'Love Live! School Idol Festival' New Group 'Aqours' Takes Center Stage in Game Update

Tokyo, Japan ‐ September 29, 2016 - KLab Inc., a leader in online mobile games, announced the release of a major update for the global version of Love Live! School Idol Festival, its hit game co-developed with Bushiroad Inc., on Thursday, September 29, 2016. This update marks the official entrance of Aqours, the new school idol group that took the Japanese version of the game by storm earlier this year on July 5, delighting fans across the country and rocketing the game to the top of the domestic charts.

30 Million Players Worldwide! New School Idol Group, Engaging Game Features, and Exciting Content Added

New School Idol Group “Aqours” Officially Joins Game
Most fans of Love Live! School Idol Festival are no stranger to Aqours. Players have been able to play songs from the group and exchange Stickers for Aqours members for some time now. The update released yesterday marks the group's official, full-scale debut in the global version of Love Live! School Idol Festival, bringing with it massive content additions such as new Honor Student Scouting and Main Stories starring Aqours.

Aqours' Main Stories can be unlocked regardless of Rank, giving veterans and new players alike access to the latest content. All of the stories, in-game narrations, and voice-overs are performed by the members of Aqours themselves.

Choose Your Idol Group! Switch Between μ's and Aqours
A new option included in the Live Show, Story, and Scout menus allows players to switch between μ's and Aqours mode. Players earn higher scores when using μ's members to play songs in μ's mode, while songs played in Aqours mode award players higher scores when played with Aqours members.

Players can unlock Aqours songs by completing Goals, which are unrelated to Rank.

Who's the Rarest of Them All? New “SSR” Rarity Added
SSR is a new rarity for Honor Students added in the latest update. It lies between SR and UR on the rarity scale. Additional adjustments to the game have increased the chances of getting SR members from other Scouting opportunities.

Special Skills Levels Updated
With the release of the latest update, players who practice members with other members that have the same Special Skill or a Special Skill-boosting Support Member will earn Special Skill Level EXP. Once that member earns a certain amount of this EXP, their Special Skill levels up. Any member can practice with any Support Member, regardless of rarity.

* When practicing with Support Members, the two members must be the same type.
** Special Skill Level EXP is unaffected by Super Success and Ultra Success effects.

Leader Skills Unleashed
The new UR Leader Skills take maximum effect when used with a full line-up of certain groups, classes, or units, much like many of the effects currently available in the game. Designed to help players take their game to the next level, URs that have already been released will be awarded Leader Skills as well.

Partners and Fav Points Added
In addition to teams, players can now choose to Partner up with their favorite member. Partners act as a navigator on the home screen and other key parts of the game. When players look at another player's profile, they will still see the leader of that player's primary team.

The latest update also includes the addition of Fav Points. These special points allow players to view the members they use most. An enhancement to the Bond system already implemented in the game, Fav Points are gained by adding members to teams or choosing them as a Partner.

Choose Your Favorite Illustrations
Now players can switch between illustrations displaying pre-Idolization and Idolized members, making the gameplay experience that much more personalized.

Bigger and Better Club Member Lists The maximum number of members each player can have when starting the game has been increased from 90 to 120. Along with this improvement, Goals requiring players to upgrade their max member caps have been removed from the game.

* This change does not affect players who have already received rewards for completing these Goals.
** Goals that gave member slots as a reward now give one Love Gem instead. Players who have already completed these Goals will receive an equivalent amount of Love Gems with the update. Additionally, the absolute maximum number of members each player can have has been increased to 1,000. The number of times the max can be raised by using one Love Gem has been increased from three to four.
*** Players that have already used Love Gems to increase their max member cap will receive one upgrade per Love Gem used after the update is complete. Support Members will be moved to a special page, where they will no longer be counted towards the total number of members.
*** Support Members with Special Skill Levels greater than Lv. 1 will be exchanged for an equivalent number of Support Members with Special Skills at Lv. 1. The new update also introduces a handy filter that makes organizing members easier than ever.

New Reward Boxes and School Idol Skills
Reward Boxes appear when players complete live shows. Every time a live show is played, it fills up a certain amount of the Reward Box gauge. When this gauge fills up, it opens a special box that rewards the player with School Idol Skills and other items. Reward Boxes come in different ranks. While players stand a better chance of getting useful items from higher-ranked Reward Boxes, players must achieve higher scores to open them.

School Idol Skills are special skills used to power up members in the game. They can be acquired from Reward Boxes, which in turn are received by playing live shows. There are up to four slots according to the type of School Idol Skill. Stronger skills require multiple slots to harness that member's abilities.

Powered-Up Special Practices (Idolization)
Until now, players were required to have at least two of the same member to perform Special Practices (Idolizations). Now players can use Stickers to accomplish this previously difficult task. Players can also increase the number of slots available for allotting School Idol Skills.

