The Idolmaster 2

The iDOLM@STER 2 is the fourth game in the The Idolmaster Franchise, the second on the 2nd Vision line of the franchise, and the most well known worldwide, not because it has an English version of it, (like the others products of the franchise, it's only sold in Japan) but since it was ported for the PS 3, allowed for more easy access, because, contrary to the Xbox 360, the PS 3 version isn't region locked to Japan and Asian consoles.

The game features updated graphics, new musics, costumes and acessories, aside from bringing back several of the ones from the other games.

The premise is a little different from the first game, and in fact, doesn't happen in the same timeline as the other games (except for The iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars, from wich it's a Prequel). On this. the Idols debuted around six months before the game starts but aren't faring very well, until Ritsuko got aproval from the 765 Pro Office to produce her own Idol Unit, the Ryuugu Komachi. Seeing as the new unit began to increase in popularity and success more satisfactorily than the other Idols alone, the President Takagi decided to hire another producer to create another Idol Unit. This is where the Player Character enter.

Moreover, all of the girls backstories and some of their visuals were changed, in some cases radically. To name a few, Takane and Hibiki never worked for 961 Pro, and were part of the 765 Pro office from the beginning. Mami, like in the first game, used to be a Tag Team Twin but isn't anymore, and let her hair grow to diferentiate herself even more from her sister. Miki's hair natural color is blonde, not dyed, and instead of being all on the back is curled over her shoulders. Yukiho's voice actress changed, among other changes revealed on their storylines.

On top of that, since Ritsuko created the Ryuugu Komachi, Iori, Ami, Azusa and herself are not available for normal production, like the other girls. They are set up as your first rival on the game.

The gameplay also get several changes. You can't normally produce only one or two idols anymore, always a Unit of three. The old tension of an individual idol doesn't play much of a part anymore, but the mood of the Unit as a whole has to be taken care of. There's only three types of lessons now, one for each stat, instead of five. The stage performance mechanics is also changed. There's no more stars to be aware of, instead there's the appeals multipliers.

The Anime of the Game The Idolmaster was mostly based around The Idolmaster 2 but it tweaked a lot the backstories and storylines, so who watched the anime, isn't spoiled (mostly) to the story of the game, and vice-versa.

For the history of the franchise and the other games, go to The Idolmaster. For Tropes that are common to all the games, please put it in the main page.

"Miki: Ritsuko... san and the others coached me to at least say my greatings correctly."
 * Action Girl - Makoto's the most obvious one, but Takane also
 * A Friend in Need -
 * Air Voyance -
 * Always Close - How the guests appear for special Quintet performances. After the third time this happen the Producer should know better by then, instead of having his idols almost freak out every single time.
 * Awesome but Impractical - Some amulets. The Ryuugu no Tsukai and others that come in DLC. They are visually nice, but gameplay-wise, useless.
 * Bare Your Midriff - A few costumes. Most notable on Miki, Mami, Hibiki and Takane.
 * Beat - Whenever Miki mentions Ritsuko's name, there's a beat before she adds the honorific -san at the end of her name.
 * Beat - Whenever Miki mentions Ritsuko's name, there's a beat before she adds the honorific -san at the end of her name.


