A (Very Long) Review of Ensemble Stars!! Music
A Review by Summer
Notice: please note that I may use some terminology that you may not recognize if you are unfamiliar with gacha/rhythm games. You can find the definitions if you search it up online (read: this article is already long enough, I’m not including more stuff you can just search up).
Sooo… one day, at 1 am, I might’ve randomly decided to download a game that I knew wouldn’t be able to understand. Because that’s what 1 am decisions are for, making choices that you will definitely either really regret or really appreciate later on. Since it’s been a few weeks since I downloaded Ensemble Stars!! Music (or, Enstars Music, which I will be using to refer to it in this article), I figured I’d try to review it. As well as I can without understanding Japanese, that is.
First off, what exactly is Enstars as a whole? It is a relatively well-known video game franchise (at least, among the rhythm game/gacha community) featuring a cast of 49 different idols. If you saw that there were 49 characters and were immediately intimidated… yeah, same. That’s why I didn’t really bother touching Enstars for a while, due to both a lack of time and also a fear of having to memorize 49 names. For a while, there was only one game, named Ensemble Stars! (also known as the ! era), but the franchise rebranded in 2020 and then split into 2 different games: Ensemble Stars!! Music and Ensemble Stars!! Basic (also known as the !! era). The original Ensemble Stars! is similar to Ensemble Stars!! Basic, since they are simply idol simulation games. However, Ensemble Stars!! Music is a rhythm game. An additional note is that due to this split, former cards from the ! era are NOT obtainable in Enstars Music, while they are still obtainable in Enstars Basic. This is just a fair warning, if you ever browse the fandom and find a card you really, really want… except it’s from the ! era. In addition to the games, there is also merchandise, an anime, a movie (though it is currently only available in Japan… cries) and music releases.
Since I’ve mentioned cards and such, I’ll talk a bit about the gacha system. Like all gacha games, you can either do a 1 pull or a 10 pull, a 10 pull guarantees at least a single 4✰, there’s pity and it’s at 300 pulls and must be all on the same banner (it’s the same for, like, every single gacha rhythm game), blah blah blah blah. There are two permanent banners, the ordinary one (with 3✰ to 5✰ cards), called the Diamond Scout, and also a banner called the Square Scout, which is mainly for 1✰ and 2✰ cards (don’t worry, these won’t pop up on any other banners). Okay! Now onto the actually interesting stuff! In addition to these, there are always at least two different limited gacha banners active: an Event banner, and a Feature Scout banner. The cards featured on these banners will always be newly introduced cards, and the banner switch happens about once every 2 weeks from my experience. The cards in these limited banners will be added to the permanent pool 3 months after their initial release, so if you don’t get a certain card on its banner, you still have a chance of getting it again. Also, sometimes there are special banners such as the one that lets you do a free 1 pull every day (usually doesn’t yield anything since the 4✰ and 5✰ rates remain the same), and the one that lets you use tickets (given as login gifts) that let you do free 10 pulls, and might even guarantee a 5✰ (these are usually only around big events such as the game’s anniversary or stuff). There’s also a special banner that is only available for the in-game birthday that you set, which allows you to do a 10-pull for less than normally, and also guarantees a 5✰. Nice!
Now, I’ll talk about the rhythm game aspect of the game. Just like many other rhythm games, you have the option to select the difficulty level of the song, with the choices in order of simplicity being Easy, Normal, Hard and Expert (some songs will also have a Special difficulty that is harder than Expert, but these are in the minority). The general consensus is that Enstars gameplay is among the easier ones in rhythm games, since you don’t need to time the release of hold notes. You also don’t actually have to keep your finger on hold notes all the time, too. Usually, there are extra notes inside a hold note to match the song’s rhythm, but you will still need to keep your finger on the hold note when these extra notes are not present. However, in Enstars Music, you will not need to keep your finger on a hold note unless an extra note is present.
In addition, flick note timing is rather easy, since you can simply swipe left and right quickly, which will allow you to keep your combo without actually paying attention to the direction. As such, it is easier than other games, and as such a good introduction to rhythm games. It may not be a good idea to get too used to these habits, though, if you plan on playing other rhythm games in the future. Personally, I found the gameplay a bit difficult to get used to. The rhythm game I have played the most is Colorful Stage, which has a straight line as the note input line, so I had some difficulties adjusting to this game’s curved input line. I quickly got used to it, though. My main trouble was with the flick notes (which are always the bane of my existence, no matter what game it is). In Colorful Stage, the direction you flick the flick notes in does not matter. As such, I had trouble flicking notes in the right direction in Enstars Music. I have gotten better, but even now, I still have the tendency to flick in the wrong direction during sections of songs where there is flick note spam. It’s annoying, but I suppose I’ll get more used to it as time goes on. The game is rather thumb-friendly, meaning that you can play a majority of levels with only your thumbs without trouble. However, some Special difficulty levels will REQUIRE usage of more than 2 fingers. But of course, you will always have the choice to select to play a lower difficulty (which will not require more than 2 fingers) if you have to.
Since I found a few translation blogs with Enstars content, I managed to read a few of the event stories, as well as a portion of the main story. As such, I will be discussing my opinions on it. I remember seeing someone describe the storyline as more of a political commentary by the writers due to the dark nature of much of the storyline, and I am inclined to agree. Enstars’ stories cover topics such as corruption in the entertainment industry, inheritance issues, backstabbing, kidnapping, dysfunctional families (there are so many of them… soooo many) and overall sad backstories! Hooray!!! On the other hand, though, the light-hearted stories can be rather funny as well. I personally really enjoyed reading through the translations, and if you choose to do so as well, I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did.
Some of you may be concerned about the language barrier. How can I understand what I should be doing? Fortunately, since the Enstars community is rather large, there are guides for navigating the game online. I managed to navigate through the game without too much trouble, though that’s probably due to my very minimal knowledge of Japanese. My main trouble due to the language barrier was figuring out what the completion requirements for certain missions were, but thankfully there are translations online for some of them. In summary, being unable to understand Japanese does not hinder your experience too much. I’d say the only real part that you miss out on is the story, but there are translations online that you can find. Before, the easiest source for these translations would definitely be the Enstars fandom, but those translations have since been taken down. As such, in order to find translations, you will probably have to scour the internet for translator blogs.
In conclusion, Enstars Music is a game I rather enjoyed, despite being incapable of reading most of the text. I’ll probably keep playing it because it’s pretty fun. For those of you interested, you can search up ways to download foreign games on your mobile devices (Android users have this a lot easier than iOS users, by the way). For those who are interested but wish to be able to actually read the contents of the game, fortunately, an English version of this game is coming out in the near (?) future (no release date yet, but it’s probably sometime soon… probably) (Also, only Music is getting an English version, Basic is not). If you managed to read through this monstrosity of an article, I sincerely applaud you. Have a great day~