Idolcraft

Game: Idolcraft
Genre: SIM
Playthrough time: 3 - 5 hours.

You play the role of Hiroki—a struggling Japanese college student who decided to manage his uncle’s business of idol managing. Staring up with nearly zilch cash, you have to scout for potential girls and build up their trust or activate certain events in order for them to join your company. That said, Idolcraft is a SIM game and it plays like a typical one. However, I found it quite enjoyable. If I am not mistaken, this is a fan game of Idolmaster? I have never played it before, so I cannot really tell you if it is a complete rip off of the game. That aside, let’s start the review!


Looks

The game is alright. I know that RMXP is difficult to scout for modern graphics, though the mapping weren't so great. I wasn't a huge fan of the character portraits either.

Though I will say that the graphics weren't awful or anything, but they didn't quite catch my attention either. I think in the future, you shouldn't space your maps out so much. It makes it look empty, boring and blank.


Writing

Being a typical SIM game, there wasn't a huge focus on the storyline, though it would be interesting if you threw more story events inside rather than the playing consistently doing the same over and over again. There were some short bits of dialogue, but there wasn't much else. I am grading this category more leniently than I normally would since most SIM games don't have an extensive storyline, though that is no excuse for a complete devoid of one.

If you added more background and interesting tidbits to each girl, rather than archetypes, that would make the game more rewarding to play through, as well as adding more motivation for replay if the player is interested enough to hear about each girl.

Sound

This category is lacking quite a bit - considering this is a game about music and dancing! The songs that you used fit in quite fine; however, it got so repetitive. I suggest you change up the town music a bit - maybe each weekday has a different tune so I don't have to hear the same elevator-esque music for a few hours.

The sound effects were alright. Nothing special.


Gameplay

Probably this game's strongest aspect. It plays like a standard SIM game with a small twist that you have to train "idols" (singers, dancers) and have them perform.

You are limited to six girls which you need to scout throughout your city and raise their trust. After you have raised their trust to a certain point, you can recruit them into your studio where you train and develop their skills. The main objective of the game is to raise their "popularity" ratings by a variety of ways. Publicizing them, honing their talents, producing CDs and DVDs (which gives you money).

I don't really have any complaint in this department. It kept me playing the game and I won't deny that it was slightly addictive. However, like the storyline, I think you should try to add more game elements in here. Whether that includes more additional stats, lengthening the play-time or adding more tasks to do.

One thing that I will give you credit for is that you did not add stupid minigames like RACING or whatever that most Sim games make mandatory.

Verdict

This game tasted okay, it was addictive though. It felt kind of like a standard SIM game, nothing too special. Though it kept my attention throughout the game, but maybe it is because I am such a perfectionist and I have to get everything regardless of the game. Did you use MSG or something?