A question.

[TheBluePhone]

I have about 192 dollars saved up right now.

I was saving that to get a Japanese X-Box 360 and L4U!  but should I just buy a PSP and Perfect Sun, or just buy Dearly Stars?

So basically, L4U! and JP X-BOX, a PSP or Dearly Stars.

[Mabz]

If you realy want that imas game experience, I suppose going for L4U would be the preffered experience (though easily the most expensive one).
If you just want the the idol's in Perfect Sun you might as well purchase the psp version.

It's your money, and every experience is different per individual.

[h4ataraxia]

i keep telling people its not worth it, but no one listens to me until they figured out that they wasted a lot of money on a single game and system when you have almost 90% of the game experience on SP.

I strongly recommend getting PSP and SP games but if you really want it where you will kill yourself over it then go ahead and get the xbox versions.

The DS game is out of the question IMO, i dont even consider it an im@s game.

[TheBluePhone]

So best solution so far is to get the PSP and SP versions of the iDOLM@STER games.

....Which one is more fun to play, the arcade remake, or the SP games. If the arcade one is more fun, than I'll just save to get that one.

[digi162]

I guess it depends if you want to use the system for more than one game. 

That's the main reason I haven't picked up a JPN Xbox and L4U, I just didn't see it as worth it for only one game.  That's why I like the PSP version, I could get more use out of the PSP than just for one game.  If I was rich, I'd probably get the xbox version for the better graphics.  However, like H4 says, 90% of the experience is already in SP.  Each version definitely has it's positives and negatives though.

Office Mode is probably the best selling point of the PSP version, so I want to emphasis that.  Well IMO because even if you can't understand Japanese, this mode is easy to figure out since there's only a couple menus.  I've spent a lot of time in this mode because it's just fun to play around in.  You can pick any of the 12 idols (If you have 961 pro unlocked), so even if you don't want to buy all three versions of the game, you can still have access to all the idols.  You can dress them up with whatever you have unlocked, pick whatever song, do an audition, watch a TV performance and take pictures/video of it there too.

IMO go the PSP route at least for a beginners experience.
Also I'd probably suggest waiting till February if you go the PSP route.  I read it's going to reach greatest hits status at the end of January and become cheaper to obtain.  Playasia has pre-orders for it for 35 bucks, which is 14 bucks cheaper than the asian version.  If it also becomes available on the JPN PSN, you could actually just buy a PSP, create a JPN PSN, and buy a 5000 yen PSN code off the internet.  Then you could just download the game off the PSN and use the remaining yen to get some DLC.

[TheBluePhone]

I guess it depends if you want to use the system for more than one game. 

That's the main reason I haven't picked up a JPN Xbox and L4U, I just didn't see it as worth it for only one game.  That's why I like the PSP version, I could get more use out of the PSP than just for one game.  If I was rich, I'd probably get the xbox version for the better graphics.  However, like H4 says, 90% of the experience is already in SP.  Each version definitely has it's positives and negatives though.

Office Mode is probably the best selling point of the PSP version, so I want to emphasis that.  Well IMO because even if you can't understand Japanese, this mode is easy to figure out since there's only a couple menus.  I've spent a lot of time in this mode because it's just fun to play around in.  You can pick any of the 12 idols (If you have 961 pro unlocked), so even if you don't want to buy all three versions of the game, you can still have access to all the idols.  You can dress them up with whatever you have unlocked, pick whatever song, do an audition, watch a TV performance and take pictures/video of it there too.

IMO go the PSP route at least for a beginners experience.
Also I'd probably suggest waiting till February if you go the PSP route.  I read it's going to reach greatest hits status at the end of January and become cheaper to obtain.  Playasia has pre-orders for it for 35 bucks, which is 14 bucks cheaper than the asian version.  If it also becomes available on the JPN PSN, you could actually just buy a PSP, create a JPN PSN, and buy a 5000 yen PSN code off the internet.  Then you could just download the game off the PSN and use the remaining yen to get some DLC.

Alright, so Perfect Sun it is. Thanks.

[Benpc91]

As someone who owns both, once again, all about preference.  Sure, at the time I bought iM@S 360, I had no 360 to begin with, so that added a little bit to my reason (also, no iM@S SP existed).
However, okay, for one L4U! isn't even a game, it's more of a fan-disc with really great quality visuals.  iM@S 360 is the actual game, but really, SP outdoes everything that iM@S 360 has.  The only thing you'll be missing out on would be Miki's whole story.

Lessons even feel so much more refined in SP than they did in the 360 version.

[nikorai]

TheBluePhone

Well, now that you tell us that you have only $192 it’s impossible to buy a Round Box (箱○)  and an im@s game for that sum.
So you’ll have to do with a PSP.
But as a happy owner of an Xbox 360 since October I’ll always vote for the option I made.
I must say that I’m strongly allergic to small displays so I can’t really stand portable consoles.
Also, Xbox im@s graphics are simply amazing. I don’t have a HDTV but my old computer display happens to support 1080p (lucky!) which makes it very enjoyable to play.

