Pop'n Music Lapistoria

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Pop'n Music Lapistoria (ポップンミュージックラピストリア, Poppun Myūjikku Rapisutoria^?) is a 2014 Japanese music/rhythm video game developed by Konami and Bemani, and the 22nd release of the Pop'n Music series. Its location test release dates are from February 15th and May 30th to June 1st. Its official release was on June 25th.

Gameplay

Story

A parallel world dubbed as "Another World" is created by the god of Pop'n World, MZD. He then wields a magical gemstone called the "lapis", while the four main characters, Retsu, Fuga, Hiumi, and Rinka are sent to another world. In "Another World", the quartet, especially with the recruitment of Mimi and Nyami, enter an enchanted academy by encountering old and new students. They all carry their signature lapises, though a few characters share one. Throughout the story, there are a few antagonists, searching for magical lapises to engulf specific elements.

New Additions

We now introduce special items called Auras. They are located in the bottom of the song banner chosen. There are six auras shown: gray, blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink. The gray Aura represents a few points, while the pink one represents as specially many (it's only used for expert, and challenging songs). If you clear a song, then you will achieve points, according to which type of aura is used. Some Auras' bits are used for some Normas or options.

Pop'n Challenge occurs, in order for the player to complete challenges. If a challenge is accomplished, the player will receive some prizes, such as item gets, characters, new songs, etc.

Story Mode

See List of Story Arcs.
You only choose one story, before a cutscene appears. If the Story Mode's gauge is full, you will encounter another cutscene. If a secret song is chosen, you will receive a cutscene before playing the song. The song will be available, after you have completed it.

Course Mode

The new Course Mode is extremely analogous to the defunct Expert Mode. Open and close the folder with the green button. Unlike Expert Mode, there are four trophies for ranking. You will receive a gold trophy, if you clear a song without any MISS. Both the gold and silver trophies will be earned when NORMA is used. The bronze is only used for clearing, while the stone trophy represents that you've failed the course.

Song List

New Songs

Deleted Songs

New Charts

See new charts here.

Difficulty Changes

See difficulty changes here.

