(often abbreviated as ''LLSIF'' or ''Sukufesu'') is a Japanese
rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...
series. The original game, developed by KLab and published by
Bushiroad
is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, publisher of mobile apps and games, promotional items and many other venues, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. ...
's Bushimo, was first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and June 8, 2013 for
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
.
The game was
free-to-play
Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
with an
in-app purchase
Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
system. It featured songs and characters from the series ''
Love Live! School Idol Project
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. It is the first multimedia project in the ''Love Live!'' franchise. The project revolves aro ...
'' and ''
Love Live! Sunshine!!
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project is the second series of the ''Love Live!'' franchise and is a spin-off sequel of '' ...
'', newly introduced girls, and stories that were not included in other media in the ''
Love Live!
is a Japanese multimedia project created by Hajime Yatate and Sakurako Kimino and co-produced by Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa through ASCII Media Works; Bandai Namco Music Live through music label Lantis (company), Lantis; and animation studio ...
'' franchise.
The English localization was released worldwide on May 11, 2014, for iOS and Android devices. It also was localized in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, and
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. At the end of September 2016, the English version added Korean support, and the two servers merged. The Traditional Chinese version, which was operated by Mobimon in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, also merged with the English version on May 18, 2017. In February 2021 it was announced that the worldwide server would be merging with the Japanese server, which was completed in June 2021. The changes included the removal of Korean and Traditional Chinese language from the server.
On January 11, 2016, the cast of ''Love Live! Sunshine!!'' live streamed a special announcement regarding Aqours' members joining the app in July 2016. In the game, Aqours received original main and side stories, playable songs, and fully voiced cards. KLab added R rarity cards for each Aqours members on January 31, 2016, though they were only voiced after the official release in July. In June 2016, 2 Aqours members (Chika and Riko) were featured in an event for the first time. The group officially joined the game on July 5, 2016, along with a new card rarity and other major updates.
An
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
version of the game titled ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity'' (developed and published by
Square Enix
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...
) was released on December 6, 2016, in Japan,
and a
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
port was released in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, Japan, and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
on March 24, 2021.
Another spin-off game titled ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars
(often abbreviated as ''LLSIF'' or ''Sukufesu'') is a Japanese rhythm game series. The original game, developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo, was first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 for iOS and June 8, 2013 for Android (ope ...
'' was released on September 26, 2019, in Japan and February 25, 2020, worldwide. It stars the girls from ''
Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
is a Japanese multimedia spin-off project from the ''Love Live!'' series and its game series ''Love Live! School Idol Festival''. It was first introduced in 2017 as "Perfect Dream Project" and was initially created as part of the game ''Lov ...
,'' with μ's and Aqours also being prominently featured within the game.
A sequel to the original game, titled ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!'' (officially abbreviated as ''SIF2'') has been announced at the franchise's 2022 thanksgiving festival. Along with previous groups—μ's, Aqours, and Nijigasaki High School Idol Club—
Liella!
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by Kadokawa Corporation, music label Lantis, and animation studio Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise). The project is the fourth installment in the ''Love Live!'' franchise after '' ...
will also make their appearance.
The global version is also under development.
''Love Live! School Idol Festival''s game service was shut down on March 31, 2023, and will be succeeded by ''SIF2''.
Gameplay
The game had two gameplay modes—"Story" and "Live"— which featured all nine members of the idol groups
μ's
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. It is the first multimedia project in the ''Love Live!'' franchise. The project revolves ar ...
and
Aqours
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project is the second series of the ''Love Live!'' franchise and is a spin-off sequel of '' ...
. Players acquired a score in the rhythm "Live" mode, in which they could tap circles at the proper time in order to receive a high score that can be placed on the leader board. These songs were divided into 4 difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. Another difficulty called "Master" featured songs that were only available for a limited time and included rhythm icons where players had to swipe their fingers on the screen during some songs.
In "Story" mode, the player worked as μ's' and Aqours' helper and managed their training and schedule. The mode was full-voiced with all of the idols' respective voice actresses. The players interacted with the girls as they lived their lives as school idols.
