I like rhythm games and idol anime, so naturally I picked these up the last time I was in Japan:
BUT, since I’d never actually watched the series, I figured I should watch the first two seasons of it so I’d know the characters and plots, and it took me a little while to get around to that. Fortunately, it was a pretty good show and went well with my recent fitness kick. I still have the movie to watch, and then I understand that there’s at least one more show with a completely different cast of characters.
The rhythm games, well, I haven’t really gotten the hang of the system yet so I’ll reserve judgement. It’s nothing like the Project Diva games or IA/VT – rather, it’s very similar to The Idolmaster iOS games, and I suspect it may have been designed for mobile and ported to Vita. I’m especially having trouble realizing when a note is a hold note, so I drop a TON of combos when one comes along. The music is catchy, though, and it’s got a fair bit of customization as far as outfits and stages go, so I think these were worth the 12 bucks or so each cost me.
Baud Attitude 
One of Love Live’s biggest strengths is its music, so I can see these being a good time. Definitely worth watching the shows to get a feel for the characters (and, of course, picking a waifu) — there are two seasons of the original series, then a movie, then two series of Love Live Sunshine, which has a different cast that follows on from the original.
How heavy are these games on the Japanese text? Do they have stories, or are they just pure rhythm games?
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There’s a free play mode, but it’s locked at first and there’s a fair amount of story to wade through before you can unlock all songs for free play mode. The game story takes up directly after μ’s becomes a nine member group, so maybe halfway through the first season? All the games were released after the original series ended airing but before the roadshow of the movie.
Every word in story mode has been spoken as well as on-screen, so if your listening comprehension is better than reading you will likely be fine. Most of the Japanese is very simple, especially if you already know the story from the show, and you can just mash through it if you don’t care about the story and just want to get to the rhythm parts.
The interface is in Japanese, but mostly in katakana. The only kanji menu item is 部室 (“club room”).
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