Is this the end of Platinum Stars' lifetime?

[Nagi]

Well this may come late, but as the title say, do you guys think Platinum Stars' lifetime has reached its limit?

Why did I come with this question? Well, as you all may have noticed we didn't get a new Catalog since December, the last DL Live (which was Ami's) was on January and the last "update" about the game that we got was back on January too, when they announced the sales for iM@S games, where they reduced Platinum Stars DLC's price. After that, Platinum Stars basically died.

It's a bit surprising for me that the game died this fast, I mean we only got half of the catalogs than the games usually have (OFA had 12 iirc) and DL lives ended so fast with little to no original costumes (the big part of them were recolors), making this the game with less content/variety in the entire franchise (at least, till we get a PS 2 or something and they turn it into a flop too lol).

What do you think about this? Do you think Scamco is just busy with things like SideM's anime and LIVE ON ST@GE game and ML!'s Theater Days game to add more content to PS, or do you think this really is the end of PS' lifetime? Maybe Scamco is preparing iM@S3 after hinting 3rd Vision in the last Producer Meeting? I'd love to read your comments.

[Naryoril]

If i had to take a wild guess, i'd say the DLC didn't sell nearly as well as with the previous games.

Costumes: In the previous games, the effect of the costumes on the score was pretty small, especially later in the game it really didn't matter what costume you'd wear, you could just use whatever you liked. But in One For All the costume makes a huge difference, and the difference gets larger the later you are in the game. If you don't use a costume with the appropriate image and/or type, you are likely to fail an event, so you can't use whatever you want. But even within the same image and type, there are hug differences in the costume's skills. This introduces balancing issues with the costumes: Do you want to make them pay to win items by making them strong and trivializing the beginning of the game? Or do you make them weakish, but also obsolete later in the game because other costumes are way way stronger? They chose the second option, probably also to avoid pay to win backlash.

Songs: This is simply due to stupid trophy design. There is one trophy to get all non DLC songs to platinum status. But this takes a huge amount of time, so most people will long long be finished with the game before they get the trophy (i got all girls to S rank and 5 hearts and i'm not nearly done with this trophy). This trophy actually adds an incentive to NOT use DLC songs, and if you are not going to use them, why buy them? Removing the trophy or simply change it to "get 20 songs to platinum rank", no matter whether it is DLC or not, would have prevented the problem. I didn't buy a single DLC song, without this trophy i would have bought several of them. And to make matters worse: it was pointless since i didn't get the trophy anyway. And i'm sure i'm not the only one where this happened.

Another thing to consider: Do we know how well the later DLCs sold in the previous games? After half a year, most people have probably moved on anyway and wouldn't buy any DLC even if it were there. Personally i didn't bother with the DLC of the previous games after i had finished the games (imas 2 after 4 or 5 months, ofa after the ex episodes). Maybe that's the reason why they decided to stop earlier than in the previous games.

[DeviantProtagonist]

The lull in time has given things aplenty to mull over, namely by "what could have been" in more ways you'd imagine.

Between restraining design choices and the pay model itself, plus loss of story and supplementary features as per iM@S2-to-OfA, there's no way I'd be convinced it dealt any good towards this games' longevity.  You would need exemplary patience for it even as an achievement hunter, or someone looking to produce creations for the masses.

The mere thought of pushing DLC to the mix wasn't sound either, as content is often recycling from previous titles -- things that probably should've been baseline, with more incentive to introduce the new over "throwbacks." The concept of DL Lives were neat, though for what little you gain from probability felt to be more a disservice in itself.

If communal divisions are also to go by, Platinum Stars paved way for it as the cornerstone; I suppose this boiled down to what fans wanted same or different, sprinkled with an extent the genwunner mentality. Though try as one may to end such discord, the seeds were long sown, and it continues to persist out of this dastardly misfortune.

Part of me would rather not have the game released at all, if not most. The dream was always far kinder in hindsight.

[MetalPredat0r]

I feel like the biggest reason is because the game was very divisive in terms of reception, mostly negative. Even the Japanese weren't very find of the game cuz of the DL Live system and how grindy the gameplay is.

I feel like Namco wants to kill this game and just work on a new console game.

[Reikuo]

The DLC outfits are not only expensive, but absolutely worthless in game. The only end game objective is to farm fans and or DL lives for outfits you dont have. Limiting your costume choice greatly and totally removing any incentive to buy the DLC outfits. As Naryoril mentioned the trophy to get all songs max rank excluding any DLC did not help whatsoever, on top of song selection being old songs. Lack of stages, idol customization, just everything is a total downgrade from OFA. I really cant believe they did not have the foresight to see there would be 0 incentive to buy the DLC outfits. How many times can you listen to Change!! in stage for you? Why was something like the G4U photo taking not added as a part of the game? Why not anything new whatsoever? The graphics was nice, but the lack of stages just made it bland. The gameplay was just as bland, a step back from OFA in that regard too.

In all honesty I really dont see how this game could not have been more of a total disaster. Such a shame that the future of IM@S is pretty much the mobile games, considering the PS4 wont ever be what the PS3 was in Japan for various reasons. Considering the game reviewed poorly and the DLC probably sold like crap. IM@S is not the only console series to suffer from the demise of console gaming in Japan but what has happened to the IM@S is just the result of pure greed and fatigue with the series. Im thankful for the logo change as its a clear distinction where care for the series ended and the milking for profit begins.

[Sylphony]

To be fair, all their budget was obviously placed into the graphics for the game and it showed, but at the cost of everything else.  So if they wanted to end Platinum Stars here for budget reasons, I think it is a reasonable choice as long as they have something prepared for their next 765Pro game, done properly.

Despite what Platinum Stars is, I can't really dislike the game since the graphics are absolutely gorgeous and it is still a game that can be played casually even after it ends support.   I'd say it did what it should and now to look forward to where 765Pro's idols next adventure lies.