I was looking for my potential, eventual replacement for Idolmaster (CG:SS) as early as summer last year. A year and a half later, I have found it.
From the lads who brought you Bang Dream, it's D4DJ. There's an anime going on right now. I'm not that interested in it. What I am interested in is the game, Groovy Mix. Which is absolutely brilliant. It's like a version of Bandori where everything is brought up to standard, and it makes for one of the slickest, most well-designed games I've seen in a long while. It's all Live 2D as well, which looks impressive and also happens to make the game a lot easier on your device than any of the 3D efforts.
And that's just the UI: the rhythm game itself is a lot of fun, with all kinds of unique elements that all blend in nicely, and the voices put in of the girls aren't even intrusive, which is something of a miracle.
The characters are all damn interesting as well, and notably none of them come across as so bad as to be offensive. At the other end of the scale, I've identified any of 9 girls which have the potential to be my favourite eventually. It's all a wild ride to go through right now.
Oh, and I'm a sucker for EDM. Hence, a lot of the music is right up my street. And the game has a ton of songs in it already, from originals, to Bushiroad's typical spate of covers, to remixes from other franchises put into the game! Like, when I saw Musical Sound Shower in there I thought "Yes, this is
it." And some of the groups are utterly superb musically. Photon Maiden is my favourite, and when you hear Photon Melodies you'll know why.
That's my favourite of the lot so far. Peaky P-key are routinely excellent as well, Merm4id's Floor Killer is sensational, and I really enjoy Lyrical Lily too. Happy Around I don't care for much, nor Rondo - I can take a couple edgy songs per game, but not an entire band's worth. But what's good is more than enough to keep me interested.
And seiyuu-wise, this is as intriguing a franchise as I've ever seen. Inevitably there's a lot of crossover with Bandori - Aimi (her third major idol series!), Risa Tsumugi, Sae Otsuka, Amane Shindou etc. - but some of these actresses have really done a number on me. Ami Maeshima, for instance, has completely turned around my view on her, from even before I was really thinking of getting into this. I'm now completely hooked on her. The other two who have really caught my eye are Natsumi Hirajima and Tsunko, both of whom have redefined what I thought possible from a humble seiyuu. I'll leave you to find out why, and there's a very good reason for that.
But what I love most of all about D4DJ is simply its general image. The whole cool vibes surrounding it all are probably enough, but what really strikes me is what a departure from Bushiroad's usual standard this is. Compared to the very safe Bandori, this is far more open and interesting about what it does with its characters, which means the most terrible parts of the Bandori fanbase haven't been tempted to come over, which means the fandom is so much more relaxed. The art style is easier on the eye right from the start as well, and really inviting throughout. Couple that to a huge amount of interaction with fans through streams, and plenty of lives to date so far, and you have a really comfy series to get into as well. With a bit of luck, I might even get to one of their lives next year...especially if there's a CG live around the same time. (I've vowed to go to the next major one they do if I can, even if the best live they will ever do has already passed and will almost certainly never be topped.)
It's just a shame the gacha hasn't been that friendly to me, yet. Something it has in common with all Bushiroad gachas, in fact. But I don't care. I'm so glad I took the chance to get this thing downloaded, I'd been eyeing it up for a while but it was on something of a whim that I actually decided to finally dive in. And I'm so glad I did. My spare time is immeasurably better off for it.
By the way, it's gonna be in English pretty early next year. And unlike just about any game of its ilk, the language will be added in as a changeable option to the Japanese version that's out right now. They are not messing about with their international efforts with this game (which you can tell from the music as well). I hope this becomes a truly unqualified success all round.
Finally, I should note the idea for it came from...F1. Albeit not the racing itself.
TL;DR play D4DJ
