The iDOLM@STER SP

On Saturday I bought The IDOLM@STER SP for PSP, and I have been playing almost non stop until today.
I hoped to play IDOLM@STER series of games for a long time, but until now it was an XBox exclusive, and the XBox is the only console that I don't want to buy at all.


I wanted to buy all 3 versions, but for now I only bought Wandering Star, that contains the tsundere Iori, the genki twins Ami & Mami and the shy Yukiho.
I was divided between buying first Wandering Star or Missing Moon, but at the end I prefered the rival idol Takane instead of Miki.

Those are the rival idols.
Left: Ganaha Hibiki (in Perfect Sun)
Center: Hoshii Miki (in Missing Moon)
Right: Shijou Takane (in Wandering Star)

The game is hard if, like me, you are not fluent in Japanese because is heavely text based (specially the Comunication parts) and the game doesn't stop the script (after a sentence, the game waits a few seconds and jumps to the next one, without giving time to check vocabulary or kanji meanings).
At least the girls are fully voiced, so it's easier to understand the overall plot, though what your character says isn't voiced at all, and during the conversation there are points where you have about 5 seconds to pick one of 3 responses that pop up on screen, and in most of the cases I'm unable to read all of them.

I began two new games, one with Ami/Mami in the Story Produce and one with Yukiho in Free Produce (I didn't pick Iori yet because is the hardest to manage).
The diference between Story and Free mode is that in Story your main quest is "Idol Ultimate" tournament against the rival idol and Free is the original arcade-XBox mode.
I really like the ojou-sama character Shijou Takane (Ami & Mami fittingly calls her Ohimechin), and I hope she becomes playable once I finish the game.

Hibiki and Takane are the new faces of the PSP version, but both of them were present in the pre-production stage of the game but dropped at the end, so their first appearance was in fact earlier than Miki's.

Prototype Takane.

Prototype Hibiki.

IM@S is known for being a yen sucker in download contents, and is also true in this version: 1,000 yen for a extended outfit, 500 for a regular outfit, 200 yen per accessory, and 150 yen per song for every girl... My credit cards are not accepted, so if I want the new contents I must purchase PlayStation Network Cards, but are really expensive (I think the 3,000 yen card costs 5,000 yen).