Review of "Idol Manager," a simulation of managing an overly realistic idol office, from creating songs and holding concerts to SNS flames and love scandals!

How are you doing, Akiba Research Institute readers? This is Nero Hyakkabe, a writer who buys too many games. Suddenly, do you have a favorite idol?　Although it has been more than 10 years since the "Idol Warring Period" of the 2010s, I feel that the idol industry has not yet declined, but rather continues to grow. This time, I would like to review "Idol Manager," a game themed around idols.

The game is currently available on Steam, and a console version, including a luxury packaged version, is scheduled to be released on August 25.

Become a new producer and train idols with unique personalities!　You can even develop a romantic relationship with your idols if you attack them. ......?

Idol Manager" is a business simulation game set in the Japanese idol industry. The characters and graphics are similar to those of Japanese manga and anime, and one would think that this title was born in Japan, but this title was developed by an overseas indie developer. However, this title was developed by an overseas indie developer, giving us a glimpse of how Japanese idol culture has permeated the world.

The protagonist of this work is a young manager of a small idol office. The story begins when he is offered a floor in a vacant building by a man named Mr. Fujimoto, who is impressed by his skills, and entrusts him with the management of the idol office as a producer. One of the features of this game is that it has a well-developed storyline, which is quite unusual for a management simulation game. The scenario progresses through the main missions presented in the game.

After signing a contract with Mr. Fujimoto, the game begins immediately. After creating a producer's office in a vacant space in the building and placing yourself as a staff member in the room by drag and drop, your producer business begins. However, there are no idols in the newly opened office. Therefore, the first step is to hold auditions.
Auditions in this work are based on the so-called "gacha" system. Idols are classified into "Normal," "Silver," "Gold," and "Platinum" rarities, and their emission rates vary depending on the cost of the audition. The higher the rarity of an idol, the more powerful it is, so you will want to target it willingly, just like in a gacha game. By the way, there is no real money charge element in the game, so don't worry.

After selecting an idol to produce through an audition, there are three types of activities to choose from: "Performances," "Promotions," and "Spas. Performing" will allow the idol to spend stamina to earn income, "Promoting" will allow the idol to spend stamina to gain fans, and "Spa" will allow the idol to spend money to regain stamina. These three activities are the basic actions for earning money and fans, but note that they can only be performed any one time per day of in-game time.

Note that there is a concept of levels for performances and promotions, and the higher the level, the more money and fans you can earn. To level up, conditions such as "release a single", "start a radio show", "publish in magazines X number of times", etc. are set, so it is recommended to advance through the game in parallel with the story missions, aiming to level up activities.

In addition to the aforementioned "Stamina", idols have a status called "Mental". Normal activities will consume Stamina, and if you let them work while they are exhausted, Mental will be consumed. In addition, Mentality is a flame-out on social networking sites! and personal information leakage happenings! and other randomly occurring events can also degrade it. Low stamina increases the risk of injury, and low mentality increases the risk of the idol becoming blocked, so it is important to be careful.

I mentioned earlier about the very realistic events such as "flames on SNS" and "personal information leaks," but the biggest attraction of this game for me, in my opinion, is this "all-too-realistic realism. I will introduce the "dark side of the idol industry" in detail later in this article.

There are eight parameters for idols: "cute," "cool," "sexy," "girly," "vocal," "dance," "humorous," and "smart. The higher these values are, the higher spec idols are, but what I found interesting was the existence of "skills" that are set separately from these parameters.
For example
The "germophobia" skill doubles the stamina consumed at handshake events.
The "Utopia" skill, which decreases the vocal and dance values of the singer when he or she is the center of a single.
A tendency to leak information in interviews and on social networking sites.

From the nasty negative effects of skills such as

Insensitivity, which makes them resistant to bullying and online harassment
In addition, we have a wide range of skills that have a positive effect, such as "color-blindness," which keeps you out of romantic scandals.

Therefore, the skills you possess as well as your parameters will be a key factor in choosing your audition.

The characters' skills are based on realistic episodes that could be found in the actual idol world, such as "when she becomes the center of the show, she becomes so proud that she skips voice training and dance training," and "she is a germaphobe and gets tired more than others at handshake events," which is just amazing.

In order to make idols a hit, it is an important job for producers to interact with the members.

In this work, the system allows you to interact with your idols by dragging and dropping them into the producer's office. During this interaction time, you can choose one of a number of menus to view conversation events with your idols.

Chatting" is the most orthodox option, in which you can ask about the members' hobbies and family environment to increase the level of friendship.
In the "About Hope" section, you can ask the members about their wishes, such as "I want to be the center in a concert" or "I want to have my own show," etc. Fulfilling these wishes will increase your influence over the members.

In the "About Group" section, you can listen to gossip and rumors about other members, and in the "Use Influence" section, you can perform actions that are a little more realistic and in-depth, such as stopping a bully, finding a member's weakness, or making them break up with their boyfriends.