The game had several currencies:
*LP: Stamina necessary for doing a Live. One song could use up to 25 LP depending on the song's difficulty. LP could be refilled by using one Love Gem, by using "Sugar Cubes" and "Sugar Pots" obtained via Special Rewards, by waiting for it to be refilled (1LP per 6 minutes), or by raising the account level or "Rank". Every 2 ranks, the player's maximum LP increased by one point. When the player reached rank 300, their maximum LP would take 3 ranks to increase by one point instead of 2. Refilling the LP or leveling up would cause the LP to be overflowed, which meant that players may sometimes end up with more LP than their account would normally be able to have.
*Gs: The app's in-game currency, Gs could be used for leveling up or idolizing an idol, or buying temporary stat increases during some events.
*Friend points: Points that could be acquired by having other players help during a Live. Friend points could be used to scout N, SSR and R rarity cards.
*Love Gems: The app's in-game currency which could be bought through
in-app purchase
Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
. It could be used for refilling the entire LP bar, member scouting (''gacha'' pull), or continuing a failed Live.
*Scouting Ticket: Besides Love Gems, the other way to scout a rare member through the "Honor Scouting" system was by using a scouting ticket. There were three types of tickets: green regular tickets, blue scouting coupons, and purchased scouting tickets that guaranteed cards of a certain rarity.
*Stickers: If an R, SR, SSR, or UR rarity card was used for practice or deleted, the player would gain a sticker. These stickers could be used for idolizing a card or purchasing other cards or scouting coupons from the Sticker Shop. Stickers' rarity were divided into 4 types that depended on the rarity of the used cards. Cards that doesn't feature the girls from either μ's or Aqours, and promotional and skill cards wouldn't give stickers.
Cards and team formation
Players could form 9-person units. The girls in the formation were called "members". Players acquired new members by doing Lives or scouting through "Student Scouting" that used the ''
gacha
Gacha may refer to:
* Gashapon, a kind of toy that originated in Japan which is sold inside a plastic capsule. Commonly sold in vending machines
**Gacha game, video games that are monetized via a concept that is similar to gashapon. Comparable to L ...
'' system. Two same cards could be combined and they would be "Idolized," which unlocked new card art and a side story gave a Love Gem. Each member had their own card level and skill that could be leveled up by doing a "Practice", which involved sacrificing one or more cards to increase the level of another one. In order to increase skill level, cards that were "practiced" had to have the same skill. Increasing skill and card levels improved the scores players could obtain in "Lives". New Aqours and regular members were added every time an in-game event has ended and μ's cards are added halfway through events.
Members cards were divided into 5 rarities: N (normal), R (rare), SR (super rare), SSR (special super rare), and UR (ultra rare). Each rarity (except N-rarity) had a different set of leader skills (passive) and active skills that affect the Lives scores. Cards and songs were divided into attributes that represent each card's idol type: Smile, Cool, and Pure. Using the same attribute members to do Lives of the same attribute song gave a higher score.
The original characters added in the game were featured in the N-rarity cards. There were 54 characters with 9 girls represent 6 different schools:
;Seiran High School
*
Shizuku Ōsaka
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Chitose Bridge High School
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Shinonome Academy
*
*
*
*
*
*
Kanata Konoe
*
*
*
;Touou Academy
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Shion Girls' Academy
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Y.G. International Academy
*
*
*
*
*
Emma Verde
*
*
*
*
These characters were not voiced, but Emma Verde (previously only named Emma), Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku Osaka were promoted to become part of the
Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
is a Japanese multimedia spin-off project from the ''Love Live!'' series and its game series ''Love Live! School Idol Festival''. It was first introduced in 2017 as "Perfect Dream Project" and was initially created as part of the game ''Love ...
and were each given voice actresses. Fujimaru designed the new characters.
Besides the regular cards, the game also included "promotional cards" and "skill up cards". Promotional cards could be obtained free as a bonus from purchasing ''Love Live!'' merchandise, clearing quests, purchasing through Sticker Shop, scouting using Gs, or simply logging in to the game. Regardless of rarity, promotional cards had relatively low stats and leader skill effects. They also didn't give stickers when practiced or deleted. The cards were usually pre-idolized, which meant that players could not idolize the card for different art. μ's and Aqours' respective rival groups (A-Rise and Saint Snow), the groups' younger selves, and the girls from Nijigasaki High School are also featured as fully voiced promotional cards.
A skill up card was used to level up the skill of a card. It couldn't be idolized or used in a Live. These cards featured characters around the main groups such as the girls' mothers, school friends and teachers, and even animals. These cards could be obtained by logging in, special box scouting, in-game event rewards, or purchasing a limited time sale pack.
