting, self-registration, industry recommendation and other means are actually not important, talent, hard work and enthusiasm are the most critical - incidentally, in the "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON", leaving aside the 13 people of 765, the other 15 people are from the recommendation, only Ao Hollow White is our own excavation on the street.
Specifically looking at talent, the plasticity of the appearance and the appearance of the face is the first in any generation, ugly or the kind of ugly that cannot be changed by how to modify it, basically don't think about the traditional idol road, or go to be a picker or find a factory to work. Although singing and dancing belong to the basic business ability category, talent is equally important, which is a weapon that can help ordinary people stand out from their competitors. Of course, there are other aspects of talent is also very good, such as AKB classic case evil idol refers to the original Li Nai, obviously the appearance is very general, there are many more prominent than her group, singing and dancing is like that, and she also touched the bottom line of the orthodox idol All kinds of black material continuously, but the total election she can take the first many times, is the popularity is unmatched, I think this is inseparable from her innate sense of variety.
Effort is the only way for you to make up for your shortcomings and reach your ability above the average. There are many idols in the industry who are halfway out of the family, such as Park Hyun-eun, the lead singer of the Korean fifth-generation girl group STAYC, who recently became a hit with a song "STEREOTYPE", she was born as a child star due to her father being an actor, starred in and participated in many TV series, and was also admitted to the theater performance major of the Department of Public Performance and Video Creation of Central University in South Korea. As a result, this sister somehow ran to be an idol, although she also went through the trainee stage, but according to the reason, her singing and dancing is definitely not as good as others who have practiced child skills since childhood, but in the MV performance is not inferior to anyone, especially singing is to inject soul into the whole song. I watched her and STAYC's a lot of practice VLOG, and I think it's inseparable from the effort. When we visit idols in the "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" game, we can always see them practicing, which is the same reason.
Finally, there's enthusiasm, which I think is more important to people with idol potential than anything else. Can you resist all kinds of temptations in the cardamom years, including the love temptation of handsome men and beautiful women? Can you attend dozens of handshakes a year, shake hands with hundreds of people at each handshake, and smile in the face of all kinds of fans or all kinds of unexpected situations brought about by black fans? Can you endure extremely unfair brokerage appointments, only 3-4 hours of sleep a day to catch up with various announcements, and constantly hone your skills in your free time? Idols carry the dreams of themselves and their fans, carry unimaginable physical and psychological pressures, not only on stage but in every moment, all of which need to be supported by enthusiasm.
Unlike the real producers who are "on top" and have a complete Staff team, in the process of idol growth in the game, our producers have played a more meticulous role as a father and mother. I think this kind of condensed perspective is very meaningful, and it will undoubtedly be more attractive to players by integrating into the daily life of idols and paying attention to their every moment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > animated graphic performance with unforgettable music</h1>
If Bandai Namco launched the "Idol Master" TV anime, I don't think the experience would be much different from "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON". From the beginning of the plot is a variety of gorgeous animations, such as our rival firm 761 announced the establishment of the new idol group "DIAMANT" when the press conference, the opponent idol sister animation style 3D modeling highlights the sense of refinement, and the background wall behind the bokeh is just right to render the atmosphere, although the entire composition does not win with complexity, but at first glance it will give people a sense of fit consistent with reality. In other daily scenes, the background is also pure 2D animation style, and the integration of characters and scenes is excellent, and there will be no sense of abruptness.
In terms of stage performance, the same is the use of 3D to highlight the 2D look, of course, you can adjust the angle of the camera, so that the C girl is more prominent or something. But if you just look at the still screenshots, the image that is extracted from the TV animation that is playing must be flawless. This experience is not uncommon in its own mobile games and competitive mobile games, but it can be said to be quite novel for PC players. The stage is of course the most attractive place, the little sisters who wear the performance costume are completely different from the impression of private clothes on weekdays, and the new students are given the look of "this little sister looks good and seems to be able to push", so everyone can use the MV to attract friends into the pit or something.
The cutscene aspect of this work is also worthy of a big book, the production team walks the simple style to incorporate a lot of icons, graphics and patterns to decorate, for example, to visit the idol and the like is our producer's foot from the left side of the screen to the right, and supplemented by a yellow right arrow and a variety of similar mobile phone patterns of blocks, various lines and stars, that sense of fashion is highlighted in an instant, very much in line with the concept of idols leading the trend. Of course, there are many similar applications, such as rotating clocks, stars occupying a screen, and occasionally comic-style cutscenes, which are very much in line with the minimalist aesthetic.
Speaking of music, it needs to be emphasized here again that the orthodox work of "The Idol Master" is not a music game, although the stage part does have the interaction with the player's keys, the music is really great, I am also attracted by the music and have a complete willingness to enter the pit, but we define the music game in the narrow sense and fully consider the chain of contempt (?). ) can only be excluded. However, ordinary players have no need to dwell on these things, and it is good to hear that it does not matter what type of him is. "Hotel Moonside" is my biggest impression of the "Idol Master" series before, this song has been on my playlist for many years, basically every year to take it out and listen to it several times a year. This time, "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" also has many excellent composers to write songs, such as the old acquaintance of the series, the famous composer Shen Qianxiao has participated in it, and the overall style is still relatively energetic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > meet all the expectations of fans, and fix small problems perfectly</h1>
If you are an idol house or interested in idol culture, then "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" can provide you with a good opportunity to participate in this long journey with idols from the perspective of a producer, and make your dreams shine into reality through little by little efforts. From the debut stage to the Star Shine Dome, when you watch the girls stand on the stage with a shining posture to show their charm, the identity boundaries seem to blur, and you will feel the heartfelt joy for them like fans. "It's great to meet" Under such exclamations, players have witnessed the unparalleled appeal of "The Idol Master" and can no longer extricate themselves.
Of course, there are still three small problems with the current version of "The Idol Master". One is the problem of screen settings, after I first entered the game, the resolution was limited to 1366 * 768, and there were only two options for window and borderless window, and there was no way to adjust to full screen. Later, after tossing and turning for half a day and restarting the game 7-8 times, it was found that DirectX11 and DirectX12 were at work, and after tuning to DirectX11, there was finally a 1080P resolution and full-screen option, and then turned back to DirectX12 also had 1080P options but still had no full-screen options. I still hope that the production team can fix the bugs on the screen settings as soon as possible, after all, the first impression is still very important for many new students.
The second is the problem of optimization, my 2060 graphics card in the 1080P full height of the screen will still appear when the character dialogue slows down the phenomenon, looking at the wives "left hand right hand a slow motion", although infrequent but still quite affect the experience, "Idol Master STARLIT SEASON" is not a forced high configuration of the work, the official recommended configuration is i7-7700 and 1070, so still hope that the production team can be optimized in the follow-up.
The third is that the dubbing quality of the characters also seems to be a little problematic, and some of the characters in some scenes are too small compared to others, and sometimes there is a bit of a mushy feeling, which may be caused by the voice actor relying on the microphone too far or too close when speaking, and then processing the sound source without thoroughly modifying the sound. Although such a small problem has passed, I still hope that the production team can repair it, after all, orthodox idols have always been synonymous with perfection, and the work should be so (wrong). So keep up the good work, producers!
Overall rating: 9/10
Recommended audience: Fans of "The Idol Master", two-dimensional idol house
The article is very long thanks for watching ~