In the "Graduation" section, you can find out when a member is thinking of retiring, or even fire the member, which is also quite realistic. Idol graduation is a sensitive issue not only for the idol, but also for the agency and the fans, so it is best to keep the situation as civil as possible.

Among all the interactions with idols, the one that I felt was the most "aggressive" was, without a doubt, "Attack! I felt the most "aggressive" was "attack. Of course, this does not mean attacking, but rather making motions in order to establish a romantic relationship with the members. Yes, I'm not trying to be too forward, but in this game, the main character is able to fall in love with the idols he produces. To put it another way, it means "making a move on the idols in your own office," and whether or not such an event occurs in the real world, it is a system that gives a sense of unfathomable realism. On the other hand, from a game standpoint, the system allows you to enjoy both a management simulation and a love simulation at the same time, which is quite a greedy system.

Aside from that, when I was told by an idol I had attacked, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested in this kind of thing (romance)," I had a mixed feeling of relief, but also a little disappointed. ......

Media exposure, new song releases, dealing with flames, and paying off debt. ...... I experienced the whole light and dark side of the idol world!

Naturally, the capital of an idol agency is the idols. Without idols to work for them, the agency would go bankrupt in no time. However, it is unrealistic to expect the idols themselves to conduct sales activities. This is why you need a manager.

By building an office in a vacant space in the building and hiring a manager, you will be able to make "offers" and receive four types of jobs: photo shoots, advertisements, TV dramas, and variety shows. The "offers" are not only rewarding, but also help to attract fans, but be aware that the advertisements and TV dramas are subject to compensation if a member is found to be involved in misconduct, so you may want to think twice about hiring a member who is at risk of being flamed for his or her behavior on SNS or other sites. I never thought I would be writing such a graphic description of the game as "at risk of being flamed" in an introduction to the game. Idol Manager" is truly a tremendous work of art.

If you want to become a top idol, daily training is essential. Therefore, we build a "dance room" and a "recording studio" and hire dancers and musicians. This will allow the staff to instruct the members and improve their dance and vocal status. Other facilities include a "costume room" where stylists can be assigned, a "doctor's office" where doctors can be assigned to restore idols' stamina and mental health, and "cafes" and "theaters" where idols can directly reach out to fans to earn income and other benefits. As more and more facilities are added to the building, the lively look and feel of the building is combined with detailed animations. This sense of excitement is one of the most thrilling aspects of a building-based simulation game such as this one.

The management style of developing a café and theater in the building that houses the company's office, where you can interact directly with idols, is exactly like "idols you can go to meet"! You may be able to immerse yourself even more in the game by imagining such and such idol groups famous in the real world in your mind's eye.

It is important to accumulate steady efforts such as daily performances, promotional activities, singing and dancing lessons, various jobs offered by companies, and program distribution through various media such as the Internet, radio, and television, but the highlight of idol activities is, above all, the release of songs. Once a song title is chosen and a policy is selected for each of the four categories of "marketing," "genre," "lyrics," and "choreography," and the entire company staff works together, the new song is ready for release.

In marketing, you can choose from a number of strategies, such as "group handshake events," "advertising campaigns," and "music videos," to determine how to market the song. The realism of the detailed settings is irresistible, such as "digital-only distribution," which reduces costs but allows fans to purchase only one song at a time, and "fake scandals," which can significantly increase sales and new fans if successful, but accumulate scandal points if unsuccessful.

On the other hand, the genre, lyrics, and choreography can vary greatly depending on the content chosen, with hip-hop music appealing to adults, friendship-themed lyrics appealing to the light crowd, and cute choreography appealing to the enthusiasts. Whether you choose a spiky song that appeals to a specific demographic, a safe song that appeals to all demographics, or a hot-selling song that is in line with the latest trends, ...... is a great place to start. Releasing a song costs a lot of money, so think through your strategy and create a song with your best effort. This song creation part is a point that I enjoyed quite a lot, and it may be no exaggeration to say that it is one of the main dishes in this work.

The world of idols does not end when a song is released. What awaits next is, of course, the concert.
In order to hold a concert, it is necessary to set the set list, venue, and ticket price. The set list is the most difficult part of the concert, and it is necessary to think in detail about which songs to perform in which order, which member will play the center role, and which songs will have a talk break in between. The most popular members should be asked to play the center for all the songs. ......, but members who play the center will consume stamina, and low stamina can easily cause problems, so excessive consecutive performances are strictly forbidden.

The first song should be centered on the most popular and well-known member.
The second song should be the latest song to appeal to the lighter crowd.
For the talk show, select a girl with a good sense of humor to be the MC.
The second song was the latest song to attract the light audience, and the talk show was led by a girl with a good sense of humor.

It is also fun to create a set that incorporates your own idol philosophy. This concert part is also very challenging and is the main dish of this work.

Advertisements, TV shows, song releases, and concerts. The glittering array of activities is the stuff of dreams in the entertainment industry, but it is also a world where pretty words are not enough.

