Title: Idol Master Million Live Theater Days
Genre: Rhythm Game with Visual Novel elements
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Release Date: June 28, 2017
Where to Get: See Below:
Itunes (Japan Only): https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/…
Google Play Store (May also be Japan Only – not Sure) https://play.google.com/…
How to Get: You can check out my review of Aikatsu Photo on Stage to learn how to get free Japanese Itune items by creating a free Japanese Itunes account. In Aikatsu Photo on Stage, I was unable to help android users locate the game as it does not run on Bluestacks (or any rooted devices). I do not know if the same holds true for Idolmaster Theater Days as well. If so Android users may need a VPN Tunneling Service, which I know nothing about. Sorry.
Also in the case of this game when registering for a new account, be sure you select Japan as your country. This cannot be changed later. You can leave “English” as the language, but this only affects emails Bandai will send to you, and does not affect the language actually in the game – which is sadly only available in Japanese. Later, if Bandai ever releases the game in North America and in English you will have to make a new Bandai account to play the English versions of the game. But we’ve never received a single IdolM@ster game, despite success of their Love Live series which is very similar, so I don’t think the chances of English localization are very high! 🙁
Overall: 66/80 83% B “Very Good Game for Girls”
Overview: 10/10 – I have a new obsession, as anyone who follows me on Instagram may have noticed this past weekend. Idol Master Million Live Theater Days may just be my new favorite mobile game of all time. It takes what I enjoy about Love Live, Aikatsu Photo on Stage, and Idol Master Cinderella Girls and smooshes them all together.
Graphics: 10/10 – The best part about Theater Days is that the girls are rendered in Live 2D just like Ensemble Stars, Dream Girlfriend, and countless other anime games. This technology allows for very lifelike anime renders. While 3D would feel stiff and 2D would feel flat, Live 2D finds a balance between these two. I can’t get enough of these Live 2D games!! In fact I wish to see the technology used even more, not just on mobile games, but PC and Console Games as well. I don’t know if this technology was used on Nekopara, but the result is VERY similar. The models look more clean than the cel shading technologies used in Catherine and School Days. Live 2D is the best thing to ever happen to anime games. More companies need to take notice.
Not only do they look great, the girls appear on stage as full bodies, not just a tiny face in a circle like in Love Live School Idol Festival. Aikatsu Photo on Stage also has full bodied — but static — images (which kinda “bounced” up and down at times on the screen). But here, in Theater Days, thanks to Live 2D, the girls dance and sing on stage with unique dance routines choreographed for each song and each singer; and it’s just so incredibly cuuuute!!! I can’t stop playing, watching, and taking like a bazillion screen shots, seriously! Just check out my instagram account lol.
Music 10/10 – Aikatsu Photo on Stage seemed lacking in the quality of the music compared to Love Live, but Idol Master Million Live Theater Days is at least as good, if not even better, in music when compared to Love Live. The songs are seriously addictive. I really like some of the earliest tracks like “Brand New Theater” and “Sentimental Venus”, but all of the songs I’ve heard have been good. I’ve played and watched the music videos (in game after beating the song at least once), over and over, all weekend. The music is so good, and the girls’ dancing is so well timed with the music. It feels so real, like you really are at a concert. The lights on the stage, the audience, the movement, the emotions, omg. It’s indescribable. There’s also excellent voice acting in the story scenes as well.
Gameplay 8/10 – And like Aikatsu Photo on Stage and Idol Master Cinderella Girls you can dressup your girls in different outfits. I haven’t figured out how to do this yet. I’ve won, what looks like white, wedding dress, looking rewards from several songs, but can’t figure out how to use them or equip them. But I do see that we can change the uniforms for each member of our party, I just don’t have anything showing up when I go to this menu to change their outfits, except the starting red/white/blue outfits they are given at the beginning of the game. Perhaps the white dresses are materials or tokens to draw new outfits or something else useful and related to outfits. I just know there are costume changes, and the costume changes will be represented on stage when playing or watching / listening to the songs.
There are also visual novel like elements to the game. I can’t read Japanese, but luckily there is only 1 response / option to select. I’ve only found 2 instances where I’ve had to make a “choice”. The first time was when choosing which starter card I wanted. I picked the girl in the pink sweater with side pony tail. The other time that the game asked me to make a choice was shortly after that, when a new girl is introduced, she has very short hair, sometimes in short pigtails with red ribbons and a green dress. — I think the main girl I had drawn already was jealous of the new girl, I think based on their facial expressions / interactions. My “main girl” and 2 other “starter girls” were in another room talking about something/one when the “new girl” overheard them, and they apologized and got embarrassed. I was presented an option, probably something encouraging the girls to get along. Whatever I picked seemed to surprise the girls. Story went on for a bit, then they all sang together, after the performance, my “main girl” came to me and asked something of me. There were 2 options, and the one I picked seemed to make her happy / satisfy her a bit.
