Being a Milestone Celebration, there are lots of details in the game that reference different parts of the franchise.
General
- The opening movie features scenes of the Nijigasaki idols grouped together in their original trios when the group was originally known as PERFECT Dream Project.
- Macarons are the most common items used for unlocking nodes in the skill tree. Macarons are well known in the original School Idol Festival as it is the Event Token of the very first event "Gather, everyone! Sweet Holiday Kotori's Sweets".
- The design is similar to Mari's offerings
during Sunshine!! Season 2 Episode 2.
- The design is similar to Mari's offerings
- The Nijigasaki School Idol Club room has posters of µ's and Aqours in the background:
- The µ's poster is based on the School Idol Festival 2nd Title Screen.
- The Aqours poster is based on the Cheer Girl set from School Idol Festival.
- The background also has pictures that were first seen on the "Tokimeki Runners" PV.
- The µ's poster is based on the School Idol Festival 2nd Title Screen
- Each school idol's symbol can be seen before their name in the dialogue boxes and the Bond Board menus.
- Selecting the Advanced difficulty on some songs will use the same stage as their promotional videos instead of a generic stage:
- "Snow Halation" uses the stage from the second PV but changes the illumination from yellow to orange as a nod to the "Orange Miracle".
- "Aozora Jumping Heart" uses the stage from Sunshine!! Season 1.
- "Brightest Melody" and "Yume no Tobira" copies the exact rooftop setting, city backdrop and all, used in their respective appearances.
- "Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari" uses the same flower stage from the movie, which was also used in µ's Final Live.
- "MIRAI TICKET" uses the same stage from Sunshine!! Season 1, which was also used in Aqours First Live.
- The event item for the "Invitation to a Wonderful Place" event is Mari's star map from Sunshine!! Season 2 Episode 10.
- The stage visuals for "SKY JOURNEY" are directly based on the visuals used for the song's performance during Aqours' "HAPPY PARTY TRAIN" 2nd Love Live! tour.
- Right after the solo part of "Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM", instead of following the camerawork of the original PV, the camera shows the audience with the center in You's blue color and the sides in the members' image colors, referring to the fan-made "Yousoroad" project that first happened in 2017's Korea Fan Meeting.
Cards
- Excluding the initial SRs, the idolized art for the µ's and Aqours SRs are all references to the choreography in their respective songs. The same can be said for NijiGaku's "Love U my friends" set.
- The first wave of URs released with the game's launch are "enhanced" versions of each girl's most popular UR from School idol festival, such as Angel Riko, Wonderland You, and Devil Nico.
- Chika's "Thoughts Into Words" SR shows the angry Riko drawing in her lyric book that appeared in Season 2 Episode 1.
- The idolized version of "Twilight Demon" Yoshiko is based on Aika Kobayashi's outfit for Yoshiko's solo song "In this unstable world" from the "WONDERFUL STORIES" tour. The card's unidolized version is based on a flashback scene from Sunshine!! Season 1, except this time Yoshiko is grown up now.
- Similarly, Riko's unidolized "Aozora Jumping Heart" SR is also based off the aforementioned Yoshiko scene from the anime, despite Riko having no relation to it.
- The unidolized version of "Snow halation" Umi shows her mountain hiking gear first seen in School Idol Project Season 2 Episode 2.
- Dia's "ハグしてさしあげますわ" UR is a twist on Kanan's "Hagu shiyo!" catchphrase, with Dia mimicking a pose similar to Kanan's from Sunshine!! Season 1 Episode 9.
- The unidolized art of Riko's "Brightest Melody" SR brings back her hobby of collecting yuri literature from the anime.
- The caption to Honoka's "No Brand Girls" SR in unidolized form is "Ouch! I Fell Over!", making it seem like a nod to Honoka's collapse after the "No Brand Girls" performance in the first season of Love Live. It's Less Disturbing in Context for the "Rainy Season Blessings" event story.
- Ai's "Rainbow Heart" SR story has her winding up with a dark tan in a very similar shade to the Nijiyon comic where Ayumu dreamed that Ai became a ganguro.
