Preparing for Utano Princesama: Shining Live

Big news in the world of otome games that also happen to have a musical side to them! One is actually receiving a worldwide release! Unfortunately, this is not a story following up on an unexpected La Corda d’Oro localization. Rather, an Uta no Prince-sama mobile game will be released on Android and iOS devices in English about a year after its Japanese debut. This is great news, right? Well, I certainly think it is and am here to tell you why.

What is Uta no Prince-sama?

These days, Uta no Prince-sama is a multimedia franchise. It started out as a visual novel otome game from Nippon Ichi Software and Broccoli, the companies behind Disgaea and Di Gi Charat, respectively. In the eight years since the original Uta no Prince-sama has been released, it has spawned additional games, drama and music CDs, three manga series, four anime series and eventually even an upcoming animated film.

The games themselves tend to revolve around a young woman who is at Saotome Academy, a performing arts school, studying music. She wants to be a composer, and the visual novel games have her eventually team up with a classmate aspiring to be a singer (always an incredibly attractive man) and compete to possibly become the Shining Agency’s latest artists. Of course, they fall in love along the way.

Which game are we getting?

The title being localized is KLab’s Uta no Prince-sama: Shining Live. Which is unfortunately being localized under the title Utano Princesama: Shining Live. It is an Android and iOS rhythm game that first appeared in Japan back in August 2017 and follows a formula similar another KLab game, Love Live! School Idol Festival. You are constantly recruiting new characters for your group via collecting cards and playing through immediately available music.

What is nice is that, unlike some Uta no Prince-sama games, Utano Princesama: Shining Live has both visual novel and rhythm elements. In the story segment, they get to enjoy visual novel episodes showing the characters as they attempt to rise up the charts and become stars. This can lead to Live Shows, where folks get to play through songs, tapping six circles on the screen as indicators hit them. (You can also play through songs without having to experience story segments.)

It will be a free-to-play game after it launches, and Google Play users can go ahead and pre-register.

What about the other Uta no Prince-sama games?

There are multiple handheld versions of Uta no Prince-sama games available. Some are visual novels with dating elements and mini-games. On the PlayStation Portable, you can find Uta no Prince-sama, Uta no Prince-sama: Amazing Aria, Uta no Prince-sama: Sweet Serenade, Uta no Prince-sama: Repeat, Uta no Prince-sama: Debut, Uta no Prince-sama: All Star and Uta no Prince-sama: All Star After Secret. People with a Vita can pick up Uta no Prince-sama: Repeat Love or Uta no Prince-sama: Amazing Aria & Sweet Serenade for their system, ports of the first three PSP games. Uta no Prince-sama: Dolce Vita has also been announced for the Vita.

For those who have trouble reading Japanese or who are looking for a rhythm game with fewer romantic and visual novel elements, the Uta no Prince-sama: Music line is full of good games. These entries only focus on playing through the series’ songs. The first two entries were released on the PSP, while Uta no Prince-sama: Music 3 appeared on the Vita. We’ve talked a bit about Music 3 before, actually! It is affordable and quite import-friendly!