Guilty pleasure?!
Name: The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation VR
Released: 19, July 2017
I have to say it, I got extremely little experience with Japanese / Asian anime, anime games, manga and so on. So when Bandai Namco sent me this opportunity try to out “The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution” for the PlayStation VR, I took this chance to open my videogame horizon and to take a sneak peek inside this industry. But was this opportunity a good entrance to the anime, manga universe?
What is The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls?
After I finished watching the different concerts in Viewing Revolution, I had to find out what this was. As I didn’t understand much of what was happening or if this was related or connected with something else. (I will come back to this later on) And after some research I found out that this PSVR version is just a small spin off video game from games called The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls and The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage.
From what I could understand, these games makes you an manager for girls who wants to become famous by doing singing and dancing on stage. There you have to schedule training, auditions and give them directions on stage, that means those games have narratives and some sort of simulation gameplay.
The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution
And then we come to the version I tried out on my PlayStation VR. The whole concept and experience in this small, and I mean small PS VR game, is to experience these girls concerts from the crowd. You are a typical person who attends to the concerts with flashing lightsticks in your disposal.
Launch Trailer
And I’m afraid that is it, you and your PlayStation Move controller that controls your “hand” ingame with lightsticks waving like a crazy man in the crowd with a lot of others NPC’s that’s enjoying the concert. So let’s set the few options available straight, you have no interaction with either the crowd or the girls on stage, you do have the opportunity to change location to see the concert from different angles. You can change colours on your wristbands or lightsticks, and there is three different songs to watch. ( There was four extra songs available on the PlayStation Store, including more colourful wristbands and lightsticks as well, but at extra costs)
So my experience with this anime industry was brightly short as you can say.
Graphics and sounds
Okay, so maybe the gameplay experience was a little short. But then again, the visuals, animations, lightning effects and more looks incredible inside the PlayStation VR headset. Even the crowd got a small touch of well done animations. A lot of it was flawless, so why the developers released this game with almost no interactions is a mystery, as this game have a lot of potential.
But the main event here is the music, and for people like me that never have experienced this before might be a little disappointed. As said there is three different songs available in the game, Yes! Party Time, Star! and Onegai! Cinderella. Even though I don’t understand the language they are singing in the music itself is a little catchy. And the sound of the crowd shouting sometimes makes the emotion of you being in the concert more real.
- Visuals and animations
- Soundtrack and environmental sounds
- Short experience
- No interaction what so over (excluding your virtual hands with lightsticks)
Verdict
The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Viewing Revolution has a lot of potential, but the pricing of this game on the PlayStation Store is high. That means you’re going to pay a lot of money if you want to experience the whole game, even the base game might be too expensive if we think of what you’re getting. But then again, the visuals, animations and soundtrack is beautiful to look at and catchy listening to. But if you’re a newcomer to the industry or the series, I might have recommend a another game then this.
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