In early 2013, an anime called Love Live! School Idol Project was aired. The anime revolves around a group of high school students who decide to become music idols in order to save their school from shutting down, as the school had a lack of applicants for it. Becoming idols would bring popularity to the school, ensuring its survival. The anime became incredibly popular, and now has a gigantic following and fan base.

After the emergence of the Love Live! School Idol Project anime, a free-to-play mobile app based on the show followed in the anime’s footsteps towards success and popularity. This app, Love Live! School Idol Festival, is a Japanese rhythm game series, developed by the company, KLab, and produced by another company, Bushiroad.

The game allows its players to choose from two main gameplay modes, Story and Live. In story mode, the player’s character essentially becomes a helper to the idol groups, μ’s and Aquors. There are three main types of stories players can select from; Main Story, Side Stories, and Other Stories. Each story contains full voice-acting from each of the characters, as well as fun and interesting conflicts and experiences the characters undergo. After completing certain stories, players can unlock more stories, more chapters to the stories they are currently going through, and rewards, like in-game currency or brand new songs to play in the Live mode.

In Live mode, the players must first select one out of the five difficulty modes; Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Master. Master mode contains songs that are only available for a certain amount of time. For example, the song “Psychic Fire,” from μ’s, can be available to players for fifty days. Of course, some of the songs located in Master mode can be unlocked or found in the other modes.

After selecting a difficulty, the players must then choose a song they would like to play. This is where the rhythm aspect of the game comes in. When playing a song, a.k.a. Live Show, players must hit circles across the screen in due time. Failing to hit a circle in time results in players losing their “combo,” which is the amount of times they properly hit a circle without missing a beat. This gives players a fun, yet intense experience when playing the game, depending on the difficulty they choose.

Furthermore, with each Live Show, a player can receive certain scores based on the points they accumulate throughout the Live Show. Although there is a depiction of the total amount of points a player got in a Live Show, they are further categorized into specific classifications; C, B, A, and S. There is a bar at the top of the screen that is shown when playing a Live Show depicting which classification a player’s score goes under.

One of the other major components of Love Live School Idol Festival is its extensive cards and team formations. In the game, a card shows one of the idols you can use to form a team.  After creating a team with nine cards, you can then use the team when playing Live Shows in order to attain more points. Each card can be improved, which involves a player absorbing other cards into a selected card to boost its level and the amount of points it can give during a Live Show.

Most cards can also be idolized, where the card must either be fused with another identical card, or must be given a certain amount of “stickers.” When a card is idolized, the card gets new art and increased levels. Cards can also be exchanged for in-game currency.

Another important part of the cards are its rarity levels. Normal, Rare, Super Rare, Super Super Rare, and Ultra Rare are the five rarity levels. When a card is rarer, it offers more skills, which is essential to Live Shows, as it provides the players with more points. Additionally, rarer cards, like URs, tend to have nicer art than a Normal, or lower card.

On top of all of this, Love Live has many events in which players can participate in to receive prizes, like in-game currency or more cards. With all of these aspects of the app, it is easy to see how dedicated and determined its creators are in making this a fun, immersive game for players. Not only does it have nice stories, but it also has a wide range of music from both idol groups. And to think, that all of this free! (The app does offer in-game purchases, but they aren’t necessary to continue playing.) Love Live! School Idol Festival is only continuing to grow and evolve, making it a better experience for players worldwide.