In the real world, there is no end to the problems of social networking flames, and even in the world of "Idol Manager," there are some serious (?) flame wars. In the world of "Idol Manager," too, there are flame wars.

The contents range from a paparazzi report of a member having dinner with a male celebrity, to a sensitive political or ideological issue, to a member saying he eats raw green onions for snacks, only to have his SNS flooded with smelly slander and images of green onions. The lineup is very varied, ranging from the irrational but "somewhat plausible" ones, such as the one in which a member says he eats raw green onions as a snack to the ones that are filled with smears of the smell and images of green onions on social networking sites.

In the event of such a firestorm, the player, as producer, is faced with a choice of what to do.

"Get the member off the social networking site for a while.
Issue a press release apologizing for the incident.
Suspend the member.
"Make the relationship public."
"We will not be involved.

If you make a dishonest or wrong choice, you will suffer financial damage and psychological damage to the member, and you will be so distressed that you will find yourself in front of the display screen. I have played many adventure games in my life, but I have never experienced such a heavy hand clicking on choices.

There is one more heavy side of the entertainment industry that I really want to introduce. It is, without a doubt, the cash flow.

As promised, the level of difficulty is high in the early stages of the game, and a slight error in judgment can cause the company to run out of funds in no time and face the threat of bankruptcy. This is where a loan from the bank comes to the rescue. Although interest is charged and weekly repayments are obligatory, they are not only a way to avoid bankruptcy, but are also useful as a source of funds before major expenses, such as the release of a new song. However, be careful not to get carried away and borrow too much, or you will find yourself in a state of "cycling".

I was shaken by the graphic system in which I had to input the desired loan amount by myself. There are many games in which players go into debt during the game, such as a certain slow-life game and a certain railroad board game, but I felt that there is no game in which players take on debt with as much bitterness and gravity as in this game.

This is what is great about it! Two of my favorite points of "Idol Manager

From here, I would like to introduce two points that I have chosen at my own discretion and prejudice.

1. overwhelming reality that unabashedly depicts the light and darkness of the idol industry

This is a point that I have mentioned many times in this article, but it is the overwhelming point that I would like to emphasize.

Flames on social networking sites, bullying and factional problems within idol groups, and the revelation of romantic scandals among the members, etc., are all depicted in the game. Once experienced, these events have an unforgettable impact. In the case of Japanese games, such sensitive issues in the entertainment industry may be intentionally avoided. In a sense, I believe that it is precisely because this game is an indie game made overseas that it was able to portray the Japanese idol industry, including its dark side, in such a vivid manner and incorporate it into the game.

This is probably the only game, if not the only game, in which you can set too many details such as "idols' SNS usage policy" and "which costume to wear for dance performances: mini-skirt, innerwear and mini-skirt, long skirt, or pants style" as you wish. I believe that this is the only game where you can set too many details such as "whether to wear a mini-skirt with innerwear, a mini-skirt, a long skirt, or a pants style.

Careful tutorial that does not leave the player behind

As you may have guessed from what I have described so far, there are quite a lot of things that players can do in this game. As you may have guessed from what we have already mentioned, there are quite a lot of things that players can do in this game, which inevitably means that there is a lot to learn, so players who have just started playing may become bored and leave the game early (......) before they get used to the game. In fact, many of you may have experienced this in simulation games where there are many things you can do from the beginning, but this game has a tutorial for such players.

The tutorial will guide you through the process from setting up the producer's office to releasing your first single, with detailed explanations, so you will not be thrown off at the beginning of the game. Another nice, albeit minor, feature is the ability to go back through the tutorial at any time, even after completing the entire tutorial.

Idol Manager" is packed with all the best aspects of a simulation game!

So, that's my introduction to "Idol Manager.

Although the impact of the game, such as social networking flames and love scandals, has made its "dark" side stand out, it is by no means just a sharp game. Rather, it is a solid work that has all the points that make management and fostering simulation games interesting, such as the feeling of getting the business on track and the sense of accomplishment as the idols you put your heart and soul into grow and spread their wings. If you have even the slightest interest in this title, we highly recommend that you try it for yourself.

The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 versions of this title are scheduled for release on August 25. The packaged version will come with a "fan club membership bonus set" that includes a can badge, membership card, and cheki-style card as an initial production bonus, so be sure to pre-order your copy as soon as possible if you want to get your hands on it.

• Title Information
• Idol Manager (Glitch Pitch)
• Genre: Simulation
• Release date: July 27, 2021
• Steam version price: 1,980 yen (as of June 29, 2022)
• Copyright: (C) 2021 Glitch Pitch
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/821880/

Author: Nero Hyakkabe

Freelance writer who buys too many games. I currently have more than 300 games in my stack. Also a novelist. His works include "Yubisaki Kaidan: 140 Scary Stories" (PHP Kenkyujo) and "Goa-ken: Unrated Edition" (Kodansha).

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