K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut

在这个品类里算是比较优秀的作品吧，爱豆女团的题材和整体代入感都做得不错，人物立绘比较挑人，行程里的Q版小人动画倒是老少咸宜； 一周目打下来，个人感觉最难受的地方就是和人聊天、讨论时触发QTE小游戏的频率实在是太高了，倒酒啊、烧烤啊、扭蛋啊、买饮料啊这种，非常需要一个跳过的按钮，前期刚开始玩确实会觉得新奇，也确实提升了一些参与感和代入感，完成小游戏给的100货币奖励在前期也算够看，但在中后期熟悉游戏内容后想要快速提升人物好感，时不时弹出的小游戏就会让人觉得恼火；同样的小游戏，招募新人时的快速QTE很难，但是一共8个角色招完了就不用再玩了，可以接受；课程里触发的小游戏是有跳过选项的； 其次是经纪人生涯提升的机会实在是太少了，全成就需要三种生涯都提升到满级，但是我一周目通关选的营销型到结束都没有50%的进度，这作为主角唯一的的成长曲线设计的算是不太合理吧，而且提升进度给的奖励也不算是很优秀的那种，可以说成就比奖励更重要了； 第三是工作里选拔成为电影主角、电视主角这类获取新工作的概率实在是太低了，只有5%-10%，也没有列出需要的属性值，也就是说基本上花三天什么都不干还要减体力和幸福度；当然可以通过和某些角色提升好感来解锁这些工作，但是这个概率设计也确实不合理，我刚解锁选拔的时候成功概率是10%，最后女团单曲发行了还是10%，都出道上节目的人了，一点面子都不给； 最后存档之间的成就解锁竟然是不通的，成就奖励不同于任务奖励五花八门的属性，统一都是100货币的蚊子腿，既然游戏没有局外和多周目奖励，我觉得成就互通作为玩家打完多周目的某种标识或者奖励完全是没有问题的； 最后的最后，补上一句吐槽，游戏的相册系统，也就是可以拍照然后上传到游戏里的ins，一整个周目下来除了开头刚建团时拍了张几个人手叠在一起的照片，后续是一张照片都没有啊！重大事件、和人外出、甚至是小爱个人线的CG都没有保留，好歹拍第一张照片的时候加了个聚焦小玩法，你不会要告诉我只在demo放了这个玩法就为了吸引玩家吧？

### 📣 A Passionate Fan’s Feedback & Balancing Suggestions! 💖 Hello Wisageni Studio team! First of all, I want to say a huge congratulations on the launch of **K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut**! I purchased the game on day one because I absolutely love the concept, the gorgeous hand-drawn art style, and the amazing original soundtrack. The potential here is massive, and I am writing this long, detailed breakdown because I truly want to see this game succeed, grow, and inspire more titles like it in the future! I just finished my first full round (about 10 hours of gameplay). While I deeply enjoyed the charm and the visual novel elements, the overall strategy and management loops currently feel a bit "loose" and unfinished. Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the issues I encountered and my suggestions for tightening up the balance: #### 1. Severe Progression & Action Gating (The RNG Problem) * **The Issue:** Unlocking 2nd-tier actions feels incredibly frustrating. For instance, I repeatedly attempted an action with a listed 10% RNG success rate, but even after attempting it over 30 times, it still failed to unlock. Relying too heavily on hard percentage locks halts natural progression. * **Suggestion:** Please add a "pity" mechanic or a progressive success scaling. If a player attempts a 10% action 15 or 20 times, the percentage should scale up incrementally so that effort eventually guarantees success. #### 2. Mini-Games are Too Rare to be Rewarding * **The Issue:** The built-in interactive mini-games are a fun way to break up the text, but they trigger so rarely during the main gameplay loop that they don't feel impactful. * **Suggestion:** Increase the frequency of these training/audition mini-games, or make them a core part of major evaluations so they feel like an active, rewarding skill check rather than a sporadic surprise. #### 3. Strict Time Constraints vs. Late-Game Content * **The Issue:** The game text mentions special activities and content you can unlock once your group releases 3 singles. However, the strict weekly calendar format simply does not provide enough total time in a single run to actually produce 3 singles naturally. * **Suggestion:** Consider extending the game's timeline or adjusting the pacing of single production so players can actually experience the content built for 3 singles without rushing blindly against a countdown clock. #### 4. The Stat & Job Imbalance (Early vs. Late Game) * **The Issue:** Right now, the stats on the characters don't feel proportional to the work they actually perform. Worse, the massive amount of experience/work stats gained during the active single production phase is so stupidly high that it completely invalidates all the slow, meticulous training you do in the early game. * **Suggestion:** Balance the mathematical progression. The single production phase should be the culmination of your early training, not a massive stat-boost that renders the first half of the game completely meaningless. #### 5. Ambiguous "Old School" Strategic Choices * **The Issue:** Classic management sims always thrive on tight trade-offs: *Do I take this minor job for money right now? Do I focus purely on training? Do I risk it for a bigger role?* Right now, the state balance between training, money, and securing roles is incredibly unclear and feels loosely connected rather than tightly strategic. * **Suggestion:** Make the underlying mechanics and trade-offs transparent. Let players clearly see how choosing a specific role impacts their trajectory, rather than leaving the outcomes feeling entirely ambiguous. #### 6. Obscure Song Selection Requirements * **The Issue:** When choosing a track for the group, we are given 3 distinct songs to select from. Each song lists different requirements, but *what* those requirements actually translate to mechanically is completely obscure. * **Suggestion:** Clarify the UI text for song selection. Show us exactly which stat thresholds (e.g., Vocal, Dance, Charm) are needed to pull off the track successfully, so we can make an informed management decision. #### 7. Confusing Financial & Company Systems * **The Issue:** The money system is incredibly baffling. Once a single drops, the group generates "stupid money" (massive amounts of cash), yet the manager's actual profit share is abysmally small and the game never clarifies your ownership or standing within the company. Having millions of dollars sitting in a company pool that you can't interact with makes the economy feel half-hearted. * **Suggestion:** Please add features to spend that late-game wealth! Let us reinvest that massive revenue into buying company shares, upgrading the studio, or funding larger promotional campaigns. --- ### Final Encouragement! 💪✨ Please don't take this critique as harsh—I am writing this because **I absolutely adore the foundation you have built!** The character interactions feel genuinely warm, the art is stunning, and the writing has so much heart. You have created a truly unique gem for the K-pop gaming community. With some tightening of the mathematical balance, clearer requirements, and a bit more breathing room in the timeline, this game could easily transition from a great casual indie game into a definitive management masterpiece. Keep pushing forward, Wisageni team! I cannot wait to see how you continue to update, patch, and expand this wonderful world. You have a huge fan in your corner! 🫰💖

