I*Chu: Chibi Edition

Genre: Music-Rhythm / Visual Novel / Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

I*Chu, released on Nintendo Switch in 2024, is a game that combines Music-Rhythm, Visual Novel, and Simulation elements, all in a game based on the idea of guiding (mostly male) Japanese pop idols through their time at a pop idol academy to their eventual fame and success.

Rather than being interdependent on each other, each of this game’s three major gameplay elements seems mostly disconnected from the others, or at the very least it’s unclear how they affect each other. I chalk this up partly to some poor localization, and partly due to over-complicated gameplay systems that are under-explained. And this is despite a lengthy tutorial showing you where different features are and how to use them… but not showing you what they do and why to use them.

For example, on the management side of things, you can use in-game currency to basically purchase a lootbox containing new idols to add to your lineup, or combine two to upgrade them… but not why you’d even bother. You have a half-dozen or so of these characters in your group, plus a team leader, a manager, and a principal, but it’s not made clear what any of these characters are doing for the gameplay, or why to value one above others.

The Music-Rhythm gameplay is relatively straightforward, having players use the A and B buttons and the left and right directions on the D-pad to hit notes falling down the screen in four lanes very much like a Guitar Hero-style game… only the paths the icons go down curves around the edges of the screen, forcing players to watch the far ends of both sides of the screen at the same time instead of traveling down the center, as per genre norms.

The Visual Novel side of things is at least straightforward enough, but features such an inane, pointless plot that I can’t imagine anyone getting invested in it, following the game’s central three pop idol characters as they become friends and enter the game’s school, trading meaningless chatter the entire time.

The 2D anime-style character designs in I*Chu are decent enough, I suppose. But there’s no animation, even with the “chibi” versions of characters “dancing” while you’re playing the Music-Rhythm portions of the game – they just remain in their static positions while their 2D image is jostled around to imitate dancing. All of this is backed by J-Pop music that’s decent enough, but I didn’t feel that any of this was especially memorable, nor was it varied enough to capture a wide range of tastes. Plus, the game parcels out its music at a pretty stingy rate, only unlocking songs as you complete tasks in the game’s other gameplay elements.

I don’t outright hate I*Chu, and none of its individual elements is terrible, but none of them is very good either, and nothing here really meshes together to form a cohesive whole. As a Music-Rhythm game, the basic design is fundamentally flawed, as a Simulation, it’s far too poorly-explained and over-complicated, and for a Visual Novel, the story and characters just are not interesting enough to keep you reading on. Regardless of which element of this game caught your attention, I think you’ll be disappointed.

tl;dr – I*Chu is a game that combines Music-Rhythm, Visual Novel, and Simulation gameplay elements to form… well, a complete mess, with none of those elements being done especially well, and none combining well with the others. I suppose this game’s overarching goal of guiding pop idols through training to fame and success could have had potential, but no matter which way you look at it, this game doesn’t seem to work on any level.

Grade: C-

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