There will be other chances to interact with your girls, any time you are logged in, you can move around different rooms, and find your girls randomly going about their day. Sometimes they will have an “!” or a “…” bubble above their heads, when tapping on a girl, you can listen to what they have to say, which usually doesn’t even require any feedback from you – and rewards you with XP and the rare/summoning currency.
You rank up as a producer by completing these “quests” and of course by putting on live performances which is where the majority of the gameplay comes from. You assemble a team of 6 girls. They have different attributes such as Princess, Fairy, and Angel. The song attributes change every day. For example, yesterday the songs wanted Princess, and Today they want Fairy. On my first day of play they wanted “All” which I guess would require a balanced approach. You can have several different teams built and saved up and switch freely between them. It also seems you can have it build the teams for you by hitting the pink “recycle” looking icon, and then choosing the attribute you want. For example, Princess would autofill your highest scoring Princess cards into the team. This doesn’t mean that only Princess members would appear, because you might have a fairy or angel who has high Princess points too. This probably all sounds familiar if you’ve played other titles such as Love Live School Idol Festival.
When playing the actual song, you can choose different difficulty settings. The easiest difficulty features just 2 “bubbles” to tap. The medium difficulty features 4 bubbles. and the highest difficulty I believe has 6 bubbles.
These bubble “holders” are located across the bottom of your screen. As the song goes on, rainbow white shiny “pearls” will fall down the screen towards one of the bubbles. Tap the bubble at just the right time to gain the most points and chain “perfect” time attacks for bonus points. Once again, very similar to Love Live.
Unlike Love Live. there’s a few new game mechanics, a large floating butterfly “bubble” will appear to give huge bonus points when timed correctly. Other bubbles require sliding/gliding your finger to “follow” the bubble’s path, or tapping and holding, or tapping repeatedly to correctly receive points from that bubble.
The other big draw to these games is the Waifu collecting aspect, and this game is no exception. You can draw cards using diamonds or pink coins. The diamonds have a higher chance to yield Super Rare or Super Super Rare girls to add to your team. The diamonds is the “paid” currency, but there are ways to earn it free in game.
So this all sounds lovely, so why did I take 2 points off? There are no events yet – but keep in mind, the game just launched a few days ago in Japan. In Love Live, there’s almost constant events which allow you to play against or with other players to earn limited edition super rare cards. Nothing like that has happened yet in Theater Days. If they up the rate of events, then Gameplay would probably be a 10/10 too!
Also while playing, your stamina drains so you may find yourself having to wait, or pay, for it to refill. No different from Love Live or the other rhythm games. Those are the only downsides I’ve seen so far!
Story: 5/10 – There is a story, but until they release this game in English (which will probably never happen) I can’t say if it’s a good or bad story. Therefore, a medium score seems the most fair here, given that I’m reviewing this game for my readers, who are also, largely, English speaking gamers.
Characters: 5/10 – The characters are cute! I think I may have seen some from other Idol Master games. But since I’m missing out on their backstories, I still can’t enjoy the characters to their fullest, though I do have some favorites already just based on looks and voice actresses.
Replay Value: 8/10 – No Waifu, No Laifu! lol. The game needs some more events, and to continue to release new girls, new clothes, and new songs, as long as those things continue to happen, this is a game I will be playing and recommending for years to come. In my opinion, it’s the best rhythm game ever of all time! A Must Play Mobile Masterpiece, and a shame we will probably never see an English version of this game.
Geeky: 5/5 – Mind Blowing Graphics. Best Graphics ever for a mobile game. So lifelike. It’s like anime has become a reality. Also excellent voice acting and music tracks.
Sweetie 5/5 – Adorable – collect and dressup cute anime girls and watch them sing and dance on screen.
Overall: 66/80 83% B “Very Good Game for Girls”
One note: I think the songs may change slightly – or I’m imagining things? based on which characters you have in your team when performing the song. For example, the first song has a part, where I think, the girls are saying their names and throwing their hands in a circular high five like cheer shape. Obviously there’s more than 6 different girls that could be in your party, and I think they would have used vocals for different names here. — Also, I think… but could be REALLY wrong …. each girl’s voice actress has recorded each “part” of the song…. because… not only does “which girls” you have effect the sound of the song, but “where those girls are” also affects how the song sounds and who gets more time in the spot light and who sings which lines. — My time with the game is short thus far, and I could be imagining this entirely. That’s why I did not factor it into my review score above – however, if it is in fact true, it’s fascinating and makes me want to try all the combinations I can make for each song by choosing and arranging my girls in different ways.
