It reminded me of a real life situation that happened with the kpop group Momoland where they did a number of performances without safety shorts, which angered fans and non-fans alike. I didn’t enjoy choosing options like the one where you can straight up not give the idols safety shorts which offers a, “Double bonus to hardcore appeal, penalty to casual appeal.” ENDLESS Space 2 I didn’t enjoy hearing about my idols overworking themselves to the point of injury. I avoided those options for 99% of my playthroughs, and only chose those options prior to writing this review to see what would happen and to explore the story from this negative “probably shouldn’t choose these options” route.
I never wanted to pick those options because they make me feel terrible so… yeah. Note that Idol Manager does give you options to exploit and overwork the idols and in general be a scummy person for the sake of money, which is a little too accurate for comfort at times. Seeing the number of fans rise, and the group’s fame rank increase, is truly heartwarming. Idol Manager excels at getting you invested, not only because you personally want to succeed and not bankrupt the company, but also because you want your group of idols to succeed. It was never just “a few more things” it was always several additional hours of playing.