THE iDOLM@STER SideM: LIVE ON ST@GE!

[Nagi]

Tell that to Idolm@ster SP and iM@S 2, buddy. They aren't rhythm games but they have what Idolm@ster does best. Idol producing and LOTS of idol interaction.

SideM (card game) doesn't have much of that and I do hope Live On St@ge will give us something similar to that.

Expecting a Produce game similar to the main series is having so much hope, and even if that was the case the main gameplay would still be rhythm. They followed that path for both Deresute and Millitheater, and there isn't really any other gameplay for idol games on phones other than the tapping ones. I do hope we can get something similar to Millitheater tho, as it seems it will be the closest it can be to a main game but for phones.

[MetalPredat0r]

There's little reason to believe that this won't be a rhythm game due to the success of Starlight Stage and how Theater Days is shaping up to be. It's only fair that all three iM@S Productions get a rhythm game. Plus how the 3D Lives are executed look very similar to SS and TD.

In other news, the game is officially coming out this year.

[Chihayaa]

https://prereg.bn-ent.net/common/serial.php?app=imas_mstage
Pre-registration is open and premium currency + song trailers are incentives for players to pre-register!

(oh god its finally happening yes)

EDIT: http://side-m.idolmaster.jp/lo-stage/sp/
Here's a link to the official website, where you can watch the new trailer and see the UI and card previews up close!
I actually really like the return of the Shiny Festa gameplay style, with notes coming in two directions and one spot for you to tap. That was a lot harder than it looked in Shiny Festa, but at the same time it looks chill enough to be an easy and accessible game for newcomers.

I love the direction Theater Days and LIVE ON ST@GE are headed with rhythm games. TD has the whole 3D office environment going for it and focuses on idol interactions, and Raibuste looks to have a very unique UI and the Omakase? (can't remember what it's called) mode looks pretty neat, too. They prioritize the whole interaction aspect unlike other rhythm games out on the market and I'm glad Bamco is trying out new things with the rhythm games. They can always tweak the game according to fan response anyway.

[Kogami]

I agree with ^
I like how both Mirishita and MStage are bringing back some features from the OG 765pro games as well, brings back the nostalgia feeling too since Million Live and SideM have OG 765pro girls and Jupiter + Ryo Akizuki respectively ww.

Also, I kind of prefer rhythm games with a little bit more side stuff than just the rhythm part- That's why I'm glad that MStage is also not solely focusing on the rhythm portion. (Though I can understand that it's not something that can be easily implemented in most mobile games, haha.)

Those appeals though. Kyoji's ex-konbini clerk appeal is A+++

[Teddie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1geDDWTyNY
New promo video~

[Chihayaa]

Infinite Possibilities MV: https://youtu.be/QASIVnsVeik

Happykira Park MV: https://youtu.be/LU_zt_1HoUc

Not too sure how I feel about the graphics. I have a feeling the choreography is done by male dancers and I actually like how different and "rougher" (not too sure what word to use?) the movements feel compared to the female idols, but it appears that all idols' mouths move even when they're not the ones singing. Even the back-up dancers move their mouths even though they're not part of the song. The camera movements and cuts kinda make that less obvious but I wonder why they couldn't polish the lip syncs before uploading the MV, considering pre-registration has started and everything else about the MVs look pretty good and finished. I'm worried that the weird lip syncs will prevent more dynamic camera movement and cinematography, since the camera usually cuts to another idol as soon as their solo line ends to hide the weird lip syncing.

Otherwise, I like how the models look and how similar they look to their card art style and the game surprisingly looks really good for something we've seen so little of. My only wishes so far would be to improve lip syncing and hopefully fix up those jagged lines and rough edges on the models (hopefully a case-by-case situation depending on your phone)

[Kimiko]

Infinite Possibilities MV: https://youtu.be/QASIVnsVeik

Happykira Park MV: https://youtu.be/LU_zt_1HoUc

Not too sure how I feel about the graphics. I have a feeling the choreography is done by male dancers and I actually like how different and "rougher" (not too sure what word to use?) the movements feel compared to the female idols, but it appears that all idols' mouths move even when they're not the ones singing. Even the back-up dancers move their mouths even though they're not part of the song. The camera movements and cuts kinda make that less obvious but I wonder why they couldn't polish the lip syncs before uploading the MV, considering pre-registration has started and everything else about the MVs look pretty good and finished. I'm worried that the weird lip syncs will prevent more dynamic camera movement and cinematography, since the camera usually cuts to another idol as soon as their solo line ends to hide the weird lip syncing.

Otherwise, I like how the models look and how similar they look to their card art style and the game surprisingly looks really good for something we've seen so little of. My only wishes so far would be to improve lip syncing and hopefully fix up those jagged lines and rough edges on the models (hopefully a case-by-case situation depending on your phone)

theater days does the same.
blue symphony, sentimental venus, marionette wa nemurenai, are all songs were 4 idols sing in the original but 5 move their mouths
I guess they are just lazy, because they would need to chance the code for tha idols that don't sing

[Nagi]

This whole lipsync thing used to happen in Deresute too back when it was released in Onegai! Cinderella's solos. You choose a girl who had a solo version and even though the song was sung by her, the rest was also lip syncing along with her. This was fixed in an update however, so we can only hope that the same goes for Millitheater and Livesute.

Also, some of them (at least in Deresute and Millitheater, didn't really checked the Livesute PVs in detail to notice this) sing when being back dancers in the chorus parts, maybe because Scamco wants to give the feel of having the backdancers be the ones who do the chorus parts. Again, I didn't check the PVs in detail (too busy looking at Michio and Shiro ww) but I doubt they would make the backdancers lipsync the entire song.

The choreographies are AMAZING, and compared to the first PV where they danced like robots, they really smoothed them.

Now, the actual problems here (imo):

-No hair physics? I mean, I know the game is still being developed and they need to polish a lot of things, and they probably rendered the MVs without paying too much attention... but did they really need to use models like Chris', one of the few idols who have long hair? That makes that even more notorious! Chris' hair stays rigid the whole song. It looks like it was made out of cardboard. Again, I'm sure the models are still not finished and they need to add physics to some of them. Or at least, that's what I want to believe, because I doubt they're gonna leave long haired idols without physics when some short haired models like Kanon's and Jiro's have physics (even though they look so bad... hope they also fix this).

-Weird proportions... this can be noticed in SEM's PV the most... it may be only me, but, don't they have really long arms and legs compared to the torso? Mofumofuen's models look nice, but SEM's models look so out of proportion. Again, this may be me, so if someone can confirm this...

Overall, the game is looking amazing and I can't wait for its release! They really need to polish those things asap tho, because considering how they already opened preregistrations and seeing how Scamco always release their phone games two months (more or less) after this, the game may be released in September. And considering how the anime airs in October, the release date may be at the end of September, so the game can promote the anime and viceversa. It's a win win.

[Roswell]

But in Mirishita, only the character singing is lip syncing during their respective solo parts, just like in Deresute. Even in Kokoro ga Kaero Basho, when they're singing in pairs in the beginning, only the respective pairs lip sync. The 5th member only lip syncs during the group parts. This feels off in that everyone's lip syncing even during the solo parts.

[Chihayaa]

Personally, the SEM models look pretty good, but I do agree that something feels just slightly off about them, now that I take a closer look. I don't know what it is specifically but maybe it's their height differences that kinda make the arms and legs look longer than the norm?? I definitely see how Rui's legs look a bit longer than they should, in regards to his slightly shorter height, and they probably could've done a better job scaling the arms and legs according to their various heights. Or it might just be their skimpier outfits throwing me off since Mofumofuen and the four back-up dancers look fine? haha

And the hair physics AND cloth physics both could definitely use some improvement. I think Starlight Stage has some awesome cloth physics, especially the long-sleeved dresses. They started off kinda rigid but seemed to drastically improve as SSRs released overtime (so I'm sure Raibuste will follow, as there's always room for improvement for new games), but the fact that SEM's pink cape-like things are so rigid and frozen in this MV is crazy to me.

