K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut

Have you ever wanted to assemble your own pop group and take over the charts with one hit after another? The new game K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut promises to get you halfway there. This is a management simulator where you schedule voice lessons, network with local business owners and compete in a reality TV series for K-pop supremacy. If that sounds like you’re kind of game, then I implore you to read the rest of this review, because this game comes with a real big deal-breaker. This is my review of K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut.

I should probably admit up-front that I’m not a big K-pop fan. Sure, I know who BTS and Blackpink are and I’ve seen most of K-Pop Demon Hunters, but if you were to quiz me and I had to name the songs, I would be woefully out of my depth. It’s just not my jam. But while I may not know much about K-pop, I do like management simulators, and I’ll admit, the prospect of assembling a girl group and taking over the music world appeals to me. At least, when it comes to a video game.

You play a music manager who is tasked with not only finding the next great pop sensation, but training them to win a televised reality show where bands go head-to-head for money, prizes and fame. This will involve spending a year managing the girl’s schedule, spending money on new outfits and putting out the many fires that spring up when dealing with a bunch of teenage girls. If you can mold these young ladies into singing and dancing reality TV stars, they may have what it takes to go the distance and maybe even win a few trophies at the annual K-pop awards show.

Of course, there’s a lot to do between now and the ceremony. First, you’ll need to track down a bunch of suitable girls, either by going through the audition process or just running after people on the busy street. You’ll also need to choose a suitable name and theme for your band, dressing the different members appropriately, giving each singer her own look and personality. I ended up going with a fantasy-themed band named Final Girl, who was initially a three-piece, but somehow ballooned into a quintet after Yuna and Luna made a convincing case for why they should be in my group.

The core gameplay revolves around scheduling activities for the band. The girls are going to need vocal lessons and dance moves, as well as training for modeling, makeup, public speaking, group cohesion and basically any other skill a pop star might need. These training sessions will boost the stats, but it comes at the cost of happiness, stamina and money. It’s important to rest every few days, that way the girls aren’t too exhausted and start making mistakes. And if you start running out of money, the band may need to start making dance tutorials or putting their music on the game’s fictional YouTube.

This is the grind of a pop star. Week in and week out, the girls are going to need to buckle down if they hope to become the next big thing. What makes this tricky is that you’re constantly being forced to make difficult choices that could impact the success of the band. There’s a former co-worker who is desperately trying to get you to sign the girls to his new label, as well as a competing K-pop band who have daggers out for up-and-coming talent.

You also have to deal with a lot of real-life situations, like one of the girls having a hard time balancing pop star training with her schoolwork. There are also constant scandals popping up in the tabloids, forcing us to navigate the murky waters of public relations. You may also find that the parents of these teenage girls aren’t nearly as excited about the K-pop dream as their daughters. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s a stalker who keeps finding ways to scare the girls half to death. How you decide to deal with these situations will play heavily into what happens later in the game.

When I started K-Pop Idol Stories, I expected that there would be a bunch of mini-games that would go along with the training. For example, the trailer showed off a simple dance mode that was clearly modeled off of the electronic game Simon. That’s in the game, but I only ran into it two different times. There was a rhythm mini-game that I only played once. It showed me three different buttons to press, but there was only one that I ended up pressing. Oddly enough, the mini-game I ended up playing the most was one where I inexplicably had to fill up a bunch of glasses with alcohol. I played this one three different times.

That’s a shame, because more of these mini-games would have helped to break up the repetition of scheduling events and making tough decisions. This feels like a big missed opportunity, especially given how much there is to do outside of managing the band. A lot of the game is about strengthening relationships with the different people around town, many of which want something from you or the girls. You can chat with these people and even take them on fun outings (like going to the movies or a museum), but this game never actually shows you doing any of that. It would have been fun to have these activities turned into mini-games.

The same can be said about the different events you put on the calendar. There comes a point where the girls are recording their own single, filming a music video and even going on a mini concert tour. And yet, none of this translates to mini-games. We only see the different radio interviews or TV appearances or movie cameos through a brief animation in a small window. The game skips by everything so quickly that none of it feels very important. The numbers go up, but animations remain the same from start to finish.

And that brings us to the reality show this whole game is built around. I’m sure you’re thinking that it involves some sort of rhythm mini-game or, at the very least, something that has to do with music. But that’s not the case. In order to beat the other K-pop band, you need to play a very dumb card game. It’s actually worse than that, because the way you’re battling involves showing off your incredible etiquette or the ability to speak to reporters. Once the card game is over and you’ve knocked out the other band, the judges will ask you questions that have absolutely nothing to do with music. And then you win, for some reason.

I’ll admit, I found the whole thing baffling. This is supposed to be a TV show where people are voting on their favorite K-pop band, yet there’s no singing or dancing. There’s not even any music, since the girls don’t get around to record their first single until the game is almost done. Instead, the show seems more interested in who is wearing the best makeup or who is the most courteous. What kind of monster watches a music competition that doesn’t have any music? It makes no sense.

And I found that to be the case throughout K-Pop Idol Stories. I’m not looking to spoil anything, but it’s important that you know that this game ends right when it starts to get good. As the subtitle suggests, this is the road to the debut, everything after that is left up to your imagination. This game ends right after the band has released their first song and, hopefully, won all the trophies at the K-pop awards show. You’re suddenly flush with money, but the game doesn’t let you spend any of it, because the credits roll and the story is over.

We spend the entire game training and getting ready for what should have been the coolest part, and yet the developers are in a rush for it to end. After spending most of a year dealing with a music show without any music, we’re only given a few weeks to record a single, film the different parts of the music video, do TV appearances, promote the single on the radio and deal with the rest of the music press. We barely have enough time (or energy) to play a mini-tour or learn the moves for the awards show or do any of the other cool things that pop up once you’ve made it as a band. Why is this game in such a big rush?

It would be easy for you to dismiss everything I have to say because I’m not a K-pop fan, but I’m here to tell you that there’s barely any K-pop in this game. The problem isn’t the subject matter, but rather how little the game actually does with it. This isn’t the story of struggling musicians that started with nothing and had to claw their way to the top, because these girls start out as reality TV stars and have unprecedented viral success right out of the gate. At best, they go from polished to slightly more polished over the course of a year. And in the end, the singing and dancing doesn’t even matter, because, apparently, they’re being judged exclusively on their makeup and modeling skills.

I do think that this game could have been done well. There are story beats here that are genuinely interesting and I know a lot of people will have fun customizing and choosing the wannabe popstars. Unfortunately, K-Pop Idol Stories is ultimately letdown by some genuinely bone-headed design choices. I suspect that even the biggest K-pop fans will be frustrated by the lack of music and the abrupt conclusion. This is a game that completely misses the point.