A game that I have become addicted to

Love Live School Idol Project 

At the beginning of our return back to university after the Easter break I was quickly found myself with a lack of games to play due to the fact that I was now parted with my games console and only had my Nintendo 3Ds with a small selection of pre played games which was pretty disappointing as I usually like having a game on the go which I can play when taking breaks from work to help me unwind. This was my dilemma until one my friends introduced me to a new game which she had become addicted to over the course of a week, I was a little bit put off with to begin with as it was an App based game and usually I don't ever get very far with those type of games and have never seemed to be able to take them seriously but I quickly learnt this was a whole other case with this game. It really did not take my long to become completely enamoured and drawn in by this game and it's characters. Below is a video example of what the game is actually like. 

'Love Live School Idol Project' is an app based social rhythm game that is part of the ever expanding 'Love Live!' franchise that has just recently produced a new Anime series. It was created for a variety of mobile devices and tablets by the Japanese game producers 'KLabGames' and 'bushiroad' and was released on April 16th 2013 in Japan and then after popular demand an English version was released on May 11th 2014. This multimedia franchise has taken Japan by storm as is now slowly beginning to seep into the western anime fan base. 

Both the Anime series and the app based game both follow the same story line which is about how the high school student Honoka Kōsaka is faced with a dilemma when the school she attends and adores, Otonokizaka Academy, is planned to be closed down due. Wanting to prevent the closer from taking place Honoka is determined to find anyway possible to keep her beloved school up and running and. After accidentally discovering the soaring popularity of school idols in Japan Honoka manages to convince her groups of friends into starting up a idol group of her own called μ's (pronounced muse) in order to attract new students. 

So the essentially 'Love Live' as a game is split into two different sections which the player can take part in throughout the game. The first section is a story mode in which the player meet and follows the antics of the 9 members of μ's but in order to unlock new chapters in the story to progress through the game the player must collect enough experience points and the only way they can do that is by completing the second section of the game. The second section is the rhythm based part of the game in which the player must 'perform' live concerts using a selection of members μ's in order to help the team improve and gain more members. A example of the live show interface found within the game can be seen in the two images below. In order to perform a live show the player must hit each approaching circular note when it aligns with the icon of one of the characters in the semi circle. This will essentially have the player tapping to the beat of the song that is being played and using their sense of rhythm to try and tap each circle at the correct moment. If the player continues to tap at the perfect moment the combo boost will keep on climbing and will allow you to collect more points at the end of the level depending on how much of a combo you get. 

You will also receive more points if you get a high ranking on each performance which is indicated by the long bar at the top of the screen that continues to fill up the further you get through the song. Completing a performance will give you different prizes depending on what level or song you picked, easy, difficult or hard. This keep the player aiming to improve with the incentive of knowing there are better prizes to be one if they make their way to the hard levels. Each song that the player can use to perform too is sung by the members of the school idol group and you will be able to unlock more songs preformed by them as you move your way through the game, allowing their to be variety in you playing choices.

Although there are a large variety of songs to perform you wont be able to do more than a few in a row due to each time you complete a song your LP or life points (seen in the top right hand side of the image above) will be used up and you will have a wait a good hour and bit to get a full bar again. But luckily as you wait there are plenty of other things the player can do to keep themselves occupied in game. After you have completed each performance you will gain a collection of items depending on how well you progressed through the song. One of these items you will receive is something called 'friend points' which, when you have enough of, will allow you to go scouting for new brand new team members which come in the form of virtual cards and will help to expand your collection of idols. Although when you complete a song you will be given three basic members, if you go scouting with your points you may be able to pick up some rare sort after characters.  These virtual cards come in hundreds of varieties and can range from worth which begin at normal and end at ultra rare. You are also able to use some of the low ranking members you have collected which you no longer want to level up any rarer members to make them into a stronger idols and improve your team. 

One of the nice things about how so much variety when it comes to the characters and skill set is that you are able to chop and change your 9 set idol team to whichever character your prefer. All the members are coloured coded to either green, blue or pink which means that each of these categories has a particular skill set and will be better suited to perform to a certain type of song, so for example you would really want a team of green/pure characters to perform a green/pure labelled song as it will allow you to pick up more points and receive a better score. Example of the member layout and a super rare character card can be seen in the images below.

Due to this game being one that has new updates and events posted every single day there is always something for the player to discover and strive for which is a very clever way of keeping them interested and curious to keep playing. I know this has certainly been the case for me as I have found every hour or so I will be checking back on the app so that I am able to use my newly restored LP to perform μ's songs in order to collect enough points so that I can get more rare members for my team. It almost seems like a never ending cycle of gameplay which honestly does not bother me as this game has managed to worm it's way into my life and I have no become fairly addicted with it.