Style Savvy: Fashion Forward Review

Platform: 3DS
Players: 1

Opinion: the Style Savvy games are very fun and if you’re avoiding them because they’re about “fashion” you’re doing yourself a disservice. “BUT IT’S A GAME FOR LITTLE GIRLS” you know, they said that about Recettear too and that is also a game whose cute exterior beguiles a strangely deep business running simulator. Seriously, if you’re into business running sims, and have a 3DS, Style Savvy is a series you want in on.
 
“But why?” you may be asking the screen. “Why should I spend my hard earned dollary doos on a game about living in a doll’s world, making citizens fashionable?” Because, despite the awful story premise, there’s a myriad of intense strategic business decisions that must be calculated and executed well in order to become the best and richest. It’s honestly capitalism at its finest, allowing you to become a monopolistic business mogul, while giving awful fashion advice in the process.

Style Savvy: Fashion Forward

If you haven’t played a Style Savvy game before, Fashion Forward is a good jumping point. If you have, you may find Fashion Forward a bit odd due to some gameplay redesigns. The core of the game, buying and selling clothing and accessories to a variety of people, remains. But from there, the game feels like a different beast. Gone is the “micro-day” time pass system (similar to some Persona or Harvest Moon or other sim games, where you’ve got segments in a day to do stuff), replaced with a real time clock (thank goodness people wanna shop at 3 AM). Added are silly things like a dollhouse hotel of sorts and running a fashion show, more ways to earn money by doing makeup and cutting hair and starring in ad campaigns, and the ability to design your own clothing and sell it. And let me tell you what, once you’ve got everything unlocked, you’ll not run out of things to do. Sure it might get a little repetitive, but side quests of sorts like fulfilling design orders, meeting up with friends and customers, hunting colors down in photos you take, in addition to the many ways to make that paper, will be sure to keep you very busy.

There’s a story, trust me, and it’s not particularly good or interesting, but getting through it opens the game up for you to play however you wish and unlocks all the best brands to acquire goods for your store from. A quickly accessible in-game encyclopedia helps with unfamiliar terms and what brands belong to what style (doubly useful since the US release uses the EU translation, along with all sorts of quirky words you might not know and thus sell the wrong items to someone because of this), allowing you to maximize selling potential. Speaking of, I’ve committed horrible, terrible fashion sins in order to get as close to someone’s budget max for an outfit as possible. Socks with sandals? Undershirts no one can see? Skirts and shorts and tights all at the same time? You bet if you can afford it, I’m putting it on you, looks be damned.

If you don’t think Style Savvy: Fashion Forward might be for you, there is a free demo in the 3DS store. Better yet, it’s amiibo compatible, with a whole slew of exclusive clothing available depending on the amiibo scanned. Give it a shot. I promise the actual buying/selling mechanics more than make up for the silly story and the fact that it’s a game about fashion and makeup and other “girly things”. It’s about building an empire, and who doesn’t want to be in charge of one of those?

-Janette

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Graphics: Okay
Sound: Meh
Gameplay: GREAT
Value: GREAT

OVERALL: GREAT

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