Game: TV Studio Story
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows), iOS and Android)
Developer | Publisher: Kairosoft
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $12.00 | UK £10.79| EU € 12,00
Release Date: March 6th, 2024
Review code used, with many thanks to Kairosoft.
TV Studio Story is the first Kairosoft Nintendo Switch game of 2024. I was keen to see whether I would become the greatest broadcaster of all time and how this game compares to the other Kairosoft offerings.
So will my TV shows grab the headlines? Or be sensational flops. Grab your clapper board, call for the lights, the cameras, and action!
The Story Behind Your TV Studio Show
One of the things I like about the Kairosoft games is the witty use of the names, and TV Studio Story is no exception. Once you have named your TV station, you are introduced to Katie Vee (and later, you’ll meet Chris P. Noodles!). Katie will guide you through the process of designing, producing and recording a TV show. The opening tutorial is one of the longest I’ve encountered in any of the Kairosoft games I’ve played. However, there are quite a few stages to creating the perfect TV show, so it’s great that TV Studio Story explains them all!
To create a new show, you first need to select a genre, theme and host. You only have five choices initially, but more are unlocked as you progress through the game. It’s fun to decide what genre and theme might be compatible. Don’t worry if the combination is bad, you get a reward for discovering that! The host’s skill and popularity will influence the show’s rating, so choose wisely! You then start production of your new TV show by choosing one of your staff or contractors to be in charge of the project.
After some initial planning for the show, you are asked to select a set in which to film. Again, you are required to think about compatibility and which set is best suited for a particular theme. As you unlock more themes and sets, it’s easier to see which ones might go together, for example, tennis and a tennis set. You can decorate your set to increase its appeal, and then you select a member of staff or contractor to prepare it.
While your production team finalises all the details, you select the stars for the show. Rather than selecting individual performers, you choose a talent agency or let Katie make the choice. I did find this part a bit random, as sometimes actors who were not suited to the genre or theme would be used (even if better ones were available), and that impacts the ratings. Then, once the audience has arrived, you start recording.
Recording Your TV Studio Story
Whilst recording the show, you can get your staff to boost various show stats, depending on their job role, for example a camera person will boost direction. During the recording of your second show, you will unlock a sponsor. Sponsors will give extra time for recording or a small increase in cash, but they will show commercials during a broadcast, so lower the ratings.
Anyone who has watched live TV will know that sometimes little mistakes crop up, and TV Studio Story is no different. These ‘goofs’ can be corrected at the end of the recording while being converted to TV show stats or research points. You can broadcast without correcting the ‘goofs, ‘ but it might affect your rating.
Once you broadcast, you can start production of a new show, or watch as the ratings come in. During the first broadcast, Katie explains that using different locations can improve the quality of a show, and explains how to scout out new places. This involves spending rather a lot of money, but you will discover new decorations, genres, themes and more.
You can then decide whether you want to use your show as a flagship show, generating monthly revenue. Try to select a compatible genre for the time of day and then wait for the money to roll in! Although once the ratings fall, it will run at a loss, it’s easy enough to replace or re-record it.
Take Your TV Studio to a Higher Storey
You are then free to create new shows of your choice, or ones which might fulfil viewer requests. Katie will keep you on the right wavelength and explain about achievements, the annual TV awards, the ranking system, and the television exhibitions.
Levelling up is the key to success in TV Studio Story! Film set decor, publicizing methods, staff training methods, and buildings can all be boosted with cash or research points. Pumpkin products visits once a year to sell other items to increase the show’s stats. You can recruit more staff, but don’t do what I did and spend 25,000G on the headhunt recruitment drive, only to discover I couldn’t afford the contract fee of any of the candidates!
TV Studio Story gives a high score at the end of year 16, month 3. The points gained can then be used to buy ‘helps’ for the next playthrough. Maybe some extra starting cash or research points, transfer the achieved levels for your genre, themes or décor, or the knowledge of unlocked combos and much more.
Gameplay
The game works really well in either docked or handheld mode. You can use the touchscreen, but for TV Studio Story it felt more cumbersome to do so. The font is large enough to easily read on a small screen.
The game autosaves each new month, with a manual save available as well. However, you can only have two instances of game per user.
Just a few niggles with this Kairosoft offering: I don’t like how the characters become large at various times, although I got used to it as the game progressed. The main music was a little annoying and very loud – even with the in-game volume reduced. Even though there are options to speed up some of the dialogue boxes, it didn’t speed up everything, and I felt like I was forever pressing A to progress. It was very frustrating to remove set décor; using the analogue stick to select the right decoration felt like a bad mini-game!
TV Studio Story was one of the shorter games I’ve played – reaching year 16 in about 10 hours. In fact, I’ve played on until year 36 (just over 20 hours) and have completed all the viewer requests, levelled up all the décor (750,000+G of investment) and managed to claim the Grand Prize to achieve Rank S+. About five minutes after this incredible achievement, the game crashed – obviously overwhelmed by my abilities! But this was the only time I encountered any such issue.
Conclusion
Sharing a style similar to all the Kairosoft management simulation games, TV Studio Story is reassuringly familiar with bright colours and cute pixelated characters. However, I wish there had been more opportunity to see the adorable characters wander around, but the pop-up messages got in the way.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find the same satisfaction in playing TV Studio Story as I have with similar games. The allocation of TV show stats was a bit too random for my liking, and although selecting the best genre, theme, and set combination was a fun challenge, it didn’t have the same appeal once I’d completed all the viewer requests.
Final Verdict: I Like it 