I have been following the games development for over 2 years. I really wanted to love this game. It isn't BAD, so If I could give a more mixed, I would. If you can get it on sale and maybe they can fix some issues then for sure pick it up. I just found myself disappointed and more frustrated than actually having fun playing the game. Other reviews have mentioned most of the issues: no load save feature to go back within a save, some iffy story parts, UI bugs and finickiness, etc. The album cover editing is horrible, borderline unusable half the time. I had to just leave and come back to it several times and half the elements change colors when you go back in. There is also only 8 girls to choose from so your choices feel slim. The outfit choices are cute but no real creativity in your groups "theme" to make it feel like it matters. (also most of them just not even an option for covers?) The story is frustrating most of the time. I understand there are issues with real life trainees but some of the story ended with me just wanting to close the game all together. I want to avoid spoilers but I have to say spending hours of time to build a group for the story to take out members or completely fail to debut all together with no real apparent thread in how you messed up is frustrating. And if you do fail or something else happens, you cannot go back to even try to fix whatever you did wrong. Realism sure, but what it ended up doing was making me feel like I'd just wasted time building something to have to start all over again and not really even know what I did wrong. I don't even have an urge to try again, starting all over from square one just makes me want to less. The game itself IS fun. The minigames are cute, the art is great and you can tell there is a lot of love that went into it. However several things from UI to the story choices itself make it too frustrating to fully enjoy. I may also be more bias since I have been so excited for this game and I have followed for so long.

