Style Savvy Review for Nintendo DS

     I HAD to give this game a shot! With such high review scores and recommendations, I was pretty enticed to try out this fashion game. And besides that, I was already interested when I found out that it was a fashion game that didn't play down to it's audience. It treats you like a person, not a generic 8 year-old girl that likes Barbie dolls. So here's what I got out of my experience:

= Try this on for size! - Here's the barebones of Style Savvy: Look at your customer's personality and clothing style and try to match it. That's it! Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me. I don't think anyone really knows that I secretly love women's clothes. I also have no better way of wording that sentence either at the moment! I mean it in the sense that I love the way women look in different fashions. It seems so much more fun than what guys tend to have going on. I looked forward to playing since I think that I may have a good eye for what goes with what to make an attractive outfit. I wanted to have my own store and sell styles that I liked. That's what any fashion store would do, right? You don't go to Hot Topic to find stuff you'd see at Abercrombie and Fitch (Their clothes don't breathe worth a damn by the way). Unfortunately, that's not what you get with Style Savvy and it was a bit disappointing.
     You get your own store and you get to choose what kind of fashions it sells, what the front of the store looks like, and even the music of your shop! None of this seems to factor into what kind of customers you get. I ran a boho-chic shop (Think indie, earthy wear) and I kept getting teenyboppers and elite class women. I went out of my way to make sure the game recognized what kind of clothes I wanted to sell but it just wouldn't give me the right customers.

+ Maybe this is more you? - There is a bit more depth to the game than I've seen with a couple of other fashion-oriented games, not that I've played any though. There's a bit too much to go through and they'd all get small explanations anyway so lets just shoot right through what else Style Savvy offers.

• Hard Sells - Just because someone wants what they asked for doesn't mean you have to give it to them. Sometimes someone just wanted a prissy mini-skirt but you just don't have it. Offer them something else that might compliment they're current attire or personality and you might rope them in to try something new. 

• Fashion Shows - You can enter into fashion shows to win premium clothing pieces and gain recognition for your store. They're incredibly easy to win though, I can't say that I felt like my competitors were even trying.

• Guest Designer - A company can hire you to design a piece with one of their own stylists but the only thing you can do is change two colors of specific designs on the clothes. Kind of a missed opportunity right there because how cool would it be is you could really just make your own designs?

• Customize The Store - You get to choose the looks, the sounds, and the styles of your store as well as making your own mannequin displays, creating advertisement flyers, and declaring sales.

• Magazine Features - At times, you can be interviewed for a magazine article where you can show them one outfit and two additional pieces of clothing to show off. I didn't get interviewed more than once and customers were constantly asking for what was featured in the article when I could no longer acquire them.

• Seasonal Outfits - The styles that you can buy actually change around the year.

• Interact With Other Store Owners - You can connect to the internet to obtain exclusive fashion items and receive flyers from other players to shop at their stores. For a game like this, this specific feature is genius to me. 

- Sorry, I wanted leather, not pleather - For all that it does to vary the gameplay, there's just so much that it fails to fully deliver on which sucks because there's so much potential! The more you play it, the more you begin to see that the whole game is just based on giving clothes to picky NPC's. I expected more from Style Savvy.

- The Fashion Police have arrived - I wanted self-expression. I wanted to dress up women and I wanted to influence the styles of my new customers that were looking for something different or to change the perspectives of those who think certain clothes and colors can't mix. It wasn't here. I mean, it is but it follows a method that takes creativity and passion to a more mechanical level. Don't mix brands even if the clothes go together, don't work with customers who don't want what you have, it's the design of a game with the goal of attaining a win with no reward at the finish line. Animal Crossing is a good example of what this game should have been with it's surprise events, constantly changing cast, and rewards out the wazoo.

+ That is, like, so you! - Playing dress-up with your character is extremely varied, deep, and my favorite part of the entire game. There are so many styles when it came to the eyes, hair, lips, clothes, highlights, eyeshadow, you really get to make your character exactly how you want! While it's not on the same lines of customization available in a game like ModRacers on the PS3, it's comparable to Little Big Planet's sackboy creation tools. A GREAT feature in a game such as this!

- I had no idea - They don't really help you in this game at all. If you have zero fashion sense, you're gonna have to figure it out for yourself because the game rarely ever clearly recognizes what you did right or wrong. There's no indicator for what goes together either except for brand names, colors, and common sense. I was asked to prepare an outfit for the customer many times and a bunch of them were flat out rejected. I have 7-9 items in that outfit and it could be literally one thing that makes the customer flat-out disgusted and she won't tell you what it is. To me, the outfit made complete, perfect sense but it didn't work according to the game's logic and it didn't care to illustrate why that was.
     Also, be sure to get a hold of the booklet because there were a few things that are immensely helpful to your success that are just never brought to your attention, things like expanding your inventory and gaining the ability to declare sales.

Story and Presentation

+ Made in Japan - You can tell from the aesthetics that it came from Japan. In fact, I believe this game was brought over to the states after becoming such a huge success overseas. It works really well for the game actually. It's got some aesthetics in common with the popular Bratz dolls and the design brings a lot of life to the game making everything feel happy and upbeat! While it might put off some potential buyers that aren't into things they shallowly cast off as "anime crap" I can't think of a better look for Style Savvy.

= Oh. Em. Gee. He JUST looked at me! *scream* - As you start to branch off into your own store and strive to become the best stylist internationally, you are basically being pimped by a dude named Dominic who is oh-too-cute! He pays for your store and helps you finance things as you go along. Your co-worker won't stop gabbing about how cute he is though and sometimes it can get annoying but it never really bothered me. That's about all the story there is though.

Sound

- You missed a beat... - The soundtrack is horrendous. I dunno how many people it's likely to affect but it's looping began to aggravate me. Past that, there's nothing good to hear or anything that adds to the experience really so I suggest turning the volume down. All the way.

Graphics

= Not so Haute Couture... - It ain't pushin' any limits but it does what it needs to to serve the style they're goin' for.

Should you buy it?

     No, at least, not for yourself anyway (that is if you're the stereotypical, hardened gamer that desires complicated mechanics). But I would advise any and all gamers to not hesitate whatsoever in getting this game for any girl you know that is into the whole fashion scene or loves dress-up. I'd say the perfect age for this game would be in the 12 and up area. And if you're looking to get a girl into gaming at all, I'd be inclined to say that they might learn a thing or two through Style Savvy that someone else might learn through an action game or an rpg. I may actually write up an article on that sometime, we'll see. Otherwise, a rent could definitely not hurt if you've ever been interested in something along these lines. I did enjoy my time with the game as a whole for the most part.

Style Savvy was developed by syn Sophia and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Played for 12+ hours and got my store "Neptune*" up to a three-star store rating.