THE IDOLM@STER (Arcade)

Overview

Discography

This article refers to the inital arcade game. If you are looking for the Xbox 360 port released in 2007, please see here. If you are looking for the anime produced in 2011, please see here. If you are looking for the franchise as a whole, please see here.

THE IDOLM@STER
Release	July 25, 2005
Genre	Music, Raising Simulation, Rhythm
Information
Developer(s)	Metro Bandai Namco Games
Publisher(s)	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Platform(s)	Arcade Cabinet

THE IDOLM@STER (アイドルマスター, Aidorumasutaa^?) was an arcade game released on July 25, 2005, where the player becomes the Producer of a new talent agency called 765 Production where their main goal is to help produce their newly scouted idols.

With the popularity of the game, it received an Xbox 360 port on January 25, 2007, under the same name.

The termination of the game's online service and mobile site was announced on May 28, 2010, and officially ended on September 1, 2010. In October 2017, repair support was also terminated.

Gameplay

The Producer has a choice of nine idols from 765 Production to produce. In the beginning, the Producer can only choose one, but as they gain more experience they'll be able to produce up to three as a unit with a custom name using the Kanji and letters allowed. With the selected idols, the game depicts the activities between the Producer and idols for a day within an in-game week.

Players can also compete against other Producers in Japan with the "Newcomer Producer" network, which would rank them based on their performance as a Producer.

Playing The Game

• Start
  • The player inserts the number of credits needed, and the game will ask the player to scan their Producer card and the game will continue.
  • If it is a new game, the player will name their Producer, which would display as WikiaPP in-game. The game then proceeds for three weeks, with the player choosing an idol to produce, choosing a costume and song, and completing an audition.
  • If the player has reached the unit stage and has started to produce one, they will be asked to scan their card and enter their password. After doing so, they will select "Produce active unit" and insert that unit's card to continue.
  • If the player has reached the unit stage and has not started to produce one, they will select still insert their card and input their password, but select the option "Produce a new unit" to continue. They will select the two additional members, and then:
    • If this the first time a Producer has produced a unit, then it will proceed similar to the tutorial with selectin the members, costume, song, and audition being split into three weeks.
    • However, after the subsequent times of producing units, the members, costume, song, and audition will be completed in one week.
• Options
  • Before the player starts the game, they can choose to turn the volume on/off, and if the performance will be displayed on the screen. If the display is turned off, a successful audition will not be broadcasted.
• Post-Greeting
  • After the morning greeting, the producer can freely change the costumes and songs used in auditions for the week.

Idol and Unit Production

The process of producing idols and units are the same, and the production follows this general flow:

• The player selects the idol(s) they wish to produce.
  • For units, the player then chooses the unit name.
• The player will gain fans with their idol(s) by completing Lessons, Communications, and Auditions.
  • With Lessons, the idol(s) will mainly increase their stats and fan gain will be relatively low.
  • The same applies to Communications, where the idol(s) will build up a count and earn Memories to be used in Auditions.
  • With Auditions, if the idol(s) succeeds, they will be able to make TV appearances to gain fans and the number of fans gained corresponds with the level of the Audition. However, if they fail to pass the audition, their fan count will decrease, but there is a rare chance that it will increase slightly,
• If the required amount of fans is gained, the rank of the idol(s) will increase. However, if they fail, the idol(s) will no longer be able to do any activities and a retirement concert will be held.

Office

The Office serves as the main screen as players start their production here in the Morning, and return after completing which production style they chose to complete at Night.

Morning

In the morning, the player can:

• Check the date and how much time is left in the production period, the rank up limit, and how many fans the idol(s) have.
• Choose to either greet the idol(s) to begin work or give them the week off.
  • If a player gives their idol(s) two weeks off in a row, they will have the option to retire.
• See their options for Lessons, Communications, or Auditions.
• Change the song or costume for Auditions.
• Choose their production style for the week.

Night

At night, the player can:

• See the rank of the idol(s) and the rank up limit after the production for the week.
• See fan mail, presents, or letters of misfortune.

Activities

With the selected idol(s), the Producer has three in-game activities to complete to gain experience: Lessons, Communications, and Auditions.

Lessons

Lessons are made up of five mini-games: Voice Lessons, Pose Lessons, Lyric Lessons, Dance Lessons, and Expression Lessons. The goal of these lessons is to level up an idol's four main stats: Dance, Visual, Vocal, or Character. The lessons are divided into six parts, and the overall performance in each part will be ranked from Bad, Normal, Good, or Perfect. However, unlike the other activities, Lessons aren't always available.

