Developer: syn Sophia
Publisher: Marvelous
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Fashion Dreamer – Review
If you were around during the DS and 3DS era, you may remember a series of games called Style Boutique (or Style Savy in the US). The studio behind these fashion games, syn Sophia, has now brought a spiritual successor to these titles to the Switch, under the title Fashion Dreamer. We weren’t necessarily part of the audience for the Style Boutique games, and we probably aren’t who Fashion Dreamer is aimed at either. That’s not going to stop us from giving the game a fair and honest review, of course, and we were pleasantly surprised by DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power, so who knows? Maybe syn Sophia has a hidden gem in store for us. Read on to find out whether or not Fashion Dreamer is up your alley… or that of your daughter or little sister.
Story
The stage -or catwalk, if you will- for Fashion Dreamer is a virtual world called Eve. Eve is both a social network and a place where budding fashionistas can unleash their creative urges on the world. As Eve’s newest influencer, it’s up to you to make your mark as a trendsetter, and reach platinum rank on the social network. That’s all there is to Fashion Dreamer’s story. There is no real plot line beyond the initial setup. Although there are literally dozens of NPCs, these don’t really add anything to the story, and instead act simply as mannequins with a personal style preference, but no substance or personality otherwise.
Graphics
The visual star of the show for any fashion game are the outfits, of course, and there is quite the variety here. In this regard, Fashion Dreamer does what it needs to do. The clean interface and soft colors that the world itself bathes in, allow the pieces of clothing to truly shine. Fashion Dreamer isn’t a game that pushes any visual boundaries, but it does what it needs to do. The character creator is a particular highlight, offering tons of options to create your own influencer, although we would’ve liked to have seen more variety in body types, both for the player and for the NPCs.
Sound
With only limited sound effects and no voice acting, there isn’t a whole lot to Fashion Dreamer in terms of audio. The overworld music is varied enough and fits the cozy and relaxed atmosphere that the game tries to convey. Additionally, you’re able to choose from a variety of tunes to play when someone visits your boutique, but that’s about all we can say about Fashion Dreamer’s soundscape.
Gameplay
After creating an avatar that represents your budding fashion designer, you’re guided through an easy-to-follow but lengthy tutorial that covers every aspect of Fashion Dreamer in perhaps a bit too much detail, almost to the point of hand-holding. Said tutorial takes place in a so-called cocoon. This is your personal hub area, where NPCs come to visit, each with their own personal preferences and tastes. Fashion Dreamer’s core gameplay loop is deceptively simple. The majority of your time is spent putting together outfits for these NPCs, based on their personal preferences. Characters will ask you to meet criteria, such as their favorite color, a specific piece of clothing, or what kind of vibe their outfit exudes. Dressing up a punk rocker in floral patterns may seem like a funny idea, but the more you match a character’s style request, the better the rewards you get. These are then used to further build your fashion brand, enabling you to meet the demands of pickier customers. Rinse and repeat.
Early on, your collection mostly comprises pre-made pieces of clothing, which you obtain by talking to NPCs. In addition to the clothes you’ve gathered, every time you try to put together an ensemble outfit, called a “Lookit”, you’re also presented with quick picks, pieces of clothing that are pre-selected but not part of your permanent stash of clothing. As you build up your reputation on the Eve network, and increase your follower count, you’ll gradually become able to customize clothing, adding your unique twists. This lets you tailor things much more accurately to the demands of the customer, although, to our disappointment, customizing clothing felt rather limited. You’re not able to create custom patterns, something that is perfectly possible in Animal Crossing for example. This feature felt sorely missing in a game where fashion is the main focus.
Putting together Lookits for NPCs is Fashion Dreamer’s main feature, but the game admittedly tries to break up the gameplay loop in order to prevent things from getting too stale. There is a bingo mini-game as well as a gacha machine that randomly hands out new clothing patterns. You can open up a boutique and connect online so other players can come and look at your creations and even add them to their own collection, earning you more in-game points in the process. Additionally, there is a fashion forecast, where a weatherman tries to predict which kinds of clothing are going to be fashionable for the next time period, allowing you to tailor your creations to what the audience expects. It’s an interesting system in theory, but in practice, everything boils down to simply obtaining more resources, which aid you in further expanding your catalog and building your empire. Speaking of resources, there are various types to keep track of. By far the most prevalent are reputation points, which are tied to your followers and the number of likes you get on your creations. It’s easy to rack these up, to the point that we got more than we could ever spend. The second type of “currency” to keep track of are creative keys, which allow you to create new clothing items. E-points are what you need to use to buy furniture for your boutique and bingo tickets let you, well, play bingo… which can earn you even more e-points. It’s a lot to keep track of but since Fashion Dreamer is so simple at its core, it never feels overwhelming.
The online component doesn’t really add anything substantial either, and simply acts as an extension to Fashion Dreamer‘s core gameplay loop. Instead of NPCs asking for specific outfits, you can create your own query, and other players can send you their creations in return. Likewise, you can create new outfits based on what other players request. However, given the overall harmless nature of Fashion Dreamer, you cannot fail here either. It’s almost as if Fashion Dreamer was designed to be as inoffensive as possible, eagerly accepting whatever you come up with instead of criticizing you for not meeting specific criteria. In this regard, Fashion Dreamer doesn’t really feel like an actual video game but more like a very advanced version of those simple dress-up Flash games that were popular online around a decade ago.
It’s perhaps Fashion Dreamer’s biggest issue: the game lacks any modicum of challenge. It’s long and tedious, but racking up in-game currencies isn’t difficult in any way, shape, or form, and pre-made clothing items are simply acquired from NPCs without having to give anything in return. The game screams to be a creative outlet but in practice, you’re simply swapping colors on pre-existing clothing patterns. Things started out simple and we were initially happy with the high degree of accessibility, but once the tutorial was over we realized that Fashion Dreamer wasn’t going to get more involved or complex than what we had seen up until that point. It also seems that it was impossible to really ‘fail’ in dressing up an NPC. Sure, your score will vary depending on how well you meet the criteria, but even a terrible outfit will still end up being loved by the character. That’s not to say that it’s a bad game per se, especially since the target audience for this is going to be 9 to 12-year-old girls and not cynical thirty-something reviewers, but we were kind of expecting more from what Fashion Dreamer had to offer, especially given the premium price tag.
Conclusion
Although Fashion Dreamer is very accessible and enjoyable for what it purports to be, it’s hard to ignore just how limited it is in terms of creative freedom. It’s a decent enough dress-up title that will definitely appeal to its core target audience. Unfortunately, there simply isn’t enough here to convince anyone outside of that audience to really get stuck into what the genre has to offer. We’re not experts on fashion games by any means, but if Fashion Dreamer is anything to go by, we’re not going to take a deep dive into the genre anyway. It’s fine for what it wants to be, and the preteen crowd will absolutely adore it, but given the limited appeal, we suggest picking this one up with a discount, if at all.
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