I downloaded and played this game in high school exclusively so I could force people to watch me play it so they'd think I was weird. Little did I know that I didn't need to performatively play this game for people to think that, since my voltron legendary defender home screen would have been enough to convince them.

Anyway, this game is not very fun, it's mostly just force feeding this poor freak of nature food until he gets enough energy to talk to you seemingly forever. I never saw much of a deviation in gameplay while playing it, although I admit I didn't get super far in it since I'd only ever play it when someone seemed like they wanted to engage with me. I'd pull my phone out, start shoving carrots down my equestrian partner's gullet and making him run on a treadmill, and then angle my phone in such a way that the person trying to make an honest human connection to me would see enough of the screen to ask what I was playing. I would then start a conversation about the game, literally lying about some aspects of it to make it sound more bizarre, not make any new friends, and then feel proud of myself believing to have weirded out one of my supposed enemies.

So, in conclusion, this game is good if you're trying to repel people from you, but not so good for much else. So only really give it a try if you like voltron legendary defender, I guess.

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.

[played via steam deck, as there is no steam deck platform option]

this game is cute, dont get me wrong, but its really nothing special. im not sure if im just old and jaded now, but the humor and writing of this really... well, it makes me realize how much of an issue i have with the VN formula. it's impossible to write a character that fits every single player possible, especially when you're writing a romance and need the love interest to bounce off of the dialogue each player chooses. you just can't capture all the nuance that comes with an individual person unless you decide to code thousands of edge-cases that tailor each route and interaction to the player, but that is so unfeasible its never been done (to my knowledge, at least) and definitely not without sacrificing the story they want to share.

grim is a real sweetie, but from day one you can see what archetype they are going for and if it doesnt work immediately to captivate you, the game... doesn't do much to try and fix that. despite trying to pretend he is anything but, grim is a very shallow character. its to be expected, i guess, from such a short window of "dating" in universe and only two-ish hours in real life, but i really struggled to put myself in this guys shoes. right off the bat you get the option to call him "babygirl", they bring up homestuck, mention things like kaomojis and slang like "rizz." it's clear who they are pandering for and the type of humor meant to attract them, which is okay! just not really for me. i cant really critique the story. not because it doesnt have flaws (i think its pretty poor overall), but because i just dont have the language for it. im sure with more time thinking about it, i can summarize it in a concise way, but this is backloggd so... sorry! if you're familiar with butterfly soup, this game is the newest version of that, just limited to one character. its uniquely charming and i think if i was 16 again, this would have hit a lot harder than it does for me now!

that said, there are a few things i like. the art is really fucking good. while some of the character creation things are a bit goofy, it's overall really great and i like the tiny bits of flavor it added to the game, even if its really not used for anything. the pet thing is cute and the neighbors story existing alongside your own is also a fun add, but the game has a lot of nothing outside of the text chains and calls. if this could have been fleshed out with maybe another week of in game bonding time, i think the game would have increased in quality dramatically.

solid dating sim. if you like it, you will probably really like it. if you dislike it, you will know right away. its free, so pick it up and give it a go if you feel so inclined. grim is a cute generic anime boy and i still would be his friend :-)

Maybe it's not its fault. Maybe the problem here was being released after Zero and meant to be played after Zero... I don't know. But they managed to deliver a package so similar to Zero on the outside but so different on the inside. Comparisons aside, Yakuza Kiwami is an okay remake with an okay story, a not that fun side content overall and a kind of clunky combat for some reason. There are too many fire weapon enemies especially in the latter parts and you have to grind quite a bunch to ignore some issues. And I don't want to talk about its rhythm problems. It's needed for the Kiryu saga but I was really disappointed.