(finally setting down the switch after playing fashion dreamer from 12am-5am nonstop) It's just ok.



ok, for my serious initial impression: don't expect style savvy from this. the npcs are static and don't really have anything going for them, and there's no story at all. your job this time around is a "virtual influencer" or something like that. except it's not even a job because all you're doing is dressing people up, liking their clothes in order to add them to your own closet, and gaining followers. in fact, the game progression surrounds just that-- gaining followers. and it's not like gaining followers is particularly difficult, either. when you make an outfit, you either get some followers or a lot of them. you can make the most atrocious thing for an npc that doesn't suit their request at all and they'll be like "wow! i love the colors! how strange. good thing i love strange!" and you still win

i do think that if i came in with no style savvy expectations, i'd probably have liked it. in fact, i even think if you came in just for a Dress-Up Game (and only a dress-up game), then you'd love it! the graphics are beautiful and the clothes are everywhere between cute and gorgeous. the character you make is cute, the npcs are cute, everything is cute. in online play mode, you can even dress up other players + see the outfits they designed. you can even receive outfits from them too, which is always nice! in the end though, it just comes down to being a mindless fashion game (that feels like a small upgrade to one of those mobile ones) to play idly for... $45? $50?

another grievance i had was the body type locked clothing. they made sure to define the types as A and B as opposed to "male" and "female" but the clothing was still locked in the same way you'd expect from other games and their gender (?) locking. it was... disappointing. i understand that it's likely to do with trying to adjust clothes to both models but it didn't make me feel any less disappointed about it LOL

that being said, i did wind up coming back to it on and off after my initial 5 hours straight out from launch! so it's not the worst game ever. in fact, since my expectations have been so thoroughly crushed, maybe i'll be able to force myself into loving it for what it is so i don't feel like my money was wasted

EDIT: i couldn't force myself to love it BUT i let my youngest cousin use my switch and i taught him how to play this game since he recently became comfortable with reading. he was able to sit down and play it for around 2-3 hours straight which means my money DID go somewhere thank god

although romance is not the crux of the story, love is

thought it was going to be like a melodramatic cheesy little love story but it ended up being an entirely heartwrenching mystery and i'm so sad. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS WAS FREE i am staring at the post-epilogue title screen right now entirely bereft. but also satisfied. But mostly like sad

really pretty art and yes it did feel a little cheesy and cliche every once in a while but ultimately i adored this

once i realized this was a game based on an rp group, things made a lot more sense!

the pixel art is gorgeous and the whole project is incredibly endearing. all routes feel more like first steps in a friendship/relationship/potential murder but that's understandable given that there r more than 25 target characters and that said characters are all a bunch of people's ocs from a pre-existing universe as opposed to characters designed for a player character to come in and wow! there are also a lot of explicitly french characters which isn't that important but i thought it was funny

had lots of fun. i love u titus, dinae, arbor, luca (with warmth and affection) and bugbear (with regret and fear)