Communications

Communications have the Producer talk with their chosen idol, along with choosing jobs for their idol to complete to raise their idol rank. These will create good or bad memories for the idol, ranked from Bad , Normal , Good , and Perfect Communication . The memories created can then be used during auditions and lives.

Auditions

TOP×TOP Special Audition THE IDOLM@STER (Arcade)

The TOP×TOP special audition featuring Chihaya and Iori.

Auditions have the Producer choose a song and costume for their idol to perform and wear while they are judged to determine if they pass or fail. There are three types of Auditions: Limited, National, and Special.

• Limited Auditions are for idols ranked E or F.
• National Auditions are for idols of any rank.
• Special Auditions can only be done after completing certain conditions and may only be completed once.
  • You must meet certain requirements to receive a special audition when playing in an online chassis.
  • Once you have passed the audition, you cannot participate in the same audition again. The requirements are different for each audition, and only one player slot is available, and the audition can only be attempted online.
  • In addition, it's a tough audition, with strong NPCs appearing if the CPU is also in the mix.
  • It takes three special auditions to get an idol rank to B, and six special auditions to get an A rank (master series to clear all three and three others), and win all the special auditions to achieve an S rank. Due to this, if a player lost one of those auditions, the road to getting S rank was closed off.
  • When the game was taken offline, all the special auditions became available, no matter what stats the idol had.

Once the audition type is chosen, Producers will be matched with other players who are currently doing the same audition type or matched with random NPCs. 

During the audition, three judges representing the Vocal, Dance, and Visual stats will give out points depending on the idol's appeal. The interest level is represented by gauges which will increase or decrease depending on the success of the appeal which is determined by staying within the song's rhythm and the good memories used. Each audition is made of three segments with nine attempts at an appeal proceeded by a mid-audition review, and at the end of each segment the idols with the three highest scores in each category will receive stars and idols with the lowest scores in each category will lose stars. The number of stars your idol has at the end will determine if they pass or not.

If the idol is able to pass the audition, they will be able to do a televised performance with the song and costume previously chosen which will increase an idol's fan count and in turn their rank.

Retirement

If an idol or unit is unable to reach the minimum rank within the required period, the idol or unit is able to reach the maximum rank by the end of the period , or the idol or unit has taken the week off two times in a row, a Retirement concert will be held. The process of the Retirement concert follows:

1. Venue Selection
2. Costume and Song Selection
3. Communication
4. Concert
5. Communication
6. Credit Sequence

Development and Cabinet

The development of the game began in 2001, with Namco designer Akihiro Ishihara's desire to create a game that would utilize the progress-saving magnetic stripe cards found in some arcade games. With the main goal being a game that players would return to every day, in order to create an emotional bond with the characters, a raising simulation where players befriend girls and young women were chosen.

To fit in with the competitive nature of other arcade games, the characters were to be idols where players raise their own to compete against others to become the top idol. In order to create realistic characters that weren't perceived as being too moe, various idol groups, such as Morning Musume, were used as inspiration for designs by Toshiyuki Kubooka.

The game was announced at the All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators' Union in February 2004. Despite worries and criticisms that the game would be awkward to play or unsure in its premise when the game was tested in arcades, it's popularity quickly spread through word of mouth.

The design of the cabinet consists of a live tower and the touchscreen Rewritable Stage arcade cabinet. On the live tower, the nationwide rankings and TV appearance images of the idols are displayed but can be easily skipped to the next ranking display. The main station cabinet has a touchscreen display in the center, a coin slot and headphone jack on the right side, and a card slot on the left side.

Mobile Site

During the run time of the arcade game, multiple iterations of a mobile tie-in were made.

Happening ☆ Location

This was the first mobile title, released in July 2005. The main premise is a Sugoroku-like game, whereby rolling die, players could visit real-life locations and obtain in-game items and communication events with an idol. The game could be found on DoCoMo, SoftBank, and au devices, as well as some BREW devices, or a lower-quality web version could be played. Each idol was given a specific city and also received an alternate casual outfit.

