Does anyone remember Super Duper? This certified Kpop inspired track was written literally by a Korean composer, is going on to 8 years old now.

Kpop has been a thing for some time, especially in Japanese music scenes–easily from the turn of the decade into the 2010s. What is it now? It’s basically baked into the influences of modern-day track makers and composers. ASOBI NOTES is full of these people. Music games like Deresute and Theater Days have to sort of refresh its turn-of-decade meta to catch that Kpop wave, while newer IDOLM@STER IP have incorporated those styles more deeply, with SHHIis and, well, everything about Gakuen IDOLM@STER.

Here is the contribution in Gakumas by Shiina Go, the video game music creator of some renown, putting down these pop rhythm tracks to give the character song more, uh, character. It’s not some big epic piece of “founding of a nation” as seiyuu Matsuda Ayane (CV of Ume) said during the stream, but it sure sounds like one? It’s not Kpop, but maybe laced a little with various inspiration.

I bring up Juou Sena mainly because before her character song/MV was released, the teaser video from a week earlier looked like this:

On the night before her release, we then get this video?

Anyways.

There are other similar types of pop songs from the various branches of IDOLM@STER, and it’s easy to see how the first branch of IDOLM@STER with a Giga song would try to out do the OMGs or H4ADSHOTs from the other branches. Turns out it’s not yet upon us?

Just to give a quick half-year update on Gakumas–the initial excitement has definitely faded somewhat but behind all the hype lies a solid Slay-the-Spire-inspired video game that also loops a good chunk of the game into what Shiny Colors really ought to be in the first place. Each run takes 20-30 minutes, and while for the first 6 months we were preoccupied with grinding up levels (to unlock new cards) and to get the hang of the base 2 produce plans (logic and sense–each has a couple different builds), we are getting the “Watcher” equivalent now with Sena.

So far the Anomaly (or watcher?) produce plan plays closer to the power build for sense, except you can really chain those switchovers between Guidelines (modes?) for a lot of buffs such as added appeal bonuses and additional actions, and shredding the deck becomes kind of important. In fact, part of the mechanics is an exile system where some cards can be basically exiled and then returned when you go into the Full Power Guideline (mode). There are also some cards that can only be played during full power, and you can sort of chain between the modes for even more impact. There are also cards that has “growth” abilities which gives additional bonuses when you use those cards to enable a mode switch.

So far, yeah, it’s definitely more powerful than the other plans, at least in terms of ramping up to a certain score quickly. It’s less certain how high it can possibly ramp in total, but it wouldn’t surprise me the heights will be higher than ever once folks start to complete their inheritance decks and start playing for real.

On that note, Sena’s push into the game and the whole intro was really fun and I enjoyed her character story in the game. It paints an interesting character and, if anything, makes other characters like her from the IDOLM@STER a bit more grounded? Anyways, it’s nice to have an injection of fresh air at this point in the Gakumas product time line.

We know that the 3 rivals we’ll get in the first year of the game (Mizusu eventually, right?) will match with the first 3 idols in the series (Sena actually pairs with Kotone, which is something people didn’t really vocalize so far). Ume was most notably taken by Saki as the main character (while being her sister). MIzusu appears plentily in Temari’s character story. So will the other 6 also get rivals in year 2? I guess we’ll find out.

Barely one month in, there’s enough about the Gakuen IDOLM@STER game beyond the pre-release hype cycle to talk about the first new brand for the IDOLM@STER series in 6 years. It’s fun! Also I need some place to flaunt my gacha rolls?

On that note, I was able to pull every P SSR thus far, except for Kotone’s current banner (Big Bang) and the base Kotone SSR. (I farmed the base Kotone P SSR since.) I guess the game and I are just not into her? It was not immediately clear to me why you would roll for P SSRs, but they do have stronger items, higher starting stats, and generally stronger special skill cards. Maybe the “end” goal in this game is also just PVP where you assemble groups of 3 teams going head to head with other idol teams. I don’t know.

