Idol Manager might be about training and grooming various idols but this game is no joke. As a new manager, your goal is simple in theory. Hire some idols, get some CDs/songs produced and become the king/queen of the idol industry. The reality, though, is Idol Manager teaches you the importance of the idol industry and why it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Your arsenal of abilities includes hiring idols—obviously, getting vocal coaches, and dressing up people and various other workers/employees. At first, you’ll only have a few offices for yourself and a small team but as you progress, you’ll be able to build up your business and find yourself in a huge multiplex filled with rooms and offices! Your idols will be numerous and hopefully, you’ll make your benefactors happy! Again, this all sounds simple but Idol Manager isn’t the easiest simulator you’ve ever played and that is where the game shines and dulls.

As an idol manager, you must find your beautiful and cute girls, train them, promote them—in various realistic ways—and watch as the money pours in. However, every action takes time as well as money which means you need to pay close attention to what actions you take each second of each day. Top that off, idols aren’t going to just sing their hearts out for free, they need money and have various needs that must be met otherwise you’ll lose your best girls quite quickly. Idol Manager’s tutorial even admits failure will most likely happen when you begin—and it did with us—which should prepare you for the challenges you’ll be facing.

There is a lot to take in while playing Idol Manager. You have amassed information cards detailing your team/idols, and various actions each can take to help make you some more cash. However, there is a lot and we mean a lot, of things to do and manage. You will find reading the help guide is a must while playing Idol Manager as there are so many little sub-management options to each main option that it gets a bit overwhelming. To paint an easier picture, let’s discuss making a song. To make a song, you need to assemble your idols, choose the genre, choose how to produce it, how to sell it and several other options just to initialize the song-making process. From there, you need to dictate to your other subordinates to work on the song—such as producing lyrics or music—and then finally, you can launch the song and hope you make some profit. Idol Manager is trying to show those who invest themselves in it that the idol business is serious business and that will definitely appeal to those who love challenging and engaging simulation titles.

Idol Manager is primarily a simulation game but there’s also a pretty dark and intriguing tale within that looks closer at the cutthroat business and explores how some people can be two-faced while others genuinely want to help. We loved getting to various thresholds in Idol Manager just to see the story play out and see how decisions make our lives easier as managers or harder. Don’t be shocked if it takes multiple playthroughs to really see the full story as we wanted to see how choices affected our fate as idol managers.