Love to Live, as you would Live to Love
What’s up dear readers? Chinese New Year is around the corner and I’m sure many of us are very excited to meet our relatives! For the non-chinese, the occasion serves as a well-timed break in the semester! With holidays to look forward to, someone may pop by and ask , “What are you going to do with your free time?” For those who have cracked the chillingly cold joke, the answer is obvious enough.
Time spent being entertained is time well spent. Image taken from the Love Live Wikia
Recently, due to my friend’s recommendation I started playing Love Live on my phone. At first I thought it’s like one of those rhythm games, having to tap the screen according to the music, nothing special. However it is much more than that.
Love Live! (ラブライブ) School Idol Project is a Japanese multimedia project which has its own anime series, music CDs, anime music videos, two manga adaptations, novels and video games. It circles around a group of girls on their way to becoming idols in order to save their school from closing down due to lack of applicants. Honoka Kōsaka was determined to save her school so her and her friends started up a school idol group called μ’s (pronounced muse) in hope to attract new students. Members of μ are Honoka Kōsaka, Eli Ayase, Kotori Minami, Umi Sonoda, Rin Hoshizora, Maki Nishikino, Nozomi Tojo, Hanayo Koizumi and Nico Yazawa. Published by Bushiroad and KLab, the game was released on the April 16, 2013 for iOS and June 6, 2013 for Android devices. Other than the Japanese version, English, Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean versions were subsequently released.
So what makes it different from other rhythm games?
Firstly, players have two different modes to choose from; Live mode and Story mode. Live mode is whereby players try to get high scores that can be placed on the leaderboard. In a way, it serves as a competitive platform for players to compete against each other. Story mode is where players role-play as μ’s helper and manage their training and schedule. There are also two types of events that players can participate in. One is where players get to choose from 4 different difficulty levels and complete with 3 other players to accumulate event points. Another would be that players have to keep playing the event song to accumulate event points. These points can be exchanged for event rewards such as desirable super rare and ultra rare cards (which would be explained later).
Secondly, the songs are actually songs from the love live anime, sang by the seiyuus (voice actresses) of the members of μ. No more downloading music from the internet, instead you get Japanese pop songs from the anime. It has a large range of music from slower music like Snow Halation to upbeat songs like Start Dash. The voices of the characters in the games are also voiced by their anime seiyuus. Instead of the classic 2 or 3 icons in most rhythm games, it has a whopping 9 icons. Thus it puts the skills of the players to the test, whether they are amateurs or experts to the rhythm game genre.
Thirdly, as players play the game they get new idol cards to add to their team. They can be levelled up and idolised by combining them with other idol cards. These cards are classified as normal, rare, super rare and ultra rare cards. The rare, super rare and ultra rare cards are mostly made up of members of μ. The cards as well as the songs are spitted into 3 different attributes Smile (red), Pure (green) and Cool (blue). These cards are used to make up the 9 icons that will form one team. One can create more than one team. As each card has their own individual stats for each attributes which will affect the overall attribute score of team they belong to. One’s score is increased when a team with the highest attribute score that has the same attribute of the song is chosen.
A rare card marked with a R
There is much more this game can offer. It has nice music, cute characters and puts your fingers to the test. For me I particularly like their songs like Love Novels and After School Navigators and one of Love Live’s characters ,Umi Sonoda. So why not try out this game, download from your phone’s app store, any who knows? You might end up liking it too!
Written by: Wen Yi
Edited by: Jessel Eng