I feel as though I have to start off this review by admitting a few things: I am not a fan of anime or idols. I will never be a fan of anime or idols. I have tried to be a fan of the former once upon a time, but anime is not for me. Pop music in general is just not my cup of tea. I say all this to paint a picture: Idol Manager is not the kind of game that would appeal to me. So when I sat down and played the game, I wasn’t sure what I would think of it. So, given my disinterest with the main draw of the game, it should say a lot that I thought Idol Manager was a pretty fun experience.
Developed by Glitch Pitch and published by Playism, Idol Manager is a business simulator, in which the player takes on the role of a manager for an idol group (self-explanatory title, I know). There is a story mode, in which the player must accomplish various tasks to progress a narrative with multiple endings. However, the story isn’t the main draw of Idol Manager, and we all know that. The game has two main draws: the gameplay and the anime girls. While the anime girls are basic and the character portraits generic and a bit lackluster (though I can imagine this would not dissuade the target audience of the game), the actual gameplay is surprisingly complex.
To start, let’s talk about the idols and the abundance of complexity they bring to the gameplay loop. A lot. They bring a lot to the game play loop. Starting off, every girl comes in different rarities with each one having a variety of stats (most of them upgradable depending on your other staff). Each girl also has a unique attribute that can either help (or sometimes hinder) your gameplay in a variety of ways (I ended up hiring a misandrist twelve-year-old that had a chance of having negative reactions with male fans). You can use these idols to conduct performances, produce singles, conduct business dealings (for example, photo shoots or commercial appearances), create other media (podcasts or web shows for example), hold concerts, and various other activities. However, your idols have a set amount of stamina that will drain with each activity. Additionally, idols have a secondary mental stamina bar that will drain with scandals or their own personal drama, meaning the player has to make the right calls in handling scandals as well as build their relationship with each idol to know about their personal lives. In one playthrough, two of my idols had their mental stamina drop by 30 points because they were apparently dating and had just broken up. This added onto the problem of my two of my top idols running out of stamina and injuring themselves when they were in the middle of ongoing business deals, the fall out of which ended up sending me into debt. So, the consequences for neglecting the needs of your idols is severe. Pro tip: Invest in a break room. Never underestimate the vital importance of a break room.
This is also on top of the other staff and what they can bring to the table. The good news is that they don’t have stamina or individual quirks like the idols, making them less of a hassle to operate. Granted, there are different types of employees that are better at different things (some employees are better at training idols while others are better at production). Your employees mainly work by doing a variety of tasks to be completed over time (usually training idols or conducting business deals). They can also be used to complete other tasks like producing singles. Additionally, whenever they aren’t doing anything, they will gradually accumulate a currency called “research points” on their own, and you can use these points to unlock and upgrade different things you can do with your idols (for example: different genres of music, business deals, dance styles, types of songs). This leads into creating a workspace for your idol agency.
If this sounds like a lot to juggle, that’s because it is. The entire game is a balancing act in which the players juggle the well-being of their idols, multiple scandals, various relationships, the many expenses of running an idol agency all the while trying to make enough money to not go bankrupt. I haven’t even listed all of the aspects of moment-to-moment gameplay because then this review would go on for far, far too long. Rather, I would like to answer the question you asked before clicking on this review: Is this game fun? Well, I know the weebs and business sim fans would love this game. Speaking as someone who is neither of those things, Idol Manager was a pretty fun time. Like I said, it’s a balancing act of trying to come out on top financially while dealing with constantly mounting pressure and that stressed me out, but I still remember my first single making a profit and how I fell to my knees and shouted “YES!” at the top of my lungs all while my roommate looked on and thought to himself: “That man will be single forever”.
I give Idol Manager a 9/10.
For more information, visit: https://idolmanager.net/
Related: Reviews by Josh Freeman
I love games and love talking about games. Some of my favorites include action games (both 2D and 3D), metroidvanias, roguelikes, shooters, and Indies.
More Stories
THRESHOLD Review for Steam
On December 3, theHunter: Call of the Wild will Release Free Update and 3 New DLC Packs
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land’s New Combat and Synthesis Details Revealed by KOEI TECMO