THE iDOLM@STER

I went back 7 pages, and it would appear we don't have a thread for this wonderful game yet. Fans of The Idolmaster, make yourself known!

edited 11th Jan '13 10:06:26 AM by CompassionateSadist

My favorites are Hibiki, Mami and Makoto <3

Have you seen the PV for Kyun~ Vampire Girl yet?

edited 11th Jan '13 10:06:36 AM by CompassionateSadist

Oh yes, the animu :D Do we know when it comes out yet?

Hm. While My Anime List has no info about when it's airing, I'm quite certain it's headed for a Summer 2011 release...

Oh hey, that's actually not too far away :O

Ah the one game keeping the X Box 360 alive...

But given the console's general lack of popularity in japan, why did they make it a 360 game rather than PS 3?

Speaking purely in terms of profits, wouldn't the PS 3 draw in a larger pool of potential customers?

There's probably something going on that's similar to the Cola Wars — Microsoft is most likely paying Namco to make the game an Xbox exclusive.

edited 29th May '11 8:26:44 PM by FuschlatzOReilly

If this game is good enough to distract Kentaro Miura from getting his shit straight, this game must be good.

What is it and what does it play like?

You play as a producer to several potential idol singers. Your goal throughout the game is to manage their career (like deciding what songs they sing) and having a good relationship with them while guiding them to fame and success.

Pretty much that.

edited 29th May '11 8:41:48 PM by CompassionateSadist

It's part Rhythm Game, part mini-games and part talking to your idols (Dating Sim-style, even though you're not actually dating them.)

... What the hell, Miura.

How do I play this? PC or Console?

EDIT: Oh dear lord, X BOX THREE SIXTY?! Fuck you, Japan. You and your audacity to release Guilty Gear 2 Overture to a demographic that's deathly afraid of you!

edited 29th May '11 9:07:25 PM by Schitzo

edited 11th Jan '13 10:06:59 AM by CompassionateSadist

A while back, the people on TLWiki started a fan translation of Idolmaster SP (the Playstation Portable version). Like many fan translation projects, it's currently stalled or inactive. If you're interested in helping, be sure to see what they've done at http://tlwiki.tsukuru.info/index.php?title=Idolmaster_SP , and politely contact the group.

Around the same time, a person on the GBATemp forum requested a translation of Idolmaster Dearly Stars (the DS version) at http://gbatemp.net/t207815-official-translation-requests-topic?st=900&p=2397415&#entry2397415 . I don't recall if anyone on the forums decided to go past the "We'd like this translated..." phase.

It's pretty uncommon for companies to translate console games that only appeal to a small number of English speaking fans. Only a few people admit they like, and purchase romance games and widget games. Konami never bothered to localize any of the Tokimeki Memorial games, and it's only thanks to fans that we have translation patches of the first two Girl's Side games. There were only rumors of a Sakura Wars localization until So Long My Love was announced in May 2009. We should be thankful that we got that one game. And as for Namco Bandai... a couple years passed where no Tales Series games were announced for official translation. So I don't think we can expect the company to translate any Idolmaster games.

Right now, the closest English equivalents to the Idolmaster franchise are Princess Debut (a reverse harem Rhythm Game) and the originally-in-English freeware games Idolcraft and Idol/TYPE.

edited 30th May '11 6:29:02 AM by dorkatlarge

Why so Xbox exclusive, iD0LM@$+3R?

Get the PSP version, then. Heard it's nearly the same.

I'd like to play this game. So much.

Update: Someone apparently actually went and asked a Namco Bandai executive why they won't localize iM@S for an English-speaking audience.

http://forum.project-imas.com/index.php?topic=1523.msg33348#msg33348

TL;DR: The game is way expensive in Japan, yet it still draws a huge demand. Either it won't sell at all in English, or if priced reasonably for English-speaking consumers, Japanese fans will choose to import because it'll be cheaper that way, and the company stands to lose a huge amount of money.

And this does not include the sheer difficulty of translating the songs.

Sounds a bit like Morton's Fork.

Given how...well, Japanese, the series is, I can understand the idea that it's unlikely to sell well in other countries, especially ones that don't speak Japanese...which is, basically every country other than Japan. So I don't see how it's a Morton's Fork.

edited 24th Oct '12 11:26:33 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

I was referring to how they could sell it in the US at $100 and no one buys it or they could reduce the price which would lead to Japanese fans importing the games from America to get the games cheaper. Either way, they're losing a lot of money.

Unless that's not how Morton's Fork works and I'm just being stupid. As usual.

edited 24th Oct '12 1:03:33 PM by PhysicalStamina

I guess you're right, never mind.

Never played the game, but I think I may be able to provide some insight as to why it's on Xbox 360: If I'm not mistaken, out of all the latest consoles, the 360's machine architecture is the closest match for most typical JAMMA (Japanese arcade) hardware configurations. So it's often easier and cheaper to port an arcade game to 360 than to any other console (except when there's a non-standard control scheme such as a light gun game, in which case a Wii port might be easier, since the Wii's architecture actually isn't that much different either). I do also know that Microsoft has been paying developers to make 360 ports, although I don't know anything about whether or not they have any exclusivity agreements.

By the way, this wasn't actually due to anything Microsoft (or Nintendo) did right; it's due to something Sony did wrong. The PS2 got most arcade ports of its era since it was the most similar to typical JAMMA hardware. (In fact, for a while after Konami retired their old System 573 hardware, they were using literally a PS2-in-a-box for their arcade games.) I still have no idea why Sony decided to throw all its old designs out the window when making the PS3, but the end result was that it was completely unlike anything that existed previously and thus it's a royal pain to successfully port anything to it.

edited 25th Oct '12 9:07:26 AM by PoochyEXE

There is an enhanced PS 3 port actually, something that Namco always seems to do. The series has also appeared on other companies handhelds as well.