A key thing about the game is that much of the game is locked behind the P level progression. This includes many powerful SR and SSR skill cards, not to mention the “pro” produce mode. What you can do in this game is different than many prior IM@S games, so it’s worth spelling it out a bit before going forward.

Most IM@S games you gacha for characters and outfits, but in Gakumas you gacha for outfit, music, and SSR skills. It’s more like IDOLY PRIDE in that the cast of characters are limited and they are outright available to play with, or close to it. Having the SR and SSR P cards do help make getting a good produce run easier, and you can make stronger memories.

Memories are the output of each produce run. Each memory carries with it a skill card that can be used in a subsequent run, a set of skills to boost your run when you use that memory, and a deck+items for PVP. Oh, you can also take a photo from the final performance of each run to use as the icon for that memory. So yes, the game surrounds memories.

The gameplay, being a roguelike battle card game, the skill cards are important as a tool to carry over on each run. There are some strats here where you play normal mode to get a B or B+ memory with just 1 SSR+ so you have a 50/50 rate to obtain the same SSR+ (or SR+) in your deck in the output memory. Rather than whatever a higher scoring run requires, if you aim low, you can get by with just 1 SSR. It’s something worth trying once you get a special card that you think you really want to keep, because you also have to thin your deck with various tricks yet still get as much stat as possible.

Playing it more normally, you’d want to just play a lot and hope the inherited (lack of a better term) skill card is the one you want, and upgraded if possible. At higher score levels you can get more boosts for your subsequent runs, so ultimately you want memories that have both skills you want and as many highest tier of boosts you want (and of the right types).

The split between (P)roduce SSR and (S)upport SSR was introduced through Shiny Colors, so it’s nice to see they basically carry that idea into Gakumas. In Gakumas both P and S SSRs are the same banner too, so it’s already quite a bit less exploitative than either Shinymas game. There is so far the base banner and the new banner, which has a rate up on the new cards, and seems like the new cards are not in the base banner. The free roll tickets also seems to only work on the base banner so I wonder how often they would update it…or reset the rolls on that.

Support SSRs are basically like memories, except they only carry either an item or a skill card, and have much stronger boosts that maps to the support card’s level. You need to earn blue support tokens to spend to level them up, which you get from achievements and runs, and the plethora of stores/kuji pools in the game.

From a gameplay perspective, this is Slay the Spire, IDOLM@STER version. Stats play a big role on your midterm and final scores, but winning the training games efficiently is also how you can get big stats. Having to carry less slots for gameplay means you can carry more slots for stats, also. But that’s pretty much it for that–we are gatekept by level 60 SSRs being so hard to obtain right now (as you need up to 5+1 borrowed).

From the usual content delivery machine point of view, Gakumas is unlike previous entries in that it’s a lot more anime-like. Maybe that’s just QualiArt for you, but the main commu is basically shuraba-kei writing from the OreImo anime scriptwriter, played out as a video that you can stepwise skip line by line. Some would say this is “Iori-core” especially with Saki being the lead Red character. Temari is a big dork and Kotone is more the audience perspective. The drama ensues. The game postures the character-specific commu based on affection levels which are unlocked by specific achievements. During a produce run you can unlock them in the middle of the run and it presents a continuous story to you. It’s got this “anime as you play” vibe especially when you get the “ending” commu at affection level 10, complete with a ED sequence.

Part of what makes it more anime-like is that there is a lot of interaction between idol from the get go. We have the head-turning move of introducing us to the True Red character, Ume, who is more of the archetypical main IM@S red character, then to show us that Saki is actually the main Red. After reading the SSR+level 10 commu for both Saki and Ume it became really clear that until late in the production process, Ume was really the main character and Saki was the ultimate rival. They switched it partly because Ume herself is a bit countercultural in the way she is like Saki, and ultimately Saki would make more sense as the main character if things played out that way. So yes, things are playing out that way. This is not to mention the wide spectrum of cast members. China, Hiro and Temari are all quite eccentric and their interactions with everyone are amusing. Well, I guess so are Saki and Ume.

