Preview – K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut lets you lead a band to stardom

Have you ever wanted to manage your own K-pop group? That’s exactly what K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut lets you do. From holding auditions to find the members of your band to scheduling rehearsals and shows to train them to be at the top of their game, this story-rich management simulator has it all.

In development from Wisageni Studio and PQube and scheduled to release later this year, K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut throws you into the centre of the world of K-pop. You’ll need to manage everything from social media, ensuring your group members get enough rest and care, and making sure everyone’s pulling their weight in practices. Schedules are broken down into weeks, with you given a set amount of time to work towards your next major show or performance.

But there’s more than just ensuring your group members can sing and dance. You’ll have to manage your finances, with everything here, from dance practice to a check-up at the doctor’s, costing money. Then there’s your band’s salaries to take into consideration. You will earn money too, but the opportunities to bring money in are fairly thin on the ground to begin with. For a while, then, you’ll have to carefully budget, ensuring you don’t blow everything too quickly, but still ensuring you’re doing the best to look after your burgeoning group.

You get to choose who makes up your band by being able to select girls from a range of audition types (online, offline and street scouting). You’ll quickly get attached to them all, and there are other characters to meet and get to know too, from trainers to other stars in the K-pop industry. It’ll benefit you and your group to spend time socialising and building up key relationships.

There’s much more to K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut than simply setting up a schedule, too. Frequent minigames ensure you always feel part of the experience, with rhythm games, memory puzzles and a whole lot more to keep you entertained. There’s also a rich story to follow, where you’ll need to make decisions and engage in conversations. Ultimately, though, it’s seeing the members of your group becoming more successful over time that keeps you playing: it’s seriously satisfying to see them level up and hit new milestones.

Being only a preview build of K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut, I haven’t got to see my band rise to global success yet, but I’ve seen enough of the game to know that I’m already invested. I feel like it’s going to be a lot of work to get there, with a journey filled with ups and downs, but hey – surely that’s life in showbusiness? It’s the closest I’m ever going to get to managing a pop group, anyway, and so I’m very much looking forward to getting my hands on the full release and watching my little group rise to stardom.

K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut is set to release later this year on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC.