Love Live! School Idol Festival

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Love Live! School Idol Festival (often abbreviated as LLSIF or Sukufesu) is a Japanese rhythm game series developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo for Android and iOS platforms, which first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 (Android) and June 8, 2013 (iOS). The game is free-to-play with an in-app purchase system that uses collectible card game with elements of rhythm game and visual novel genres. It features songs and characters from the multimedia franchises Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine!!, newly introduced girls, and stories that are not included in other media.

The English localization was released worldwide on May 11, 2014 for both iOS and Android devices. It also received localizations available in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. At the end of September 2016, the English version added Korean support due to merging between the two servers. The Traditional Chinese version which was operated by Mobimon in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau was also merged to the English version as on May 18, 2017.

In January, 2016, Love Live! Sunshine!! live streamed a special announcement regarding Aqours joining the app starting in July 2016. In the game, Aqours get their own stories, playable songs, and cards. KLab also added R rarity cards for each Aqours members, even though they were only voiced after July. In June 2016, Chika and Riko were featured in the in-game regular events for the first time. The group officially joins the game on July 5, 2016 along with new card rarity SSR and other major updates.

The arcade game version titled Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity developed by Square Enix and published by Bushiroad was released on December 6, 2016. A new game addition to the franchise that will also feature the Perfect Dream Project girls titled Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars is currently announced and planned to be released on 2018.

Video Love Live! School Idol Festival

Gameplay

The game lets players to experience two gameplay modes, Story and Live, as all nine members of the idol group ?'s and Aqours. Players acquire a score in the rhythm "Live" mode, in which they tap circles at the proper time in order to receive a high score that can be placed on the leader board. These songs are divided into 4 difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. Another difficulty called "Master" features time-limited songs with a new rhythm icon type where players had to swipe their finger on the screen. The songs available in rhythm mode are songs that are already released.

In story mode, players work as ?'s' and Aqours' helper and manage their training and schedule. The mode is full-voiced with all of the idols' respective voice actresses. The players interacts with the girls as they live their lives as school idols.

Players can make a formation of 9-person unit. The girls in the formation are called "Members." Players are able to acquire new cards by doing Lives or scouting through "student scouting." Two same cards can be combined and they will be "idolized." Idolizing a member will unlock a side story and a reward. "Practicing" Members to another Member will level her up. It can also increase their skill level and score point. New cards are added every time an in-game event has ended.

Members cards are divided into 5 rarities: N (normal), R (rare), SR (super rare), SSR (special super rare), and UR (ultra rare). Each rarity, except N rarity, have a different leader skill (passive) and an active skill that could increase Lives scores. Cards and songs are divided into attributes that represent each cards' idol type: Smile, Cool, and Pure. Using the same attribute Members to do a Live will give the player a higher score.

Rather ?'s and Aqours, newly introduced girls are featured in the N rarity cards. There are 63 girls; each 9 girls represent 6 different schools: Seiran High School, Chitose Bridge High School, Shinonome Institute, Tooh Academy, Shion Women Institute, and Y.G. International Academy. These girls are not voiced, but Emma, Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku ?saka are promoted to become a part of Perfect Dream Project and are given voice actresses.

The game has several currencies:

LP: a stamina used when doing a Live. One song can use up to 25LP depending on song's difficulty. LP can be refilled by using one Love Gems or waiting for it to be refilled (1LP per 6 minutes)
G: the app's in-game currency, Gs can be used for either leveling up an idol or buying buffs in some type of events
Love Gems (???????, Loveca Stone): the app's in-game currency which can be bought through in-app purchase. It is can be used for refilling the entire LP bar, scouting through Honor Scouting, or continuing a failed Live
Friends points (??pt): a point that can be acquired by having other player helped one during the Live. Friends points can be used to scout N and R rarity cards
Scouting Ticket: Besides Love Gems, another way to scout a member through honor scouting is by using a Scouting Ticket. These tickets are divided into 3 parts: regular tickets, Coupons, and SR/UR-only scouting tickets.
Stickers (???, Seal): If an R, SR, SSR, or UR rarity card is used for Practice or simply deleted, player will gain a Sticker. These Stickers can be used for Idolizing a card, or purchasing another cards or Scouting Coupons from the Sticker Shop. Like cards, these Stickers' rarity are divided into 4 types, depends on the rarity of the used cards.

In-game events

Every 15 days, an in-game event with total of 4 SR cards as prize is held. Each event runs for 10 days with 5 days break. The SR cards are obtainable by collecting the event points and competing with other players for players with most event points, which called tier.

The game has currently 6 type of events:

Token Collection (??????????, Aikon Korekushon): In the event, players must play an event-exclusive song to get the event points. The song requires Tokens, and in order to do that, players have to collect some from regular songs.
Score Match (??????, Sukoa Macchi): 4 players have to compete each other to get the highest score of a Live play. The song is chosen randomly and having delay during the match will cause the player to get 4th place, despite of the score they get.
Medley Festival (???????????, Medor? Fesutibaru): Players can play up to three songs in row and using some buffs to enchance their score and Live prize. By chance, a buff from either a friend or other players will appear, giving more buffs or prize.
Challenge Festival (????????????, Charenji Fesutibaru): Players can play up to 5 songs and getting the prize at the end of the challenge. ?'s members will appear and giving buffs. If 3 members with same unit, grade, and/or uniform appears, a mission will appear. Clearing the mission gives the player an additional prize.
Adventure Stroll (???????, Osanpo Rar?): Players clear Live songs to unlock side stories of Aqours and while at it, clearing some missions. Live songs also give 'souvenirs' which players can exchange to various stuffs like Friend Points and event SR.
Friendly Match (???????, Nakayoshi Macchi): Unlike Score Match, 4 players are working together to clear missions - reaching certain milestone of score or combo - by playing Live Shows. Players' scores are determined by how much they contributed, depends on what mission they got.

