K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut

[b]TLDR:[/b] This game has a lot of polish, passion and effort put into it. If you have any interest in managing games and the world of K-Pop, this is a must buy. Your mileage may vary if you're more interested in the Dating Sim part of the game: in that case, play the demo first and decide. [hr][/hr] [h2] FULL REVIEW [/h2] I was made ware of this game last week, thanks to a viewer on Twitch who happened to pass by my Idol Manager stream. Idol Manager is a Management Sim game where you play as the head of a J-Pop Idol Agency, and it's SO much my jam. So, when the viewer -an afictionado of Idol Manager as well- suggested this game to me, I knew I had to at least play the demo. Needless to say, I liked it well enough to buy the full product. At 19,99$ (15,99$ on Launch) this game is a steal, if just for the level of polish and [b]presentation[/b]. The backgrounds are gorgeous and full of details, the UI is smooth and so clear, the character sprites are animated and so variegated... Just [i]beautiful[/i]. [b]Gameplay-wise[/b], it's crazy how much stuff there is to do and unlock. There's a Skill Tree just for activities to put in your weekly schedule, and so many minigames that pop up continuously, which reflect a different design philosophy compared to Idol Manager: IdM is incremental, meaning that your aim is to get bigger and bigger numbers, and most of the time the gameplay amounts to pausing, planning, resuming and then wait for time to pass. The day to day things you can do are very limited. K-Pop Idol Stories instead needs you to be VERY much involved in the weekly schedule of your trainees, as its design philosophy is synergic instead of incremental, meaning you need to pay attention how the stats of each part of your stable interact with each other and average: for example, if you aim for a dance-oriented group but a new recruit brings your dance team average down, you got a problem. There's always something new to try, and it's pretty exciting! On the [b]Social Part[/b], that's where the mileage may vary. On top of managing your trainees, you also get a number of Social Points that you can spend to hang around with NPCs and the idols themselves. From the intro of the game, which gives your character a very specific backstory which could be very interesting to explore, it made me think that the writing for the social part of KIS would be much more involved than it actually ended up being. Each NPC is beautifully designed and with a lot of visual personality, but writing-wise the differences between them are very much skin-deep. The way that they interact with you is very samey, with reactions and sentences recycled between different characters, and more structured events reserved for very specific characters. For example, [spoiler]you start the game by disbanding your first group and saying goodbye to your producer friend, and then going to the concert of a super-star your character is obviously star-struck with... Yet when you meet them on the social map a few in-game weeks later, there's no heartfelt reunion with your old friend, and your first interaction with the superstar is completely sauceless. She's no one special, just another NPC to add to your contact list, despite in-game lore saying otherwise.[/spoiler] There's also the fact that each NPC you can socialize with gives you very specific rewards and, because the Managing Gameplay emphasizes synergy, you're encouraged to go for the ones that unlock rewards you need rather than characters you may want to spend time with. Things may change on a New Game+ but I'm nowhere near there yet, this is just off a first playthrough experience. [b]To conclude[/b], K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut is a greatly polished Managing Game with a lot of stuff to do and unlock, focused on micromanaging and synergy. If that sounds like stuff you'd enjoy, go buy this. If what piques your interest though is more the potential of a K-Pop themed Dating Sim/VN, you may not be satisfied with the writing and I suggest you try the demo first.

Cute

its really fun and all but after you debut and go to the ww awards i cant keep going :C i really wanted to keep going with the group but i cant :/ its a bit upsetting because i payed 15 dollars and was refreshing the page for around 1.5-2 hours straight but i dont get to continue farther :< it would be cool if the devs let you go farter

说几个游玩中遇到的问题： 1.首先是经纪人里的“勋”先生，地点里翻译成了“宇”先生（如果是同一个人），游玩不加好感度。 2.周元短信事件里"交易练习生”，同意之后并没有被划走。 3.出道前“小爱”还款事件中，选择汇报给周元，周元要求出道名单中划掉小爱，实际依然没有划走。 游玩体验不好的地方： 1.训练过程很枯燥，几个事件来回刷。 2.平面广告，电视剧拍摄之类的选上概率太低了，即使后期刷到s级也是一个大失败，不看数值纯概率的吗........ 3.人物好感度就是一个数值，连特殊事件都没有。 4.打歌舞台，广告拍摄，电影电视剧，社交媒体........本来该深入做的内容全都没有，过程全部跳过。主线就给了个黑粉事件，看完也超级无聊。。。。 5.流程很短，出道完就结束了，甚至不到5小时。。。还是在我有读档的情况下。 总结就是一个数值套皮游戏加了一点美术，流程超级短，比同品类的偶像经纪人差远了，这个价格配上内容不值得购买。

yess!

I LOVEEEE EVERYTHING IN THIS GAME!!! A looootttt of improvement was done since the demo version!

i am saying this with the most admiration as a kpop fan for 10+ years: this is one of the most bizzare games i have ever played