Take this as MIXED but I didn't want to leave a negative review bcuz overall besides the hiccups here and there it is a good game.... Pretty good game the visuals are amazing although the idols themselves are blurred compared to the other characters? It's like everything else was uploaded in 4k but the idols were uploaded in 720p which was weird. I've not finished yet but I think I'm close to the end I've just finished the 2nd evaluation. I love that you can create your own album cover and the choices can effect certain parts of the gameplay. And the music is amazing. Based on other peoples reviews though and the comments on Discord, the main gripe with the game is that it just ends after you debut there's no continuation which ngl really sucks. I know it's "Road to Debut" but I think that was taken a bit too literally. Being able to manage the group after debut is what I think attracted the majority of players, including myself. Much like Idol Manager which had a "Road to debut" type of gameplay although not as detailed as this game but afterwards we were able to manage the groups career plus we could have multiple groups. It would be great if perhaps the devs released a DLC titled "Road to Stardom" or something (just an example, Lmao) where we need to try and reach BTS level stardom but the game play is also alot longer. Besides that, one of the minigames I haven't seen people mention in the reviews is the mathematics one. My god out of all of the one's I've played so far that was the worst one as someone who is bad at maths. They used clothing items (And a microphone) that you have to figure out what number they are for them to equal the final digits. For example: Sneakers + blue shirt = 36 Mic + sneakers + blue shirt = 8 Blue shirt - sneakers - mic = ? And you have to figure out what the last answer is with an 90 SECOND TIMER. You have 4 attempts too. If It wasn't timed I wouldn't be as bothered. I got the minigame twice I only got two answers right in the first one and in the second I didn't care and was clicking anything and failed the whole thing. Please either get rid of the timer or just change the items to actual numbers. T_T Another problem is during the schedule, you're dealing with RNG so your idols can FAIL AT RESTING. That is diabolical. If you do a whole week of just resting/relaxation they can fail the whole week. The amount of times they've tripped over a floor board too is unreal and they've sprained their ankles more times than I can count like open your damn eyes ffs. Wish we could change their hairstyles too ngl. We get about 6 clothing options for each idol would be cool if mods were allowed like Idol Manager. EDIT: Forgot to mention - You get to do some minigames with certain schedules such as the vocal and dance schedule but I sh*t you not I'm 7 hours in and I've played the vocal mini game twice and the dance game ONCE. That needs some looking into bcuz in my game it's extremely rare to get a minigame from a schedule. Not sure if others are more lucky.

I really enjoyed this game at first and thought it would be one that I would sink many hours into. But that's just not how things have panned out. I agree with the others that are saying there is little to no replayability as it will just be the same story with the same characters. My playthrough ended abruptly because of a choice I made. I would be fine with that, even like it, if this game felt replayable. I tried to dive right back in because part of me wanted to see it through to the end. I realized right away how boring it would be to go through again. I played too long for a refund so I will just uninstall and maybe run through it again sometime years down the road when it can feel somewhat fresh again. Maybe by then the game will have better balance too. Maybe grab it on sale if you're really curious. Just know what you're getting into.

Overall, I really enjoy this game, especially the visuals compared too some of the other idol manager games here on steam. I also really do like the music is this game and complements the visuals really well. I would say if you liked idol manager you will like this game though its definitely not as hard. Now some things that would be really cool to have is this game would be the ability to customize the manager, have more outfits or color ways to pick from, be able to dye hair or change hairstyles for each of the idols. I also think it would be good when doing training to see how it effects each girl individually and how some may have bigger increases than others to their stats. Another idea would be maybe adding in the possibility to have different schedules for different girls which would add more ways to play and the user to come up with more strategies. I would also like to see more character story options which I think would create better immersion and make the game more replayable. Though even without these things added I would still recommend people to play and it is worth the price.

玩法很单一，后期越来越无聊一堆日程也没什么可选的 别说半成品了 只能说和一个demo差不多，本来这个类型的游戏蛮喜欢才买的。真的好垃圾 很无聊，剧情也很无聊，一直在重复。而且到后期 还有文本缺失 一堆小游戏也没意思 真的不值这个钱

After several attempts, I finally managed to get my group to debut. Suddenly, after the debut stage, I appeared back in the office, and there are no options available anymore. The only thing shown at the top is that the awards ceremony is in 8 days. is this really the end of the game, or is it a bug?? I paid for this game, and if this is really all it has to offer, then I definitely wouldn't recommend that anyone buy it!

I'm 80% Yes and 20% No on this game as of writing. It's a fun, interesting management game on your 1st playthrough and then the wheels just fall off really badly as soon as you start your 2nd. Replayability is basically non-existent at the moment, New Game+ leaves a LOT to be desired. You only get to keep your cash from your last playthrough (I didn't even get anything on my 2nd play. Could be a bug? I don't really know.) and nothing else. Not your Manager Stats, not your Idol Stats, or your Relationship stats. And the tutorial is unskippable (for now?) so you have to do the tutorial again on your 2nd, 3rd, etc. playthroughs. Like all of it. On the positive side, the art of the idols and even non-idols are amazing and the soundtrack is great though I wish there's more variations and randomness with the personality of the idols, they're always the same type and same personality every playthrough which just adds to the game's poor replayability. At its current state (I'm leaving the door open for updates / DLCs here), I would say don't expect to play this game for more than 10 hours. It's purely up to you if you think the price of the game, sale or not, is worth that playtime. As of me writing this review, the average playtime of all the reviews including mine is about 7 hours so just keep that in mind.

It's a great game overall and has a lot of potential. The only downside is that the game ends before it really gets started. Once you debut your group and participate in the award show the game ends. It would have been nice if we could simply continue managing our group further and maybe even debut more groups. However, for the price the gameplay is definitely worth it!