Bang Dream! is My Favourite Game Right Now

Bang Dream! is my favourite game right now. But for a while, I was having trouble explaining why I like it so much. Yes, the illustrations are gorgeous, the songs are fun, the mechanics are user-friendly... but all of those things can't explain why I don’t get bored of this game even after playing for more than 3 months.

I always knew that it was about the story. But I couldn’t tell exactly what part of the story was it. Well, it seems that I have found the answer today:

BanG Dream! is willing to face its own problems with the story.

I'll give you a few examples with the bands (some spoilers, of course).

When I first played this game, I looked at each band on a glance, and I thought that Pastel*Palettes is the most cheesy. I mean, an idol band? What kind of uninspired idea is that? And just look at their outfit! Are they even taking this seriously?

But boy, was I wrong. When I read their Band Story, I quickly realized that Pastel*Palettes is actually one of the most realistic band in the entire franchise. In the story, when Pastel*Palettes was just formed, the agency staff had some sneaky plan for their first live. Since all the members are still amateurs, instead of actually playing their instrument, they would just record it beforehand, and pretend to play it on stage. They don't even trust Aya enough to sing live (Aya don't play any instrument, she just sings).

Do you see how ironic it is? When you have (real life) professional voice actors but amateur musicians do a live show, you'd expect them to fake it, right? It's amazing that instead of turning a blind eye, they (the story authors) decided to own the problem and use it as a main idea for their story. And if you didn't know yet, the (real life) members of Poppin'Party and Roselia actually plays their instruments live. About Pastel*Palettes, well, their situation is a bit weird.

Okay, back to the story. They (the story authors) don't waste their time. Pastel*Palettes' first ever concert was a huge failure. In the middle of the song, there was a technical problem, and all their sound was gone. Not even Aya can do anything because she was just lipsyncing. After this shit happened, Chisato thought that Pastel*Palettes was doomed, and she was prepared to leave the band. Fortunately, things got better after that (if you want to know the rest of the story, just play the game).

After realizing that idol band is actually a clever idea for a story, Afterglow becomes my least favourite band in BanG Dream!. Their concept is simply "childhood friends who formed a rock band". I have to admit, the interaction between their members are interesting, but their concept is just really boring. It doesn't help that their music is rock, which is a very common genre.

But then, there was a story event where Afterglow members asked Pastel*Palettes about their story. After hearing it, the Afterglow members was like, "Wow, their story was so amazing and dramatic. Compared to that, our story feels mundane and boring". What the hell. I don't think I could come up with something like that on my own. This is the result of a passionate team maintaining a single continuity for a long time.

Now, let's talk about the characters. If I have to pick the most problematic character in BanG Dream!, she's none other than Misaki/Michelle from Hello, Happy World!. It's a long story, but basically, 3 out of 4 of her bandmates rejected the fact that Michelle is just Misaki in a bear suit. I don't know how, but they seem to believe that Misaki and Michelle are two completely different people (bear?).

And then we have Hello, Happy World Band Story 2, where Misaki was starting to doubt herself. She felt as if she doesn't belong in the band. She felt that everyone in her band only loves Michelle, and doesn't really care about herself as Misaki.

Wow. Just wow.