Now that the game’s service has been shut down, I’ll just write my thoughts on the game. To me, it made sense to shut down the original Love Live! School Idol Festival, seeing as the game ran for nearly 10 years, and the idea of a new shine successor sounds really cool. Shutting this game down made less sense to me, and was kind of a surprise, but I guess they just want to keep running one game instead of keeping tabs on multiple projects.
Anyway, I thought the game was fine for what it was. I was actually excited at the idea of combining all characters from all 3 schools together. Kind of like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s slogan of “Everyone is here”. That introduced the potential of new and interesting character interactions. The characters and stories are just as fun as ever. They had to design new characters for Nijigasaki school, in addition to the three regular characters that won popularity user poll in Love Live! School Idol Festival. Heck, they introduced new members even as the story progressed, with 3 new characters, rounding the roster to 30. I still think all characters are fun and memorable in their own way. Even the characters I think are “the worst” are at least decent and can be entertaining. You, the player is technically also a character, displaying big time dedication to all the idols and working 24/7. Seriously, how the player character manages to tend to the needs of whopping 30 girls? Anyway, your character’s personality is preset. When going through bond stories, there are dialogue choices, but these are merely flavor text that only show one line of extra dialogue. May as well not have these, to be honest. Said bond stories were unlocked by increasing bond values for each character by putting them through the works, and as you might guess, focused on that character. There were also event stories, stories tagged to an event that unlocked as you obtained event points (or unlocked them with memory keys if you missed ‘em), typically putting 6 girls from all 3 schools in different situations, which is where character interactions shined. I also really liked stories that were more fantastical, or alternate-universe-like. Slice of life is good and all, but having fantasy elements provides a nice change of pace and makes them rather unique and interesting. Unfortunately, I did notice QA degrading over time, with more typos and other snafus, for example, in this image, the line is repeated for both the main character and one of the girls. I highly doubt that was intentional. The devs were generous enough to open all main and bond stories leading to the game’s closure. Something I can’t say for Princess Connect! Re:Dive.
The gameplay was changed from a more straightforward rhythm gameplay of Love Live! School Idol Festival to be more complex. There’s now management aspect to it, besides tapping or holding the notes, you also can switch mini-groups to appeal with them. Only three idols at the time, with unique skills and attributes. You can assign one group to be focused on score, then swap to a group focused on stamina recovery. This adds a layer of strategy and depth to the gameplay, which I can appreciate. The stages themselves can have trick notes that encourage certain builds. There’s a beauty in Love Live! School Idol Festival’s simplistic gameplay, but it did get repetitive and it’s wasn't very fun to do for the sake of it. I’m not saying this game’s rhythm gameplay is that great, but I do appreciate the added complexity. Buuut… I’m still thankful Skip Tickets existed. Skip the tedium of replaying one song multiple times and reap the rewards. Also, the autoplay function was a godsend, since I emulated the game on PC for convinience (maybe I could've mapped the keys just right, but whatever... skill issue and all that). I primarily focused on putting school idols through practice, unlocking their power-up tiles with macaroonies and such. I just liked focusing on upgrading characters, unlocking stories and just going at my own pace. There’s honestly more than just choosing characters and upgrading them, there are accessories that also can be upgraded and give a bonus to attributes, as well as a passive effect that can be activated, and putting characters through training, yield items and additional skills. Again, I admire the attempt of making the play experience fresh, making this one of the more unique rhythm games I’ve played.
Overall, I liked the game well enough, though I think I might be biased, simply because I liked the characters and stories well enough. I don’t think I’m qualified to say that it was a great game if we compare it to other mobile offerings (though to be honest, I don’t know what to compare it to), but it was, in my opinion, at least decent, and I liked to check it daily. It didn’t feel as generous compared to Love Live! School Idol Festival, but you could still scrape by. The characters are just as likeable, and the new Nijigasaki characters are mostly fun. The gameplay was made more interesting and complex, which I appreciated. It was just a chill time, y’know? I think I’ll hold some fond memories of this game, just like the other one, and I’m looking forward to what Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! will have to offer.
