The first smartphone game of “La Corda d’Oro” otome game series “La Corda d’Oro Starlight Orchestra” (金色のコルダ スターライトオーケストラ) officially launched on 25th February! Here is a review for you to get to know the universe of this work!
The mobile game features brand-new character designs and cast members, in addition to the past characters from the “La Corda d’Oro” series. Players will be encountering young musicians from around the world and aim to organize the top orchestra in the “International Student Orchestra Tournament”!
▍New Legend Starts in Yokohama
“La Corda d’Oro Starlight Orchestra” is set at the same stage as the “La Corda d’Oro” series in Seiso Academy in Yokohama, which has a Music department and a General department.
The protagonist is a violinist who failed to enter the Music department and thus decided to study in the general course. Dreamt to form her own Orchestra when she was a child, she put away her dream after failure. Fortunately, she was selected as a concertmistress (those who assist the conductor to organizes the orchestra performance) of a newly formed orchestra after reuniting with the conductor Ginga Ichinose (CV: Jun Fukuyama).
▼ The in-between animation is produced by Cloverworks, the studio that creates “Fate/Grand Order – Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia”
▼ You can change the name of the protagonist, but if you register with the default name “Yui Asahina” (朝日奈唯), the character name will be called in the story.
From the first chapter, you will encounter various ikemen musicians with different personalities, including the cool and caring Sakuya Kujo (CV: Satoshi Hino) and the super popular Tomoharu Narumiya (CV: Shunsuke Takeuchi), who becomes members of your orchestra.
But not everyone treats you nice and fair, this decision has raised the opposition from students in the Music department. Later, you will have to travel around Japan to recruit potential members for your orchestra.
▍Grab Audience’s Heart in Street Live!
In order to raise the popularity of your orchestra, you have to perform street live by consuming “LP”. Each “Street Live” location has their own songs, which is differentiated by their attributes, target, and performance style. It will be easier to get a higher score if you organize the party based on the information.
In “Street Live,” each turn you can select three cards. If you select cards with the same performance style(Melody/ Harmony/ Rhythm) , you will get additional bonus. The styles are randomly distributed, but you can check the style to be distributed next at the bottom left of the screen. You can also discard the style at hand and replace it with the style that will be distributed next, only once in one live performance.
The basic method is to increase the number of audience by selecting the Melody cards, impressing the audience with Harmony cards and get solo bonuses. But there is also an AUTO mode to make everything easier.
If you get a bonus, you will accumulate the “Finale Gauge”, and if the gauge is 100% or more, you will be able to play a special finale performance. The character set as the leader will be the main performer, so it’s a good idea to set your favorite members according to the situation.
▍Grow Cards with Local Items and Music Score
There are two ways for you to train the cards. In individual practice, you can spend the Music Score to level up the card. As the level goes up, the status goes up.
In two-person practice, you can use Local Souvenirs to unlock training panels such as status up, intimacy limit up, and performance style. Local Souvenirs can be obtained by visiting various parts of the country with local quests and performing street live!
▼ Local quests to collect Local Souvenirs for two-person practice
Also, if you give gifts to the character which drops as you progress through the story, you can increase their intimacy level and read the individual story of the character.
▍Attention to Detail that Revives Nostalgia
“La Corda d’Oro Starlight Orchestra” is the latest work in the “La Corda d’Oro” series, which keeps the settings of the original work and continues its stories. Therefore, the conversations of the characters are full of words and names that appeared in the previous games.
In addition, there are many elements that do not change even if it is a smartphone version, such as the variations of the character’s standing pictures, the character will turn into a SD form during conversations, the cut-in illustration, the terminology dictionary, etc. It is a point that “La Corda d’Oro” fans will be particularly impressed with, so please feel free to check it out!
▍Editor’s Note
The “La Corda d’Oro” series is also known to make players get familiar with classical music, and that element remains firmly in the smartphone game. The sound source changes according to the musical instruments of the character in your party. The sound of the musical instruments are recorded live, so you are also recommended to pay more attention to the music in this work!
Even if you have never played the series, you can get a hang of its story and universe easily. For me, who has been a fan of the “La Corda d’Oro” series for years, there is nothing that makes me happier to learn that the worldview of “La Corda d’Oro” is kept alive!