Let’s be clear about this: I only have a passing interest in fashion. Although I like colorful clothes, jackets and scarves, my clothes tend to be serviceable, and have to be comfortable. I’m no fashionista, dressing according to the latest fashion is something that I’ve let go years ago. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I saw the Japanese release of the third installment of a game series that we know as Style Savvy in the US, or Style Boutique in Europe. A game that is clearly aimed at the female gaming audience and aimed at teens, and it’s a game that most adults won’t pick up.
Years ago I downloaded the demo through our Wii for my daughter, who is very much into fashion. We even saw an interview with Syn Sophia, the developer of the game that’s released by Nintendo. I had a go at it myself, and I was surprised at what I found. With a possible third installment on its way west I think it’s time to give the game some attention. This is a game that even I can play, not being into fashion at all, because it’s a management style game that makes excellent use of everything the 3DS, Streetpass and online wifi has to offer. I guess you could compare it to loving the farming games without having an interest in wanting to be a farmer.
The game that was first released at the end of 2008 is a fashion store management simulation game which focuses on selecting clothing pieces for customers. The customers give you pointers about their needs, and by making use of all the various brands available in the game, it’s up to you to keep them coming back for more. Part of the fun is shopping for new clothing at the Buyers center, making sure you have enough pieces of every style and sort to satisfy potential customers and looking for bargains. The game’s city is accessed from an ever-expanding map, allowing you to access your apartment, change your hairstyle and makeup, purchase new furniture, access your own store. You can make advertisements to send out, while you make sure your storefront looks attractive. And on top of that you can enter competitions where you get an assignment to match a certain style.
The second game (released in 2012) added men’s fashion to the mix, used the 3D camera to take screenshots and used the ? AR Card. It had a good Streetpass function where you could exchange Stylist Cards, which contains personalized information about your character and offers a link to the player’s Web Shop. The Web Shop is a very cool feature: You can create it in the Fashion Plaza, customizing a store front and create three outfits to sell to others. You can also access others’ Web Shops. And in true style, some well-known real life clothing designers had some items which you could get through Spotpass.
The third installment was released in Japan on April 16th, and from what I read it adds even more features to the game. The only thing mildly annoying in the game (to me) is the exuberance with which the girls in the game view the clothes I’ve dress them in. The hand clapping, squealing and jumping up and down can be exasperating…I wonder if Cinderella did the same when the fairy godmother dressed her in her ball gown! All the same, I hope this one makes it West too!
I played both the first and the second Style Savvy (Girls Mode). I loved the first one and couldn’t put it down LOL. I’m no fashionista in real life (I have to admit that what I look for in daily clothes are comfort and reasonable price, sadly), but it’s new fun for me to coordinate some lines of fashion items that I wouldn’t ever wear in my whole life. I also like the fact that the game has strategic aspect to it: you get yourself ready to please costumers (aiming for critical hit if in different games) by efficiently filling your inventory, knowing or guessing some hidden feature of each item. I actually like the way how those girls express their satisfaction with all the hearts and rose petals flying behind them LOL, especially when I, too, am happy with my choice of clothes and the combination. I feel like I’m a grandma that gives a present to a grandchild: their smile or happy squealing is all that matters LOL. I did like the second one, but its online shop feature ironically put me off sooner. The some of the clothes in game are seasonal, but popular online shop owners often used out-of-season items (that the rest of the players are yet to see) by moving their 3DS clock, and I think they worked as sort of spoilers for me. I stopped playing sooner than the first one even though it had more feature in the game than the first one. I’m not sure if I get the third one, but if I do, but my daughter is hinting she is interested.
I enjoyed both games very much too, it’s very addictive. I still remember the first game and it’s webshop, at the time it was so cool to actually have an online shop where you could alter your window displays. I guess nowadays that’s much more common, but I had fun with it. Part of the fun was playing it together with my daughter, we both had a copy of the game. To be honest, I wasn’t going to get the third one, but I researched it yesterday and it got me super enthusiastic. I guess I’ll be going for that one too! I made a guest blog detailing the new features of the game for Japanese3DS.com, and some nice stuff is added again!