BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!
also known as Garupa, is a mobile rhythm game developed by Craft Egg and published by Bushiroad for the Android and iOS platforms. Part of Bushiroad's BanG Dream! music franchise, it was released in Japan on March 16, 2017. Overseas launches took place in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan on October 19, 2017, in Korea on February 6, 2018, worldwide in English on April 9, 2018, and mainland China on May 30, 2019. While Bushiroad serves as the publisher for the Japanese- and English-language servers, the traditional Chinese game was published by Mobimon Inc., while bilibili and Kakao Games oversee the mainland Chinese and Korean versions, respectively.
The game has enjoyed success in Japan and worldwide, and is credited with helping the franchise grow in popularity. A spin-off anime series based on the game titled BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! ☆ Pico began airing in 2018.
Plot
The game's setting mainly follows the BanG Dream! universe after the anime's first season. Girls Band Party! consists of the main story, band stories, and event stories, each of which are split into seasons.In the main story's first season, the player character is a self-named worker at the live house CiRCLE who is tasked by fellow staff member Marina Tsukishima with recruiting groups for the Girls Band Party event. Poppin'Party, the franchise's main band, assists the player in their scouting, during which they enlist the groups Roselia, Afterglow, Pastel＊Palettes, Roselia, and Hello, Happy World!. The second season focuses on CiRCLE's plans to host a second Girls Band Party.
Band stories focus on the individual bands and their backstories. Poppin'Party has three such stories: the first, "Poppin'Party is Born!", is a retelling of their formation from the anime's first season; the second, "Colorful, Poppin' Candy", details the band's efforts to save the downtown festival; "Double Rainbow" centers on an argument between the five when keyboardist Arisa Ichigaya finds herself compounded by her studies and commitment to the band. Afterglow's band stories "Afterglow, The Same As Always" and "Tied to the Skies" follow vocalist Ran Mitake's growth, including rebelling against her disapproving father in the former and her relationship with her bandmates as she progresses as a person in the latter. Pastel＊Palettes' disastrous debut concert and attempts to change their reputation are covered in "Pastel＊Palettes, The Beginning", while "Luminous Once More" discusses the members' dreams and goals. Roselia's creation is detailed in their first story "Bloom of the Blue Rose", while "Neo-Aspect" follows their efforts to rediscover their pride after a falling-out. Hello, Happy World!'s two stories "Smiles To The World! Hello, Happy Union!" and "I Need You!" focus on their plans to cheer up an injured friend of the band and restoring an old amusement park, respectively.
Events, in which players compete with one another for the highest total score during a given time period, are complemented by stories. Examples of event stories include "Sakura*Blooming Party!", where the first-year students convene for a sakura viewing party, and "A Song Unfinished", where Roselia's Yukina Minato struggles to perform a song her father had written.
Gameplay
Girls Band Party! gameplay consists of tapping notes as they slide toward the bottom to the rhythm of a chosen song; such notes exist as taps, drag notes that players must hold, flick notes, and special yellow notes that activate character skills and lines mid-performance. Players are given 1,000 health points to clear a song, but one can adjust song speed, difficulty, and note size to their liking. In lieu of a energy system that is prevalent in most free-to-play games, Girls Band Party! utilizes Live Boosts that increases rewards for completing a song, and players can continue playing even when they run out of boosts.Songs are generally one minute and 30 seconds in length, though full-length tracks for some tracks are available. In 2019, the game introduced a music video feature that replaces the in-game background with the openings to the anime's second season; additional videos from the movie BanG Dream! Film Live were added later that year. Some songs were created by the winning bands in the game's General Election, a series of voting contests based on a certain topic. For example, the second election mixed the bands' members to form different units; the winning group resulted in the song "Hitori Janain Dakara", which would be used as an insert song in the anime's second season.
Besides original songs, cover versions of popular music by the five bands are also playable. Certain covers were spawned from collaborations between BanG Dream! and other franchises like Vocaloid, the anime series Is the Order a Rabbit? and , and the video game series Persona. The addition of cover songs was inspired by their positive reception during BanG Dream! first live concerts, with franchise creator Takaaki Kidani comparing them to the use of mainstream series in Bushiroad's Weiß Schwarz card game as "drops in momentum" are canceled out by "the addition of popular titles." The international versions also have region-exclusive tracks: in 2018, the Korean server partnered with K-pop group GFriend to include their songs "Me Gustas Tu" and "Time for the Moon Night", while the English game collaborated with Pinkfong in 2020 to add "Baby Shark" for a limited time.
