Reviews from

in the past


best 3ds game don't try debating me

- maria should have been in smash
- if ur feeling down please listen to the retrobeat theme
- lesbianism

this is the definition of a perfect game btw

This awoken the fashionista in me.


Unironically one of my favorite games, Styling Star is what I consider to be the definitive Style Savvy game. It expands on the past three entries with more clothes, improved graphics, catchy music, and a charming cast of characters. The lack of color-hunting and ease of map navigation are major quality of life upgrades from SS:FF. Really solid fashion game with an uplifting story and fantastic OST.

greatest game of all time SO HYPED FOR FASHION DREAMER!!!!

me faltaba nada para acabarlo pero despues de tantas horas tan repetitivas se hace pesado

This game is really fun, surprisingly. I too want to be a fashion icon sometimes.

There's a lot in Styling Star I enjoy, but there's a couple of things I miss from the previous titles.
First, I want to complement how detailed the clothes are compared to the past titles. The fabrics have much more definition and there are now more accessories to chose from.
I do enjoy the fact this game has automatic time progression, rather than being in real time. I am a night shift worker and I always ran into the issue of things being slow, because it was night, unless I changed the 3DS internal clock. Also, I can experience the seasons changing faster. However, I feel like the days go by a little too fast. I will accidentally enter a shop once or twice, and it will turn from evening to night just from that mistake. There is an option to end your day early, so I didn't get why going in an out of shops would affect time so much.
I am glad I don't have to search around and take photos to unlock colors for the stylists, like in Trendsetters, so that is a plus.
I enjoy the fact every shop is open every day, and towards the end of the Main Story, you can open up the VIP shop, which has all the inventory in one place.
A few things I miss; Male fashion. It seems to be so limited now. Before, we were able to shop for men, and they would come into my personal shop. Also, completing male fashion tasks is similar to the Hair Salon and Beauty Shop tasks, you only gain style points, not earnings.
To touch upon the Hair Salon and Beauty Shop tasks, they are more free-for-all, where before some characters would come to the shops with extremely specific requests. You will now still get some requests like that, but it's once in a blue moon.
The Main Story in Styling Star is very different from the previous games. I do miss having my character partake in fashion shows, but now I have a handful of models to dress up to compete in fashion shows, livestreams, advertisements, and music performances.
Speaking of music performances, this game has English vocal tracks, which is something completely new. The music is really catchy, I love the Retrobeat shop music.
There's amiibo functionality, and you can earn some patterns for custom clothes by scanning a handful of first party character amiibo. The online functionality is kind of difficult to navigate, hopefully the next game will polish upon that, but you can visit random player's shops and buy their outfits.
Overall, Styling Star is really fun. If you're into fashion games, you will enjoy it.

i don't last very long with these games because the writing and tone grate a bit and the loop becomes a chore (i'm not all that into having to pick items for customers' requested styles), but for a while i really enjoy playing dress-up with the player character.

El mejor style boutique... solo para chicas guapas

this game slaps so hard 2 i don't care about the plot i just want to dress up these dollswtf

After seeing the Fashion Dreamer trailer on that one Nintendo Direct I was pretty intrigued with the concept of the dress up game as a genre. I’m always on the lookout for cool new gameplay loops, the more ridiculous the better. I've got a cousin who I don’t really peg as a gamer and she says she actually plays dress up games on her phone quite a bit. This intrigued me more. A whole new genre I’ve never given a passing thought to and a trusted confidant insuring me that there is fun to be had. How delightful.

So I researched Fashion Dreamer and any research for Fashion Dreamer will inevitably get you here. Style Savvy: Styling Star is essentially made by the same team and has a bit of a cult following. Not in that trendy way that puts Misfits t-shirts in Walmart but in some other, far more menacing way. Just read the comment section for a Fashion Dreamer youtube video. Who are these people? Where did they come from? Their existence alone is proof of one thing. I think I’m gonna have a pretty good time. I put a lot of stock in the invisible passion of anonymous internet faces.

So a little about me. I am but a humble and lowly wife guy. My close friends and I, in a crowd, are pretty basic and standard dudes. We like to party, we like to wrestle, I’ll throw the pig skin around the ol grid iron when the situation permits. Opposed to how I present online, in real life I’m not unmasculine. But there are certain traits of masculinity that I despise for their toxicity (should come up with a phrase for that). For example men aren’t really supposed to be too emotional unless that emotion is anger. I don’t like being angry, but I LOVE crying. I cry at just about everything. Sometimes the boys and I will get together and watch cool scenes from movies and anime on youtube and just try to cry. Have a bit of a cry off. This is not a joke.

So while I am not unmasculine I am also not ununmasculine (should come up with a phrase for that). Online I present very female. I use a women's name, I always play as female characters when I have the option, and dressing up is a huge selling point for me in a game. Men’s aesthetics are alright but Women’s aesthetics are amazing. Not to sound like a FREAK but I love the aesthetic beauty of women. I love their shape, their movement, and their fashion/design. So Style Savvy has a lot to offer me in the roleplaying department. The one thing I know going in is I can be a girl and I can dress up. Everything beyond that is just gravy and boy this shit is smothered in gravy. But before the gravy, does it excel at the core appeal?

Well yeah obviously I gave it 5 stars.

