THE iDOLM@STER
 

It's amazing that on the one internet forum most likely to love this game, there isn't a single topic devoted to the titular game and subsequent franchise. I mean there's Xenoglossia discussion, and a few topics about the manga, but still, I'm really surprised! :heh:

I think it hurts that the game has not been translated, although there have been a few wonderful folks who have translated segments and together they give a glimpse of what the game is like beyond the lovely song and dance - a sound, expressive and interactive visual novel. It's so well written I can actually feel that I'm a Japanese version of myself while playing as The Producer. I can only hope someone takes this up as a serious project someday.

I'm also a little embarrassed to say this, but as someone who has a history of rancor against moe culture and the fans who love it, this game has taught me what "moe" really means and how it's distinct from all the definitions people mistakenly ascribe to it. I feel I needed this insight to really appreciate how great a game The Idolmaster really is.

Now that I've shared, please show me your love for this awesome game. :)

I'll bump this with an announcement- THE iDOLM@STER 2 has been announced!

Check out the trailer!

A YouTube is fine too:

Expect Xbox360 sales to triple for a while

and expect Berserk to go on an indefinite hiatus again

Cue Berserk fans screaming in horror.

The game is more than a little creepy. I wish you had the option to play a non pedo-riffic female recording manager/engineer instead of the "should be a protagonist in an H-game dating sim" character you get by default. *facepalm*

Also, No Export For You and it's in Japanese.

Translation: I've never played the game and just watched a few Youtube videos and I'm just spewing nonsense.

Look, in the game you are *sometimes* given a *choice* to touch the idols, and only if you *want* to be a pervert then you can touch them in the non-appropriate places, just like in nearly all Western RPGs that you're given a *choice* to be an evil bastard that kills innocent people for pleasure - and in both cases, you DON'T have to take those choices. The default character *is* a truly professional, hands-off-the-idol producer, the *choice* to the darkside is there, but you don't have to take it, and in 99% of the time, going down that path leads to certain failure.

Looks like MS finally figured out that Japan likes minimally interactive games with dancing and singing girls. In fact if it has dancing and singing girls in it it doesn't matter what it is, akihabara will be all over it.

Seriously is there any way for any of us out here to play it without learning japanese?

Get a Japanese 360 and import it. Yes 360 is region locked.

And here I was hoping that it would be released in PS3... :<

For the record: region locking is a silly idea, but that is a rant for another time (short form: if I can buy an audio CD anywhere on Earth and be sure it'll play on any capable device, no questions asked, there's no excuse for games to be any different).

Anyways, it's a cute franchise, and I was quite amused to see the cross-pollination with Ace Combat 6 (you can get the details here)... but I still want an audio pack which has Kotori Otonashi doing Ghost Eye's lines (complete with subtitles), damn it. Extra credit if they release a collection of the soundtracks' various choral pieces with the girls on vocals. Now, who at Namco should I get in touch with about this...?

Also: curiousity piqued by the existence of a sequel; thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Interesting coincidence: a key location in Dead to Rights: Retribution (yes, Namco publishes this franchise too) is 'Dock 765'. This prompted me to consider the amusing mental image of an alternate outfit for that game's protagonist consisting of a teal blazer and dark slacks....

Nice rebuttal there, houkoholic... looks like someone didn't read Dead Old Demo Dick's advice on assumptions, eh?

There's an ongoing translation project for IM@S SP with great promise, it could be done by this time next year or sooner. The downside is the SP is a pale imitation of the powerful graphics seen in the 360 game, and the game's divided into three parts but otherwise it's the same game.

I'm really amazed at how well you know my own state of mind and opinions on things, seeing how you don't even know who I am and mind-reading is impossible and all.

I said the game creeps me out. And no, I haven't played it because I don't speak or read Japanese. I have watched Let's Plays of the game and even when you're not being a complete and utter scumbag to the girls, the dialogues are extremely suggestive to the point where I feel like it was originally an H-game adapted for mass market.

I raepd mah client rawr! >=D

It's pretty obvious that the game doesn't have completely innocent intentions. I mean Miki is a 14 year old who "just has boobs that big, we dunno"?? If you don't like, don't like, but I don't think it's fair to hound someone for stating the obvious. Why exactly does everyone know that this game will never officially hit the shores of North America?

....... :(

Actually this might be Truth in Television because I've seen some teenage girls with three times the boobs I've got... and I'm twenty-six. :uhoh:

Go Go Miki, Producer-san daisuki daiyo. Yeah.... I feel dirty typing that but it had to be said, although I hope there is more diva battles and company changes which would be awesome.

She's not even that big.

But if you really want to know the answer, one of the interviews with the producer asked this, and it went along the line of 'Idolm@ster is apparently very popular overseas, do you ever have any intention of releasing outside of Japan?' And his answer was, 'No, because many of the idols are underaged, and yet are put to work, the perception of underaged workers might be perceived negatively in other countries as examples of child abuse or such.' Basically loli marketing is a no go.

No one cares about the 'sexual' problem because it doesn't exist. Only in the minds of perverted people.

I don't want to turn this into a 'let's defend Idolm@ster against the ignorant masses' but what specifically gives you that idea?

defend
 

There is nothing to defend here. You can't defend idolmaster, it is what it is. Probably some 90% of Japanese people also find idolmaster to be creepy not just synaesthetic (especially the Japanese girls). And yet close to 1 million otaku buy this game and they love it.

Idolmaster was designed for a very specific subset of otaku. It is in particular, very much a boy's playground. If you are not part of that particular group, then it is a coincidence that you are even seeing this game let alone be in an authority to judge it. As passersby, we merely acknowledge that the game is creepy for some and move on.