If you enjoyed reading the original Starnova and enjoy playing office tycoon games, you'll absolutely love Idol Empire.
If you haven't read the Starnova VN, I would definitely recommend doing that before getting this game - without the original for context, Idol Empire's writing would seem almost totally nonsensical, and the many, MANY easter eggs and inside-jokes would go completely over your head.
But if you HAVE read the VN, Idol Empire is freaking hillarious! It captures all of Starnova's charm with almost none of the drama. The devs managed to translate the girl's various quirks and backgrounds into quantifiable statistics and special abilities in a way that makes sure everyone feels unique while also keeping them in-character.
As an actual tycoon game, Idol Empire is very solid - if you enjoy tycoon games, chances are you enjoy having multiple things to manage at once, and this game certainly delivers.
* KN: Money! Earn money by selling songs and doing jobs. Every job has a base payout that you'll receive even if the job is unsuccessful - however succeeding at a job will pay out a nice bonus on top of that. You can also make money by selling merchandise, but it's peanuts compared to what your girls will pull in from record sales and big jobs. If your KN falls below negative 5000, you'll automatically sell some of your company's stock to pay off the debt - if you run out of stock, you get a GAME OVER. You can buy additional stock at any time from the "Finances" menu, provided you can afford it.
* CENTER: The center of your idol formation, which can be changed at any time from the "Manage Idols" menu. Your Center will passively gain Center EXP over time, unlocking various passive effects that benefit the entire team (some of which are REALLY OP). However, each girl's passive effects are only applied when they are the acting Center, meaning you'll want to switch Centers depending on the situation and the overall stage of the game. Center EXP is tracked across ALL playthroughs, so once an idol unlocks a Center ability, it becomes permanently unlocked for that girl on all future games and will even be retroactively unlocked if you load an old game.
* HAPPINESS: when the girls are happy, they'll passively charge their NOVA gauges, allowing them to unleash special active abilities. When unhappy, they'll be vulnerable to negative status effects, some of which can get pretty nasty, Ensuring the girls are happy with their current salary (which can be checked under the "Manage Idols" tab) causes them to passively gain happiness over time, while being dissatisfied will cause them to lose happiness over time. Assigning them jobs they enjoy will boost their happiness, regardless of whether or not the job is successful - by the same token, assigning them jobs they hate will cause them to lose happiness. Tabloid scandals and Stalker attacks will also reduce happiness, but those can be prevented by constructing Legal and Security departments.
* HEALTH: performing tasks will drain the girls' health bars over time - when their health bottoms out, they'll be hit with the "Overworked" status ailment, decreasing their happiness and slowing their movement speed. Health is primarily restored by having your girls rest in the Break Room, but in emergencies, a Girl's NOVA ability can be activated to fully restore their health and prevent any further health loss for the duration its active.
* POPULARITY: each girl has their own individual popularity score, which is the sum total of their FAME and INFAMY scores. Increased popularity causes the girls to sell more records and earn larger bonuses on successful jobs, but also causes them to demand higher wages and makes them more susceptible to tabloid scandals and stalker attacks. However, the increase in money gained from high popularity is exponential, while the upkeep cost of the girl's wages and your legal & security departments is linear, so as long as you make sure your tech keeps pace with your girl's popularity, you'll be fine.
** FAME: the primary means of boosting popularity - selling songs, performing lives, and succeeding at job assignments will all contribute to a girl's fame. More FAME = more POPULARITY = more MONEY
** INFAMY: a double-edged sword - it contributes to POPULARITY (and therefore a girl's money-making power) the same way FAME does, but carries much, MUCH more weight towards increasing the frequency of scandals and stalker attacks. Infamy is gained by failing at jobs, doing dirty jobs, or by mishandling scandals (so yes, an infamous idol can get trapped in a downward spiral of endless scandals if you don't have a legal department). Infamy fades slowly over time, but can be decreased rapidly by sending your girls on a vacation (can randomly appear as a job offer), using Julie's NOVA ability (she creates a fake scandal which drains the infamy of all the other girls on the team, while raising her own), or by building a PR Department and setting it to "Damage Control".
* PURE: I've been playing this game for over 30 hours, and I'm still not entirely sure what this stat does lol. Doing dirty jobs or making PVs with fanservice shots will cause your girls to lose PURE. Making Sasasmi your center or owning full share control of your company will cause all of your girls' PURE stat to recover over time, and doing charity jobs or performing AVs at a shrine will give one-time boosts.
* JOBS: Yes, jobs are a manageable resource! Your office can stockpile up to 16 job offers at once, so it doesn't hurt to keep some Vacations or other jobs the girls enjoy on hand in case of emergencies. No new offers will arrive for as long as you're at the 16 job cap, so it's also important to dismiss bad jobs and carry out low-risk or high reward jobs as they come.
Now, since you sat through this entire review (or at least made the effort to scroll to the bottom lol) I'm gonna hit you with some pro-tips: (note, some of these are fairly game-breaking, either avoid reading them or make sure you ramp up the difficulty in the game settings if you want a challenge)
Tip #1: At the start of every game, raising the girls' salaries from 100 KN to 110 KN will be enough to boost their satisfaction rating to "Happy," causing them to immediately begin gaining happiness over time. Having quicker access to the girl's NOVA abilities (especially Nemu's real estate tycoon ability which reduces building costs by 75%) is a huge boon in the early-game.
Tip #2. If you don't know who to make your first Center, I highly recommend Nemu - leveling her up gives you a small amount of passive income that helps a lot during the early-game, and her Level 3 ability causes automatic stock sales to sell for 50% more money than what you purchased them for. That's right, with Nemu as your Center, falling into debt can actually TURN A PFOFIT!
Tip #3. Build multiple recording booths, set them to have Mariya record multiple solo singles using the bare minimum expenditure (Amateur recording artist + NO PV) , and then SPAM her NOVA ability. All of the songs will finish recording instantly, netting you a constant stream of money and popularity for Mariya. Don't be surprised if Mariya ends up with 10 times the popularity and brings in 100 times the money as the other girls!
Tip #4. Go in to options and set the LIVE difficulty from "Standard" to "Cakewalk" - this will cause the hype bubbles to move at half-speed, making it much easier for the girls to pop them on their own without having to spend money on stage effects. I can confirm that changing the difficulty of LIVE performances has no bearing on achievements unless specifically stated in the requirements (and I'm pretty sure there aren't in this game that require you play on a specific difficulty)
Tip #5: speaking of LIVES, holding a blowout performance (performing a song without letting any bubbles hit the stage) will "revive" that song if it's an old one, causing it to once again generate sales
