Dream House Days DX

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 58 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement.

Dream House Days originally released on mobile devices in 2013, then saw a port to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2021, PC in 2022, and Xbox One in 2023. And honestly this one seems a bit confused about what it is, exactly. There are no houses in Dream House Days, but rather you’re managing apartments. But your role isn’t strictly one of landlord, as you won’t just be managing the income, layout, and furnishings of the apartments you’re overseeing, but also directly intervening in your residents’ lives to improve their income, make sure they have a rich social life, and make sure that they’re capable of paying their whole rent. Oh yes, if they can’t pay their rent, you just shrug your shoulders, take the financial hit, and then go about trying to make their place better-furnished so they’ll be enriched enough to go out and earn more. Something tells me this game’s designers have never met an actual apartment manager.

The end result is something vaguely similar to a more simplified take on The Sims, though don’t expect to tell residents directly what to do… or to pull up any ladders from pools, for that matter. In any case, this places Dream House Days closest to Kairosoft’s Hot Springs Story formula, treating the homes of your residents like personal enrichment centers, trying to furnish them to best improve your residents so they’re better-able to compensate you (and hopefully pay you more than the upkeep costs).

As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals presented in an isometric view, paired with repetitive chiptune music and sound effects. Apart from the forgettable and somewhat annoying synthesized music, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, I think that Dream House Days is a solid Management Simulation, but it’s one where you have to try to wrap your head around this game’s approach to apartment management, since this is very different from the way real apartment managers operate. However, if it seems appealing to you to be a more nurturing sort of apartment manager who is directly invested in the lives of your residents, you may find Dream House Days to your liking.

tl;dr – Dream House Days DX is a Management Simulation where players manage an apartment complex, trying to ensure that everything remains profitable while also nurturing the lives of your residents. This is kinda’ a bizarre approach to the genre, but the result is somewhat like a simplified take on The Sims’ formula, and if that appeals to you then you may want to give this game a look.

Grade: B-

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