You first day in the world of Style Savvy: Fashion Forward begins like any other… until, lured by the promise of cute clothes, you’re shrunken down in size and invited to enter the secret world inside your grandmother’s old doll house. Mondays, am I right?
Thus begins your life in Beaumonde. Your mentor, a peppy girl named Sophie, makes quick work of promoting you to manager of the town’s clothing boutique. From then on out you’ll be busy fixing fashion faux pas, organizing advertising campaigns, purchasing new stock, building your clientele and re-designing everything in sight (people included).
Bursting at the Seams
The 3rd installment in Nintendo and Syn Sophia Inc.’s Style Savvy series, Fashion Forward may have taken a little over a year to be localized but fans of the series will find it worth the wait once they get their hands on the game. FF is by far the most content-rich installment thus far adding a host of new activities and taking the series up a notch from shop simulator to life simulator. You’re no longer just a shopgirl… you’re the architect of a mini empire.
Style Savvy: Fashion Forward (via Nintendo)
Everyone has to start somewhere, so you’ll spend your first few in-game day pounding the pavement of Beaumonde, getting to know the locals and encouraging them to stop by the boutique. Once you’ve made a name for yourself, you’ll be recruited by the local salon and makeup artist to help them coiffe and paint their walk-ins. After that you’ll begin collecting and using miniature furniture to decorate the rooms of a magical dollhouse chalet. That’s right, dollhouse-ception. That’s only the beginning; between modeling, collecting items and designing your own exclusive pieces of clothing, you’ll be hard pressed to find yourself without something to do.
Style Savvy: Fashion Forward (via Nintendo)
A big part of Fashion Forward’s appeal is the replayability factor. While the mechanics never change, the crowds of young women looking for new wardrobes, haircuts and makeovers never abate and the array of clothing you can sell and the miniature furniture you can collect seem to be endless. With each character wanting a different look each time they visit the boutique, there’s little to no repetition in what you’ll be doing each time you play.
If the Shoe Fits, Wear it
While my interest and knowledge of the world of fashion and beauty are limited (at best), I found myself spending hours coordinating in-game outfits and applying real world makeup techniques to digital, doe-eyed anime girls with a certain childish glee.
The gameplay is simple, the story is simple and the characters are exceedingly simple. The game as a whole is simple but Style Savvy: Fashion Forward didn’t set out to revolutionize the world of gaming… and it didn’t really have to. The game’s mechanics are varied, simple, fun and rewarding, and while it may not be a revolution, it has certainly set a standard in terms of variety and content and for other titles in the life sim genre.
Style Savvy: Fashion Forward is available now on Nintendo 3DS for $39.99 (CDN).
DISCLAIMER: Style Savvy: Fashion Forward review copy provided by Nintendo Canada. The opinions expressed in the article above have not be affected by, dictated or edited in any way by the provider. For more information please see Girls on Games’ Code of Journalistic Ethics.