 * That happens even when she's having a heated discussion with Touma after her unit beats the RGKM the first time.
 * Big Fancy House - Takane's. Going by the anime, Iori's also.
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead - Project Jupiter is an odd example where the "redhead" has green hair here.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall - Loaaadingu Loadingu!
 * Breather Episode - Mami's route compared to most of the other girls. In fact, depending on the answers the producer gives on her story scenes it can be even more amusing than already is.
 * But Thou Must! -
 * The Cameo - So far Miku Hatsune and 876's idols Ai Hidaka, Eri Mizutani and Ryo Akizuki are available on DLC as in story rivals for the 765 Pro idols.
 * Cannot Spit It Out -
 * Canon Shadow - You can use the same song and same clothes/acessories as the RK against them during the two mandatory story festivals against them as soon as the second playthrough.
 * Card-Carrying Villain - President Kuroi is a mild type 3. He just want to destroy the 765 Pro Office because of his rivalry with President Takagi.
 * Cat Smile - One of Makoto and Yayoi's preset expressions.
 * Central Theme - Unit and Friendship.
 * Changing Clothes Is a Free Action - It doesn't matter if you sit on the clothes screen all day, or enter it and leave it instantly, the idols will react the same way regardless, as they'll be instantly wearing the outfit, even if it seems rather improbable, or downright impossible, to put them on in less than an hour.
 * Character Name Limits - The Unit name can't be more than 10 characters long.
 * Charged Attack - The Burst Appeal.
 * Cloudcuckoolander - All the girls can come across as this during several of their communications, but Miki and Mami take the cake and run away with it.
 * Combo - The Burst Appeals during Festivals. Once you start one, your rival can't do anything meanwhile.
 * Commonplace Rare - Kotori's headset is the second most expensive acessory in the game.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard - You can only use 5 Memory Appeals MAX during festivals, but the CPU controlled idols on the Festival (specially the Utahime ones and the VESPERIA Festival) seems to have at least a dozen when you play on Hyper.
 * This is also averted during festivals. Each song's appeals ends at a different time, but the computer stops appealing when your song ends, not when its song end. Being that way you can tackle a Burst Appeal at the end and keep going but the computer doesn't do that.
 * Cool Boat - Two of the stages. Also, the IA Nomination Ceremony happens on one.
 * Cool Big Sis - Yayoi is this to her siblings and Azusa is this to Miki, Ami and Mami.
 * Cool Train - One of the live stages has a model train circling the stage area.
 * Coy Girlish Flirt Pose - One of Miki's preset movements is this. And she uses it a lot, specially during Vocal Lessons.
 * Cry Cute - Several, most of them during the girls endings.
 * Cutscene Drop - After the Burst Appeals and Combo Memory Appeals the girls seemingly teleport from the place they where posing at the end of the appeal to the place they should be during the dance routine.
 * Debut Queue - The first three weeks. In the first you choose the leader and do the first job and vocal lesson with only her, in the second you choose the other two members, and in the third you meet your first rival.
 * Disc One Final Boss - The second storyline Festival against the Ryuugu Komachi.
 * Disc One Nuke - Everything you buy and all of your money carry over from playthroughs. Considering that some amulets and costumes/acessories are completely broken, you can get your first single at least on the Top 20 by week 8, unlocking all the high level auditions and jobs early.
 * Disproportionate Retribution - Every now and then, you can play janken with your idol. Losing to them makes them happy. Winning... can make them angry and make them skip practice for a week (if you had already spammed autocommands before and their mood was already close to fatigue.)
 * Distant Finale -
 * The Dragon - Touma is this to President Kuroi.
 * Emoticon - The smileys that show fan awareness in each region.
 * Establishing Character Moment - All the girls get one before and after you select them.
 * Exposed to The Elements - Combine a Bikini costume (or other Stripperiffic outfit) with a snowing stage to get this.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change - For some of the idols in The iDOLM@STER 2. in particular Mami (who can now be differentiated from her sister Ami), Makoto (her hair now cover her ears), Azusa (cut it short) and Miki (hair over her shoulder instead of all on the back).
 * Extended Gameplay - The Ryuugu Komachi Extra Episode on the PS 3.
 * First-Person Snapshooter - You can take pictures of the girls during the stage performances after the Auditions or during the encore during Lives and Festivals.
 * Fixed Camera - On stage performances and auditions, during the gameplay, the camera keeps bouncing from side to side, but doesn't change its distance nor height. Only when you use a Memory or Burst Appeal is that the camera changes.
 * Follow the Leader - The introduction of the Jupiter trio is probably thanks to Ryo's popularity boom. Apparently, however, the male part of the fanbase is less pleased with male characters who aren't moeblob traps...
