Love Live School Idol Festival iPhone version released in April 2013 android version released on June 6, 2013

This game is based on the Love Live School Idol Project anime and songs.

This game has a "story" section and a "live" section, but this is basically a music tap game. If you are not very good at the tap game, this will be a very time consuming game. The easy levels aren't that difficult, but the hard levels and harder songs get pretty difficult.

The characters that appear in the game are the nine Muse girls from Love Live, plus many new game original characters.

This game needs net access to play!
It syncs up with the servers for scores and card information all the time. Without net access, it will keep retrying to connect and will not proceed.

The game is free to play, but you can buy stones in the game for real money. The stones can be used to recover life points or can be exchanged for cards. It's possible to continue playing without paying, as you can get stones for clearing certain targets in the game. But it's VERY, VERY helpful if you are good at the tap game. If you are good at the tap game, you can more bonus points and stones for free.

story section

The story section consists of two types of stories: main stories and side stories. The main story is the school idol Muse story. There are many chapters and it continues. They add one chapter (4 stories) per month, and as of February 2014, there were 15 chapters. The side stories are very short introductory stories of each girl, and there are side stories of the game original characters too. Once you unlock a story, you can replay it any time. All stories with the Muse girls are fully voiced by the Muse (μ's) seiyuu. The side stories with the original characters are not voiced.

live section

The main part of the game is the "live" section. This is where you play the music tap game. There are nine circles that make the semi-circular tap pad, and the tap notes come out of the middle. You tap the circles when the notes overlap the circle. To play the "live" you make a team of nine girls from the cards you have. Each "live" is a short version (around 2 minutes) of one of the Muse songs. When you successfully complete one "live", you get points and new cards depending on your score and maximum combo. You use these cards and points to get more cards, build up your cards' strengths, and unlock new stories. Without unlocking the stories by improving your rank, you can't see the new stories.

cards

One can also say this game is a card game. You need cards to play the live. You get cards when you complete a live. You can get new cards when you get enough points or stones. One of the goals of the game is to gather good cards, so you can make better teams, so you can get a better score during the tap game. There are normal (N), rare (R), super rare (SR), and ultra rare (UR) cards. The normal cards are the game original girls. The rare, super rare, and ultra rare cards are the Muse girls. I made a searchable card database, but it currently only contains the R, SR, and UR cards that I have, plus some cards from friends. Also each R, SR, and UR card has a special skill that can help out during the game. Details about the special skills of R, SR, UR cards.

practice

By increasing the level of your cards, you get more points for your tap game. You can increase the level of the cards by doing a "practice". You practice by combining cards. You choose a base card, and up to 10 practice partner cards. But once you practice, the partner cards are gone. There is also a "special practice" where you combine two same cards. Then the card evolves into a higher level card. The outfit of the girl changes into more flashy clothes, and the maximum level of that card increases.

songs

The game starts out with one song that you can choose for your live, Bokura no Live Kimi to no Life. As your rank rises and you clear certain targets, you get new songs.

There are three levels of play for each song: easy, normal, hard. When you clear one level, the next higher level appears. The songs start out very easy, but the later songs get harder and harder, even for the easy level.

Each song belongs to one of three categories: smile, pure, or cool. Each card also belongs to one of these categories, and the point values of the girls are higher for the category they belong in.

events

In addition to the normal games, there have been in game "events" where they award prizes based on the games playing during the event period. The event period is usually around 10 days, and the main prize of the event is a SR card of a certain girl.

Details about the Love Live School Idol Festival events.

serial codes

It's also possible to get special UR, SR, and R cards by buying certain Love Live goods or related magazines.

Details about the Love Live School Idol Festival serial codes.

HD's opinions (iPhone vs android)

One problem with the tablet is the size. I play by holding the sides of the iPhone and tapping with my thumbs. This doesn't work on a 7 inch tablet because it's too big. I have tried playing putting it on the table and tapping with my fingers. This is fine for slower games, but I can't keep up with the fast ones.

But the biggest difference is the touch screen lag time. Both the iPhone and Galaxy tab have lags, but the iPhone is much shorter. This difference makes a big difference when playing the hard and expert modes. Also the sensitivity for double and triple taps is totally broken on the Galaxy tab.

I can play the normal and hard levels on the Galaxy tab, but it's pretty hard to play the expert levels.

Also on the Galaxy tab, the game crashes or hangs several times a day. If it's not during a song, I just have to restart. I have never lost any data because of a crash. But when it happens during a song, the live counts as a failed live, so you lose the life points.

The one good point for the tablet is that it's bigger, so everything looks nicer. The story mode is like watching (still) anime.

In general I prefer the android over iPhone for normal computing use, but for this game, the iPhone is MUCH better.

After updating my iPhone 4S to ios7, the game crashes or hangs a couple times a week.

In December 2013, I updated my iPhone to a 5S. I was disappointed that the game screen size was the same as the 4S. That leaves a lot of room on both sides unused.

HD's Love Live School Idol Festival Teams

[smartphone and tablet games and apps]