In-game events
Every 15 days, an in-game event with a total of 1 UR rarity card as a reward was held. Each event ran for around 10 days with a 5-days break. The UR rarity card was obtainable by collecting event points and competing with other players through event points ranking. Reward included Gs, Love Gems, and skill-up cards.
The game had 6 type of events:
;
:Players played an event-exclusive song to get the event points. The song required Tokens which are collected by playing songs. Sometimes, the event also featured a short story that was previously featured in the franchise's novel series ''School Idol Diary''.
;
:4 players competed with each other to get the highest score from a randomly-chosen song.
;
:Players could play up to three songs in a row and could use stat increases to improve their score and/or Live prize. Some stat increases would appear randomly from in-game friends.
;
:Players could play up to 5 songs and receive the accumulated prize at the end of the challenge. μ's members would appear and give random ability increases. If 3 members with same sub-unit, school year, and/or wear same uniform appeared, a specific mission would appear. Clearing the mission would give the players an additional prize.
;
:Players cleared Live songs to unlock Aqours and μ's side stories and cleared missions while "taking a stroll" around the event map. Live songs also gave 'souvenirs' which players could exchange for friend points, event SR rarity cards, and in-game backgrounds.
;
:Worked like Score Match, but instead of competing against each other, the event required 4 players to work together in clearing missions by reaching certain scores or combos. Players' scores were determined by how much they contributed. While in score mission they were ranked from highest to the lowest score, combo mission would always display anyone with "Full Combo" as the first place(s).
Collaboration event
In 2019, the Japanese server of ''School Idol Festival'' held its first collaboration event outside the ''Love Live!'' franchise. The collaboration event with mobile
TCG, ''
Shadowverse
''Shadowverse'' is a digital collectible card game developed and published by Cygames. It was released free-to-play for iOS and Android devices in June 2016. macOS and Windows versions were released in October 2016.
''Shadowverse'' employs an an ...
'', was held in both of the games (September 20–30 within the ''School Idol Festival'' app). Between the 9 girls of Aqours, Yoshiko Tsushima was chosen as representative through fan votes. The collaboration campaign includes a new song, "Deep Resonance" that was included in the group's 4th single, collaboration SSR cards of the group, a limited UR card for Yoshiko, as well as login bonuses.
A ''
Code Geass
, often referred to simply as ''Code Geass'', is a Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise. It was directed by Gorō Taniguchi and written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, with original character designs by Clamp. Set ...
'' x ''School Idol Festival'' collaboration event was announced in March 2022 as a part of the game's 9th anniversary campaign. Event reward included UR card Chika Takami in Ashford Academy uniform.
Service termination
On January 31, 2023, ''SIF'' Japanese server, worldwide server, and simplified Chinese server officially announced to terminate the game service on March 31, 2023. The game will be succeeded by ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!''.
''Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!''
The successor to ''School Idol Festival'' was announced at the franchise's 2022 thanksgiving festival. Along with previous groups—μ's, Aqours, and Nijigasaki High School Idol Club—
Liella!
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by Kadokawa Corporation, music label Lantis, and animation studio Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise). The project is the fourth installment in the ''Love Live!'' franchise after '' ...
also make their appearance.
The players from ''LLSIF'' was able to transfer their account data in the game to ''SIF2''. The data transfer retains players' obtained cards in an album feature.
In the game, player assume a role of a student belonged to a newspaper club at their school. The player can choose among the main groups to do their interview about school idols with. Although not playable, Yu Takasaki, the protagonist of ''Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club'', also makes her appearance.
Besides the main groups, songs from groups and school idols under ''Love Live!'' franchise like A-Rise, Saint Snow, Sunny Passion, Wien Margarete, as well as songs from Hasunosora Girls School Idol Club and School Idol Musical is also included.
Liella! performs the opening theme song titled "Miracle New Story."
The rhythm gameplay from the previous game is back with a renewed UI. New features include a character/group chat system, in which a player can unlock conversations by deepening their bond with characters.
The Japanese version is scheduled to release on April 15, 2023. The global version, which includes English, Traditional Chinese, and Korean is also scheduled to release on same year.
''Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity''
On November 27, 2015, the official website of the game announced the production of the
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
version of ''Love Live! School Idol Festival''. The arcade game titled (often abbreviated as ''SIFAC'' or ''Sukufesu AC'') is a joint development with
Square Enix
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...
and operates using
NESiCA Cards. The name comes from the fact that because the initial release of the game was an arcade game, players will have to go to a game center to play the game, which gives it an "after school" feeling. A beta testing on location were held on May 13–15 and May 27–29, 2016. The game was fully released on December 6 of the same year.
Different from the mobile game, the arcade version featured a cooperative mode; it can be played by up to 3 players in certain modes and has fully 3D CG dances for all songs. It also lets players collect and print Profile Cards and Member Cards—each comes with buff skills—just like the original game. The game had 3 type of in-game events: , , and .
In October 2017, Aqours from ''
Love Live! Sunshine!!
is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project is the second series of the ''Love Live!'' franchise and is a spin-off sequel of '' ...
'' were announced to join the arcade game. They first appeared for a limited time from December 6, 2017, until January 8, 2018, as a preliminary trial as part of the game's 1st anniversary campaign.
In April 2018, Square Enix announced the game will receive a major update titled ''Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity Next Stage'' as part of ''Love Live! School Idol Festivals 5th anniversary campaign. Aqours' songs were added as well as a new function named and a new song difficulty. The group has been officially added to the game along with the major update on December 6, 2018. On September 5, 2019,
Saint Snow, the rival duo of Aqours, was added to the game, along with several of their songs.
Square Enix announced in October 2020 that the arcade version will receive a final update on November 10, 2020, essentially ending support for the game's arcade iteration. However, a 4th anniversary "Thank You" promotional campaign was held from December 2020 to March 2021. The game service for the arcade version ended on October 1, 2021.
The arcade version has been ported to
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
under the title released digitally in North America, Japan, and Southeast Asia on March 24, 2021.
Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to its mobile counterpart, however the arcade version uses nine physical buttons placed around the display panel instead of touchscreen. The main difference from the mobile game is there's no stamina system, so players cannot fail any songs. However, in order to reach higher score and ranking, the player must hit all nine "Finale Rhythm Icons", which is a note with a star, anchor, or snowman (μ's, Aqours, and Saint Snow modes respectively). Each Final Rhythm Icon will add letters to a gauge which would spell out "Love Live!", if all nine are collected. When all nine are collected, the Finale Mode begins, usually at the song's
outro, where all notes will yield extra score points.
The difficulty levels are different from mobile game to accommodate with physical buttons. The highest difficulty level, "Challenge," requires players to press up to four buttons at once.
The arcade version had separate card printing machine, where players could collect Member Cards, and create their own Profile Card. The Member Cards were collected through a ''
gacha
Gacha may refer to:
* Gashapon, a kind of toy that originated in Japan which is sold inside a plastic capsule. Commonly sold in vending machines
**Gacha game, video games that are monetized via a concept that is similar to gashapon. Comparable to L ...
''-style system. A Member Card comes in two varieties, each with different rarities, R and HR. An R card unlocks the costume set, while an HR card also adds additional effects, like "Finale Focus" (introduced in the ''Next Stage'' update). Player's Profile Cards are created by taking a screenshot of the desired member in music videos, and adding up to three Skill Cards. These cards could be printed out and shared with other players to assist their gameplay.
PlayStation 4 version
On October 10, 2020, a console port of the arcade game was announced, titled ''Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity Wai-Wai! Home Meeting!!'' (officially abbreviated as ''SIFAC HM''). It was released in North America, Japan, and Southeast Asia on March 24, 2021, for
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
. The game also features English,
simplified and
traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
localisations, similar to other games in the franchise.
''SIFAC HM'' received exclusive content not featured in the arcade version. The game is natively
backward compatible
Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...
with
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...
.
''SIFAC HM'' is
free-to-start, which the base game includes eight songs. Additional songs are available as paid
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
(DLC). At the release, 21 Song Pack DLCs (13 for μ's, and 9 for Aqours / Saint Snow; 117 songs in total) became available.
Unlike the arcade version, ''SIFAC HM'' has its own difficulty levels to accommodate for
DualShock 4
The DualShock (originally Dual Shock; trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK; with the PlayStation 5 version named DualSense) is a line of gamepads with vibration-feedback and analog controls developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the P ...
and
DualSense
The DualShock (originally Dual Shock; trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK; with the PlayStation 5 version named DualSense) is a line of gamepads with Haptic technology, vibration-feedback and analog controls developed by Sony Interactive Enterta ...
controllers. From easiest to hardest, "Beginner" and "Standard" are played with 4 buttons, while "Hyper" and "Adventure" are played with 6 buttons. Arcade mode with 9 buttons, with all its original difficulty levels, is also available.