 * Forced to Watch - While you can skip the encore of the winner if you lose in a Festival, In Universe, the girls have to sit through the whole thing.
 * Forced Tutorial - The first three weeks are always the same sequence of events.
 * Full Set Bonus - If you use a full set of acessories (doesn't matter wich), the chances of getting a Break, Revival or Keep are exponentially increased.
 * Game Breaking Bug - Sometimes after a Festival (the Utahime ones or the storyline ones) the game freezes at the end of it. It's not clear what triggers the freeze.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation - Chihaya's route.
 * Gameplay Grading
 * Giving Someone the Pointer Finger - One of Yayoi's preset movements.
 * Golden Path - The True Endings.
 * Graceful Loser - The Jupiter Trio.
 * Gratuitous English - During the IA Award, if you win the Grand Prix and Mami is the second member of the Unit, she says "Unbiilibaabo (unbelievable)". What's interesting it's not the Gratuitous English itself (since there's tons of it in the game starting with the name), but it's that it's rendered in text in Hiragana script instead of Katakana which would normally be used. Even during her own route, Mami says several words that should appear in the text box in katakana, in Hiragana, such as "Bai Bai" (Bye Bye) and "Haariudo (Hollywood)".
 * Guide Dang It - How to get a SUPERBREAK. To this day, it's still not entirely clear how it happens, only that you need to successfully perform a Quintet Live on the release week.
 * Hannibal Lecture - President Kuroi seems to be psychologically incapable of entering and leaving a scene without delivering one of these first.
 * Honest Corporate Executive - President Takagi and Director Junjiro.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight -
 * Hurricane of Puns - During the shooting of one of Chihaya's CM's the director asks for her to tell a joke, or to smile more. The solution the producer comes up with is a rapid sucession of puns.
 * Idiots Cannot Catch Colds - Invoked in Haruka's route.
 * Informed Equipment - The amulets are not visible anywhere, except when your selecting the outfits.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes - Several, specially the starry ones.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness - Yayoi. She's so naive that during communications, if you touch her chest (intentionally or otherwise) she immediatelly assumes your talking about her heart.
 * Intercourse With You - Honey Heartbeat may indeed count as this as well. Assuming it is indeed about having sex in the back of a car.
 * I Will Protect Her -
 * I Will Wait for You -
 * Jail Bait Wait - Some of the routes end up having this feel after
 * Jiggle Physics - Takane and Azusa bounce quite a lot in the promo videos for 2. Somewhat frustratingly, the girls' hair is still animated far less realistically.
 * Chihaya, the flattest girl in the series, also bounces around now.
 * Joke Item - A few of the acessories. The pacifier, carrot...
 * Kirk Summation - The Producer during the final confrontation with Jupiter delivers this, wich in turn...
 * Shut Up, Kirk - forces President Kuroi to spill the beans to his real reasons as to why he wants to beat the 765 Pro Agency.
 * Lap Pillow - The producer receives one during Yukiho's route.
 * Large Ham - If President Kuroi had a picture it could very well be the trope image.
 * Level-Locked Loot - A few costumes/acessories can only be obtained after the first playthrough.
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen - Before the confrontation with Jupiter, when
 * Let The Girls Win - It's on your best interest that they win when you play Janken with them.
 * Local Hangout - The park near the 765 Pro building. It even gets lampshaded in a few of the After Communications.
 * Luminescent Blush - Quite a few (a lot in fact), but Iori gets the biggest one in her Extra Episode route.
 * Magic Skirt - All the costumes that sport one. Most notable on the Aloha Costume. When the Futami twins first wear one, they do a turning jump. The skirt flyies high but not enough to show anything.
 * Male Gaze
 * Almost all the scenes that Iori appears, the first shot is of her hips.
 * During Hibiki's True End, she
 * Manipulative Bastard - President Kuroi. Also the Producer in some of the girls communications can come across as this.
 * Mind Screw -
 * Money Multiplier - Two of the reporters act as this.
 * More Friends More Benefits - The more you use the idols on each playthrough, the higher their smiley will be when you are selecting the guests for special quintet performances. If you get them to pink (the highest level) they will never fail to show up when you call them.
 * Motor Mouth - Mami before the final confrontation with Jupiter on her route. She goes through almost all her preset movements and facial expressions in one single phrase while telling the boys why her unit won't lose to them in the Festival.
 * My Eyes Are Up Here -
 * Motor Mouth - Mami before the final confrontation with Jupiter on her route. She goes through almost all her preset movements and facial expressions in one single phrase while telling the boys why her unit won't lose to them in the Festival.
 * My Eyes Are Up Here -