Also, I still think Kasumi Nakasu is objectively the best character ever ok bye
Anyway, I thought the game was fine for what it was. I was actually excited at the idea of combining all characters from all 3 schools together. Kind of like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s slogan of “Everyone is here”. That introduced the potential of new and interesting character interactions. The characters and stories are just as fun as ever. They had to design new characters for Nijigasaki school, in addition to the three regular characters that won popularity user poll in Love Live! School Idol Festival. Heck, they introduced new members even as the story progressed, with 3 new characters, rounding the roster to 30. I still think all characters are fun and memorable in their own way. Even the characters I think are “the worst” are at least decent and can be entertaining. You, the player is technically also a character, displaying big time dedication to all the idols and working 24/7. Seriously, how the player character manages to tend to the needs of whopping 30 girls? Anyway, your character’s personality is preset. When going through bond stories, there are dialogue choices, but these are merely flavor text that only show one line of extra dialogue. May as well not have these, to be honest. Said bond stories were unlocked by increasing bond values for each character by putting them through the works, and as you might guess, focused on that character. There were also event stories, stories tagged to an event that unlocked as you obtained event points (or unlocked them with memory keys if you missed ‘em), typically putting 6 girls from all 3 schools in different situations, which is where character interactions shined. I also really liked stories that were more fantastical, or alternate-universe-like. Slice of life is good and all, but having fantasy elements provides a nice change of pace and makes them rather unique and interesting. Unfortunately, I did notice QA degrading over time, with more typos and other snafus, for example, in this image, the line is repeated for both the main character and one of the girls. I highly doubt that was intentional. The devs were generous enough to open all main and bond stories leading to the game’s closure. Something I can’t say for Princess Connect! Re:Dive.
The gameplay was changed from a more straightforward rhythm gameplay of Love Live! School Idol Festival to be more complex. There’s now management aspect to it, besides tapping or holding the notes, you also can switch mini-groups to appeal with them. Only three idols at the time, with unique skills and attributes. You can assign one group to be focused on score, then swap to a group focused on stamina recovery. This adds a layer of strategy and depth to the gameplay, which I can appreciate. The stages themselves can have trick notes that encourage certain builds. There’s a beauty in Love Live! School Idol Festival’s simplistic gameplay, but it did get repetitive and it’s wasn't very fun to do for the sake of it. I’m not saying this game’s rhythm gameplay is that great, but I do appreciate the added complexity. Buuut… I’m still thankful Skip Tickets existed. Skip the tedium of replaying one song multiple times and reap the rewards. Also, the autoplay function was a godsend, since I emulated the game on PC for convinience (maybe I could've mapped the keys just right, but whatever... skill issue and all that). I primarily focused on putting school idols through practice, unlocking their power-up tiles with macaroonies and such. I just liked focusing on upgrading characters, unlocking stories and just going at my own pace. There’s honestly more than just choosing characters and upgrading them, there are accessories that also can be upgraded and give a bonus to attributes, as well as a passive effect that can be activated, and putting characters through training, yield items and additional skills. Again, I admire the attempt of making the play experience fresh, making this one of the more unique rhythm games I’ve played.
Overall, I liked the game well enough, though I think I might be biased, simply because I liked the characters and stories well enough. I don’t think I’m qualified to say that it was a great game if we compare it to other mobile offerings (though to be honest, I don’t know what to compare it to), but it was, in my opinion, at least decent, and I liked to check it daily. It didn’t feel as generous compared to Love Live! School Idol Festival, but you could still scrape by. The characters are just as likeable, and the new Nijigasaki characters are mostly fun. The gameplay was made more interesting and complex, which I appreciated. It was just a chill time, y’know? I think I’ll hold some fond memories of this game, just like the other one, and I’m looking forward to what Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! will have to offer.