Love Live! School Idol Festival


Love Live! School Idol Festival is a Japanese rhythm game series developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo for Android and iOS platforms. It first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 and June 8, 2013. The game is free-to-play with an in-app purchase system. It features songs and characters from the multimedia franchises Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine!!, newly introduced girls, and stories that are not included in other media.
The English localization was released worldwide on May 11, 2014 for iOS and Android devices. It also was localized in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and South Korea. At the end of September 2016, the English version added Korean support, and the two servers merged. The Traditional Chinese version, which was operated by Mobimon in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, also merged with the English version on May 18, 2017.
On January 11, 2016, Love Live! Sunshine!! live streamed a special announcement regarding Aqours joining the app in July 2016. In the game, Aqours got original main and side stories, playable songs, and fully voiced cards. KLab added R rarity cards for each Aqours members on January 31, 2016, though they were only voiced after the official release in July. In June 2016, Chika and Riko were featured in the in-game regular events for the first time. The group officially joined the game on July 5, 2016 along with new card rarity SSR and other major updates.
An arcade version of the game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity was released on December 6, 2016. Another spin-off game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars was released on September 26, 2019 in Japan and February 25, 2020 worldwide. It features the girls from Nijigasaki High School Idol Club.
An anime television series titled Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club has been announced.

Gameplay

The game has two gameplay modes—"Story" and "Live"— featuring all nine members of the idol groups μ's and Aqours. Players acquire a score in the rhythm "Live" mode, in which they tap circles at the proper time in order to receive a high score that can be placed on the leader board. These songs are divided into 4 difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. Another difficulty called "Master" features songs that are only available for a limited time and include rhythm icons where players have to swipe their fingers on the screen during some songs.
In "Story" mode, the player works as μ's' and Aqours' helper and manage their training and schedule. The mode is full-voiced with all of the idols' respective voice actresses. The players interacts with the girls as they live their lives as school idols.
The game has several currencies:
Players can form 9-person units. The girls in the formation are called "members." Players acquire new members by doing Lives or scouting through "Student Scouting" that uses the gacha system. Two same cards can be combined and they will be "Idolized," which unlocks new card art and a side story gives a Love Gem. Each member has their own card level and skill that can be leveled up by doing a "Practice", which involves sacrificing one or more cards to increase the level of another one. In order to increase skill level, cards that are "practiced" must have the same skill. Increasing skill and card levels improves the scores players can obtain in "Lives". New Aqours and regular members are added every time an in-game event has ended and μ's cards are added halfway through events.
Members cards are divided into 5 rarities: N, R, SR, SSR, and UR. Each rarity has a different set of leader skills and active skills that affect the Lives scores. Cards and songs are divided into attributes that represent each card's idol type: Smile, Cool, and Pure. Using the same attribute members to do Lives of the same attribute song gives a higher score.
Other than μ's and Aqours, other characters are featured in the N-rarity cards. There are 54 characters with 9 girls represent 6 different schools:
;Seiran High School
;Chitose Bridge High School
;Shinonome Institute
;Tooh Academy
;Shion Women Institute
;Y.G. International Academy.
These characters are not voiced, but Emma Verde, Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku Ōsaka were promoted to become part of the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club and were each given voice actresses. Fujimaru designed the new characters.
Besides the regular cards, the game also includes "promotional cards" and "skill up cards". Promotional cards can be obtained free as a bonus from purchasing Love Live! merchandise, clearing quests, purchasing through Sticker Shop, scouting using Gs, or simply logging in to the game. Regardless of rarity, promotional cards have relatively low stats and leader skill effects. They also don't give stickers when practiced or deleted. The cards are usually pre-idolized, which means that players cannot idolize the card for different art. μ's and Aqours' respective rival groups, the groups' younger selves, and the girls from Nijigasaki Academy are also featured as fully voiced promotional cards.
A skill up card is used to level up the skill of a card. It can't be idolized or used in a Live. These cards feature characters around the main groups such as the girls' mothers, school friends and teachers, and even animals. These cards can be obtained by logging in, special box scouting, in-game event rewards, or purchasing a limited time sale pack.

In-game events

Every 15 days, an in-game event with total of 4 SR rarity cards as reward is held. Each event runs for around 10 days with a 5-days break. The SR rarity cards are obtainable by collecting event points and competing with other players through event points ranking. Reward includes Gs, Love Gems, and skill-up cards.
The game has currently 6 type of events:
;Token Collection
;Score Match
;Medley Festival
;Challenge Festival
;Adventure Stroll
;Companion Match

Collaboration event

In 2019, the Japanese server of School Idol Festival held its first collaboration event outside the Love Live! franchise. The collaboration event with mobile TCG, Shadowverse, was held in both of the games. Between the 9 girls of Aqours, Yoshiko Tsushima was chosen as representative through fan votes. The collaboration campaign includes a new song, "Deep Resonance" that was included in the group's 4th single, collaboration SSR cards of the group, a limited UR card for Yoshiko, as well as login bonuses.

