AAA Game with Free to Play DLC.
iDOLM@STER PLATINUM STARS come to no surprise to many people who already know how horrible the previous title are with their expansive and expensive DLC collection. The game, which probably would be the last entry to features idols from iDOLM@STER second vision is announced featuring a different kind of mechanism, and featuring stunning 1080p resolution with 60 fps. With all that sounds really interesting, they also features they going to have bunch of content for players to enjoy, including private life conversation with the idols, tons of music, and overall more enjoyable experience than iDOLM@STER 2. Well, it's not.
To start, the game slow and painful start would only be appealing with to those who are fans of the series. It features fun dialog where you're placed as someone new to the team again while living with the whole crew inside a summer house together. As always to start you're to choose someone as your lead team, then naming the unit and start increasing the unit popularity by playing rhythm game, or meeting the fans. Unlike the previous one where you travel around Japan to actually able to train with various mini game, in this one you train inside this summer house and enjoy the same mini game over and over again. Your training mini game covers rolling the dice, or playing 3 different mini game that sometimes are just a simplified version of the mini game in iDOLM@STER 2.
That all sounds fine by many players I expect. But here's the worst part of the game. The game only features small content that might only last you 10 hours of enjoyment until you start to repeat the same stuff over and over again. So to enjoy more of the game, they released this monthly DLC where you pay about 4000 Yen to earn a set of clothing, and new music to use in game. It's a hefty amount of money for small content, and to add more to the wound, they feature a premium currency where you can use these to boost your chance in earning rare gift from a time limited event. This time limited event features gift content of set of clothing that always teased if you playing the game online. Which is total annoyance for someone who cannot even afford anything in game.
To add more wound to the game, one of the features they featured in the trailer (the private life conversation) is made to be a paid DLC where you have to buy idol mail. This 300 Yen DLC only adds ability to receive mail from the idol you purchased. The full pack costs 2980 Yen which made you pay about 9980 Yen for a whole game to enjoy what the trailer advertise.
To be honest, it's not really a bad game. Just full of DLC that holes the game out. Especially for a fan, you might enjoy what they offer until you realized you just got ripped off. The game value already dropped from 7000 Yen to 3000 Yen, and that just to confirm that this game is a bit garbage from Japanese player.