THE iDOLM@STER SHINY FESTA

THE iDOLM@STER SHINY FESTA
Video Game Data
Platform:	PlayStation Portable, iOS
Publisher:	Bandai Namco Games Inc.
Developer:	Bandai Namco Games Inc.
Selling Agency:	Bandai Namco Games Inc.
Release Date:	October 25, 2012 (PSP); April 22, 2013 (iOS)
Shutdown Date:	March 15, 2016 (iOS)
CERO Rating:	B (target over the age of 12)

THE iDOLM@STER SHINY FESTA (アイドルマスターシャイニーフェスタ, Aidorumasutaa Shainii Fesuta) is a spinoff series of games for the PlayStation Portable, with an iOS version of the game released as well. It is the second THE iDOLM@STER game to be released on the PlayStation Portable.

Based on both THE iDOLM@STER 2 and the 2011 anime, it is arguably the first true rhythm game of the franchise, although some people may consider THE iDOLM@STER Live for You! to be the first. Three different versions, each with 4-5 different idols, exist with some shared songs as well as exclusive ones for each version. Each game also includes an Anime episode made specifically for the games with various changes in each version to reflect on the idols in that particular version.

With the release of the iOS version, the game was made possible to buy in North America, France, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Service for the iOS version of SHINY FESTA was discontinued on March 15, 2016. As a result, the game and its DLC cannot be downloaded from the App Store, but the games are still playable if the player still has them installed on their device.

On October 2, 2013, the series was re-released on the PlayStation 3 for iM@S CHANNEL under the name THE iDOLM@STER Shiny TV.

Gameplay

Similar to the THE iDOLM@STER SP series, there are three games, Honey Sound (ハニーサウンド, Hanii Saundo), Funky Note (ファンキーノート, Fankii Nooto), and Groovy Tune (グルーヴィーチューン, Guruubii Chuun), with each one having different characters and songs.

The gameplay consists of lines of notes merging to a center point. When the note reaches the center point, the player must press either a button on the left side of the PSP (L trigger or D-Pad) and/or on the right side of the PSP (R trigger or shape buttons). There are also holds and special notes which will change the background video. Each song has four difficulty levels, from easiest to hardest: Debut, Regular, Pro, and Master. While the player only has access to the first two difficulties at first, they can unlock the harder difficulties by clearing the song on the preceding difficulty. The game has a feature which saves the player's Producer name, money, name cards, and items to be shared between versions.

Game modes

The game consists of two main modes: Stage and Star of Festa (SoF). Stage can be considered a free mode to play songs. Memory boosts can also be obtained in this mode for use in SoF mode. SoF mode is essentially the story mode of the games, having 3 levels of difficulty. In this mode, a new point counter, the popularity gauge, is introduced. The player must gain 100,000 points of popularity within 5 in-game days to obtain the best ending. In the final stages of each day for SoF mode, the player can randomly go against a different idol and if the player wins, they gain a name card which will give a permanent increase in each day's popularity count. All of these will increase the Idol Rank of the group for that specific version up to SS.

In SoF mode, some notes will also turn into Memory notes to increase popularity count. Each song will have up to five that the player can press. There also exists a shop in-game which allows players to buy items and charms which will assist the player during songs. While not all the items are available from the beginning, more are unlocked as the player increases in Idol Rank.

Video styles

Instead of using rendered characters on the screen like other games in the franchise, SHINY FESTA uses prerecorded videos in the same CG style as THE iDOLM@STER 2. In addition, the player can also choose between the IM@S 2 CG style and the anime style. Clearing a song allows them to freely view these as they please.

International release

On April 22, 2013, SHINY FESTA was released onto iOS systems for North America, France, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. This became the series' first western game release. The titles of the game were changed for this release as follows:

Honey Sound → Harmonic Score
Funky Note → Rhythmic Record
Groovy Tune → Melodic Disc

Small changes in content were made upon the Western release, like completely replacing the swimsuit costumes with other costumes. Some errors in translation were found as well, such as the word "hobbies" on character cards being misspelled as "hoobies".

Songs


Solo Songs	Performers	Group Songs	Performers


Solo Songs	Performers	Group Songs	Performers


Solo Songs	Performers	Group Songs	Performers

Development

THE iDOLM@STER series producer Youzou Sakagami attributed the development of a rhythm game in the series to two reasons. Noting that songs have a strong meaning to the franchise, he had wanted to make the songs that were included in the series' albums but not in its video games to be accessible in that form.^[1] He also wanted to create an iDOLM@STER video game that, while maintaining a producer's viewpoint, has a lighter feel and would allow the player to hum along to the idols as they play. With the rhythm game genre falling in line with these two desires, development of SHINY FESTA had officially commenced. The team chose to develop for the PlayStation Portable as it was simple to play on. At the same time, the team also wanted to create scenes where the series' thirteen idols would be able to appear together and chose pre-rendered videos to make this possible. The development team deliberately chose to use a gameplay system in which the note icons float toward the screen's center to attract the player to look at the videos in the background.

The games' anime episodes were directed by Atsushi Nishigori and produced by A-1 Pictures. According to Aniplex producer Yōsuke Toba, he was told about the plans of including anime material in SHINY FESTA during production of the TV anime's final episode, and he did not inform Nishigori until later on.^[2] Series director Akihiro Ishihara said that each anime episode was initially planned to be about ten minutes long, but Nishigori extended each episode to its current length, feeling that the episodes would not be fun if they were too short. Three teams were formed to create the three episodes, and Nishigori noted that this enticed each team to compete with each other during production.

Name cards

Unlockable name cards are available whenever players defeat in game rivals. The following idols have collectible cards:

765 Production idols

876 Production idols

Jupiter (961 Production idols)

Cinderella Girls

OVA episodes

Each game was bundled with an original anime episode, focusing on the idols featured in that edition. By default, the episode begins playing on first starting the game, but this can be skipped.

The episodes were included with subtitles for the international iOS versions.