This game is so good. Everything I disliked in the old im@s console games was either removed or improved dramatically in Starlit Season. They handled 29 idols together really well. This game captures the length of the franchise. 16 years later they welcomed all of us Ps back. My Japanese is terrible but it hit me hard when Haruka's 1st commu when she tells you, "Welcome home, Producer!" This game is a raising sim where you schedule your idol's stats and performance to grow to become the best idol. there are 3 parts of gameplay, There's the communication part of the game where you socialize with your idol to raise their affection to perform well in their jobs. Sorta like social links in Persona games but not really since the choice actually matter and they can get mad at you and lower their mood which affects their performance in auditions. There's the raising sim part where you have to manage time to raise stats of the idols and play minigames to improve their stats. I think the similar gameplay for this is like Princess Maker 2 and the Monster Rancher games as well as dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial. and last is the auditions, The rhythm aspect of this game is more strategic since you have to give an appeal that will give you the highest score. This is indicated by the stat values and its appeal percentage, which decreases every time you press it while the other increases. I had a blast and even if I don't understand everything due to my Japanese being terrible, and when there's stuff I do understand, it is the best console im@s game I ever played. This game has so much replay value that I still playing it. I heard that im@s 2 amazing so I'll have to try that when my Japanese improve.