Four bands aiming for the top
Band Yarouze! is a music rhythm game developed by Delightworks and Sony, released by Aniplex.
Band Yarouze! tells the story of four bands and their aim to reach the top of the music world.
- The first band, BLAST, consist of Shinonome Yamato (Vocals), Maki Sousuke (Guitar), Saeki Tsubasa (Bass), and Shirayuki Teppei (Drums). High school students who aim to reach the top.
- The second band, OSIRIS, consist of Takara Kyo (Vocals), Ray Cephart (Guitar), Kurusu Makoto (Bass), and Koganei Shin (Drums). An indie band consisting of experienced members but is on the verge of falling apart after a failed debut.
- The third band, Fairy4pril (read as Fairy April), consist of Ootori Asahi (Vocals), Nanase Kazuma (Guitar), Tokuda Yoshimune (Bass), and Todo Misato (Drums). A band that has a contract with a major record company but eventually quit and switched their contract with a different but less major record company due to the mistreatment they get.
- The last band, Cure²Tron (read as Cure Cure Tron), consist of Miley (Vocals), Shelly (Guitar), Yukiho (Bass), and Mint (Drums). A new band consisting of members who were on a Dude Looks Like a Lady conception from their peers, along with a feminine sounding voice, and made a band out of said conception.
Much later in the story, each band will meet an apprentice of the live house EDEN, where the band hosted their lives, who served as the player's Author Avatar, along with two rival bands, FREEZING and Crystal Cross, and the Four Virtuoso's. Individuals who are amazing at their field in a band. The story also introduces magic like elements in the world of music that affected the music scene in Band Yarouze and how it affects the casts' performance.
The game was launched at October 2016. Unfortunately, the game was announced to be closed down just before the second anniversary hits and services for the game had officially closed down in April 2019. However, the voice actors still do lives for the game's music even as the game is closed down, and oddly still gets collaborations.
In commemoration of the 6th year anniversary of the series, Sony Music Japan uploaded the game's songs in several music streaming services
such as Apple Music and Spotify.
Band Yarouze contains examples of
- Author Avatar: The new apprentice of the live house the band do their lives in serve as this to the players.
- Ascended Fanboy: Adam was a fan of the band Dante used to be in. So much that in the present day, he had become one of the Four Virtuoso's.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: This tends to happen a lot in comedic and silly events.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Obviously.
- Cover Version: All four main bands had covered at least one song. Asterisk for BLAST, Monochrome Kiss for Osiris, HOT LIMIT for Fairy4pril, and One Night Carnival for Cure²Tron.
- Crossover: a posthumous one with the mobile game REALIVE!, in part due to OSIRIS sharing the same character designer as the latter's cast. OSIRIS was included in the game, in addition to providing a new song with the in-game unit CHAIN.
- Early Game Hell: As it wont to do like most rhythm gacha mobile games. You can't get higher scores until you obtain high rarity cards.
- Elite Four: The Four Virtuoso to spades as they are considered the best among the performers in the position they are in. With the exception of Dizzy, the other three are solo performers. To note, however:Dizzy of Destirare (Vocals)Raphael (Guitar)Adam (Bass)Dante (Drums)
- Featureless Protagonist: The Apprentice is this, with their gender being ambiguous. However, they have their own distinctive personality and a set choice of dialogue that personalized them as a Deadpan Snarker and often joining along with some of the silly hijinks and shenanigans that the cast may get into.
- Flawless Victory: Achieving a full combo is this.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The apprentice's power as a "Tuner" is based on the power levels of a team's composition based on the song.
- Living Macguffin: The apprentice is this because they are a "Tuner", someone who can improve a band's performance to high levels by means of Gameplay and Story Integration.
- One Degree of Separation: Big time early in the story. Mint is a regular at Shin's fishmonger store, Sousuke is related to one of the members of Destirare, the game's top-band in Japan, the Owner of Live House EDEN was once in a band with the drummer of the four virtuoso's, Dante, and all four main bands had participated in the big music event in the prologue. They haven't met each other until Chapter 7 of their band stories where they had become properly acquainted.
- Origins Episode: The main scenario of Band Yarouze! serves as this for the main four bands. The Rival bands, along with the four virtuoso's get their own episode of Origin through events. To note:
- FREEZING's formation starts out as a group of Ragtag Bunch of Misfits put together by their record label, who eventually come to be formed as tight-knit well working band.
- Crystal Cross are a duo unit consisting of twins Yuu and Shou who faced scrutiny from certain people because their mother is a Japanese woman who came back to Japan after migrating to America for so long.
- The band Dante and Eden's owner used to be in is the center point of Band Yarouze!'s first anniversary event and tells the lore to how and why the music scene of Band Yarouze! came to be. Said event also contains how Adam met music and became the legendary bassist he is today.
- Red Herring: Atsushi of FREEZING was initially hinted to be Fairy4pril's ex guitarist... until Fairy4pril's subsequent band stories and events reveal that the ex-guitarist's name is Haruto, who had since become the guitarist of Judas Kiss.
- The Rival: FREEZING and Crystal Cross are this to the four main bands. Crystal Cross is especially this for Fairy4pril, as they had come from the same record company that Fairy4pril used to be in contract of, Bee Trap. Later event stories that also connects to the main story's lore adds Judas Kiss for Fairy4pril, a band that consist of Fairy4pril's ex guitarist Haruto. FREEZING, however, acts as more of a Friendly Rival to most of the bands.
- Shout-Out:
- Each of the character's profiles have a list of their favorite bands and artist, all of them are bands and artists that also exist in real life such as Bump Of Chicken and L'Arc en ciel.
- Some of the events, while they can be silly, they also contain shout-outs to several franchises. In Halloween 2017, there is Koi Monster.
- Dante's image is based on the poem of Dantes Inferno.
- Theme Naming: Fairy4pril got it's name because the members are born in April, with the exception of Kazuma, who got added to the group after the previous guitarist left the band. The band also had a sheep mascot that represents the Aries zodiac sign.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: All the members of Cure²Tron are boys who dress themselves as girls because of the conception they get from some of their peers that they look and sound more like girls than boys. Miley has a complex with this before his Character Development, but the other members welcome it.
