AKB1/48 Idol to Koishitara

Overview

AKB1/48 Idol to Koishitara... (AKB1/48 Fall in Love With an Idol) is a dating simulation game that stars the Japanese idol group AKB48. AKB48 is an all-girls group that consists of 48 members. AKB is short for Akihabara, which is where the group is based and performs in their own theater daily. The group is divided into three teams: Team A, Team K, and Team B. Each team has 16 members. Players must select one member to fall in love with while denying the other 47 members.

Story

Players essentially play as themselves. All 48 members of the group are in love with you, and you have all of their contact info. Taking place over the course of about two weeks in-game, the player will spend time with different girls and will systematically work their way down to just one member. The final member confesses their love to you in a live-action video scene and you have the option to accept (good ending) or deny (bad ending) their love.

Gameplay

The game is entirely in Japanese and you will need either a translation guide or know how to read Japanese. Over the course of several in-game days, players will receive text messages and voicemails from several girls each day. The members who contact you each day are randomly cycled through, but your options are decreased as you progress through the game. Players who are fans of the AKB48 will typically go for their oshimen (favorite member) as their ultimate goal.

Regardless of the player's ultimate goal, they will have to pick a girl to meet each day. When you go out with a girl you will be informed of the day's activities through a series of menus of text. The girl you're with will appear as a photograph cutout with a backdrop of the area you're visting. Many areas are reused throughout the game. The girls will appear in multiple static poses that express their emotions and reactions to what you say to them.

On your date, the girl will talk with you and ask you many questions. Like in other dating sims, you'll be given several possible responses, all of which the girl will react to in a different way. In the game, your choices can be "good," "neutral," or "bad." If you're interested in this girl, you'll want to choose the good answer in order to advance your relationship. If you're not interested in the girl at all, you can choose the bad answer and break her heart and watch as the screen turns black. Neutral answers won't alter your status with them. When you select the bad answer, the girl will immediately be unavailable to date ever again during the playthrough. As the other girls hear about your actions they'll react to you appropriately. Some may confront you about your relationship with another girl, while others will become sad or frustrated and back off from you entirely. After going out with a girl for a day and giving her the good answer, you will eliminate several girls all at once. This speeds up the process so that you don't have to literally date all 48 girls. As a result, there is no set deadline and the game can end much sooner or later depending on your actions. You typically have to provide the good answer to the same girl over the course of three or four dates before you approach the finale.

Upon eliminating nearly all of the girls and providing the correct answers to the girl of your choice, she will ask to meet you at specific location. When you choose to meet this girl, it appears in the form of a live-action scene where the girl is walking and talking with you from the player's perspective. She will essentially ask you "Do you love me?" At this point the video pauses and you select Yes or No. Whichever you choose, a separate live-action video will play that shows the girl being overjoyed with your decision and you fall in love with each other and live happily ever after, or she gets really upset with you and tells you to go away and never come back.

Each girl has two endings, with a grand total of 96 different endings for you to view. Completing the game unlocks these videos as well as photos of each member that you complete the game with. The game can be completed in an hour if you know Japanese, or longer if you don't know Japanese, and so the game is meant for multiple playthroughs.

Characters

You (Player)

Team A

• Iwasa Misaki
• Ota Aika
• Oya Shizuka
• Katayama Haruka
• Kuramochi Asuka
• Kojima Haruna
• Sashihara Rino
• Shinoda Mariko
• Takajo Aki
• Takahashi Minami
• Nakagawa Haruka
• Nakata Chisato
• Nakaya Sayaka
• Maeda Atsuko
• Maeda Ami
• Matsubara Natsumi

Team K

• Akimoto Sayaka
• Itano Tomomi
• Uchida Mayumi
• Umeda Ayaka
• Oshima Yuko
• Ono Erena
• Kikuchi Ayaka
• Tanabe Miku
• Nakatsuka Tomomi
• Nito Moeno
• Nonaka Misato
• Fujie Reina
• Matsui Sakiko
• Minegishi Minami
• Miyazawa Sae
• Yonezawa Rumi

Team B

• Ishida Haruka
• Oku Manami
• Kasai Tomomi
• Kashiwagi Yuki
• Kitahara Rie
• Kobayashi Kana
• Komori Mika
• Sato Amina
• Sato Sumire
• Sato Natsuki
• Suzuki Mariya
• Chikano Rina
• Hirajima Natsumi
• Maeda Yuka
• Miyazaki Miho
• Watanabe Mayu

Soundtrack

Being a game that features AKB48, the game's soundtrack consists entirely of licensed music from the group. The songs included are the group's most popular singles that were released between 2008-2010.

1. "Ōgoe Diamond"
2. "10nen Zakura"
3. "Namida Surprise!"
4. "Iiwake Maybe"
5. "River"
6. "Sakura no Shiori"
7. "Ponytail to Chouchou"
8. "Heavy Rotation"
9. "Beginner"
10. "Chance no Junban"

First Press Edition and Premiere Edition

As with other AKB48 merchandise (e.g. CDs, photobooks) the game had a limited edition bundle dedicated to the first run of the game called "First Press Edition." In addition to the UMD game, this bundle includes a number of limited edition items:

• Bonus UMD Disc with videos not included in the game (approximately 120 min)
• 10 AKB48 member photos
• Making-Of DVDs (2 discs, approximately 240min)
• Lifesize Kiss Marks from each member (48 included)
• Changeable Cover Jackets (24 covers, 48 sides)
• Collector's Box

The "Premiere Edition" bundle includes everything found in the "First Press Edition," but with the addition of a special AKB48-themed PlayStation Portable model, and 48 changeable battery cover stickers that feature the kiss marks from each member.

Sequel

On June 27, 2011, a sequel to game was announced called AKB1/48 2: Idol to Guam de Koishitara... It features the same style of gameplay as the original and takes place in Guam. Like the original, there are a series of limited edition bundles as well as "Premiere Edition" bundles. These limited editions come with a Blu-Ray Disc that showcases the live-action confession ending scenes from the original game. The sequel released in Japan on October 6, 2011.