The Idolmaster (or THE iDOLM@STER, if you want to get stupid about it) is HUGE in Japan. The mix of moe, management and rhythm gaming hit all the right notes, and helped as a major force behind the Xbox 360's success in Japan. With an anime adaptation, countless parodies, cameos in various Namco Bandai games, and even a hostess club-themed ripoff, the series is set to hit again with iDOLM@STER: Dearly Stars for the Nintendo DS. Did you see what they did there?
Anyway, Dearly Stars was almost guaranteed commercial success, but now sales have skyrocketed. "Why?" you ask? The reason why is that Ryo Akizuki, one of the three new characters in the game, is a trap. Yeah, that's right, a cross-dressing boy trying to make it as an underage female idol. This, combined with the new loli character being the product of a teenage pregnancy, Dearly Stars is blasting apart the records. Hit the jump for a translated commercial that reveals all the sordid details.
I had thought that the Sakura Taisen games getting a full English release was a great victory, but with this in mind I can't but recognize how far the western gaming market is from accepting this sort of thing.
Which begs the question: Do we WANT the western gaming market to accept this sort of thing?
hmmmm.....well i guess this would b good for the gurl audience and for anyone whos into this......i dont think its that bad to have a game like this though...its kinda cute ^^
I never really understood traps in moe games. Isn't this game made for an exclusively male, heterosexual audience? I would think that having a trap (especially one that's clear from early on) would be nothing but a turn-off for moe fans.
But I have no idea. I've never really understood what went through moe fans' minds anyway.
God I love shota traps. They make me gayer than gay, but I would so definitely have sex with one if a real world trap looked as good as one in an animu/manga/game/whatever.
Even though I'm not into shota traps, I still would like more games like this to come out. We need to get past our xenophobic tendencies to games like this. I would love to have Idolm@ster here in the US, but people are too afraid of different things. Shooting may be fun and all, but so is this type of thing.
I would any Idolmaster game that would come out in the US but I really doubt it'll ever happen. It's like with Hatsune Miku Project Diva, I bought the japanese version but if it came out here I would buy it again, if only to show my support.
Yeah. I'd hit that. Idolm@ster's been in Singapore for ages, but it's still in it's native language (and thus, playable only for those who know the language)
@Vampt Vo - There's a comedy element to it. I mean, Guilty Gear had one trap character, Bridget, who despite being male, ends up being in many funny situations simply because he's a trap.
If anything, it really casts light and pokes fun at how we treat the idea of moe. After all, otaku go crazy over a moe character only to find out he's a trap. It's funny.
It would be funnier if the player only discovered this in the end of the game, after... stuff happened. I wonder if it would increase the percentage of anger attacks...
Lol, so one of the three characters in the new DS idolmaster is a trap...
Phew, I was worried I'd have to buy a DS even though I still don't have all the PSP games yet. Guess this'll be the the first im@s game I don't buy, lol.
Though it would be equally funny if it happened at the start of the game, since you have this one girl who is clearly a girl but, because of some random bits of text and stuff: she claims to be a 'trap'.
I mean, it's so easy: all you need is a statement and poof ! You're a trap all of a sudden. You don't even the need the bulge: apparently, the bulge is very un-moe, even for traps.
In fact, I can wager that you can strip down all these trap characters (Jun, Bridget, Ryo) and, even if they don't even have the 'appendage' (and may even have an unusual chest for a male), they will still say they are male and you will have to acknolwedge they are male because the creators and designers perfectly state that it's male and intended to be so.