i don't think this is exactly the effect they would like it to have, but credit where it's due, playing gakuen idolmaster has made me want to get back to replaying the original(-ish) 360 game, ideally via my steam deck if xenia finally doesn't explode on there when loading it up. gakumas, as they've been calling it for short, seems well put together so far from what i've played and i may well do a more formal write-up on it later, especially since it seems like one of the better post-uma musume character raising sims in terms of quality of life stuff and production values (very circular considering that game was obviously heavily inspired by idolmaster to begin with, but yeah). but my favorite flavor of idolmaster-brand raising continues to be the more minigame-laden variety, which gakumas is distinctly not doing for reasons that i can understand, but still find myself missing nevertheless. starlit season, the latest console game from a couple of years ago (and steam, if you jump through geolock hoops), is quite good in its own right in that regard, but, man, there's just something to be said for the tightness of that very original game that i've never gotten out of anything else in that series. maybe i ought to do a write up on that era of the series one of these days since it definitely came out in that same general period as love plus where foreign press saw it was successful but were still incredulous because they didn't understand how a galge could be appealing on any merits other than "must be pandering to sexless otaku," which, come on.
anyway, idolmaster remains pretty cool and gakumas seems good for what it is, even if probably not a whole lot of you are able to actually play it because of geolocking for it, too. so, uh, play the other ones i've played that i thought were good, they don't get enough critical appraisal in english speaking circles. 