Style Savvy: Fashion Forward

Genre: Simulation / Misc.

Players: 1

.

Review:

Style Savvy: Fashion Forward, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016 and known in other regions as Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique – Fashion Forward, is a game probably best described as a Simulation, where players take the role of a new employee at a fashionable clothing shop charged with recommending outfits based on customer requests and ordering new inventory to sell to future customers. This is the third game in the Style Savvy series.

This game bears a lot of similarities to previous titles in the series, and as such I will be copying some of the contents of my review of Style Savvy: Trendsetters in this review.

Fashion Forward starts somewhat differently than earlier titles, with a somewhat unusual premise. The player takes the role of a young woman gifted a strange key by their grandmother, which they find opens a previously locked door in their dollhouse. Almost immediately, out walks a small person, who invites the player to join her in the world inside the door in the dollhouse, where the player will become the new manager at… what else? A stylish fashion boutique.

The presentation here is good, though somewhat uneven. The game makes use of 3D characters and backgrounds, but the character models it uses have somewhat cartoonishly exaggerated features, reminding me more than anything of Bratz dolls. However, while the characters look a bit off-putting and have unnatural exaggerated animations, the clothes they’re wearing look excellent, featuring a lot of detail, nice textures, and an incredible amount of variety (the game boasts that it has over 19,000 different clothing items and accessories). These visuals are all backed by a light synthesized soundtrack that’s not particularly memorable, but works well enough for the game.

When it comes to the gameplay, this game pretty much focuses on one core gameplay loop – dealing with customers to make money to buy more product to sell to customers to make money for more product, and so on. In between, players can outfit their own character and redecorate multiple rooms in a building called Caprice Chalet, and visit a few different locations, but mostly this game comes down to helping customers with their needs and then using the profits to buy more stock for the store.

Interactions with customers involve customer requesting a piece of clothing or an outfit that meets certain criteria, using the game’s extensive search system to look through their store’s stock to see what products match what the customer is asking for, and then trying to find which of those clothes seem to be aesthetically pleasing while staying within the customer’s budget. It’s not an especially difficult task – the game uses keywords for searches that make honing in on the customer’s desired style relatively easy. However, it’s still enjoyable enough.

When it comes to buying products, players head to an “exhibition hall” filled with wholesalers and ideally get enough of a variety to cover prospective requests from customers. The game implicitly encourages players to buy up a wide variety of clothing in this portion of the game, because the player’s character will get an extra copy of any piece of clothing they buy that they can outfit on themselves, which is a nice touch.

This game also adds new Miiverse features that are sadly no longer available, as well as new Amiibo support to enable players to get clothes based on various Amiibo characters. It’s not much, but it’s a nice bonus all the same.

One of the game’s more annoying issues is that the game automatically assumes the player is female, and doesn’t give any option to play a man. Look, I’m not big into fashion myself, but I know there are a fair number of guys who are, and making this a game that not only makes women its target audience but assumes that they will be exclusively female… well, that’s sexist.

However, I suppose my biggest complaint here is that the game has so much potential to expand on the business side of things here, but has no interest in doing so. Players cannot set prices of their products, and their ability to manage the details of their shop are limited. Mostly, this game’s primary focus is on the fashion itself.

Ultimately, this means that Style Savvy: Fashion Forward is an extraordinarily niche game. If you are interested in fashion and only fashion, and aren’t repulsed by this game’s exaggerated character designs, you may well find the huge amount of clothing and the ability to put together your own outfits to be a dream come true. But if you’re hoping for a bit more depth in your gameplay, you’ll likely be disappointed.

tl;dr – Style Savvy: Fashion Forward, like prior games in the series, is a Simulation-style game that has players taking the role of an employee at a fashionable clothing shop making recommendations to customers and buying new stock with the profits. This game has an absolute wealth of clothing options, but the actual management gameplay is sadly limited. This is a niche game that will absolutely please players who are interested in the one thing it does very well, but everyone else will likely be left wanting.

Grade: C+

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