• July 2005: "Happening ☆ Location Haruka Amami in Kyoto"
• August 2005: "Happening ☆ Location Chihaya Kisaragi in Okayama"
• September 2005: "Happening ☆ Location Azusa Miura in Nagoya"
• November 2005: "Happening ☆ Location Ami Futami and Mami Futami in Fukuoka"
• January 2006: "Happening ☆ Location Iori Minase in Yokohama"
• April 2006: "Happening ☆ Location Makoto Kikuchi in Okinawa"
• May 2006: "Happening ☆ Location Ritsuko Akizuki in Tokyo"
• June 2006: "Happening ☆ Location Yukiho Hagiwara in Hokkaido"
• August 2006: "Happening ☆ Location Yayoi Takatsuki in Osaka and Kobe"

Arcade Link

This would allow players to link their phone to their arcade account. From this, they could view their status, nationwide unit rankings, and more.

Mail ☆ Please

After linking their phone to their account, they had a chance of receiving one of the following types of mail:

• Registration Complete: a mail from an idol currently being produced.
• Enthusiastic: a mail from when a new unit is produced.
• Everyday: mail from an idol's daily life.
• Boost Mail: if given a specific date and time, the tension of the idol will be at a fixed MAX for one week and stats will increase. This includes Enthusiastic, Link, and Audition mail.
• Link: mail connected to an in-game communication event.
• Audition: mail that corresponds with the result of an Audition.
• Retirement: mail from the produced unit (excluding Yayoi) after retirement.
• Mistake: mail from another idol (excluding Yayoi) that isn't being produced.

Memories ☆ Please

A tool that allows players to download still images from in-game TV appearances. In March 2006, players could submit their saved images for a calendar that would display a new image every day.

Accessory Shop

From points earned from Happening ☆ Location, they can be exchanged for Mobile Accessories or Arcade Accessories.

Office

In the Office, players can form teams with one another.

Attendance Record

A tool that allowed players to see which arcade and stores they've played at, as well as the number of times they played in a month. A campaign was run in March 2006 until the end of April, where players would be rewarded based on the total number of times they played at a NAMCO store.

Minigames (DoCoMo Only)

In the DoCoMo service, exclusive minigame titles were released. The games were:

• Azusa's Fortune (あずさのおみくじ, Azusa no Omikuji​^?)
• Chihaya's Reversible​ (ちはやのリバーシ, Chihaya no Ribaashi^?)
• Makoto's INLINE SKATER (まことのINLINE SKATER, Makoto no INLINE SKATER^?)
• Yayoi's Rain Warning (やよいの雨もり注意報, Yayoi no Amamori Chuuihou​^?)
• Yukiho's Comfort Typing (ゆきほの慰めタイピング, Yukiho no Nagusame Taipingu​^?)

Official Event "Super Producer Tournament"

This was the only official event organized for the game and took place from December 15, 2005, 10:00 to January 15, 2006, 23:59.

• Create, play, and retire a new unit within the event period.
• Enter the unit on the official mobile site.
• The unit can only be produced with one song that cannot be changed once chosen. (THE IDOLM@STER is excluded.)
• One or more of the Special Auditions must be passed.
• To rank the players, the number of fans by the players' retirement point would be added and adjusted by the idols included in their unit and the players' producer rank.

The winners of the tournament were featured on THE IDOLM@STER MASTERPIECE 04, with 10 CD Producers who got their featured unit and song as a song on the single, and 50 Booklet Photo Producers who received photos of their unit with the single booklet.

Characters

Idols
Name	Vocal	Visual	Dance	Personality	Total
Haruka Amami	19	13	5	19	56
Chihaya Kisaragi	37	19	21	1	78
Yukiho Hagiwara	7	15	1	27	50
Yayoi Takatsuki	5	7	11	27	50
Ritsuko Akizuki	25	21	23	3	72
Azusa Miura	15	21	5	17	58
Iori Minase	21	33	19	1	74
Makoto Kikuchi	11	13	19	17	60
Ami and Mami Futami	1	7	13	27	48

765 Production Staff
Producer
Kotori Otonashi
Junichirou Takagi

Gallery

Profiles

Haruka Amami's Profile

Chihaya Kisaragi's Profile

Yukiho Hagiwara's Profile

Yayoi Takatsuki's Profile

Ritsuko Akizuki's Profile

Azusa Miura's Profile

Iori Minase's Profile

Makoto Kikuchi's Profile

Ami Futami's Profile

Mami Futami's Profile

Gameplay

Costume and Accessory Select Screen

Color Coordination Screen

Voice Lesson

Failed Voice Lesson

Dance Lesson

Trivia

• To differentiate the arcade game from the port, it is commonly referred to as Akemasu (アケマス, Akemasu^?)

External Links

• Arcade Official website