The basic gameplay loop is as follows:
1) you stock your store with clothes
2) people buy clothes from your store
3) you stock your store with more clothes from the profit

As the game progresses you get more and more clothing options and everything you buy for the store you can also dress up your personal character with. When it comes to customizing your personal character just look up and read the little descriptor for the game. “Choose from over 20,000 new and returning fashion items.” This gameplay loop is satisfying and good. There is kind of too much clothes for it not to be. I came up with 30+ little outfits that I have saved in my scrapbook for my character and she looks fabulous. She’s killing it. Beat mug, limp wrists, V.I.P list, wave, wave, blow a kiss, I’m that bitch, sis.

It was great and occupied maybe 5 hours of the initial gameplay. But here’s the thing. This game is not a 5 hour game this game is an 80+ hour game.

So let’s get into the gravy.

The world is wonderful. Once I got through my initial rush of button mashing through dialogue to get more clothes and become the queen of fashion, I started to actually read the dialogue and pay attention to the story and it’s great. All of the characters are very emotive in talking sections and it’s immediately endearing. Every minor customer has their own little narrative going on with a lot of subtle depth to it. You are of course just a humble and lowly queen god of fashion playing only a small role in their lives, selling them a hat or whatever but over time it starts to really illustrate how much of an effect running a fashion store can have on people. One gal came in initially because she had a class reunion coming up and she wanted to spice up her wardrobe before going. Then she comes back and it was a hit so she wants to change her whole style. Then she comes back again and decides that the new style wasn’t really her and she wants to go back to how she used to dress. The minor customers narratives really emphasis the word minor, but they are also very genuine. The sheer quantity of characters and little narratives implies a very large world outside of the store that breathes a lot of life into the game.

There are 3 main gals who become idols that are regular customers and their narratives are the main story of the game. You track their progress, hang out with them, help them and their agency, and listen to their new songs that are fully voiced with lyrics and absolutely shred. The main story is a sweet little ride and encompasses like 50 other side characters that are all very wonderful and charming little balls of optimism and encouragement. When I take a step back and look at the world as a whole I can’t help but realize: Style Savvy: Styling Star has created the ultimate Feminist Utopia. Move over Barbie (2023). All the characters are open about their feelings and pursuing the arts, making music, baking bread, growing flowers. No one's an ass. To me this world is perfect, I want to live in this world and flail my arms around like a freak during dialogue and strike little poses when the clothes fits real good.

I love this world and just existing in it is a real treat but the game goes beyond that. You live in the world but you also radically help shape it and that is where the secret gameplay loop is revealed.

The initial satisfaction of playing the game comes from just dressing your character up. It’s great and fun and there are a lot of options. But after a while it gets a bit boring, there’s too much freedom in it all. I was like a fashion god with no restrictions, everything I did looked good and I had plenty of money to buy whatever I wanted. It was lonely at the top. When it comes to dressing up my character there wasn’t much to it, no real threat of failure.

At this point during my playthrough the customer characters were all starting to make larger requests. At first they just want singular articles of clothing and most of the time I just gave them whatever matched their criteria that I just happened to have in stock. Some of these people left the store looking absolutely tragic. I regularly mocked their request behind the screen. A stripy scarf? Why not get a big red nose as well you fucking clown. Any customer who wanted something from the “April BonBon” brand were laughed out the door (completely satisfied). There was one instance in particular where I gave a women a $400 button up vest. She was wearing a long sleeve hooded sweatshirt, ripped jeans, and a $400 button up vest over it all. She left the store with the widest smile and I could of cried. From that point forward I vowed: Never again.

So the customers are coming in with bigger budgets and larger request, whole outfits sometimes. And this is where I discovered the real core gameplay loop. My hate for certain brands, my past mistakes in customer fashion, my god like status. It was all intentional. They kept coming back because they trusted me as a beacon of fashion, and they were right. The women with the vest returned and I gave her a leather jacket and it completely evolved her. All the other pieces of her aesthetic and wardrobe clicked into place. She actually looked good. A customer would ask for an “April BonBon” outfit and I'd run to the outlets scouring their stocks to create an outfit that not just satisfied them but satisfied me. They presented me with filth and I made them beautiful. THIS IS EXPRESSION BABY.

It’s one thing to have the infinite possibilities of your created character. I made my perfect women with the exact haircut I wanted and the exact brands and clothes and colors and designs. But when all these customers with their bizarre lives and terrible tastes would come in and I sold them an outfit that looked good DESPITE the aspects of them I didn’t perfectly design in a lab that’s when I started having the BIG FUN. The expression of helping others express themselves is beautifully represented in this game. Then you take another step back and realize just how much you helped build this feminist utopia, at least aesthetically, and how much of a difference you can make just by running a little clothes store.

Then I unlocked the hair boutique and gave everyone pixie cuts and I will admit, things got kind of weird after that.

great game! very fond memories of it

I am so serious when I say this is the best game ive ever played

same as the others but less original

genuinely hope this isn't the last style savvy game but if it is, it's a good send off to the series. there's a couple questionable content cut choices but i don't care, this is a good one.

writing and the story are decent but it's pretty grating, i think i lasted like 15 hours give or take actually reading the dialogue before i started skipping all of it. gameplay is alright, it gets very repetitive but it did (temporarily) cure my itch for a good fashion game


port it to the switch, cowards