It’s hard to not praise Gakumas for sticking to being an IM@S game yet going against the grain in all the right ways. Maybe it’s not perfect, but overall it is doing everything right. I guess the gameplay itself is a bit of mixed bag because it is Slay the Spire, which is a popular genre-specific game. I guess it is part of the 2020 zeitgeist with board games being more popular in Japan as well as with indie games, but I suppose it works.

And in a similar vein, while I put in about 40 hours in Slay the Spire before taking a hiatus, you can also hit the content cap by getting to level 10 affection for every character in Gakumas. It probably will also take roughly 30-40 hours! Not bad for a free to play gacha game where none of this is gated per se, it just takes longer without stronger cards. The time-limited events thus far are kind of not in a set pattern, and it all seems to be the trivial “get stronger by playing the game more” kind of thing. I guess we will see what the future brings and if this franchise has the sauce for longevity.

For what it is worth, I’m still not 100% decided who to oshi–still leaning towards Rinami because it’s what I like, but the Ume is the riceball rolling straight into my heart. It is definitely a good problem to have.

Everything that needs to be said about Gakuen Idolm@ster can be found on Twitter/X. There’s also this wonderful thin slice on the visual contents side from Sakugabooru–feeding us 9 proper music videos will do this. I personally enjoy the music, not only because “Hajime” is the most IM@S song I’ve heard since Starlit Season, but also because each of the 9 felt like some Asobinotes persons took each one and ran.

Between QualiArts lifting IDOLM@STER into the 2020s, that we are onboarding into an official Discord server, or that ultimately the game still isn’t available in another language besides Japanese, there’s a lot to be said of the game that is both a content delivery platform that Ps are familiar with, and idol-slay-the-spire strapped on top of a gacha game engine. The first banner and event already dropped, 1 week into launch. I spent a lot of Acen avoiding to play it, and a lot of Animazement playing it….which speaks more to which con is more laid back than the other and less about how compelling the game is.

I have not much else to say than, again, finally IM@S is a game that is new. It is so hard for Japan to create something new but still maintain what was great about the original, yet they are able to do it from time to time in spectacular fashion. I ate up the pre-launch promo like a child in a candy store, waking up early for each character reveal. The rivals, the Chokaigi streams, the daily video drops, it was a lot of fun. This doesn’t even mention the curve ball like Apple Music’s regular show. Or Chihaya.

.@gkmas_official's Temari Tsukimura is in full bloom on her latest single "Ivy." ?

Listen to the original song from the brand new THE IDOLM@STER series in #SpatialAudio with @Dolby Atmos: https://t.co/bzjAHHas7L pic.twitter.com/pc2HM8ZLM3

— Apple Music (@AppleMusic) May 18, 2024

So yes, the Famitsu in-depth interview confirms that the lead creatives are otaku influenced by works from the 00s, which explains why the vibe feels like the 00s. It answers many of the questions.

As for the game… it is a card game roguelike, in terms of getting the performances/practices. You raise the idol by using P items and building the deck, and gaining stats (ViVoDa) by achieving a certain number of points during audition or practice. There’s the full uma inheritance thing with 4 cards you can bring with you each produce trip, plus stats/bonuses from those previous runs. Support and P gacha cards add more special cards or items (persistent artifacts/items) plus other bonuses to stat/health to your game.

It’s also a lot of fun. I know some might want to have a more long-form roguelike experience (closer to STS) but I like this shorter format where you can really grind in small chunks. Each run takes about 30 minutes. The SSRs gate the songs for each idol in this game which is an unusual trick versus the previous games. The idol performance, as you roguelike your way each time, improves until you get to the True End.

Gakumas is all clicking and firing on all cylinders. Shiny Colors anime or Miriani may be for “existing” fans, but so is Gakumas in a way. It’s so fun to see how this game came into existence and to me it isn’t how different it is as an imas game, but how much it took from the past and made it its own that seems amazing to me.