Review: I-Chu: Chibi Edition Is Bogged Down by Its Mobile Roots

I love mobile rhythm games like Love Live School Idol Festival, Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, and I-Chu. The idea of collecting character cards, building them up, and using those decks to ensure I’m strong enough to clear song stages has always been thrilling. Plus, Japanese idol music is pretty good. I-Chu: Chibi Edition seemed like exactly the type of game I’d want, since it is all that minus free-to-play nonsense. Except even though this is a single-purchase game, so much of those mobile trappings get in the way. Not to mention, the translation is shockingly awkward.

Etoile Vie School is a school for young men of varying ages to attend to become idols. They train in different courses to ideally become strong performers. Where do we come in? We’re the producer who helps them on the way. Though that really means we collect character cards to form teams, use those decks to earn points as we play through rhythm-game songs, and read extremely short visual novel chapters that go over their journey to stardom. 

Basically, here’s how the gameplay loop goes. You play through a song on easy with your crew of five “talents” recruited from the gacha. (These cards can be combined or leveled up to become stronger.) After beating certain songs, you can read through a handful of story chapters. A new track then opens up, you beat it, and you can read more story chapters. 

Now, before we go further, know this isn’t an otome game. While your “avatar,” who acts as a producer, is a woman, there’s no romance here. All of the side stories that had those elements in the mobile game are absent in the I-Chu: Chibi Edition. I was incredibly disappointed to hear about that, so it’s best to know that before you pick it up. 

You’re, as far as I’ve seen, locked into the “easy” difficulty to unlock more of the story in I-Chu: Chibi Edition. Which you need to advance to unlock more of the gacha banners. The easy versions of songs are honestly too safe sometimes, and I’ve yet to not get a full combo on one. Especially since all of the virtual “friends” you can select for assistance have maxed out parties.

Though honestly, skipping the story might not be a bad idea. The localization is bad. There are so many awkward phrases here and strange word choices. The punctuation and spacing between letters is incorrect at times. It isn’t as bad as what happened with The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom, but there are times when it feels close. Which is weird, as I’ve found PQube translations to typically be rather solid. 

I was also disappointed by how much unlocking there is for a console version of a mobile game. At this point, someone is paying $30 for I-Chu: Chibi Edition. At the very least, all of the songs should be available immediately in the free-play section, so you can jump right into any tracks you enjoy. But no. They’re not. You need to go through the story to unlock them. Similarly, not all the gacha banners are available either. Again, you need to unlock them. 

Speaking of which, I have a lot of issues with how the gacha is handled in I Chu: Chibi Edition in general. The odds seem as bad as they would be in a mobile game. After five hours of playing, I only have one LE card, and it is for Li Chaoyang. You’d think that, given this is completely offline and pulled from the mobile version, the rate could be increased so I’m not swamped with Rs and RRs. It’d be nice to see LEs more often.  

Which is all a shame, since the rhythm game portion of I-Chu: Chibi Edition is quite fun. Once you do start unlocking a substantial number of tracks — let’s say around 10-20 — you’ll start finding favorites! I felt a lot of them were catchy, and the vocalists performing them all seemed pretty talented. The Normal and Hard difficulties start to feel enjoyable, and Maniac can be genuinely challenging. 

I like the idea of I-Chu: Chibi Edition, as having a one-purchase version of a mobile game that grants you to access to almost everything is appealing. However, the way it forces you to unlock everything, the awkward localization, and the still frustrating gacha system hold it back. The music is good! The rhythm game element is pretty solid! Once you get some decent cards, you can make some strong teams! It’s just all of the other stuff surrounding it bogs it down.

I-Chu: Chibi Edition will be available for the Nintendo Switch on October 3, 2024.