Fashion Dreamer Review – Review
When Fashion Dreamer was announced at the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, it felt like a dream come true for fans of the cult classic Style Savvy series, the DS and 3DS titles about fashion that were truly better than they had any right to be. Fashion Dreamer seemed to be a successor, also being a fashion centric game by the same developer, Syn Sophia. Would Fashion Dreamer be the spiritual successor to Style Savvy on the Switch that fans seemed to want?
Right off the bat, as a fan of the Style Savvy series, Fashion Dreamer is not Style Savvy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, after all this is a new series, but fans who are looking for the classic experience of running a fashion boutique may be disappointed. So if what you’re looking to play is more Style Savvy, you might have to dust off your 3DS and play one of the pre-existing titles.
Instead, Fashion Dreamer is focused on a virtual world called Eve, where your goal is to be a fashion influencer. You walk around the world as your avatar (called a Muse), collect clothing, and work towards influencing by designing outfits both for NPC muses and (if you use the online mode) for other players of the game. You can also create your own brand and customize item patterns and create your own showroom to show off your home decor and fashion skills.
The online aspect of Fashion Dreamer is where things really shine. It’s satisfying to be able to create outfits based off of what other people say they want and send it over to them, and likewise get outfits made in return for you. For example, I indicated in my bio that my favorite color is yellow, that I like flower prints and that I like a cute style, so I’ve had some really fun outfits sent over to me based on that. Being able to share clothing items and create outfits for other players is fun and it’s almost shocking there hasn’t been a fashion-focused game like this before.
The biggest issue I have with Fashion Dreamer is that, as a game, any sort of tension or gameplay loop is completely lacking. Collecting clothing items is trivial, as you can collect any item you see on any character and there are areas where you can snag dozens of clothing options at a time. Once you are done with the tutorial, the gameplay largely centers around making new outfits, but there is rarely any challenge there either. You can attempt to make outfits that fit more with what the person is asking for and fit with the current trend, but it just gives you slightly more of the in-game currency you’ll likely be swimming in if you spend any amount of time in the online mode. With NPCs you get a ranking from one to three stars, but it also doesn’t seem to make much difference beyond leveling up an NPC slightly slower. Occasionally NPCs will ask you to style a specific thing (one really wanted me to center an outfit around her socks), but it doesn’t provide any specific challenge.
Ultimately, without the gameplay loop of buying and selling items at your boutique as found in the Style Savvy series, Fashion Dreamer ends up being more akin to playing dress up with dolls than actually playing a video game. And if that’s all you’re looking for, Fashion Dreamer is a great dress up game. There are thousands of different items and lots of customization options for character appearance. Being able to customize items by color also adds a level of freedom. However, despite all the freedom, there’s no real incentive to keep playing or to push forward.
Fashion Dreamer is, I’m sure, something that could appeal to a certain person. If all you’re looking for is the freedom to play dress up with thousands of items and create cute outfits, you might want to pick up Fashion Dreamer. However, if you’re looking for a satisfying gaming experience, you’ll need to keep dreaming.