 * No Route For the Wicked - The Ryuugu Komachi girls, until it was averted on the PS 3 version.
 * Still played straight with Jupiter though.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - A bit of Fridge Logic and exposition to understand this. One of the requirements to get an Rank S when playing on Hyper is to have a Single on the top of the DoTopTV music chart at least one time. During the Extra Episode, the producer suggests that the RK change their song and outfit before they enter the Idol Ultimate competition. Each week on the Extra Episode equals ten weeks on the normal storyline (judging by the girls increase on Image Level from week to week). The Extra Episode starts at week 25, when the RK is beaten by Touma (on the normal storyline). Now fastforward to week 45 (week 3 on the Extra Episode). Guess what is the song that starts rapidly gaining terrain on the chart until it tops it? Yep. If you didn't get to the first place before then, the only way to top the chart after week 45 is getting a Break on the latest release or a Revival of the second-to-last single, and even then, might be hard to top it. All because the Producer decided to be a nice guy and helped Ritsuko revamp the Ryuugu Komachi.
 * Not Allowed to Grow Up - Played straight during the game, most notable on Miki's route, where in the introduction, she says she's 15 and during the last communication, where, Ritsuko says she's still 15... 53 weeks later. It's possible, but rather unlikely due to the odds.
 * Also, birthdays are never mentioned in none of the routes with the possible exception of  where there's an offhand comment about it.
 * Oh Crap - The face the girls do when
 * One Dialogue, Two Conversations - How the Producer manages to
 * The Other Darrin - Yukiho was recast for iM@S 2.
 * Palette Swap - All Floral, Luxury and Starry Costumes have the same design inside their set, only the colors are diferent.
 * Post End Game Content - Some of the Unlockable Content is only available after the first playthrough.
 * The Power of Friendship - Unity is the theme of THE iDOLM@STER 2.
 * The Power of Love - The Memory Appeals are represented by hearts. Depending on which girl's route you're in, there some implications right there.
 * Pre Meeting - In the start of the game, you meet all of the girls you can produce (one at each restart), before you are officially introduced to them.
 * Prequel - For the Im@s 2nd Vision games, this is the first chronologically, considering that a few Idols (specially Chihaya) are already famous on The iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars.
 * Rainbow Pimp Gear - Some of the acessories don't go well with anything. The drill is the most jarring example.
 * A more complete example. The best possible gear to get the most on the Dance stat consists of Aloha Costume, Kotori's Headset, Star Brooch, Boxing Gloves and Rain Boots. It's interesting to say the least, horrid to say the worst.
 * Reality Subtext - One of the possible reasons Ryuuguu Komachi girls cannot be produced is that the seiyuus were too busy and could not record the full routes.
 * To elaborate, Naomi Wakabayashi (Ritsuko) and Asami Shimoda (Ami/Mami) were available, but Rie Kugimiya (Iori) and Chiaki Takahashi (Azusa) were already with their schedules packed by the time the game was in production, so as to not outright cut their character from the game (and receive a huge backlash from the fandom) they used this to create the Ryuugu Komachi. That is the reason Ami and Mami are not Tag-Team Twins by iM@S2, and only Mami has a route, otherwise it would double the workload (read paycheck) of their voice actress. Comparatively, Ritsuko interacts much more in practically all the other girls routes, compared to Iori and Asuza.
 * It's worth noting though that in the PS 3 version, they managed to remedy this a little by giving the Ryuugu Komachi girls an extra route, available after you finish the main game once.
 * RPG Elements - Stats and Image Levels can be increased by lessons, costumes and acessories.
 * Save Scumming - Rather easy to do it too. Didn't get a question in the morning that raises all the girls Danketsu? Quit and Reload. Failed an audition/live/festival? Quit and Reload. Some go as far as reload because of a failed evening communication.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses - Ritsuko, depending on your answers.
 * Schrodinger's Player Character - Averted. The idols you didn't choose for your unit can be called for special quintet performances and can appear as rivals on festivals.
 * Scripted Battle - The Odissey Festival agaisnt Touma.
 * Score Screen - Two different ones, interconnected. The Stage Performance score screen (with Total, Chain and Burst points), the Job screen (with the number of Fans and money you gain). Three if you consider the evaluation at the end as one.
 * Scrolling Text
 * Shipper On Deck - Miki's route.
 * Ship Tease - In some of the girls routes. Hibiki x Touma, Makoto x Hokuto and Yayoi x Shouta.
 * So What Do We Do Now? - In Miki route,
 * Spinventory - A variant. You can only see the item in the 3D model before you buy it. After it's already on the clothes screen, you can only see them on the girls, not by themselves.
 * Story Overwrite - Played straight and then subverted. It doesn't matter the amount of Danketsu your unit have, at the end of week 10 it get's plumetted by the storyline loss in the festival agaisnt Ryuuguu Komachi. Then subverted in that if the danketsu was high enough the next week they'll come as if nothing happened.
 * Stuck Items - The costumes.
 * Sweet Tooth - Haruka. On the end if she's on the group but isn't the leader, she'll even ask
 * Tag-Team Twins - Ami tries to invoke this during Mami's route, but doesn't realize the Producer is right there watching the conversation.
 * Taking the Bullet - In Makoto's story, when Hokuto insults the Producer, Makoto is angered and throws him a punch. This is one of your possible move to do next.
 * Take a Third Option - During one of Yukiho's communications you have the option to touch her somewhere or literally shove her to snap her out of her reverie.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill - You are on the receiving end of this during the first storyline festival against the Ryuugu Komachi. On Hyper, the RK girls can get almost 100.000 points easily while you get stuck watching Iori's burst appeal again and again and again and again...
 * Throwing the Fight -
 * Tournament Play - In Universe. The Idol Ultimate in the Ryuugu Komachi Extra Episode.
 * Training From Hell - The 765 Special Training. If you lose to the RK on week 21 or the Jupiter on week 54 the game goes back a week and your idols are forced to enter this special training. Also happens if you don't have enough fans by week 40 and is forced to participate on the Idol Academy audition.
 * Too Dumb to Live - Haruka's route.
 * Twin Switch - Ami pulls this on the producer during Mami's route. How she managed to grow her hair is anyone's guess.
 * Villain With Good Publicity - President Kuroi seems to be this, otherwise
 * Visual Pun - All 9 playthrough trophies/achievements are like this. 1 is ichigo (strawberry), 2 is ninjin (carrot), 3 is sandē (Sundae), etc.
 * Worthy Opponent - The Jupiter Trio. All the girls acknowledge this after the Festival on week 54.