THE iDOLM@STER POPLINKS

THE iDOLM@STER POPLINKS
Video Game Data
Platform:	iOS, Android
Publisher:	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
Developer:	NHN PlayArt Corp.
Selling Agency:	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
Release Date:	January 21, 2021
Shutdown Date:	July 21, 2022
CERO Rating:

THE iDOLM@STER POPLINKS (Japanese: アイドルマスターポップリンクス, Aidorumasutaa Poppurinkusu) or "Popmas" (ポプマス) for short, was a mobile puzzle game featuring idols from all five branches. An Android only open beta test was held from December 4 (12:00 JST) to December 7 (17:00 JST) in 2020. On April 20 2022, the official Twitter account announced the game was shutting down on July 21st, 2022.^[1] The game's service was officially discontinued on July 21st, 2022.

Story

The "POPLINKS FESTIVAL", a mega-live event will be held where idols will be performing as a three-idol unit beyond the boundaries of their respective agencies! As their producer, produce an original unit to reach the top of this live!

Gameplay

Lives

The gameplay consists of a 60 second-long puzzle game of chaining same-colored notes by either connecting or looping them together to score as high as possible. There are 5 types of notes which scores based on a specific unit's stats: red (赤) notes (vocal), blue (青) notes (dance), yellow (黄) notes (visual), green (緑) notes (total unit appeal), and purple (紫) notes (audience preference). The more notes chained the higher the points gain. Doing a 7 chain or more will grant a Bomb that can be hold and fling around like a slingshot. Tap it to clear an area around it. Each unit member has a charge bar. When completely filled up, tap on the idol to activate their skill to clear more notes. Linking notes also fill up the "Hakoyure" meter which acts as a score multiplier of sorts (level 0: 1.0x; level 1: 1.2x; level 2: 1.5x; level 3: 2.0x; level 4: 3.0x). It'll slowly decrease as time progresses. Once it reaches level 1, Fever Time occurs in which the selected song of choice will play and the score multiplier increases as well. Also, the audience meter on the right will completely fill up which will quickly decrease. The goal is to reach the next level before the audience meter runs out. Once it reaches level 4, the player has the opportunity to fill up the unit appeal meter. Once it completely fills up, it can be activated by tapping the rainbow music note on the screen which will fully clear the board and score even more points. When either close to reaching a personal best score or most colors popped, the game sometimes give a prompt to spend 30 jewels or not for 10 more seconds of gameplay.

Lives also have a randomly-cycling attribute- Visual, Vocal, or Dance- that will grant bonuses to a unit with higher stats in that attribute. This will consume 1-3 stamina.

FES

Once the producer reaches a certain amount of fans, they can rank up by participating in a FES. FES events generally play identically to normal Lives; however, the player must clear certain 1-3 goals to beat the FES, like "pop a total of 75 red notes" or "get a score higher than 75000". With the exception of those which mentioned "1プレイで__" (__ in 1 play), goals are cumulative. Winning the FES raises the player's Producer rank, which gives rewards and unlocks new gameplay modes and features. This will consume 1 stamina.

Work

Unlocked at P-rank 7, Work functions similarly to other games with the feature (like Million Live! Theater Days). It rewards fans, items, and CP (and consumes stamina) much like a normal Live, but there is no actual gameplay, just a quick scene of the selected idols doing a task. This will consume 1-3 stamina.

Training

Unlocked at P-rank 6, Training awards experience and items. It takes between 3 to 12 real-life hours to complete (with better rewards dropping from longer Training sessions), but this can be shortened using gems or training tickets (a common reward from gameplay). Each Training session also has an attribute. Training does not consume stamina.

Ranking

Unlocked at P-rank 2, Ranking pits your weekly score against 19 other players of similar rank. Ranking high nets better rewards.

Mechanics

Skills

Each idol can be equipped with various score-enhancing skills. Skills are obtained through the gacha, and while they're unlocked by scouting a specific idol they can be equipped on any idol with a matching attribute. Each skill needs a certain number of a certain color of notes to activate and can be triggered by tapping on the idol when their skill gauge fills. Skills can pop notes, create bombs, make a big note (worth more points), or make a certain note color spawn more often.

Coaching

The unit can be trained through "Coaching" by allocating stats of choice to make them stronger. Even units with the same members will evolve differently depending on said choice. However, raising these skills consumes CP (earned through Lives and other gameplay), and there is a limit to how much CP can be spent per unit.

The skill map doesn't just include Vocal, Visual, and Dance up boxes. Items, which depend on what the unit's attributes are, can be obtained, like accessories, dress-up parts, CD jacket parts, and even jewels. There are also requests from the unit's idols that usually consist of goals like "pop a certain amount of purple notes". These requests are timed, and if time runs out before the goal is reached, the reward will be lost.

Attributes

Each idol has two attributes. There are a total of 15 attributes in the game. They are Flower, Fire, Snow, Sun, Rainbow, Light, Ocean, Darkness, Sky, Wind, Moon, Dream, Thunder, Star, and Love. Most skills have an attribute; for example, a skill with the Flower attribute can only be equipped by idols with the Flower attribute. They can also gain bonuses by participating in Training with a matching attribute.

Customization

The idols can be dressed up with different idol-specific costumes (obtained through the gacha), accessories, and dress-up parts. Accessories don't show up on an idol's model, but raise various stats. Costumes and dress-up parts are just visual effects with no gameplay changes. Recolored costumes are also unlockable.

There's also a special CD jacket creator function that allows players to customize their own original CD jacket for their unit by using various assets provided by the game. These assets can be obtained as rewards for finishing missions, as drops from lives, or as level-up rewards. The finished work can then be posted via social media.

There is no known reward for creating jackets so far (for example, using rare stickers and backgrounds does not grant any gameplay bonuses), but your favorite unit's current CD jacket is displayed to other players in Ranking mode.

Characters

See: THE iDOLM@STER POPLINKS/Characters

At launch, there were a total of 75 idols. With more added monthly, the current total was 174. Idols can be scouted from either gacha or offer.

Song List

The most common method for obtaining new songs is through drops after clearing lives. However, some songs can be obtained as level-up rewards, completing certain missions in the game, shop, or partaking in events. Playing multiple Lives with a song raises its popularity, with rewards at certain ranks. Unlike traditional iDOLM@STER games, songs don't really change gameplay that much otherwise.