People love K-pop idol groups, and this is one of the least controversial things I’ve ever written. Where J-pop has traditionally struggled outside of the domestic market, K-pop has become one of Korea’s most powerful cultural exports. So it’s entirely unsurprising that there would be K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut, to give people a chance to get behind the scenes and manage their own group.
This is not actually the first “idol manager” game. Idol Manager from four years ago has that distinction. But, while I’m in the early stages of K-Pop Idol Stories, it’s clear that these are very different games. Idol Manager was, despite the aesthetic, a fairly serious business simulator, and a game that didn’t really pull any punches when pointing out that there’s a very deep dark side to this industry. It was a real “get you with the cute girls and then brutalise you with the themes,” kind of experience.
Idol Stories comes across as more aspirational, and actually more akin to something like Jack Jeanne or Princess Maker, really. You still play as a manager, but your job is more focused on helping the girls achieve their dreams and become a K-pop super group than dealing with the girls having breakdowns and the reality that the industry chews them up and spits them out almost at whim. This isn’t a criticism by any means, and I’m very much invested in watching my girls get stuck into their training with great enthusiasm. It’s just that where Idol Manager feels like it could be one of those bait-and-switch comedy routines that John Oliver lives (“see if you can see where this game takes a turn to a place you were never expecting”), this one is, overall, more wholesome and twee.
The gameplay is largely made up of setting the schedules for the girls’ training, making sure that all their stats all improve fast enough that they become superstars on schedule without exhausting or stressing them out. Random events happen that can complicate things (“Oh no! My favourite girl got caught up in a brawl while on her day off!”), but it’s all a matter of close statistic management.
Depending on the training schedule you set down, you could get pulled into some minigames as well. These are exceedingly simple rhythm or memory-style minigames, but you’ll want to do well with them as they can further boost stats if you score well. Being frank, this is probably the most disappointing part of the game. K-pop is known for some ear-bleedingly catchy tunes and energetic, most definitely sexy dancing, but here the tunes you’re playing the rhythm games to are MIDI-like, and the dance minigames don’t actually show any dancing at all. I appreciate more than most how difficult it is to get dance into a visual novel-style game, given I’ve spent years now working on that myself, but still. The game feels like it’s lacking without that quality in it.
That being said, the developers are very clearly fans of K-pop because the aesthetics are spot on. The girls do look like anime versions of K-pop stars, dressed to match, and the backgrounds and sets all carry the theme with an expert eye. My favourite part of the game was the little sprites of the girls as they go through their weekly training regimen, though. They are adorably cute and animated to perfection, and the warmth and charm really help you get attached to them.
I am very early into the game and for all I know it has some dark twists and turns ahead, but in the early stages K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut is a banger Princess Maker “daughter management” style game and well worth keeping an eye on. You don’t even need to be a fan of K-pop to enjoy the road to superstardom story behind the game, and of course the very pretty girls