* The number of Stickers received when practicing or transferring Idolized members has been reduced from two to one.

Special Practices with the Same Member
In addition to the card becoming Idolized, the member will also receive an additional School Idol Skill slot.

* Members that have already been Idolized will receive an additional School Idol Skill slot in the update.

Special Practices with Stickers
Members can be Idolized by using Stickers. The number of Stickers required varies depending on the rarity of the member.

Special Practices with Idolized Members
Even Idolized members can use the Special Practice feature to increase the number of School Idol Skill slots. When using Special Practices with the same member, the Idolized member gains two slots. When performed with Stickers, the Idolized member gains one slot.

* The new SSR rarity was added in yesterday's update.
** School Idol Skill slot numbers may vary for members received as rewards, exclusive login bonuses, and Sticker Shop exclusives.

Expert Difficulty Added Permanently, New Master Difficulty Debuts
Until now, the Expert difficulty level was only available for special B-Side releases. With this update, Expert will join Easy, Normal, and Hard as a permanent fixture of the difficulty level spectrum for all songs. As players unlock new songs, they will be able to challenge the Expert difficulty level.

The update also features the debut of the Master difficulty level. This new difficulty level exceeds that of Expert, taking its place as the most challenging difficulty level in the game. Expert mode is only available for four specially chosen songs each month. This exciting new challenge aims to add a deeper level of fun for core fans of the game.

* Song goals remain unchanged.
** Expert songs will no longer be available as B-Side releases.
*** Master levels will first be added to μ's songs, with plans to expand the Master difficulty lineup in the near future.

Take a Chance with Random Choice
The Random Choice feature automatically selects songs for players from the roster of songs they have already unlocked. Players gain access to this feature by unlocking a certain number of Hit songs. Random Choice selects a B-Side to play at random. Random Choice songs switch between Smile, Pure, and Cool on a daily basis.

The feature is available in both μ's and Aqours mode with a total of four difficulty levels—Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. Moreover, songs chosen via Random Choice fill the Reward Box gauge faster than other songs.

Challenge Festival - Round One
Event Period: Coming soon

The upcoming Challenge Festival event challenges players to complete up to five songs in a row in exchange for fabulous prizes. The difficulty level of the songs increases with each consecutive song. Players are allowed to walk away with their prizes at any time after each song. However, they will also pass up their chance at more prizes, as this event awards players with bigger and better prizes for each additional song played.

Players who complete the necessary event requirements will be awarded with an SR Maki Nishikino (Easter Version), an R Satoko Fukayama (Teacher), and more.

About Love Live!
Love Live! is a cross-media project based on the concept, “a story in which we make our dreams come true.” A youth drama that follows nine high school girls who form an idol group called “μ's” (pronounced “Muse”) in an attempt to save their school, the group featured in the story has been adapted for various forms of media, including CDs packaged with animated music videos (available on DVD and Blu-ray), magazines, novels, and other publications, televised anime series, a smartphone game, video games, trading card games, as well as live events, radio programs, and live broadcasts on Niconico featuring the real-life cast of μ's.

The first season of the Love Live! anime series aired on Japanese television from January to March 2014, and the second season from April to June 2014. A feature length anime movie, Love Live! The School Idol Movie, opened in theaters in Japan on June 13, 2015. The movie was a massive hit, attracting more than 2 million viewers and recording box office earnings over JPY 2.8 billion. μ's held their final solo performances at Tokyo Dome on March 31 and April 1, 2016.

About the Love Live! Sunshine!! Project
Love Live! Sunshine!! is a brand new cross-media project based on the concept, "a story that makes our dreams come true." The school idol group “Aqours” (pronounced as “aqua”) formed in Uchiura, Numazu-city, Shizuoka Prefecture is spread among different types of media including CD releases with animation trailer video in DVD & Blu-ray, events, magazines, and smart phone applications.

The project started in April 2015 in DENGEKI G's Magazine. The first single, Kimino Kokorowa Kagayaiterukai?, was released in October of the same year, followed by the second single Koini Naritai AQUARIUM on April 27, 2016. The unit single CDs were released one by one starting from May 2016. The TV anime series started airing in Japan in July 2016.

Love Live! Official Worldwide Website: http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/worldwide/

Love Live! School Idol Festival Overview
Title: Love Live! School idol festival
Platform: Bushimo
Supported OSes: Android 4.0+, iOS 7.0+ (Global version)
* Not playable on some devices.
Genre: Rhythm and Adventure
Release Date: May 12, 2014 (Global version)
Price: Free-to-play (In-app purchases available)
Copyright:
© 2013 PROJECT Lovelive!
© 2016 PROJECT Lovelive! Sunshine!!
© KLabGames
© bushiroad All Rights Reserved.

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