Trivia

• This is presumably the first series to have its trademark title to be decorated in a different border.
• This is the first game release to have an anime opening, unlike its predecessors.
  • The characters who appear in the opening are MZD, Retsu, Hiumi, Fuga, Rinka, Nia, and her twin brother Toa, are shown in their new vestments. The upgraded version of the opening adds Mimi and Nyami as well. It replaces the "ARE YOU READY?" backdrop with Nia and Retsu.
  • All four Tsugidoka! characters also appear in the title screen. The marquee also shows them, along with the mainstays Mimi and Nyami.
  • The portrait designs of most of the new and returning characters for the new Lapistoria songs have changed to the same art style as the anime opening (the animation sprites retain the same design style as older games, though).
• Story Mode is introduced
• The Options have many changes:
  • HIDDEN/SUDDEN are now toggled in-game by pressing the 0/00 buttons of the numeric keypad, respectively.
  • HI-SPEED can now be increased/decreased by 0.1 amounts, instead of 0.5 amounts like previous releases.
    • It also displays which will be the new BPM after applying the chosen HI-SPEED; new HI-SPEED options can now go up to 10X.
  • GAUGE TYPE can be set as EASY (half damage), NORMAL, HARD (double damage) or DANGER (1 BAD drains your entire gauge).
  • Several OJAMAs have been removed, including the HI-SPEED/HID-SUD/HELL/DEATH OJAMAs (due to the changes to other options). For more on this topic, see this page here.
  • Eight options can be set now: HI-SPEED, POP-KUN, GAUGE TYPE, RANDOM, HIDDEN, SUDDEN, OJAMA 1 and OJAMA 2.
• None of the banners for the new Lapistoria songs have genres on them.
  • Banners of the old pop'n music songs were kept intact, though.
  • Genre sorting on the songwheel was removed.
• The song selection screen's layout was changed: the songwheel only have the song banners on them, with the song artist below the banners.
• Song backgrounds were removed. Instead, generic animated backdrops are used.
• None of the new songs have Music Comments.
• Scoring ratio was changed from 10:5:1:0 to 10:7:4:0 for COOL:GREAT:GOOD:BAD respectively.
• Lapistoria is the first arcade-only pop'n game to include new characters in anime licenses.
  • It is the third game of the pop'n music series to include that after Pop'n Music 10, with June in her Cutie license song, and Pop'n Music 13 CARNIVAL, with Mr. Katucco in his Ajikko license.
• This is the first pop'n game to include other characters as main characters besides Mimi and Nyami.
• First pop'n music game since pop'n music 5 to have songs exclusive to EXTRA STAGE.
  • EXTRA STAGE is now PASELI-only. EXTRA STAGE is accessed by collecting the E-X-T-R-A letters. You get one letter each time you clear a song.
• Game Over was removed: now you can fail any stage and continue playing.
• Result screens have been modified:
  • The game informs you if you went over or under your previous record in a song on the bottom right corner of the screen.
  • The new character portraits on the banners show visible signs when they lose or win (except for Zizz, Goku-Sotsu-Kun, Sora Hoshino and Kagome), with the loser shrunken a bit in the background and colored in dark blue. (This does not apply to the new licensed songs and their characters, since they feature the standard pop'n music designs, and also because the song's album art is shown as opposed to a rival character.)
  • You are now shown how many points you've earned from the stages for the required EXTRA STAGE amount.
• Only characters in their new Lapistoria portraits have their own Lapis shown before gameplay.
• Pop'n Music Lapistoria is the first arcade-only game to not include 2P/special color palettes for new debut characters, especially for the reappeared characters to Lapistoria. However, previous characters' palettes are kept intact. Albeit this, the 2P palettes were unlocked on an update in 11/21/14 (though they were temporarily unlocked for a bit earlier in late October 2014 due to a bug that was later fixed).
• First pop'n music game since pop'n music 14 FEVER! to not feature a Sota Fujimori song on the default songlist, and also to not remove any songs.
• All the hidden songs from pop'n music Sunny Park that weren't unlocked at some point in that game are still hidden. If you didn't unlock them in Sunny Park, you'll have to unlock them in ラピストリア via Story Mode.
• Lapistoria is the first to not include YouTube videos with music previews in the official website.
  • First arcade pop'n music game website since pop'n music 10's to not have any preview music clips for any songs, licenses and KONAMI originals alike.
    • It is also the first pop'n music website since pop'n music 5's to not contain any staff comments on any songs. The one and only exception so far is Harmonia.
    • It is also the first pop'n music website to separate character comments and music comments from one another, until they are combined soon around fall.
• Character Deco, or character customization, is introduced for the first time.
• TV/J-Pop reverts back to TV/Anime, but additional to the "etc." word.
• "Lapistoria" derives from the gemstone, lapis.
  • The reason why the title was chosen as Lapistoria is that there are some characters whose names derive from gemstones:
    • Jadeite is a gemstone, though his lapis is black.
    • Lazuli is a short term of "lapis lazuli".
• After Expert Mode is defunct for the previous four games, Course Mode is introduced, replacing Expert Mode.
  • Pop'n Music Sunny Park receives its own HELL course first, before reversing back to the previous four games.
  • If one uses PASELI, it's possible to continue playing even if their gauge is empty, though the game will mark the course as failed.
  • None of the courses have artwork but song banners grouping together, unlike Expert Mode.
• Pop'n Music Lapistoria is known as the Earth Purification (大地の浄化, Chikyuu Jouka^?), in PONの運命浄化計画.
• In the Tsugidoka characters' point of view, their 2P color palettes are known to be their dark counterparts ironically.
• This is the first Pop'n Music game to have a BeatStream crossover song.
• Lapistoria is the only arcade-only game to not feature pop'n CS crossover songs.

Gallery

Merchandise

Pop'n Music Lapistoria Original Soundtrack

Back cover

Mimi and Nyami holding hands in the promotional video

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Official Artworks

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Video

References

Pop'n Music Lapistoria Official Website
JAEPO Special Site