One disclaimer: I had seen gameplay videos of the game and it remained Japan-only at that time until recently, there is a global release unexpectedly.
There are tons of differences this time when you compare this to Love Live School Idol Festival which is one of those games released outside Japan on mobile. The way you manage cards is different and especially the way you start the song at anytime. Not to mention that the game already has the card conversion stuff in case you have duplicates and Co-Op play similar to the Friendly Match events in the other game. Score Match on the other hand is closely comparable to the VS Multiplayer Mode in Groove Coaster 3 and later as well as other rhythm games that have online VS Multiplayer Mode in which Beatmania IIDX recently had one with Arena Mode. Having a Co-Op Live in this game makes a little sense for some reason when compared to Co-Op play in Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Guitar Freaks series when you play together like a band. It is something to do with the gameplay and the concept for a mobile game and really, you're not playing as one of the band members. Instead, it's like merging the card sets from various players for an overall contribution or something.
Next is the song list, in addition to songs from the franchise including the game's exclusive ones, there are licensed covers of the existing songs provided that they fit the games like this. In addition to cards leveling up from playing the songs, they can also be leveled up through various managements like the tickets and stuffs but to do card transformation/awakening is a different story. You're supposed to level up the card to the max and then you can do the awakening. I don't know if there's bonding feature like the other games have.
It's one bigger game than Love Live School Idol Festival if you ask me like you have to manage multiple bands by leveling up the band rank to unlock additional stories and there are also places you may have to unlock in the map perhaps for additional story, band or whatever else the game has to offer. Needless to say, the gameplay is NOT original and even the later update of Tokyo 7th Sisters uses the similar gameplay although seeing the SD-dancers in action is one opportunity in addition to FMVs which are less distracting. There's another rhythm game on mobile that has the similar gameplay as well. In fact, it can be a whole lot better to see the songs from this franchise playable in Guitarfreaks/Drummania if you want a proper rock-themed rhythm game. Besides, it's a fat chance for an arcade or console version of this mobile game to happen with guitar/drum controllers.
One last thing is regarding the Loot Box and Microtransaction features, as outnumbering this sub-genre is, it can be a huge money sucker if you're looking for a specific item which is a complicated objective. I guess that even gathering a set of Super/Ultra Rare cards is not an easy task either but it will help you to score even better. Oh, there are also gameplay videos of someone playing this on the Beatstream arcade cabinet whose monitor is hooked up to his Android device like it's a DIY arcade machine for rhythm gaming. For other games he played on that cabinet, well, you can look up his YouTube channel.