Especially since their album artwork makes them look so thin and flexible and the dance is so hyper and epic, yet their capes just kinda freeze in place. lol I just hope they touch up on these things as the game is released!

[Kimiko]

you guys need to keep in minde that the game is not finished yet
the sure will change a bunch of things till the release or as the game get's it's updates.
deresute wasn't perfekt at the beginning too
or any other mobile game
thinking about those mistakes now is only gonne cost your nerves
just wait till the game is out and then decide, if it is good or bad, if those things improved or not

sure it looks strange now, but maybe you even get used to it
I personally don't think that tey are too of...
maybe because I played dream festival for a time and at the beginning the models were really bad
but they fixed that with updates too

[Nagi]

you guys need to keep in minde that the game is not finished yet
the sure will change a bunch of things till the release or as the game get's it's updates.
deresute wasn't perfekt at the beginning too
or any other mobile game
thinking about those mistakes now is only gonne cost your nerves
just wait till the game is out and then decide, if it is good or bad, if those things improved or not

sure it looks strange now, but maybe you even get used to it
I personally don't think that tey are too of...
maybe because I played dream festival for a time and at the beginning the models were really bad
but they fixed that with updates too

I'm the first one that defends the games till they are released, so don't worry, I know they will fix this hahah. I'm just pointing some of the weird things I see in the MVs, but considering that the 2nd PV they released on the 15th still had the "Graphics in development" message onscreen, I'm not too worried. They could've easily rendered the three MVs right after making the PV just to have them prepared to whenever they reached the goals and keep developing the game. I'll start to worry if I don't see any improvements on the videos/screenshots shown some days before the release, but I doubt this will happen at all.

[Kimiko]

I'm the first one that defends the games till they are released, so don't worry, I know they will fix this hahah. I'm just pointing some of the weird things I see in the MVs, but considering that the 2nd PV they released on the 15th still had the "Graphics in development" message onscreen, I'm not too worried. They could've easily rendered the three MVs right after making the PV just to have them prepared to whenever they reached the goals and keep developing the game. I'll start to worry if I don't see any improvements on the videos/screenshots shown some days before the release, but I doubt this will happen at all.

yeah I'm sure they had the videos made some time before the preregistration started, so they could concentrate on finishing the game
what I have to say is that, besides characters who don't sing moving their mouthes, I think the mouth motions and lip synching is better than in theater days
I often have the problem that when the girls sing words like "sou" or something like that, they make that wide mouth and not a "o" mouth
in the pvs for live on stage it looks like they are really singing the words and not just try to to some playback xD

[ChocoCats]

So uh, impressions (copy pasted ver. from a while ago)

- Models look better, motion still feels weird/stiff (still in development, apparently)
- Kyoji's burst is hilarious
- Gameplay's concerning (it's PS/Shiny Festa rhythm)
- Side Mini sprites are coming back to haunt me again
- Premium currency is M Star
- At least the confirmed song selection is *thumbs up*
- Hope the game isn't rushed (which is the most concerning part. I'm looking at you, TD)

[Chihayaa]

what I have to say is that, besides characters who don't sing moving their mouthes, I think the mouth motions and lip synching is better than in theater days
I often have the problem that when the girls sing words like "sou" or something like that, they make that wide mouth and not a "o" mouth
in the pvs for live on stage it looks like they are really singing the words and not just try to to some playback xD

Honestly I'm just not a big fan of, in Theater Days, how the girls never show their teeth for the Japanese characters with an ee sound (such as ki, shi, ri, etc.), resulting in a really weird mouth formation lol. It has some awesome choreography, but Raibuste and Deresute seem to have nailed choreo AND lip syncing (besides the whole issue with idols moving their mouths when they're not singing) and I'm very glad Raibuste nailed it from the very start. Hopefully they can optimize lip syncing and add teeth in a future TD update! (which sounds very weird lol)

Anyway, here is the new STARLIGHT CELEBRATE MV for hitting 315,000 pre-registration accounts! -> https://youtu.be/rh2zrhGSN6M

(i love teru's smile before the beginning instrumentals omg)