The story in The Idolmaster 2 is told from the perspective of a producer in charge of leading and training a group of three pop idols to stardom and receive music awards.

Its gameplay, while remaining similar to the previous title, features several improvements and differences, including changes in the roster of idol characters and the removal of online multiplayer elements.

Yurina Hase, the voice actress of the character Yukiho Hagiwara, opted not to return for the role, and Azumi Asakura was brought in by the development staff after several failed auditions.

[1][2] The Idolmaster 2 is a raising simulation game in which the player assumes the role of a producer who works at 765 Production (765 Pro), a talent agency that represents twelve pop idols who made their debuts half a year before the beginning of the story.

At the beginning of the game, the player meets Junjirō Takagi, 765 Pro's president, and is tasked with creating a unit of three idols—a leader and two members—from nine of the agency's members: Haruka Amami, Miki Hoshii, Chihaya Kisaragi, Yukiho Hagiwara, Yayoi Takatsuki, Makoto Kikuchi, Mami Futami, Hibiki Ganaha, and Takane Shijō.

[3] The player and the selected idols are also tasked by Takagi to become nominated to the Idol Academy music awards festival and win awards within 52 weeks; the prerequisite of receiving an invitation from the academy is to attain a ranking of 20th or above in the singles sales chart by the 36th week of the year.

[5] The player may schedule activities such as lessons, promotional work, stage performances, shopping for costumes and accessories, and taking the day off.

[6] Each activity costs and reimburses the player varying amounts of in-game money, and may take up either one-third, two-thirds, or the entirety of the afternoon to complete.

[6] The player may schedule up to two tasks if time is available, and may change the idols' costume and accessories before they begin work.

[5] The lessons are instructional sessions that idols partake to raise their image points and level, and are in the form of three minigames.

The player and the idols are scored by the accuracy of these presses in timing, for which he or she is given one of four ratings: Perfect, Good, Normal, and Bad.

The player also has the option to use memory appeals to reset each image's interest rate and receive a boost in the score and voltage.

Once the voltage meter is completely filled, the player can choose an idol to activate a burst appeal.

The Idolmaster 2 was developed by a team within Bandai Namco Games, and was directed by Akihiro Ishihara and Masataka Katō.

[note 1][10] The development team held an audition for the character's role in 2010, but they could not find a satisfactory replacement.

Instead, Ishihara reviewed the audio recordings of previous auditions, and thought auditionee Azumi Asakura's singing voice was a fit for the character.

However, neither Ishihara nor songwriter Kōji Nakagawa were concerned about this change, as they were convinced that Asakura's voice was fitting after having listened to her recitations.

[12] Instead, the characters Iori Minase, Ami Futami, and Azusa Miura were introduced as a new rival unit called Ryūgū Komachi, and Ritsuko Akizuki was made its producer.

[11] Maezawa also pointed to moving and wavering objects in the background, such as palm trees and beating waves, as major additions to stage performances that serve to make the idols more appealing.