I have to say, so far I don't think this game is very good. The best part is probably the visuals/S4U. All in all it's kind of just a glorified rhythm game. But as a rhythm game, the song selection is lacking, and the gameplay itself is kind of poor. There are increased difficulty levels, but they aren't really THAT difficult, and you don't get anything from playing a song on a harder difficulty (no better items, score, etc) hell there isn't even a trophy to be had. Any real strategy in the previous games/idol raising is pretty much gone.
I don't even see a reason to do lessons or idol work. It always seems like you are better off just playing lives. And the live variety is non existent. Where is before you had FES and stuff now it's just... well the same every time.
The story for the characters is all very shallow. You are just in a never ending training camp. There is no real progression or sense of progression either. It would be cool if you started in the beginning doing simple lives with small audiences and then when you are a top idol you are filling stadiums, but the girls are already filling entire stadiums from the beginning even though they have no fans, which makes the fan number kind of meaningless aside from ranking up.
There is lots more to be said, but it's a pretty disappointing game over all. I hope if/when they make an Idolmaster 3, it is more of a progression of 1 and 2 than something like this game.
