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Posted August 1, 2012 by Elaine Cepeda in Anime/Manga
 
 

Star Project — Create Your Virtual Idol!

Star Project (SP) is a browser game where you own a (read: shabby) agency for idols. As the manager, you have to help him rise to stardom. Other than a booming career, will love also blossom between the two of you in this road to stardom?

The game is originally in Korean which is then translated into Japanese and English. <– which reminds me of a post about this last year and was about to give it a shot but then I know nothing about Korean language. When the English version was released, my motivation was already down the drain…until now lol. Anyway, based from the screenshots from the original Korean site, the developers changed the look of the city/map to match the Japanese cities (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, and Odaiba). The English site is basically a translation of the Japanese site so almost everything is romanized. By the way,, the Japanese site have closed this year. It is still unknown how will the English site do the other characters who are not introduced in the Jpn site.

STAT-RAISING

Expect a lot of things that you need to raise here and there. From your money to your talent’s skills to NPC’s trust points etc. I’ll cover the important parameters so I’ll just divide this into parts.

* Money

At the start of the game, you have at least 1 million stars. Stars is the currency in SP. You lose Stars when going on dates, lessons, and buying clothes for your talent. However, you gain money through working as an idol or doing part-time jobs.

Just like other free games, you have the option to buy things for your idol. Buy, as in, you have to pay using a real money through credit card etc. The money that you pay is called Gold. Things such as gifts or selected outfits can only be bought by Gold.

* Energy

Every move you do in SP other than the random events requires you to lose some energy. So it is very important to plan your schedule wisely so that you wouldn’t make your idol faint from exhaustion. The maximum amount of energy you have is 3000 energy points; 1 energy point per sec. It is so slow >_<. But don’t worry. When you are new to the game, they’ll let you use an energy ring which doubles the energy point you gain per sec and it’s free! But it’s only available for a limited time only. Energy drinks and energy rings should be purchased using Gold.

Also, some events (or choices on events) will either increase or decrease your energy. Meal times (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and the daily bonus will give you an additional 300 and 500 energy points, respectively.

Mood & Affection

Of course your idol won’t be able to do his job properly when he is in bad mood. Not to mention, it’s effect to the success rates of whatever he does. Going to dates will increase this. Still, even if you have maxed out the mood bar, it decreases over time so be sure to check it in between doing appearances etc.

This goes hand-in-hand with AFFECTION or the love points (LP) which increases when you go on dates. Certain number of love points are required to unlock events and scenarios.

* NPC’s Trust Point

Since your idol needs to work and increase his exp, you have to win NPC’s trust. To do this, simply do your scheduled appearances and never miss any. If you do, you’ll lose a swooping 10 trust points.

OTHER THINGS

There are things that you will encounter while going around the town.

* Scenarios

Scenarios are the main storyline of the game (or at least the guy’s route). Think of it as chapters of the game’s plot. There are requirements that you need to fulfill before going to the next scenario such as love points, idol exp, and manager exp.

* Events

There are random events that pop out once in a while. Those are the things that you can encounter anywhere. The downside is it can be repetitive after a while. Then you’ll be like me who ended up skipping most of the dialogues. The good side is that events on dating places increases LP most of the time. So if you’re aiming for the next scenario but too cheap to date your idol, you might want to run around first to gain points without spending a single Star. Other than LP, it can sometimes increase or decrease the other parameters as well.

* Dress

You can dress up your guy however you like. From hair to shoes plus other accessories such as bags, guitars, glasses etc, name it. Well, don’t expect it to be something free or cheap. It is a celebrity’s item afterall. The price of these items are most likely worth half a mil or so. It is not advisable to those who have low Stars (or even at the start of the game!) especially now that you have to save up for the upcoming stars/idols.

* Appearances

These are the actual idol work where the guy needs to perform, act, and/or model. In turn, these will increase your idol’s Singer, Actor, and Model level. To be able to do an appearance, you have to fulfill the Skills and Trust points. The higher the level, the higher and more parameters needed to fulfill.

The success of accomplishing a certain Appearance depends on the success rate. It lies on the skills and the mood of your idol. Of course, higher rates mean higher chances of accomplishing it. Moreover, you gain lots when you finish the appearance successfully. For instance, increase level, TP, manager’s EXP, and Stars.