Arcade

In November 27, 2015, the official website of the game announced the production of the arcade version of Love Live! School Idol Festival. The arcade game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity is a joint development with Square Enix and operates using NESiCA Cards. The name comes from the fact that the game is an arcade game, player will have to go to a game center to play that it gives an "after school" feeling. A beta testing on location were held on May 13–15 and May 27–29, 2016. The game was fully released on December 6 of the same year.
Different from the mobile game, the arcade version features a cooperative mode; it can be played by up to 3 players and has fully 3D CG dances. It also lets players collect and print Profile Cards and Member Cards—each comes with buff skills—just like the original game. The game currently has 3 type of in-game events: Birthday Event, Skill Card Event, and Score Ranking Event.
In October 2017, Aqours was announced to join the arcade game. They first appeared for a limited time from December 6, 2017 until January 8, 2018 as a preliminary trial as part of the game's 1st anniversary campaign.
In April 2018, Square Enix announced the game will receive a major update titled Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity Next Stage as part of Love Live! School Idol Festival's 5th anniversary campaign. Aqours' song will be added as well as new function named "Odekake School Idol" and a new song difficulty. The group has been officially added to the game along with the major update on December 6, 2018.
In the first day after the Next Stage update has been released, it has been met with an infamous bug that sometimes characters appear naked during the dance sequence. This bug was widely shared on Twitter as screenshots and clips of dancing "Barbie doll-esque" nude characters during gameplay has been spread across it. This bug caused Square Enix to take the game server in "urgent maintenance" for few days in order to fix that bug.
In September 5, 2019, Saint Snow, the rival duo of Aqours, has been added to the game, along with two of their songs.

''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars''

A spin-off game of Love Live! School Idol Festival was announced during Tokyo Game Show 2017 as part of the game's 4th anniversary. The new game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars for 2019 release. The game uses an alternate story that differentiates it from other media where μ's and Aqours are in the same school year and works together as one along with the girls from Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Due to this, Chika Takami's original reason for becoming school idol, which was after seeing μ's on stage, was slightly changed to admiring school idols and then become one herself. The game is described as "the ultimate idol rhythm RPG game" that allows players to 'participate' in the game and customize the school idols. Nijigasaki High School Idol Club performs the opening theme titled "Tokimeki Runners." The game was officially released in Japan on September 26, 2019. A global version which features English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Thai languages was released on February 25, 2020.
Players assume the role of the protagonist, a 2nd year student at Nijigasaki High School who becomes interested in school idols after seeing joint live between μ's and Aqours. After looking for a related club in Nijigasaki, the protagonist learns that the existing school idol club is on its last legs of survival and decides to rebuild and reform the school idol club.
New features include: tree-based growth system, new Live system, and "SIF ID" system. Using the SIF ID, players will be able to play both games under the same account. Syncing their SIF ID created on Love Live! School Idol Festival with LLAS, players will be able to port their Rank and their progress made in the game to the new title. However, the benefits of the new ID offer extend far beyond just the saving of one's progress.

Live Show system

Instead of focusing on its "rhythm game" system, the game requires the player to carefully build their teams with strategy and train their idols in order to be able to successfully clear a live, as all tapped notes will drain the Stamina bar, even when tapped perfectly. The 9 tap note icons that represent the 9 members of an idol group have been reduced to two, and the player is able to tap anywhere on the screen to register a tap. During a Live Show, the 9 participating members are depicted as full-3D models with dance choreography on screen.
In addition to the original members' elements, 3 new elements have been added: Active, Natural, and Elegant. Besides elements, the members are also divided by 4 different attributes: Voltage, Special Skill, Guard, and Skill. During the lives, 9 members are divided into 3 "Strategy" units. Strategy units can have different positive and negative effects depending on the members' attributes in the Strategy, such as increased tap score, reduced stamina damage, or more frequent skill activation, as well shortened Strategy switch time. Only one of the Strategies is active at a time, but the player may switch to a different Strategy to take advantage of different members' skills and effects and to clear "Appeal Chances" that appear during a live.