Story
- Chapter 1 is basically a Whole-Plot Reference to the initial arc of both School Idol Project and Sunshine!!:
- The protagonist establishes a school idol club with friends after seeing a school idol live show at UTX, but the Student Council President rejects the formation of such a club due to reasons. It even ends with the Student Council President joining the club.
- Chapter 2 has Setsuna stating that Shizuku, Kanata and Emma have experience working as a school idol group prior to attending Nijigasaki. This is a reference to their status as Normal Rarity cards in School Idol Festival.
- At the start of Chapter 3, the Player Character found Riko staring at the sea in serious thought in a similar way Chika found Riko in Sunshine!! Season 1 Episode 1, even dashing up to her to prevent her from falling into the sea. Unlike the anime, Riko has no intention to jump into the sea here, although the player thinks she will.
- In Chapter 4, Yoshiko is seen preparing a new type of "Tears of a Fallen Angel" called "Tears of a Fallen Angel - Revolution". It's made with habanero peppers this time. When Ruby is told that Yoshiko is making food for the summer festival, she reacts accordingly.
- The event story "Come Enjoy These Special Sweets" one-upped this reference with Setsuna's poor cooking based on her Dengeki Online profile and a repeated gag before the game released - Her cooking is bad enough that, as shown during this event, Kanata would rather just spoil the ingredients, and Ayumu has to keep an eye on her to make sure things won't spin out of control. Ayumu did save the day but still let Setsuna's handmade cake slip into Ruby's hands, resulting in a terrible situation for Ruby.
- The event story "Cooking with Vegetables" unintentionally subverted it: Yoshiko accidentally emptied a full jar of "black magic seasoning" into the vegetable pot while everyone else was taking time for dessert, turning the pot a further shade of red. Dia worried the whole pot would be spoiled because of that, but despite tasting a bit spicy, it is not bad at all.
- Also during "Cooking with Vegetables", Eli was worried that Kotori would put the cheesecake into the hot pot when she takes it out from the refrigerator, referencing the incident in the original School Idol Festival where she spoiled the whole pot by doing so (mainly caused by Honoka's unclear instructions, however). Unlike the original game, Kotori didn't do the same thing - even Rina thought it was worth trying.
- In the official 4-koma in parallel to that event, Rina would have done it if Dia and Eli hadn't stopped her in time.
- In the official 4-koma
- Chapter 14 involves a scene where Mari nearly flies her helicopter into Nijigasaki's building in a similar fashion to her entrance in the second episode of Sunshine!!.
- Chapter 27 has Shioriko discussing her relationship with her sister with Honoka, Chika, Eli, Dia, Nico, and Ruby, all of whom have sisters and mention them during the conversation (Dia and Ruby being sisters).
- In Chapter 28, the protagonist shows the Club a practice schedule she designed. When Kasumi remarks on how difficult it looks, the protagonist explains that she ran it past Dia and Umi, alluding to the infamous training regiment that Umi designed for µ's in School idol project and Dia "repurposed" for Aqours in Sunshine!!.
- Similar to the climax of School idol project Season 1, Chapter 28 involves stopping a school idol from getting on an airplane before they leave forever.
- During the event story "Your Models Are Here!" , Nico (and Dia) make comments about the kimonos looking like those worn for Shichi-Go-Sannote (which indeed is), referencing µ's members talking about Sora Tokui's Angelic Angel outfit looking like those worn for Shichi-Go-San during µ's Final Live.
- During the event story "Toy Store Panic", the animals that appear on Nico and Hanayo's aprons when volunteering at the toy store consist of a rabbit and bear respectively, a nod the animal ears that they sport as part of their Cyber outfits.
- An official yonkoma set during "The Best Christmas Present" event has Ruby and Kotori recreating Umi's infamous Old Maid scene.
- Another official yonkoma has You asking Yoshiko to put her own personal twist on a "maritime" outfit. The final result winds up being the monochrome Uranohoshi winter uniform seen in Dengeki G's and the Love Live! Sunshine!! manga, with a black bow instead of a white tie.
