everything went better than expected Archives

Fourth Produce Success 元気な少女 (Lit. Cheerful Girls)

January 12, 2012 by chikorita157

This is probably the last play through before spring semester starts, but boy this was a wild ride. Although I didn’t manage to get all the Area awards since I messed up the fan count somewhere in the game, I decided to sacrifice one reward to get the ultimate amulet so I don’t have to rely on the Ryuuguu one and use the girls’ bust appeals instead. I got to use it for the last festival in the game before the ceremony and Hibiki smashed Jupiter into pieces. I’m pretty sure the score was around 40,000 once it got done and over…

But yes, one of her major achievements is getting #1 position on the Dotop Rankings… Hell yes, I was aiming for that and luckily, I got a break for the last song in the end. Everyone was simply amazed that she managed to got up there. Not only that, I got an A in every category, even though the grade got pulled down due to the missing two area awards, but it was worth it.

As for getting to the top 20 early, it made things easier in the end. Had to do all the training in the beginning since the difficulty shot up so quickly, but it worked out in the end. Got to Image Level 15, shy of 16.

If I decide to do another play through before college starts, I may as well redo 花姫, the failed unit I never completed with the same people.

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Second Produce Success – 桜姫 (lit. Cherry Blossom Princesses)

January 5, 2012 by chikorita157

In the second play through, I named this unit 桜姫 that consisted of Makoto (Leader), Miki and Yukiho. Compared to the first play through, it was a huge improvement as I didn’t make the same mistakes as before and used an amulet that focuses on two stats. Also, I primarily focused on dance and visual stats and leaving the vocal one alone. In the end, it resulted in a higher score and I managed to bring two singles into the top 5, which are “Kosmos Cosmos” and “Little Match Girl.”

For most of the game, I had Yukiho as the center singer (without changing the leader) as it blended in nicely compared to having Makoto there, since it sounded a bit too deep. However, I did like this arrangement for Seven Colored Button (unlocked through my first play through of the extra episode), it blended quite nicely. It’s easily one of my favorite songs in the game.

As for the Area awards, it seems that the Kyoto/Osaka area (上万) is the most difficult region to do an 歌姫 festival in since it’s difficulty level is 9 on normal. Of course, I easily obtained the Ocean Blue reward without any effort since I let my rival do a bust after doing mine and then hammer them with a memory drive, making it impossible for them to get a second bust appeal.

Aside from that, I’m happy with the results and planning to do a third play through, which will get recorded as a Let’s Play.

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First Produce Success – はなさく少女 (lit. Blooming Girls) – Final Thoughts

January 2, 2012 by chikorita157

You might be wondering what I was doing for the past week and so. It’s quite obvious that I’m playing Idolmaster 2 I got for Christmas. After rage quitting on 花姫 (Flower Princess) for messing up the whole fans count and getting a negative report as a result of JUPITER, I decided to just screw it and use what I have to make another unit. I named this unit はなさく少女 (Lit. Blooming Girls) that consisted of Haruka as the leader with Chihaya and Yayoi as the unit members. Out of this unit, I produced Little Match Girl, キラメキラリ, 目が逢う瞬間(とき）, my song and Ready. Surprisingly, I managed a successful revival of Chihaya’s favorite song and it ended up in 6th place on the charts. “Ready” also got on the top 10, sandwiching Jupiter’s second song, “恋をはじめよう.” Still, I wasn’t able to muster a higher score than 37839 points, thus I ended up with a freaking D for that category. Thankfully, through my money spurge at the BK shop, I was able to score a few good costumes to use in the next production. Hopefully, I can muster a single into the top 20 without having to do a mandatory “Hell Training” again, but at least I got the trophy for it.

Ah yes, I pounded Project Jupiter on my first try through the help of strategically firing my memory appeals and an amulet that drains a lot of voltage from the rival’s meter. Good riddance, they deserve it for what they did to Chihaya in the Anime.

Short Observations:

Although the PS3 version fixed the balancing issues from the original 360 version, Idolmaster 2 still have a big learning curve. It took me several restarts and reverting to backed up save files just to get it right. So, if you decide to play the game for the first time, prepare to get a bad ending the first time, unless you rage quit and start another unit.
Memory Appeals are great live savers if used correctly. You should probably switch the person for appeals when firing one to get higher multiplier rates.
Out of the three lessons, Vocal and Dance was the easiest (although it took a while to get used to the latter) with Visual being a pain in the butt. This is the main reason the visual image stat was lower than the rest.
This is probably true only for the PS3 version, but you can retry events if you end up failing without penalty and take advantage of it. You probably won’t get this luxury if you do a Hyper play through.
If you have enough money, go for the paid promotions. It will allow you to gather a lot of fans, making it easier to unlock the 歌姫 festival in that area. However, I don’t recommend doing this in your first play through.
Although my Japanese skills are still pretty limited, Haruka’s story is emotional. Probably as much compared to Episode 23 & 24 in the Anime, but still sad when she cries.
With limited Japanese skills, the game is still playable from the guides made on the Project iM@S forums, the Japanese wiki for the communications and the WIP game play wiki. When I finally finish Genki II, hopefully I can enjoy the game a bit more and figure out what the girls said (and yes, I will replay through every girl’s arc again just to get the story).

So, this pretty much finishes everything I have to say about my first play through. I guess I should work on another, first I need to do the short extra episode before everything else.

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