* Jobs

This is also known as part-time jobs your idol can take when you ran out of Stars. Just as with Appearances, this requires energy but the difference is this doesn’t require any skills. You just have to successfully finish the mini-game and you’ll gain whatever you gain in the Appearance except for the level. If you are running out of Stars, this is a perfect alternative for Appearances. But bear in mind that this is only recommended for starters, and not for those who are already 2 weeks+ in the game. By that time, you have already enough skills and TP to do Appearances. It will just be a waste of energy to do this unless you still have to gain TP for the NPC’s.

* Lessons

This is the only way to increase the skills parameters. Lessons take up Energy and Stars and it will be harder with each level. To do a lesson, you will have to first beat a mini-game. Mind you, these mini-games can be a real challenge to the player (glares at the Dance mini-game). Some players posted in the forums how to cheat get around a certain game but there are really some tough ones. Tip: If you ever get stuck to a mini-game (most likely the Dance and Vocal games), either accomplish it through sheer patience and hardwork or you can just stick to the level you are most comfortable with. Even if you gain small points but at least you gain something, and not just fail then lose energy, TP, etc.

CHARACTERS

These are the guys that you’ll meet along the way. Each of them has their own stories (sorry no office love triangle, or harem for you :P).

* Touya

Your first talent that you meet. Asagi Touya is a 17-year old guy who happens to be looking at your office after he ran away from home. Fortunate enough, he attempted to save you from the loan sharks who are threatening you to pay your debt. Instead, he damaged their car and the loan sharks insisted that both of you shall pay them. With this, you decided to make him your star to pay your debt and help him find his true family.

This cheerful guy is voiced by Terashima Takuma (Otoya of Uta no Prince-sama) and is the only “free” guy in this game. Free, meaning you don’t have to pay for your contract and such as it only applies to the guys after Touya. How much each idol will be is still unknown (at least for the English version).

Touya has a child-like personality which can be irritating at times. But he can be cute and protective of you the more time you spend with each other. His route is also fun to play and even funnier with his remarks. However, the way his family problem got resolved was rather anti-climactic. Perhaps they don’t want to deal with to much family drama but still, they could have thought of a better conflict than that.

Note: Touya is STILL the only character available so of course he is the only route that I’ve finished so far. I’ll put here the other characters that are introduced in the Korean version (hoping that they’ll be translated sooner!).

Ren

The cold guy who forces you to sign a contract with him.

*  Torian

The mysterious guy who suddenly appears in your cellar and claims to be from a different world.

Souta

This young boy is a former child star whom you met on a rainy day.

Mi-Yoo

The resident trap of your agency.

* Ian

He has the perfect manners but is it the real him?

Star Project is an enjoyable game and I am glad they translated this into English. On the contrary, there are times that I feel disappointed in the game as the translations didn’t go as smooth as possible. Typos are, like, everywhere. Simple words like “Engery” instead of “Energy” are okay but messing up with a character’s name is a no-no. This will cause a major confusion to the players (and a never-ending posts and questions in the forum).

Another thing that I find rather annoying is the lags on voices of the characters. As it takes a while to load, the voices can be heard only after you’ve seen that scene or have moved to a different place. There are also times when it overlaps to another voice. The same thing happens to the background music. Even if I have set the music and effects to 0, somehow it’s still there.

The lagging part is not only for bgms but also for CGs. The CGs from scenarios come out a little late or sometimes none at all. It is just a black screen all throughout the scene. There could have been times that it might be from my net connection. Still, some CGs do not appear in the gallery even after refreshing for a couple of times. I hope they’ll fix this once the Beta phase has ended.

Having said that, Star Project is a fairly good game. The idea of managing an idol is very fitting to the current trend of idols in the Asian music scene. With its eye-candy bishies, no wonder it is still gaining popularity among the female audience. Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that they could have created a more solid background story and an overall plot. It could have been better. The game already have an interesting set of characters so why not take advantage of it. Well since I have only finished one route, I’m expecting something new from the next ones. Provided I still have the will to play this after months of waiting.

 

English site: http://starproject.galaxy-games.com/content/play-star-project
Korean site: http://star.vvvic.com/main.asp

Elaine Cepeda