An interesting start to the now-famous iDOLM@STER franchise, considering this is the only port of the original arcade game (and even then it takes a few liberties). Half the fun of this game is trying to be able to play it, since the game itself is region locked and there's emulation issues on xenia, so good luck! I produced Chihaya on my playthrough, and this game is short but designed to be replayed dozens and dozens of times. The game gives you 52 in-game "weeks" (which are really just turns) to get as much done with your idol as possible and reach the A rank (or even S). How you get there is entirely up to you, which is pretty cool. Despite that tho, it does mean that once you stick to a plan that's kinda what you are gonna do for most of the game, so there's not much to really surprise you from then on out considering the fact that this game also is light on the story. The idols have backstories, sure, but they are told through optional communication events that you might not even do considering the fact that lessons and auditions are so important and will take up your time. My word of advice is to bring a guide with you since there are some secret ways to earn fans that the game literally never will tell you as well as just having the right commu answers with you so you don't have to reset the game every single got damn time you screw up. Also the game is pretty heavy on RNG, so sometimes you will just die and have to reset anyways! yeehaw! All in all, this is a very cool curiosity and I'm very glad I have at least done one playthrough of it, but to the casual imas fan this is absolutely optional. You don't need to start with this one, and honestly you should probably play something like SP if you want a "classic" idolmaster experience that is accessible, since that games even got dang fan translated. If you are curious to know the series origins and have the means to play it tho, go off i guess. play if you like idols