“Although this gets me wondering whether Idol Manager is supposed to be more of a board game with cards and dice, a visual novel with emotions and real stakes involved, or a mix of both... hm.”
Sorry, I know this post is weeks old, but this was really interesting to me and got me wondering about how different people play this game... To me, it’s neither of these: There’s no plot, or more importantly, *literary narrative* (ie no prose, no setting description, time progression within the plots, etc.) to speak of so it can’t be a visual *novel* (Unless we’re taking base components like “has anime visuals and textbox options that influence relationships=VN, but then Telltale games/Until Dawn etc seem much closer to being a VN than this game despite lacking the anime aesthetic)
It’s also not similar to a boardgame to me: at least not a casual one. The events do feel like something you might get in tabletop RPGs or games like that, but some of the mechanics, though honestly very nebulous in function (Opinion, appeal, etc.), are too involved and too prevalent to lend itself to being like a boardgame to me.
In my view, the game looks like a tycoon/management sim game, plays like one, etc. And that’s why I cautiously eye the promise of a story in the full release: I guess I’m slightly worried because the game has the ingredients/makings for a great idol management sim, but I feel it still hasn’t fully realized all it could do: If the story turns out to be just okay at the sacrifice of a game that has more to offer in the way of more challenges/things to do after you start making 20million off of each single released..... Would that be worth it if this game *really* feels like an idol management sim, not a idol visual novel? I guess I’m apprehensive because in SimCity, Civilization, etc., questions like “wait, why ARE we the mayor of this city? What’s our work history? Who are the settlers I’m directing? Who are my advisors?” and so on AREN’T pertinent questions because the game isn’t about lore and following story beats, it’s about building a powerful city/empire. Similarly, right on the box, Idol Manager is a management sim about building a great idol agency: So I do kinda worry when I read Fujimoto’s intro with the shadow figure, as I’m thinking, “wouldn’t frequent story breaks like this dampen the experience of someone who wants to manage idols directly? And wouldn’t the hands-on management portions of the game be a drag to someone who wants to play a VN about an idol agency?” It’s to the point I audibly groan if I forget to turn off the intro dialogue upon starting a new game, lol.
I guess I’m in-line with your last thought: I would not mind waiting longer if the devs want to deliver a better idol management sim that the game already promises. *But* I also hope they consider that taking longer to devote time to strictly working on a *story* might not necessarily make the game stronger, when at its core, Idol Manager shows all the signs of a management/tycoon sim that really doesn’t necessitate a plot. (Especially when some design choices kinda clash with the game, for example, one I’ve hit on a few times is that you’re managing an idol *agency* with only one act, that can only release one single song at a time with a maximum of 15 girls, yet you can hire as many girls as you want even though you’ll have little for them to do and no way to organize/group them in-game for convenience, linking back to the first problem of having only one group that can release only one song at a time with a handful of girls.)