Another difference from the arcade version is the player can unlock the costume set by "creating" it, using materials received from playing Live Shows. Alternatively the player can also purchase the costume sets as DLC immediately.
Technical issues
An infamous
bug occurred in the first day after the ''Next Stage'' update had been released for the arcades in 2018, wherein sometimes the characters appeared to be naked during the dance sequences. This bug was widely shared on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
as screenshots and clips of dancing "
Barbie doll
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.
...
-esque" nude characters during gameplay had been spread across it. This bug caused Square Enix to take the game server in "urgent maintenance" for few days in order to fix the bug.
''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars''
A
spin-off game
In media, a spin-off (or spinoff) is a radio program, television program, film, video game or any narrative work, derived from already existing works that focus on more details and different aspects from the original work (e.g. particular topics, ...
of ''Love Live! School Idol Festival'' was announced during
Tokyo Game Show 2017 as part of the game's 4th anniversary. The new game titled (officially abbreviated as ) for 2019 release. The game uses an alternate story that differentiates it from other media where μ's and Aqours are in the same school year and works together as one along with the girls from
Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
is a Japanese multimedia spin-off project from the ''Love Live!'' series and its game series ''Love Live! School Idol Festival''. It was first introduced in 2017 as "Perfect Dream Project" and was initially created as part of the game ''Love ...
. Owing to this, μ's isn't disbanded, and Chika Takami's original reason for becoming school idol in the anime and earlier sources, which was after seeing μ's on stage, was slightly changed to admiring school idols and then become one herself. The game is described as "the ultimate idol rhythm RPG game" that allows players to 'participate' in the game and customize the school idols.
Nijigasaki High School Idol Club performs the opening theme titled "Tokimeki Runners."
The game was officially released in Japan on September 26, 2019. A global version which features English, Korean,
Traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
, and
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
languages was released on February 25, 2020.
The
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
server with
Simplified Chinese
Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to:
Mathematics
Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example
* Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...
was released on May 28, 2021.
Players assume the role of the protagonist, a 2nd year student at Nijigasaki High School who becomes interested in school idols after seeing joint live between μ's and Aqours.
After looking for a related club in Nijigasaki, the protagonist learns that the existing school idol club is on its last legs of survival and decides to rebuild and reform the school idol club.
New features include: tree-based growth system, new Live system, and system. At launch, players could link both games under the same SIF ID account. Syncing their SIF ID created on ''Love Live! School Idol Festival'' with ''LLAS'', players were able to port their Rank and their progress made in the game to the new title. Benefits of the new ID offer extended far beyond saving player progress,
as player rewards could be obtained until February 2022. As announced through in-game news releases, SIF ID player links ended in April 2022.
In August 2020, a character that appeared within the game's story, Shioriko Mifune, was added to the game as a playable character and Nijigasaki High School Idol Club as an official member. She received a solo song, a 3D model, and cards obtainable within the games scouting boxes. More new members, Lanzhu Zhong and Mia Taylor, were added as playable characters in September 2021.
On December 23, 2021, in a news release in-game, it was announced that the development and operational rights of ''School Idol Festival All Stars'' will be moved from KLab Inc. to MyNet Games Inc., while Bushiroad will manage its publishing rights of the game, effective January 6, 2022.
Live Show system
Instead of focusing on its "rhythm game" system, the game uses an "RPG-like system" where it requires the player to carefully build their teams with strategy and train their idols in order to be able to successfully clear a live, as all tapped notes will drain the Stamina bar, even when tapped perfectly. The 9 tap note icons that represent the 9 members of an idol group have been reduced to two, and the player is able to tap anywhere on the screen to register a tap. During a Live Show, the participating member(s) are depicted as full-3D models with dance choreography on screen.
In addition to the original members' elements (Smile, Pure, Cool), 3 new elements have been added: Active, Natural, and Elegant. Besides elements, the members are also divided by 4 different attributes: Voltage (Vo), Special Skill (Sp), Guard (Gd), and Skill (Sk). During the lives, 9 members are divided into 3 "Strategy" units. Strategy units can have different positive and negative effects depending on the members' attributes in the Strategy, such as increased tap score, reduced stamina damage, or more frequent skill activation, as well shortened Strategy switch time. Only one of the Strategies is active at a time, but the player may switch to a different Strategy to take advantage of different members' skills and effects and to clear "Appeal Chances" that appear during a live.