Systems

Besides, the new live, the game also introduced some new systems:
In March 2017, the official website of Love Live School Idol Festival launched a new project called "Perfect Dream Project," which features 9 new girls. Emma, Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku Ōsaka were three members who were already featured as N-rarity girls and topped the 3rd popularity poll. The remaining 6 girls were later introduced: Ayumu Uehara, Kasumi Nakasu, Karin Asaka, Ai Miyashita, Setsuna Yuki, and Rina Tennōji.
The members are part of the school idol club at Nijigasaki High School that is located in Odaiba, Tokyo. The school is popular due to its free school style and diverse majors. Unlike μ's and Aqours, they are not a group, but rather individual school idols who compete with each other; a popularity poll is held every month to determine their rank. The girls were split up into groups of three to begin activities in three different apps before their addition to the game: Dengeki Online website, Famitsu App website, and the game's official website. Each place is working as a separate room or branch office for the Nijigasaki High School.
They are featured in the spin-off game Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars along with μ's and Aqours. They also appear as SR rarity cards in Love Live! School Idol Festival. Each of them also get a solo song that was released along with the group's song for the new game on November 21, 2018. Their second album, also contains their solo songs, was released on October 2, 2019.
The girls' sub-unit was decided by users vote. Instead of 3 sub-units consists of each 3 members like μ's and Aqours, the Nijigasaki girls were divided by group of duo, trio, and quartet. The sub-units decision along with its name were concluded on June 10, 2019. The results consist of: Karin-Ai, Ayumu-Shizuku-Setsuna, and Kasumi-Kanata-Emma-Rina. The sub-unit's singles will be released at the same day on February 12, 2020.

Other media

Discography

CDs and albums released as part of campaign from the game franchise.
ArtistRelease dateTitleNote
μ'sJanuary 29, 2014"Takaramonos/Paradise Live"Collaboration single with LLSIF
μ'sOctober 28, 2015"Heart to Heart!"Collaboration single with LLSIF
AqoursNovember 23, 2016"Jingle Bell ga Tomaranai"Collaboration single with LLSIF
Nijigasaki High School Idol ClubNovember 21, 2018Tokimeki RunnersOpening theme for LLAS and the group's 1st album which also contains single for each girls
Nijigasaki High School Idol ClubOctober 2, 2019Love U My FriendsNijigasaki High School Idol Club 2nd album
AqoursOctober 30, 2019"Kokoro Magic "A to Z""Collaboration single with LLAS
Guilty KissNovember 27, 2019"New Romantic Sailors"Collaboration single with LLSIF
CYaRon!December 4, 2019"Braveheart Coaster"Collaboration single with LLSIF
AzaleaDecember 11, 2019"Amazing Travel DNA"Collaboration single with LLSIF
DiverDivaFebruary 12, 2020"Super Nova"Nijigasaki High School Idol Club sub-unit's 1st single
A・Zu・NaFebruary 12, 2020"Dream Land! Dream World!"Nijigasaki High School Idol Club sub-unit's 1st single
Qu4rtzFebruary 12, 2020"Sing & Smile!!"Nijigasaki High School Idol Club sub-unit's 1st single
Kasumi Nakasu
Q3 2020"Muteki-kyū Believer"A single by Kasumi Nakasu who won the election in 2019.
Also includes Nijigasaki's first single.

Print

Several books of the game's illustration cards and original story collection has been released since 2013.
Release
date		TitlePublisherISBN
July 30, 2013Love Live! School Idol Festival Official Guide BookASCII Media Works
July 19, 2014Love Live! School Idol Festival Official Illustration BookASCII Media Works
July 19, 2014Love Live! School Idol Festival Official Fan BookEnterbrain
October 30, 2017Love Live! School Idol Festival Aqours Official Illustration BookASCII Media Works
December 20, 2017Love Live! School Idol Festival Aqours Official Story BookASCII Media Works
June 30, 2018Love Live! School Idol Festival Aqours Official Illustration Book 2Kadokawa
March 30, 2019Love Live! School Idol Festival Aqours Official Illustration Book 3Kadokawa
January 18, 2020Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Dōkokai First Fan BookKadokawa
March 30, 2020Love Live! School Idol Festival Aqours Official Illustration Book 4Kadokawa

Manga

A 4-koma manga was published and can be read via the game's application titled Ten Fes: Transfer Student Festival. The manga tells the stories around the N-rarity girls. It was published from September 30, 2016 every Friday and ended on 54th episode.
After the announcement of "Perfect Dream Project," three 4-koma mangas are published respectively via Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars, Dengeki Online, and Famitsu App official website as part of their school idol club activity. The first manga titled Sugoi Ten Fes is focused on the N rarity members who topped the popularity poll: Shizuku Ōsaka, Kanata Konoe, and Emma Verde. Second 4-koma manga focused on Kasumi Nakasu, Karin Asaka, and Setsuna Yūki since July 4, 2017. The manga is drawn by Miyakohito. Third 4-koma manga focused on Ayumu Uehara, Ai Miyashita, and Rina Tennōji also published since October 3, 2017. Choboraunyopomi drawn the manga.

Reception

, the game has reached over 40 million users worldwide. This exclude multiple accounts on same devices. In Japan, the game grossed more than between 2017 and 2018, including more than in 2017, and in 2018.

Controversy

Fans of the English version of the Love Live! School Idol Festival game discovered that most of the homosexual subtext between the various girls depicted in the game were removed. In some instances, overt references to relationships between girls were changed to imply a relationship between a girl and a boy. KLab has since issued a statement on the controversy and later released an update on June 30, 2015 to make adjustments to the translated text to retain their original meanings.