Maps Love Live! School Idol Festival

Related games

Arcade

In November 27, 2015, the official website of the game announced the production of the arcade version of Love Live! School Idol Festival. The arcade game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity (often abbreviated as SIFAC or Sukufesu AC) will be a joint development with Square Enix and operates using NESiCA Cards. The name comes from the fact that the game is an arcade game, player will have to go to a game center to play that it gives an "after school" feeling. A beta testing on location were held on May 13-15 and May 27-29, 2016. The game was fully released on December 6 of the same year.

Different from the mobile game, the arcade version features a cooperative mode; it can be played by up to 3 players and has fully 3D CG dances. It also lets players collect and print Profile Cards and Member Cards, each comes with buff skills, just like the original game. In October 2017, Aqours is announced to join the arcade game. The date of their arrival is yet to be announced.

Successor

A successor game of School Idol Festival was announced during Tokyo Game Show 2017 titled Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars (often abbreviated as SIFAS) for 2018 release. The game uses an alternate story that differentiates it from other media where ?'s and Aqours are in the same school year and works together as one along with the girls from Nijigasaki Academy. The game is described as "the ultimate idol game" that allows players to 'participate' in the game and customize the school idols.

New features include tree-based growth system, new Live system, and "SchFes ID" (?????ID, Sukufesu ID). Using the SchFes ID, players will be able to play both SIFAS and LLSIF under the same account. Syncing their SchFes ID created on School Idol Festival with School Idol Festival All Stars, players will be able to port their Rank and their progress made in the game to the new title. However, the benefits of the new ID offer extend far beyond simple progress preservation.

Love Live! School Idol Festival Printemps Sticker

src: ih0.redbubble.net

Perfect Dream Project

In March 2017, the official website of Love Live School Idol Festival launched a new project called "Perfect Dream Project," which features 9 new girls. Emma, Kanata Konoe, and Shizuku ?saka were three members who were already featured as N-rarity girls and topped the 3rd popularity poll. The remaining 6 girls were later introduced: Ayumu Uehara, Kasumi Nakasu, Karin Asaka, Ai Miyashita, Setsuna Yuki, and Rina Tenn?ji. The members are part of the school idol club at Nijigasaki Academy and were split up into groups of three to begin activities in three different apps before their addition to the game: Dengeki Online (Kasumi, Karin, Setsuna), Famitsu App (Ayumu, Ai, Rina), and LLSIF app (Emma, Shizuku, Kanata). Each place is working as a separate room or branch office for the Nijigasaki Academy. Unlike ?'s and Aqours, the girls from Nijigasaki Academy are not a group, but rather individual school idols who compete with each other; a popularity poll is held every month to determine their rank. They will be featured in the new upcoming Love Live! School Idol Festival: All Stars along with ?'s and Aqours.

Characters

Ayumu Uehara (?? ??, Uehara Ayumu): Voiced by: Aguri ?nishi; Ayumu is a second year who became a school idol after her best friend introduced her. She is distinguishable from a hair bun and hairpin on her right side head. Her image color is pink. She does her activities at Famitsu App.

Kasumi Nakasu (?? ???, Nakasu Kasumi): Voiced by: Mayu Sagara; Kasumi is a first year who hates being called "Kasukasu." She wanted to become a school idol more than anyone and sometimes tries to reveal scandals that her rivals have. She also likes to send hate mails to her rivals, although sometimes it naturally turned into a normal fan mail. Her image color is yellow. She does her activities at Dengeki Online.

Shizuku ?saka (?? ???, ?saka Shizuku): Voiced by: Kaori Maeda; A honorable first year student belongs to the theater club who was introduced to school idols by her admired senior. Shizuku is one of the original N-rarity girls introduced in School Idol Festival. Her image color is aqua. She does her activities at LLSIF app.

Karin Asaka (?? ??, Asaka Karin): Voiced by: Miyu Kubota; Karin is a third year student with 'older sister' type school idol who aims to become a model and has confidence with her body. Her image color is blue. She does her activities at Dengeki Online.

Ai Miyashita (?? ?, Miyashita Ai): Voiced by: Natsumi Murakami; An energetic second year often seen with her lollipop, Ai is an honor student despite her appearance. Her image color is orange. She does her activities at Famitsu App.

Kanata Konoe (?? ??, Konoe Kanata): Voiced by: Akari Kit?; A third year who always looks sleepy and unmotivated. Kanata is one of the original N-rarity girls introduced in School Idol Festival. Her younger sister is Haruka Konoe, another school idol introduced in the game.. Her image color is purple. She does her activities at LLSIF app.

Setsuna Y?ki (?? ???, Y?ki Setsuna): Voiced by: Tomori Kusunoki; A second year who, for some reason, does not wear a school uniform and nobody seems to have ever seen her at school. She likes to sing anime songs. Her image color is red. She does her activities at Dengeki Online.

Emma Verde (???????, Ema Verude): Voiced by: Maria Sashide; A third year from Switzerland. Growing up there, she loves what nature brings, like mountains and forests. Emma is one of the original N-rarity girls introduced in School Idol Festival and originally only named "Emma." Her image color is green. She does her activities at LLSIF app.

Rina Tenn?ji (??? ??, Tenn?ji Rina): Voiced by: Chiemi Tanaka; A first year student who claims to have a very cute face, but is too shy to show it thus covering her face with the "Rina-chan board," a small whiteboard with a marker drawing on it of a facial expression. Her image color is gray. She does her activities at Famitsu App.