Impressions of the game Bandori: Girls' Band Party!

By TReina - Sunday, June 4, 2017 - No Comments

You might have remembered that I once made a post about my first impressions of the game here, however it's been quite some time since then and now I would like to give another round of what I think of the game. Do note that the first impressions was made 2 days after starting the game and this review is made 2 months after that. However, I am about to quit the game, so take this with a pinch of salt!

1. There's no LP system. Instead, they use a boost system.

This sounded very godly when I first started the game, because this means that I can grind and play any number of songs I wanted to whenever I wanted to. However, this quickly became a shortcoming as players refilled their boost with time (30 minutes for each) or when they leveled up. So naturally, this makes it more worthwhile to stay at a lower level as you will then need less exp to level up and thus make "free" boost refilling easy (free as in no star gems will be used for refilling, leaving all of them free for scouting, yay).

Thus, players tend to not play the game outside of event... which isn't a good sign, in my opinion...

They later revamped the system to increase the maximum number of boost to 10 instead of 3. However, you get a full 10 boost refill when you leveled up, making it even more beneficial for lower leveled players to play.

2. Playing multiple songs at one go... Time consuming or not?

For the very first event, you were able to use multiple boosts (up to 3), but this system was removed for the next few events. Suddenly, it became excruciatingly difficult to play for the event card personally due to the need to play 3 songs every 1.5 hours.

Being in multi-live, where 5 players are randomly thrown into a room to play a song together, gives more event points than solo live, thus players typically play multi-live during events. This makes the waiting time even longer since you need around 1 minute to just enter a room...

With the increased maximum boost to 10, you are now able to use 3 boosts per play, and the number of event points are now increased to x7 instead of the original x5 from the first event. However, this didn't innately change the time needed for tiering but if you are the type who only plays to get the event card, the time spent on the game has decreased considerably.

3. There's a max level system, and it is easy to level.

Having a max level system is a no-no. It started with level 100 where many players managed to hit it during the first event. As I mentioned in point 1, the game is biased toward new players and for older max-leveled players, the game is too harsh on them. When you hit max level, there is no way to level up anymore, so your boosts can only be refilled based on time or star gems. This makes it very difficult for these higher ranked players to play.

It might not be an issue now as most max-leveled players are P2P. But as grindy F2P players make their way up to that level, the difference between P2P and F2P and new players will be stark, and these F2P players will definitely be at a disadvantage.

Craft Eggs later increased the max level from 100 to 200 but the amount of exp needed to level up seems to be still increasing per level instead of plateauing off like in other games such as Enstars.

4. New content is very, very slow.

Despite the sheer number of events that start nearly back to back, new content comes up very slowly. By new content, I mean new main stories or new event types. Until now (8-9 events away), there has been only 1 event type and there was only 2 main story increment ever since the game launched. This slow pacing makes it not worthwhile to play unless you are here just for the event cards.

The talk drama (which was the main leveling scheme) where you go around places talking to Bandori chibi has not had any new content yet. Hence, you are unable to level this way if you have already finished reading all the talk drama. This is also the way that I got to know the characters better so everything about the girls seem to come to a standstill for me now.

5. Craft Egg's bias to certain girls!

This may not be a shortcoming based on who you like but not everyone in the fandom likes the same girls so this is a point to note. Bandori's game features 25 girls, where 5 of them have been featured in the anime as Popipa. However in the game, the most popular group should be Roselia. Despite so, there's at least 1 4* of all the Popipa girls (initial 4*).

Using the popular example, Arisa has 2 3* cards of the same attribute (see point 6) that can be obtained from scouting and 2 4* cards.

However, there has only been 1 4* for the Roselia members (the vocalist, Yukina) and Yukina also has 1 3* so far.

6. You cannot put the same girl into your team twice...

Such a setback! For me, this point doesn't make sense for me to whale anymore. If I have 2 cards of the same attribute and I love both equally, I will then have to make a choice as to who I want to add into my team. It's saddening...

Besides if you get the same card twice, the duplicate will be sent to the seal shop at once.

Hence, the duplicate does not add to the statistics at all but can only be used to trade for seals which will then be used to buy items from the seal shop.

Seal shop items!

The best item inside that cannot be grind-ed for is a 10% 4* 90% 3* scouting ticket. However, the number of seals required (300) is the number that 4 4* would give, essentially meaning that...

You will be trading 4 duplicate 4* for a 10% chance to get a 4*... which might be a duplicate as well.

7. You don't really see your cards that much.

Your cards appear at the end of song, when they review your performance for the song, but otherwise, they do not appear on the screen much. This makes it really "useless" to get the cards for aesthetic purposes since you don't see the card unless you play a song or intentionally search and open the card.

You could argue that this is a rhythm game so what do you actually do other than play songs? Well, that's true.

8. You can change the costumes of the chibi on stage

Bandori recently added in a new feature that after you obtain a 3* or 4* card, you will gain the attire that the card is wearing (after idolisation/training) as well. This makes for more variation during gameplay and makes getting the cards much more worthwhile too!

9. Stories are fun to read!

This is a 100% positive point. The way Craft Eggs craft their stories make even the most boring mundane thing seem interesting to read. This may be due to the diverse unique characters, which pull out the best in stories~

I'll cover the stories in reviews sometime soon too!

10. Cards are cute~

Event 3* card

Even the 3* come with their own backgrounds which make them very pretty to scout or even to grind in event for.

4* cards are just pretty!

4* cards

3* and 4* cards can be idolised (or trained, as Bandori calls it). Untrained cards have other characters in their card illustration, while trained cards focus solely on the girl and have her in idol attire.

Untrained event 3*

Trained event 3*

Similarly, even though the 2* cards (images below) do not come with a background, their attire are still superbly detailed that makes it a glee to obtain those cards.