While it’s still technically a couple of days for the USA, with the power of timezones, it is officially out in Japan!
So, first thoughts shortly into the game:
-I knew the Gachapon would be coming, but it’s still kind of annoying.
-It’s disappointing that body type is tied to height. I feel like 6 is closer to my character’s body type but it’s a bit too tall :/ No where close to the tallest, but still taller than a lot of the characters where I feel a bit awkward as someone who is not tall.
-It’s also disappointing that some items are body type-specific– essentially only accessories and a few other things can be worn by both Body types.
-Eye colors are super limited?? I think you may unlock more colors but it’s just a really odd choice considering?
-Nearly every hairstyle has some kind of variation except the ponytail :|
At this point, I’ve played over 11 hours of the game and in all honesty, I am itching to get back to it. I think there’s something definitely addictive and fun with it, but I don’t think it’ll necessarily appeal to all fans of the Style Savvy series.
The game itself is very simplistic which I think some people may enjoy while others will find off-putting. Your own character’s story is mainly about connecting with NPCs and expanding your influence. That said, the top score needed is 10K and then the Credits will roll.
I had over 20K by the time I finished stream and ended up hitting 10K before I even saw the last Cocoon or finished a single character’s story. I feel like I barely made a dent.
The bigger part of the game comes from the crafting/pattern system and growing your brand which has its own level system and seems to possibly go up to nearly 150 going by furniture unlocks. That said, this gets fairly grindy as you level and if you are not able to play online, it is ludicrously slow. There is going to be a certain point though, even online, where if there isn’t enough new players the amount of currency you get will just be too slow.
Essentially, outside of people liking your outfit or clothes at your showroom (and visiting it in general), the only way to get points yourself is from making outfits for characters and the Bingo game where you earn 12K for one Bingo (unless you get Bingo like immediately and then it’ll be doubled) and can earn more based on multipliers for slow (Which based off how fast is, I can only assume it’s for being so unlucky, your next pull can only be Bingo) or getting more than one Bingo at a time with getting 4 Bingos at once being 100x. I have yet to get a single multiplier.
The points are used to make patterns of items if you do not actually have the pattern onhand. You earn the patterns themselves from the Gachapon and you earn Gachapon tickets from helping NPCs (Non-unique stuff also earned from helping NPCs: Color Palettes, Bingo Tickets, some points, Keys which are used to unlock certain patterns, Coins you use to unlock new stuff in the photo mode that seem to be one use?). You are not guaranteed to get Gachapon tickets from them. I’m not entirely sure how it all works honestly, but the better you do, the more you get. Regardless, I think I maybe got like… 60 Gachapon tickets total in my 11 hours of playing and I received tons of repeats and not many unlocks so I’m grateful that you can unlock things from leveling up your Brand too because the gachapon kind of sucks.
But that also means you’ll generally be using that currency to make more variations of outfits. This is also important because NPCs will sometimes ask for things that, sure, you might find, but may be easier to make such as a “unique” outfit in different colors (Usually things made by player brand) or “vivid” items which refer to items make with the Vivid Color Palette (Hope you unlocked it) or “Rare”/”Super Rare” items that have to do with what level you unlocked things or Gachapon rarity or something– so far it seems to be whatever the highest number is on Stars (Blue Stars are items by other people, Red Stars are items by you).
Speaking of unexplained situations, the filter is incredibly basic and I can’t tell if I’m missing something or if it’s an awkward translation issue, but it SOUNDS like I should be able to filter more? Like it’ll tell me to look into the “Sandals” or “Shorts” category and I sure can’t find those so I’m stuck going through every Shoes and Bottoms because I can’t find a way to narrow down sooner. This only gets worse by the encouragement to like everything (as it could help with NPC Tasks and it helps others get points) because you’re trawling through items with no way to categorize more than what part of the body they go on.
I would love to sort by color, by fabric pattern/type, style type (Cool/Cute/Elegant, I genuinely don’t know), by specific types of shoes– even half the kind of search we get from Style Savvy and if there IS a way to do so, I have no clue how and as someone with not tons of fashion knowledge, it’s killing me, but it’s also not fun to have to spend 10+ minutes scrolling through hundreds of items reading each name to see if it mentions if it’s the thing you need for a task.
The NPCs, however, are very forgiving. I’m not entirely sure it’s possible to fail a task. I usually get at least 2/3 hearts for most tasks. Every 3 hearts you get, the next time you meet an NPC, you’ll get a level-up event. These vary in the task, but can be anything from: Matching something for the character (whether an outfit piece or like… their hair color), them copying your outfit (or complimenting it if they can’t), them styling you an outfit, them bringing a new NPC into the fold that you can meet (No cutscenes though– just… Hey, my friend will be coming now), or them giving you a new item/pattern/color/character customization option (I’ve gotten poses and lips so far).