Players gain experience points by clearing songs and listening to overworld conversations between characters. Such talks are fully voiced with 2.5D movement via Live2D technology, and their conversations are depicted in a visual novel-style presentation. Further dialogues can be attain by improving cards and attaining more EXP. EXP also improves a band's rank, which unlocks additional chapters in band stories. Cards, which use a star ranking system to determine rarity, are acquired via the gacha system, a luck-based mechanic in which players spend the in-game currency Stars with the hope of winning their desired cards. Although Girls Band Party! is a free-to-play game, players can spend real-life money to acquire more stars.
The game's multiplayer, known as Multi Live, is a cooperative mode in which five players try to record a high cumulative score. During performances, the team can earn more points when they maximize a "Fever Chance" combo bar and enter "Fever" mode. ComicsVerse writer Hayden Moseley described Multi Lives as "revolutionary" since multiplayer modes in other Japanese mobile rhythm games are typically player versus player.
During the game's anniversaries in March, new contents are added and the main story is updated. The second anniversary in 2019 saw the introduction of an overworld lounge that features new character interactions and animations. The following year, Raise A Suilen and Morfonica were added as playable bands, while new gameplay mechanics included Live2D animation during lives and a "rehearsal" mode that allows players to practice songs without fearing health depletion.
Development
Development of the game was announced on September 15, 2016 at Tokyo Game Show with a release planned in spring 2017; in addition to the pre-existing Poppin'Party, Roselia's members debuted at the event. Afterglow's voice actresses revealed their involvement with the project on Twitter in December; vocalists Ayane Sakura, Ami Maeshima, and Miku Itō were officially confirmed during a presentation on December 7 at Sunshine City, Tokyo. The remaining cast members were revealed during a show at EX Theater Roppongi to promote the game on February 24, 2017.Pre-registration opened on January 1, 2017; Kidani heavily encouraged others to pre-register when the anime, which began airing that month, received mediocre reviews. By the game's launch in March, over 560,000 players had completed the process. Closed beta testing for the game launched on February 17.
Release and marketing
The game was first released in Japan on March 16, 2017. Mobimon Inc. published a traditional Chinese-language version in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan which was released on October 19. A Korean server by Kakao Games went live on February 6, 2018. An English global version was first launched in Singapore on March 29, 2018 followed by a worldwide release on April 4. Mainland China would receive its own server by bilibili on May 30, 2019.An augmented reality application based on the game titled Bandori! Garupa AR! was distributed for a limited period starting January 9, 2018. In 2019, Girls Band Party! partnered with SCRAP Co. to organize "Find the Random Star!", an escape room-like game in which participants search for Kasumi Toyama's lost guitar by solving riddles located throughout the city. The event ran from December 4, 2019 to February 29, 2020 in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! ☆ Pico, a chibi anime series, premiered on July 5, 2018, while a sequel BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! ☆ Pico ~Ohmori~ began on May 7, 2020. Bushiroad and Kadokawa Corporation also released an anthology series manga called BanG Dream! Garupa ☆ Pico Comic Anthology, which features comics from 17 artists, on March 14, 2019.
Various promotional events and collaborations have been held to support the game. On January 13–14, 2018, the franchise's five bands participated in the Garupa Live and Garupa Party! at Tokyo Big Sight, which included a tournament and performances. During the year, Girls Band Party! partnered with Sega's arcade rhythm game Ongeki to include the vocalists as playable characters and opponents in the latter; songs from BanG Dream! are also available. In 2019 and 2020, the game was a title sponsor for New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 13 and 14; Kenny Omega, then a wrestler for Bushiroad-owned NJPW, also starred in a commercial for the game.
Reception
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! has garnered positive reviews, with ComicsVerse's Jessica Liong describing it as "arguably the most popular" animated aspect of the franchise. Speaking with Real Sound in 2018, Kidani remarked "everything just went through the roof" after the game's release, noting its "level of polish" was among the factors that helped the franchise gain popularity.In a 2018 review for ComicsVerse, Moseley noted the game grants "too much freedom" for players, which is beneficial for those experienced with rhythm games but the contrary for newcomers. Despite this, he suggested much of its appeal comes from the interactions between characters, comparing it to "watching a playable anime." He also praised GBP for its "complex" but "rewarding and incredibly fun" gameplay, concluding that "the music and the girls are completely worth exploring."
In Japan, the game surpassed four million downloads in its first six months following release; by November 2019, it had over 11 million Japanese players. It grossed between 2017 and 2018, including in 2017 and in 2018. In 2018, the game was the 15th most successful mobile game and the second-most successful rhythm game in Japan in terms of revenue, only behind . The game's worldwide English server exceeded one million downloads in two months, followed by reaching ten million in August 2018.
GBP has received awards in Japan like the App Store's "Top Game Ranking" and Google Play's "Grand Prize for Players' Choice Game and Attractive Game" in 2017.