But the price to get the system is quite different from what you indicated.
Personally I paid $285+205 for the console (i.e the item+shipping) and $35+40 for im@s (shipping is more expensive than the game itself. But I also got Dream Club). Then I had to get a stepdown converter (I’m in Russia, we have 220v here) and a VGA cable which makes it around $60 more.

Actually, last year I had almost the same question for the fellow forum visitors. I was thinking to get an xbox back then too. But I didn’t have money to pay for the postal service. So I asked about the psp version just in case. And when I was about to place an order I thought better of it. First, I was told that the Xbox version is by far better than im@s SP. And then I checked nico-nico myself and saw a drastic difference in graphics of xbox and psp. So that was quite a strong argument to refrain from getting a psp, apart from a small display.
Now I enjoy playing the original im@s. The commu events are simply awesome. The performances are great too, because I like the songs and the view of some advanced stages is also pretty impressing. Though I suppose that im@s SP also has a strong story part but I can’t say anything of it because I didn’t play it.
And I have more great news. I’m placing another order with play-asia.com in hopes to get L4U! by Christmas!

While I was typing this Benpc91-san has added an interesting observation about Miki. So far I’ve only checked spoilers in im@s MASTER BOOK, and I hope to get to Miki quite soon.

As for L4U! I’m really looking forward to checking it. It’s visuals are indeed impressive. They are even more advanced than in the original im@s plus you have new songs at Xbox Live for absolutely outrageous sum of MPs. I’m sure I won’t pass by Colorful Days. There’s also Kirame Kirari that is featured in SP games as well. The fact that I’ve already listened to them like 100 times doesn’t count, of course.

[Kyo]

Just note that if you get Perfect Sun alone, you won't be able to get the so-called "special ending" where you need to successfully manage all 9 idols.

The special ending is kind of lame, though.

[RoninatorMarx]

@Kyo: So, if someone's after a good plot, you may not wanna recommend SP?

Let me help out TBP here: What would you recommend in terms of 1) graphics; 2) plot; 3) gameplay; 4) overall?

[h4ataraxia]

if you're buying a japanese xbox for 1 or 2 games its not worth it
sp is easier to play, easier to learn, easier to buy :K
there is more differences between graphics, miki and duo trio units
and if you want to just produce miki for the HANII HANII then you'll get more than enough in SP.

as for L4U if you just want it to watch idols dance (which is the only thing you can do other than DDR mode and dramas) then just watch it on nicovideo or youtube, its not like videos of specific units in costumes arent up.

like i said, i strongly recommend SP unless you really want it, you'll realize that what you have isnt enough for xbox and would want more and try to download the catalogs.
3500 msp is around $60 in japan
1 stage outfit is 1000 and 1 song is 1200.

[TheBluePhone]

if you're buying a japanese xbox for 1 or 2 games its not worth it
sp is easier to play, easier to learn, easier to buy :K
there is more differences between graphics, miki and duo trio units
and if you want to just produce miki for the HANII HANII then you'll get more than enough in SP.

as for L4U if you just want it to watch idols dance (which is the only thing you can do other than DDR mode and dramas) then just watch it on nicovideo or youtube, its not like videos of specific units in costumes arent up.

like i said, i strongly recommend SP unless you really want it, you'll realize that what you have isnt enough for xbox and would want more and try to download the catalogs.
3500 msp is around $60 in japan
1 stage outfit is 1000 and 1 song is 1200.

...Well, I want to get SP so I can take it with me anywhere, but I want iM@S 360 so I can produce the girls (Not Miki though, shes not my favorite.) and produce duos/trios. MS points are not a problem cause I can do without all that stuff for a while, plus for SP you have to pay for each Idol.(I heard)

[h4ataraxia]

...Well, I want to get SP so I can take it with me anywhere, but I want iM@S 360 so I can produce the girls (Not Miki though, shes not my favorite.) and produce duos/trios. MS points are not a problem cause I can do without all that stuff for a while, plus for SP you have to pay for each Idol.(I heard)

the game is extremely shallow without DLC just to let you know, and you wont be able to deal with it, trust me.
only for the songs you pay for each idol since the game was designed to be single produce.
and you may think duo and trio is nice but its gonna make the game twice or even three times as  harder than it already is, and dont say you can handle that because it was almost impossible for me to go to rank A with just one idol in the xbox version yet alone took me months to finally past the super idol audition and fly to rank S.

[Sev]

^kinda makes you wanna be a real life producer huh.

[digi162]

MS points are not a problem cause I can do without all that stuff for a while, plus for SP you have to pay for each Idol.(I heard)

Yeah in reference to songs, it's different for both versions.  Xbox has you paying 1200 to add a song for all idols, while PSN has you paying 150 yen for each idol.  Which is good and bad, if you just want one song for 1 idol it's going to cost you 150 as opposed to forcing you to get a set.  However if you do want the same song for all 12 idols it's going to cost you 1800 yen, and yeah a pain to download them individually.