The storylines are somewhat basic, though, are there tied to a character’s personality. I’m not sure what the maximum level is (I think the highest I have an NPC right now is 7 or 8?), but essentially there are three things you need to hit for all three hearts:
-Their Wishlist Want (Could be anywhere from a coat to super rare beige loafers)
-Colors (Do they fit the character? Do they go well together?)
-Making a lookit in the first place
Other factors are trends (There is a trend board that updates in real time. Despite it saying ‘tomorrow’, I saw it update multiple times as I played) and matching those can also add to your score and how much the NPC likes them.
I generally just do my best and it seems to work out, but you could probably min-max it to unlock things faster as you do need to hit three hearts to level them up so if you get less than three, it’ll take at least one more Lookit before you can level them up.
The Cocoons unlock as your Influencer rating grows, but beyond taking pictures (The Photo Egg templates also change per area) and changes in what items are available in the Gachapon, there’s not really anything to do at any of them.
Each has an area where you can check the trends and top items though plus a unique person who can suggest a look for you (Mainly just make-up and hair color), but I would just pick whichever you like the aesthetic best and hang out there. That said, the music does get repetitive after a while.
I feel like some NPCs may be more likely to show in certain ones, but that might just be me or even because I played in Online Mode for the majority of my playtime which mixed in players alongside the NPCs. Considering the NPCs are still there and you can grow your influencer rating and earn more Likes to earn more to use on Patterns, it feels there’s little reason to not play in online mode. This costs really do get expensive– right now, I have patterns that cost 160K to make. I can only imagine how much higher that cost can get.
Speaking of repetitiveness and NPCs, the voices are… interesting? It’s not even so much the delivery (I think the Voice Actors did fine), but the voices feel randomly attributed and who may be speaking it may not fit the character at all. Similarly, you have no input on your own character’s voice so uh, hopefully it sounds okay? The voice lines are also super random and very short to the point where they feel jammed in rather than cohesive.
I would say my personal favorite parts of the game have been getting Lookits from other Players (I’m still too shy to style anyone myself though) and the Showroom.
I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many Lookits you can receive. I kind of hope not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if so. I always liked interior Decorating on a more simplistic scale, so I really love the Showroom a lot, but:
-You’re limited to 25 Clothing items that can be shown off in total in your Showroom. You will hit this very quickly.
-You can only have two mannequins.
-The space is genuinely just really small in general and you can’t put items under hanging items.
I still managed to make something I like and am happy with, but I am already struggling when it comes to deciding what I should put out as I earn more clothing items I really like.
That said, there’s little reason to do the Showroom beyond earning some points when you update it and helping other players. There’s no way to view all items a player created. If they didn’t put them in the Showroom and/or aren’t wearing them, you’re unlikely to see them unless you catch an NPC with their styled outfit on and even then, it may not be anything that NPC is wearing.
The game loop more or less boils down to:
-Walk around current Cocoon room you’re in and style any NPCs you see while also making sure to like their outfits to get new items (If playing online, also like Player’s outfits to earn more items).
-Go to wherever the Trending stuff is and like any items that you haven’t liked before that are on any of the Boards (Whether it be the popular items, current recommended, new, or Lucky Color stuff). Also still keep an eye out for NPCs for the above.
-Maybe make some items if you feel up to it and have enough currency or have a NPC Wishlist request you know you can make.
-Repeat.
-You could also visit some random Showrooms to change things up though and see what others may have put out… to like more items.
It’s very simple and as mentioned, the storylines themselves are rather basic. Despite that, I still enjoyed playing (I streamed for 9+ hours on what was supposed to be a ‘short stream’ particularly because I had noticed the gameplay loop was rather small from my playthrough earlier that day, but I still didn’t want to stop. I felt inclined to keep going) and am looking forward to getting back to it. I’m not sure how long I’ll be super excited to play (As it is, I am worried the cost of pattern items as I level up more may eventually burn me out– it feels like a lot to earn), but I’m at least enjoying it for the moment and I see a lot of promise even if things feel a bit basic.
That said, if you played the Style Savvy series more for the Store Management than the Dress-up feature, this game won’t really be for you. There’s still the puzzle aspect of requests, but that’s really it. This is very much it’s own game despite the similar style.
Anyway, if you have any questions, let me know!
And to finish this off, some of the outfits I had as I played through:
There’s a few dresses I’ve gotten that I REALLY hope I can get the pattern unlocked for so I can make them pink… Fingers crossed.