- An instrumental piano version of "Yume no Tobira" can be heard as BGM in Chapter 3 of Maki's Bond Story.
- Likewise, an instrumental version of "Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM" was briefly played during Aqours' training in Chapter 3.
SP Skill
- Using the SP Skill with CYaRon!, AZALEA or Guilty Kiss as the center trio will give them a unique animation based on their subunit introductions during live concerts and live streams.
- Using the SP Skill with Printemps, lily white or BiBi as the center trio will have them pose in their Final Live introductions.
- A•ZU•NA's SP Skill pose is a reference to the cover of their first single "Dream Land! Dream World!".
- Using the SP Skill with a solo girl as the center trionote will have some of them pose in reference to a previous work:
- Honoka does her iconic "outstretched arms" pose that shows up multiple times in different media.
- Nico does her "Nico Nico Nii~".
- Chika uses her "Kiseki da yo!" pose from Sunshine!! Season 1 Episode 1.
- You says "Yousoro!" while saluting.
- Ruby uses her "Ganbaruby!" pose.
- Yoshiko does her "Giran!" pose.
- Kanan says "Hagu shiyou~!" with her arms outstretched.
- Mari does her "Lock on!" pose from "Strawberry Trapper".
- Ayumu, Setsuna, Ai, Kanata and Rina's poses all came from their initial costume artwork, which can also be seen in the SIFAS song covers for their first solos.
Training Camp
Training Camp Start- The loading screen for Training shows off Mari's Volkswagen Type 2 from Sunshine!! Season 2.
- Putting Ruby in the center will make her say a quote when starting Training Camp. One quote that may play is a variation of her call and response.note
Training Course
- Making You do Swimming Training gives her a unique sprite with swim cap and goggles, much like her actual swimsuit attire.
- Ruby uses a ring floater like in Sunshine!! Season 1 Episode 10 when doing Swimming Training. Notably, she also doesn't swim because she doesn't know how to.
- Kotori has a unique sprite for Swimming Training based on the unidolized version of her "Marine" set◊ in School Idol Festival.
- Owing to her inability to do push-ups, subjecting Hanamaru to Push-Ups Training will simply show her struggling to hold her position like in Sunshine!! Season 2 Episode 1 instead of doing any actual push-ups, unlike other characters... Unless she gets an Inspiration, upon which she starts doing push-ups faster than everyone else.
- Rin will say one part of her call and response, "Nya Nya Nya", during Vocal Training. She also plays the maracas during it as a nod to the ending themes of School Idol Project.
- Nico holds a carrot during Dance Training as a reference to the live performance of "Nico puri♥Joshi dou".
- Eli holds a fan during Dance Training as a reference to her center song "Angelic Angel".
Training Camp End
- Rin's end pose is her pose from School Idol Project Season 1 Episode 5.
- The end poses of the Nijigasaki idols are taken from their Promo SR cards (either idolized or unidolized) in School Idol Festival.
- Riko's after running and end pose are based on the unidolized versions of her "Mijuku Dreamer" set◊ and her "Aozora Jumping Heart" set◊ from School Idol Festival respectively.
- Honoka uses her call and response, "Faito da yo!", as her end pose.
- Eli's end pose is based on the idolized version of her "Animal" set◊ from School Idol Festival
- Chika's end pose is based on the unidolized version of her "Aozora Jumping Heart" set◊ from School Idol Festival.
- Kanan's end pose is based on the unidolized version of her "Diving" set◊ from School Idol Festival.
School Idol Channel
- Ayumu's School Idol Channel is named "Ayu-pyon Da Pyon", after the Ayu-bun bit that gets brought up in the first episode of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club.
- Several Channels are named after call and responses used in live concerts, including Emma's, Chika's, Ruby's, Mari's and Umi's.
- Other Channels are named after solo songs. Kasumi's is named "Kasumi's Wonderland" after "Wonderland", and Maki's is named "You and Darling!!" after "Daring!!".
- Nico's Channel is a reference to Season 2 of the anime as the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Idol in the Universe".