The player can also put the Live Show in autoplay, where the notes will be tapped automatically, allows player to focus on controlling the Strategy units completely. However, all tapped note timings are "Great," which gains less total Voltage compared to manual play. Achieving S rank in a song difficulty allows player to use Skip Tickets, where player can clear the cleared song without having to actually play the same song's difficulty.
Event system
Besides the two types of event that also featured in ''School Idol Festival'', there are some type of new event exclusive to ''All Stars'':
* SBL (''SIFAS'' Big Live): A big event where 20 people play at the same time and work together to reach the goal that the event has set. With the rewards obtained from the event, player is able to acquire the event cards from the previous events, scout tickets, and others.
* Dream Live Parade: Player needs to clear one stage to move onto the next stage with one limitation: they can only use one card for one time (except for featured characters, which is two). Player is able to obtain coins that allows them to exchange the coins with accessories and others.
Systems
Aside from the new live and event system, the game also introduced some new systems:
* Practice system: To rise an idol's stats or "Idolizing" them, the player has to acquire needed items through performing Live Shows, Training, or event rewards. Through Practice's skill
Bond Board, player are also able to unlock the idols' costumes (as well as the re-colored version), side stories, "Inspiration" skills, and navigation voices that is listenable in the front page. The idol's skill tree can also be unlocked further more by acquiring the idol's card's duplicate through "
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
," event rewards for event-exclusive cards, or using the "School Idol Radiance."
* Training: Player can create a team of 9 cards and send them to a "Training Camp." The training camp requires an Action Point (AP) and gives items for skill tree advancement due completion. The APs will replenish up to 3 every 12am and 12pm
JST. For certain chances, idols that came to the training camp can get "Inspiration Skills". Depending on the card's rarity, up to 3 Inspiration Skill slot has been unlocked by default, and one more slot can be unlocked through Practice.
* Bonding system: The player is able to boost the idol's stats through the Bonding system. The boosts are applied to all cards of the same idol, not per card. This section is divided in two parts, as the latter was added in later update:
**Bond Level: As the player clears (or skips) Live Shows with idols in their Formation, the idols receive certain amount of their "Bond Points," depending on the difficulty. When reaching certain number of Bond Points they can reach a new Bond Level, which gives more stats boost to their cards, and will be able to unlock Bond Boards as detailed below. It will also unlock their "Bond Episode," which some is required to unlock certain songs. However, their Bond Level is initially capped at Level 15 at the beginning, but their cap will increase by up to two for each new cards, and Limit Increases (receiving duplicate cards, and using Radiances in Practice).
**Bond Board: As the player levels up the idol's Bond Level, the player is able to unlock Bond Boards. Their idol stats can be boosted further through Bond Board, using their "Memorial Pieces" and "Memento Pieces." A single Board consists of five boost panels, with three of them are always Appeal, Technique, and Stamina each, while the other two varies for each Board. Completing the board will proceed to the next unlocked Board sequentially, and gives the idol additional bonus. The material cost for each panel becomes higher in higher level Boards. This Bond Board feature was added since version 1.7.0 in both servers.
*Costume system: Player is able to change a character's 3D model costume, where it will affect them in main menu, bond menu, and live shows. These purely cosmetic costumes are obtainable through UR and SR cards within their Bond Board or by exchanging the costume tickets.
Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
In March 2017, the official website of ''Love Live School Idol Festival'' launched a new project called "Perfect Dream Project," which features 9 new girls. Emma, Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku Osaka were three members who were already featured as N-rarity girls and topped the 3rd popularity poll. The remaining 6 girls were later introduced: Ayumu Uehara, Kasumi Nakasu, Karin Asaka, Ai Miyashita, Setsuna Yuki, and Rina Tennoji. In August 2020, a new member, Shioriko Mifune was added. In September 2021, Lanzhu Zhong and Mia Taylor were also added.
The members are part of the school idol club at Nijigasaki High School that is located in
Odaiba
today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded durin ...
, Tokyo. The school is popular due to its free school style and diverse majors.
