The Idolmaster: Shiny Colors

released on Apr 24, 2018

The Idolmaster: Shiny Colors or "Shinymas", is a training simulation browser game. The game has a system similar to The Idolmaster console games, with the main gameplay including lessons, auditions, and a story with visual novel elements.


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IKARUGA LUCA WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF BARK

this game requires too much of my brain to play correctly but it is fun and different

Finally played this seriously for a week while reading some standout event stories and I can definitely say it's not for me.

There is nothing to say about the gameplay, the appeal for most fans is that it isn't just another idol rhythm game but I always liked that gameplay for idol games and this producing alternative is just so boring and falls apart completely because it's a gacha game. If you get and train good cards you beat the game and it's over.

The story is the standout aspect of Shiny and it's hard for me to get a grip on it when so many stories are untranslated. From what I read, it's pretty good and explores the idols excellenty, but for my tastes it just feels... well, for lack of a better word, slightly pretentious? Some event and idol commus try to be so artsy with their prose and atmosphere and it never sits right with me. I already don't like this style of storytelling in general but it just takes me the fuck out in an idol gacha game. I always cringe whenever the stories shows social media posts. No one talks like that! It also really hurts that I just find most of these characters unninteresting and many of the ugliest features of the franchise as a whole rear their ugly head pretty fast. Hate child idols and how sexualized Kaho is!

But man, I personally find it SO hard to criticize Shiny because I know the appeal is completely lost on me as someone who cannot follow this game daily and see how these characters grow week by week. I fully trust people who praise the writing of Shiny to high heaven, but I was never the target audience for this game. Big kudos to the translation team, but this game is a glorified visual novel and if you don't know japanese the overall experience is just completely gutted. I don't think any idol game writing excels in isolated event and idol commus and Shiny is no exception to me even with the MUST READ events I was pushed into time and time again by other SC fans.

I'll give another try to the rhythm game, because there is so much to love in Shiny Colors but it always fails to grab me. Maybe the rhythm gameplay captures me enough to get completely soaked in this atmosphere and world.