I'm going to gush over how awesome the game is before going into what is basically a breakdown of how the game plays.

What sets this Idolmaster game apart from the others? It's the first full-fledged game with girls from each franchise! When I started the game I was familiar with the original 13 girls and the girls from Cinderella Girls because I play Starlight Stage. Before Starlit Season, I had never played Million Live or Shiny Colors and had only a passing familiarity with some of the members of those franchises. Playing this made me install and start playing those games. Why? Because Starlit Season makes everyone seem so charming. All the models are full 3D, everyone (except the producer) is fully voiced. Songs from each franchise are present. Interacting with everyone makes it clear they aren't just reskins of existing characters, which is always a concern in such a huge IP. In any case, Tenka stole my heart and the other girls were charming enough to warrant installs. No regrets.

The game also has a nice mode where you can just watch concerts. Every girl recorded each song they're in individually, so you can mix and match however you want and the game will adjust the audio to match whether it's a solo concert, a duo, trio, etc. You can also pick the costumes and control the camera.

Starlit Season is just amazing if you're an Idolmaster fan and a decent starting point if you're not. It did fairly well, so I hope we can see similar games in the future. What I wouldn't give for a full Cinderella Girls console game in this style...

Anyway, onto gameplay. There are four core components of the game which I will go over individually - story, management, communication, concerts.

Story

The main story of Starlit Season is the most comprehensive and, in my opinion, best of any iDOL@MASTER game. Unlike most iM@S games, be they mobile or console, Starlit Season is primarily focused on telling the story of a group and not the individual stories of a bunch of girls. The game starts by bringing together the original 13 girls from vanilla Idolmaster, 5 girls each from Cinderella Girls, Million Live, and Shiny Colors, plus 1 original character to form a group called Project Luminous. You are their producer who guides them as they participate in a 9 month long competition to decide which idol/group is #1. All the girls get their moments to shine as you watch them become a more cohesive group that learn from each other's unique qualities, but there is a bit more of an emphasis on the personal problems of Kohaku (the new character) and her complicated relationship with one of the girls from the main rival group.

The game does assume you're familiar with the franchise to an extent. The producer you play as is the same one from previous mainline console games and anime, so there are occasional references to past events and you are already on good terms with the original 13 girls. That said, you won't be lost if it's your first game. The assumed knowledge isn't that extensive and you will get to know each girl one-on-one using the gameplay mechanic covered in the Communication section anyway.

Management

As the producer it is your job to decide what the girls are doing each day. Don't panic, you don't have to tell 29 girls when to wake up, eat lunch, practice, etc. There are 3 basic activities you can do, depending on the day. The main one is lessons where you pick 5 girls to participate in a vocal, dance, or visual lesson to increase that specific stat. Each type of lesson has a mini-game and there are 4 levels of difficulty to each that you unlock as you progress. The second is "work" which just sends a girl to do a job (i.e. variety show, handshake event) and you give them advice on how to do it. It's a simple pass/fail system. The third is concerts, to be covered later.

Deciding how to most effectively use your time is the crux of the ultimate difficulty in the game. If you haphazardly pick girls for lessons with no long term plan or constantly fail the mini-games, you're going to have a hard time sooner or later. You also need to balance doing work and concerts because you need to increase your fans a certain amount each month, but you also need skill points and money to power up. It's not exceptionally difficult, but you do need to think. I also save scummed a lot so that I always got the best results.

Communication

Talking to the girls during free time is both a pleasure and a necessity. 4 days a week you get to talk to 1 or 2 girls one-on-one in the afternoon.The pleasure comes from getting to know the girls better individually and help them through their problems. This is where the character development happens, even if it's not that deep compared to something like a route in Idolmaster 2. And some of the events are just silly, since not every interaction needs to be super meaningful. Anyway, the necessity is borne from the fact increasing your bond level will give you skill points, which are critical for acquiring skills for concerts and limit breaking the three stats. You'll want to get to know the girls you use more often better than those with low stats. At least the first time around. How much bond level EXP you get depends on your choice during the conversation and can range from Bad to Perfect. Perfect will get you a full level, others will get you partial. Again, save scumming is your friend if you want to be the most efficient.

Concerts

Concerts are the second possible source of difficulty. They operate on a rhythm mechanic mixed with a need for strategic formations. When I say rhythm mechanic I don't mean like Starlight Stage, Stella Stage, or any number of other music games you may have played where each song has its own unique song map of notes that come in different patterns. No, you get notes at a set rhythm based on the BPM for the entire song. Each girl is in charge of a lane based on the formation and you get to select who makes an appeal for each note. The songs will typically be broken down into vocal, dance, and visual sections and girls with higher values in that stat will get you more points. Every time a girl makes an appeal, the girl to the right's tension goes up. The higher the tension, the higher the score. Due to the tension changes and rotating favored stat, you have to be strategic about who goes in each lane and when you use each girl to make appeals. There are also special unison and climax appeals that you can use once they charge and you need to be careful who uses them based on stats and what their skill does. Strategizing is a lot more of the battle than the actual rhythm mini-game.

Overall, I'd easily give it 5/5. The game isn't easy, but it's just forgiving enough that it doesn't push you away. Combine that with all the amazing idols, the more cohesive story, and the more engaging mechanics compared to the last few Idolmaster console games and you've got what is possibly the best entry in the franchise yet.