Idolm@ster step 2: Strip the plastic and put it in

(tags Idolm@ster, game, Xbox 360)
(originally written 2007-11-07)

Listening to lovely Chiaki Takahashi's Asuza drama CD pushed me over the edge to open the game. I am going past the title screen! "Go my way" indeed. I have already completed the training week.

Though the game looks like text and stat adventure, it's really stressful on my reflexes and my Japanese reading ability. The first prompt was to read 3 different subtitles within 5 seconds. I must admit my Japanese reading skills are better than my speaking or listening, due to my manga and gal-ge. But, I must be pretty slow compared to a native speaker/reader, because I can barely get the "right" answer. Still I got a Perfect Communication one time (get all the subtitle selections right). The reflex games use the Xbox controller's colored buttons, which I haven't yet memorized. This reminds me of Jak and the mini-games that use Square, Triangle, Cross and Circle, or even Angelic Concert. This will take some practice.

But OMG the characters are moe kawaii!!! I know that I would be clearing this game multiple times, so instead of picking characters that I know about like "Asuza" (seiyuu Chiaki Takahashi) or "Iori" (seiyuu Rie Kugimiya), I picked the first girl, "Haruka" (seiyuu Eriko Nakamura, 中村繪里子). She's optimistic and energetic. I dressed her up in a "cute & girl" yellow strapless knee-high skirt with matching sunflower hair pin and angel wing boots. Though in the audition time she was wearing her regular training clothes, she wore the fancy getup on a TV video segment. Most of the photo-snaps I took during her video really look good, but she kept on tripping for no apparent reason. WTF. Later I recieved "angel wings" so I changed to a white dress with the wings attached. Wow, my idol angel.

You can only "save" 5 pictures. WTF. :-( I'm going to have to get a video capture card like Mr. Alvin says I would.

I checked the "worldwide" records, and there are some crazy dedicated people out there, as always. I now know that there are 1000 Achievement Points in this game.

The first time I did an "Audition", I myself got nervous, which was a weird feeling. It was only my "third day" and my idol was already going to audition for something? What did she practice and when? Also, Audition seems to be the online component, where you battle your reflex skills in a convoluted game of Vocal, Visual, Dance stat grab. I made this part of the game offline only for now. I don't fully understand it yet but I suspect I'm going to be spending a lot of time Auditioning.

Yes the game is cute and all but the interactive gaming part is not very addictive or fun because I don't understand the nuances of the Audition. I bet you this is what I feared, which could be the reason I didn't want to try it out sooner. This is going to be a work-like game for me.

edit 11-11: I seem to like blogging about Idolm@ster and other topics more than playing the actual game! :-/ Tonight I'm going to start playing some, but still I gotta blog about...