Unlike μ's and Aqours, they are not a group, but rather individual school idols who compete with each other; Until 2019, a popularity poll was held every month to determine their rank. Together, they are referred as —shortened as ''Nijigaku'' or simply ''Nijigasaki'' in the official sources. The girls were split up into groups of three to begin activities in three different apps before their addition to the game:
Dengeki Online website (Kasumi, Karin, Setsuna),
Famitsu App website (Ayumu, Ai, Rina), and the game's official website (Emma, Shizuku, Kanata). Each place is working as a separate room or branch office for the Nijigasaki High School.
They are featured in the spin-off game ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars
(often abbreviated as ''LLSIF'' or ''Sukufesu'') is a Japanese rhythm game series. The original game, developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo, was first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 for iOS and June 8, 2013 for Android (ope ...
'' along with μ's and Aqours. They also appear as SR rarity cards in ''Love Live! School Idol Festival''.
Each member also got a solo song that was released along with the group's theme song for the new game on November 21, 2018.
Their second album, containing more solo songs, was released on October 2, 2019. The third album that also includes Shioriko's first solo single was released on September 2, 2020. The fourth album includes solo songs for the original 9 members, as well as solo songs for the three newly added members. It was released on October 13, 2021.
The names of the girls' sub-units were decided by community polls. Rather than three sub-units of three members like μ's and Aqours, the Nijigasaki girls were divided into a duo, trio, and a quartet. The sub-unit formations and naming were announced on June 10, 2019. The formations are: Karin-Ai (DiverDiva), Ayumu-Shizuku-Setsuna (A・Zu・Na), and Kasumi-Kanata-Emma-Rina (Qu4rtz, pronounced "Quartz"). The sub-unit's first singles were released February 12, 2020. A new sub-unit was later announced in July 2021. It consists of Shioriko Mifune, Lanzhu Zhong, and Mia Taylor. The sub-unit's name was later announced as R3birth. Their first single was released on October 6, 2021.
An anime adaptation titled started broadcast in October 2020. The anime features a slightly different storyline from the game, original protagonist character Yu Takasaki, as well as cameos from ''School Idol Festival'' N-rarity girls who did not make it into the "Perfect Dream Project." A second season premiered in April 2022, with the three new members that were added to the game—Shioriko Mifune, Mia Taylor, and Lanzhu Zhong— making their appearance.
Other media
Discography
CDs and albums released as part of campaign from the game franchise. Note that since Nijigasaki High School Idol Club were created for ''School Idol Festival All Stars'', any music releases not tied for the game is not included.
Print
Several books of the game's illustration cards and original story collection has been released since 2013.
Manga
A
4-koma
, a comic strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requirements of ...
manga was published and can be read via the game's application titled . The manga tells the stories around the N-rarity girls. It was published from September 30, 2016, every Friday and ended on 54th episode.
After the announcement of "Perfect Dream Project," three 4-koma mangas are published respectively via ''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'' , Dengeki Online, and Famitsu App official website as part of their school idol club activity. The first manga titled is focused on the N rarity members who topped the popularity poll: Shizuku Ōsaka, Kanata Konoe, and Emma Verde. Second 4-koma manga focused on Kasumi Nakasu, Karin Asaka, and Setsuna Yūki since July 4, 2017. The manga is drawn by Miyakohito. Third 4-koma manga focused on Ayumu Uehara, Ai Miyashita, and Rina Tennōji also published since October 3, 2017. Choboraunyopomi drawn the manga.
Reception
, the game has reached over 40 million users worldwide (Japanese and Global server combined). This exclude multiple accounts on same devices.
In Japan, the game grossed more than () between 2017 and 2018, including more than in 2017, and in 2018.
, the global server of ''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'' has reached over 1 million players.
In popular culture
The voice clips "I'm so happy!" and "I'm so sad" by Mari Ohara from ''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'' became a trending on a video sharing platform
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
in October 2021.
Controversy
Fans of the English version of the ''Love Live! School Idol Festival'' game discovered that most of the homosexual subtext between the various girls depicted in the game was removed. In some instances, overt references to relationships between girls were changed to imply a relationship between a girl and a boy. KLab has since issued a statement on the controversy and later released an update on June 30, 2015, to make adjustments to the translated text to retain their original meanings.
Notes
References
External links
*
''School Idol Festival 2'' official website
*
**
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Mainland Chinese server websitePlayground engine
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