On March 5th, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced “School Idolmaster”, an idol training simulation for Android/iOS, as a new brand app game in the “Idolmaster” series. Scheduled to be released in the spring of 2024, the game is basically free to play, but the business model is a pay-for-item system.
The “Idol Master” series is an idol production game where players train idols in the role of “producer” of an entertainment production company. Since its debut as an arcade game in July 2005, it has continued to develop in various media, and is a long-running series that will celebrate its 19th anniversary on July 26th of this year.
At the media presentation held today, in addition to Mr. Hidefumi Komino, the producer of “Gakuen Idolmaster”, there was also the leader of the idol candidates who will appear in this work, who will play the role of Misaki Hanau. Three cast members also appeared: Aoi Tsuki, Nao Kojika, who plays Temari Tsukimura, and Hikaru Iida, who plays Kotone Fujita.
In the new game, “Gakuen Idol Master”, the player enters “Hatsusei Gakuen”, an idol training school, and the goal is to produce idol candidates as a producer. As idols develop their abilities through lessons and lessons during school life, the live scene changes depending on the level of development. Furthermore, the relationship with the idols and their abilities improve with each production, allowing you to experience the growth of each idol individually.
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What are the details of “THE IDOLM@STER Gakuen”, which selects one idol candidate from nine candidates and produces them on a one-on-one basis?
Mr. Komino, who was the first to take the stage, explained why he chose the simple name “THE IDOLM@STER Gakuen” for the title, “I wanted people who had never played the Idolmaster series to play it, so I made it simple on purpose.” “I made it,” he said. “Please call it ‘Gakumasu’ for short.”
In “School Idol Master,” players will choose one of nine idol candidates to produce. The girls are enrolled in the high school/idol department of Hatsuhoshi Academy, and the player is a student who has entered the producer department of a vocational university located above them. Therefore, the players are not classmates, but are slightly older than the girls.
Furthermore, the setting is a school: “School is a place where you feel familiar and close to each other.The idol candidates who appear this time also have their own worries, and I think the school is a place where it is easy for the players who reach out to them to empathize with them.” So I did it,” he said.
The player took the entrance exam and entered the producer department of a professional university.
Set in Hatsuhoshi Academy, players train idol candidates and help them grow. In this way, they will eventually be able to perform live, but in the live scene in this work, only one person sings and dances. Regarding this, Mr. Komino said, “Normally, five or six people would sing and dance, but we focused on depicting one idol.” He continued, “We used about 60,000 polygons for each person. We paid special attention to things like the way the hair and braids sway, so you don’t need a high-spec device. Saki’s hairstyle, etc. Normally, it would have looked like a helmet, but this time, by splitting 20,000 polygons into just the hair, we were able to create a softer expression.” gave.
It’s a live scene in which the enthusiastic idol candidates sing and dance, but she confesses, “Since I’m alone, all the songs during the game are solo.” “Since we are raising one idol, we also make songs for one person,” and then, surprisingly, “Actually, the best live scenes are not easy to see.” He also revealed.
In addition, “By taking the time to produce idols, you will eventually be able to see a wonderful live scene, but we have also prepared patterns for the stages leading up to that. “The idea is that there will be stage-level live scenes prepared, and players will progress through them little by little,” he said, explaining the system. The quality of live shows seems to improve as the idols grow.
Regarding the participating staff, “Character settings are handled by Tsukasa Fushi, the original author of works such as “My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute” and “Eromanga Sensei.”The scenario team includes Tsukasa Fushi, as well as Mr. Tsukasa Fushi. , Shizui Sensei, and Amamiya Kazuki Sensei are participating. Aki Minamino/Hechima are in charge of the character design, and Yuta Higashi and many others are participating as composers.”
Famous people, including Professor Tsukasa Fushimi, are participating.Just by looking at the name, expectations are high.
Lastly, we will introduce some questions and answers from the interview conducted with Mr. Omino and the three cast members.
――I heard that you can enjoy playing laps, but do you aim for the highest point in the first play, or do you get there by repeating laps?
Mr. Komino: Basically, we ask the participants to aim for the top by repeating the laps many times. I myself got goosebumps and was so moved when I saw the best live performance during the test play.
–I would like to know about the structure of the three people in charge of the scenario.
Mr. Komino: Fushimi-sensei and I are basically making it, and the three of us share the writing part of the scenario. Each idol has a teacher in charge, and Fushimi-sensei wrote the scenarios for the three I introduced today.
–Why did you choose a student as the producer?
Mr. Komino: We chose this setting considering the mental and physical distance between us and the idols. At first, there was a plan to have the producer be my classmate, but we were too close emotionally to maintain a relationship between producer and idol. Also, there was an idea to have the producer as the teacher, but this time there would be too much physical distance, so I don’t think it would be much different from the relationship between producers and idols in the “THE IDOLM@STER” series.
After thinking about what would be the best option, I decided that vocational college students and high school students would be the best because of the distance between them. This decision was made after many discussions with Professor Fushimi.
–Basically, how should you hold your smartphone?
Mr. Komino: The basic play screen is vertical, and when viewing live scenes it is horizontal.
–You came up with a figure of 60,000 polygons for each character, but was that your goal from the beginning, or did you arrive at it as you worked on it?
Mr. Komino: Once we decided to focus on one person to express the work, we decided from an early stage that we would allocate all our resources to that person. However, although they said it would be 60,000 polygons, I never thought it would actually come true.
–Are there any plans to hold a real live show like you have done so far?
Mr. Komino: We have plans. I would like to announce that I will be doing a live show like this at a later date. I’m thinking of doing it in a slightly different way than before.
–Are there any songs or theme songs by the nine members?
Mr. Komino: There are two songs with school themes, and each person has one song.
–What were the difficult parts of the many singing scenes you recorded, and what did you have to be careful about?
Mr. Nagatsuki: There are times when the state of mind is expressed in the song, so I tried to understand Saki’s feelings at that time and put that into the song.
Mr. Oshika: Temari was originally a good singer, but after meeting the producer there he grew spiritually and had a hugely successful live show, so it was difficult to differentiate between them.
Iida-san: Kotone-chan lacks confidence because she doesn’t have the ability. She wanted to look cute but lacked confidence in her performance, which made it difficult for her to differentiate her singing.
Mr. Komino: It was very difficult for everyone to make a difference in their singing ability. We ask them to dig deep into the inner feelings of the characters themselves and put that into their songs.
–Please tell us the appeal of the idol you are playing.
Mr. Nagatsuki: I think Saki’s charm is her unbreakable strength and her cuteness, which makes her look like a real person in front of her sister and the producer. I also want people to pay attention to the fact that she has undergone spiritual growth and it shows in her performance.
Mr. Oshika: Temari is a very spoiled child on the inside, he likes to eat, he likes to slack off, and he doesn’t like working hard. The part where he shakes off those feelings and shows people publicly is stoic and cool. There are some parts that come out too strongly because there is a weak part inside, so when you hear Temari’s lines, I think you can think, “She says these lines because she’s thinking like this on the inside.” , I think people will find even the cold lines endearing. That’s the charm.
Mr. Iida: Kotone-chan’s script is full of heart and is cute and sweet, but she isn’t really a flirtatious person, or in fact, it’s the exact opposite, and her tone can be rough. Many of the interactions with the producers are quite comical, and the story is fun to read.
She is obsessed with money for “certain reasons”, but the backbone behind her is amazing and the story is gripping, so you’ll never give up and rise to the top! Her hot scenes are also part of her charm.
Mr. Komino: Just to talk about this, the three of us actually have idols who are our rivals, so please look forward to their relationships with each other’s rivals.
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