The latest issue of Famitsu brings with it a multi-page feature on Bandai Namco’s The Idolmaster: Starlit Season, which takes the franchise to its logical conclusion by having characters cross over from games like Cinderella Girls, Million Live, and Shiny Colors. Part of this includes alterations to the gameplay, which will be like traditional The Idolmaster games, but with some changes.
The game’s main focus is a new special idol unit suggested by President Takaki of 765 Productions–Project Luminous. It’s an idol group that brings together idols from various other production companies, and the player is in charge of producing them in order to perform at the large-scale event called ‘Starlit Season’.
The game takes place over ten months, from March to December. Unlike previous Idolmaster games, schedules are not determined by weeks, but by days. Each season will have its own events, like Spring Night, Summer Dolphin, Halloween Autumn, and Crystal Winter respectively, and these will be trials that your idols will have to overcome in preparation for Starlit Season.
Every month, you’ll need to decide what the idols will do in order in order to prepare, such as Lessons, Stage events that increase their fans, Business that are used to earn Money, and Communication, where you can increase your bonds with the idols. By doing these activities and gaining more fans, you will succeed at the events and progress through the story.
Something that has been changed are the mini-games associated with the activities. For example, Lessons now have a mini-game that looks like a rhythm game. By succeeding, you’ll increase the amount the idols improve by.
Meanwhile for Live events, the game has a system similar to in The Idolmaster: One for All, where you have idols perform actions at specific times via button presses in order to have the live performance succeed. There are now five buttons you can press in order to have them perform actions.
The special poses that idols perform return in this game, with the added benefit of the wide range of idols you can group together, will lead to an astounding variation of poses that will liven up the stage. These poses change depending on the idols included and how many idols are present.
Finally, communication with the idols is once again key, especially considering the dream lineup of characters available. Apart from one-on-one interactions, there will also be special communication events that cross Production boundaries, such as an event that includes Anzu and Makoto. You might be able to see new sides to the idols you haven’t seen before, depending on the event.
The Idolmaster: Starlit Season will be released for the PlayStation 4 and PC in Japan in 2020. You can check out the full revealed list of idols, as well as more screenshots, in our previous post here.
