I might be a broke college student whose life is in shambles, but at least I have nine cute girls to come home to — kind of.
I say with a heavy heart that I’ve fallen into the cute idol anime trap that is Love Live! School Idol Project. I can’t put my phone down because I’m so addicted to this smartphone game.
The game is based off a 2013 anime series. It eventually earned a sequel after gaining mass attention in Japan. The story follows a girl named Honoka and her goal to make a “school idol” group, a popular trend in the show. Forming a cute student j-pop group, Honoka wants her school to gain popularity to avoid closing. Eventually their goals expand to entering the “Love Live,” a tournament for school idols.
The anime itself is terrible, but I’m still on the second season. I don’t think anyone who likes the smartphone game even wants to watch the anime. It’s filled with shiny eyed girls being cute and it’s just boring.
The game is a whole new story.
The premise is really simple. It has a story like a visual novel. As you read through chapters, you unlock more songs. You can play the songs by tapping the screen in nine different places, one for each member. It’s like anime Tap Tap Revenge.
You start off with one “rare” idol member who is an actual character from the anime, and eight “normal” idol members who are just made up girls for the game. As you progress in the game, you can unlock more members to swap out your roster.
This is where the game gets you.
Ideally, you want your party to be filled with the main nine girls in crazy outfits, but to unlock the special girls, you have to use “loveca,” which is a special in-game currency. You can only unlock loveca in a few ways, such as clearing a chapter of the story or “idolizing” a member of your team by mixing two of the same girl together.
The nine main girls are rare and you almost HAVE to use loveca to unlock them. Otherwise, you get little randoms who are mad ugly. Sorry.
Have I spent real money to give myself loveca? No. Not yet, at least, but I have my eyes on an “ultra rare” Maki card that’s really cute, and I just want her so bad.
I’m deep in what fans like to call, Love Live Hell.
The first thing I do in the morning is unlock my iPhone and open up the Love Live app. After a night of sleep, my Live Points (the gauge that lets users play songs) is filled and I can play about three new songs. LP goes up every six minutes or so, making it so you can’t just beat the game in one sitting, the way most smartphone games work.
I’ll lie in bed until I play all three, often making me late for class. My addiction is deep. I’ve threatened to break up with my boyfriend for making me miss a full combo during a song. I literally procrastinated on writing this because I was playing the game.
So what’s the point? There literally is none. All anyone wants is cute girls in special outfits. That’s it. That’s the whole game and it still has a cult-like following.
The game is available to download through Google Play and the iTunes app store. Download it and join me in Love Live Hell.
