Ring of Pain is consistently identified as a card game, because enemies and items appear as, well, rectangles that quite honestly look an awful lot like cards. But I think this sort of misses what's actually going on: Ring of Pain is a one-dimensional dungeon crawler. At each given moment, you only have two choices of where to go: left or right. This leads to a kind of quick, frictionless pace that feels really effortless to dive into. This doesn't mean the game doesn't have depth; the game adds a lot of wrinkles and complexity through both deterministic and randomized variables thrown in and offers more kinds of junctures through equipment and path choices. Still, there is sometimes a feeling that there is something lacking, not necessarily in strategic depth, but in ideas. The narrative felt to me to be yet another pseudo-psychological puppet show and at a certain point it felt like the game didn't have much more to surprise me with. It felt at the end to be a numbers game. That's fine, but it does dull the experience. Ring of Pain is good fun, and a creative twist on the dungeon crawl. It's a nice diversion, but unfortunately, that one-dimensionality isn't just spatial.

An interesting tactical, permadeath dungeon crawl with the feel of a Slay the Spire-esque deckbuilder but a totally new take on the mechanics. Ring of Pain is all about upgrading your character attributes and bonus abilities, and then fighting through tactical, semi-deterministic paths of enemies, loot, and dangers.

It's got quick but clever tactics in the gameplay, and engaging longer term planning in your items and equipment - though perhaps lacks the spice of similar titles without huge focus on powerful synergies and builds. Not the best in class, but a solid entry with a wonderful design and theme.

Combat and music in this game ruled, and I loved making Serenoa's choices entirely based off of what his wife thought was best.

However. Whew Boy!!!! The orientalism was off the charts with this one!!!! That scene where our European-coded characters are in a desert city (a scene that not all players will see, given it has branching paths) and are startled and horrified by a daily call to prayer that is very reminiscent of Muslim calls to prayer was wild. How is it scary when Muslims have daily calls to prayer but not when Christians drink the blood and eat the flesh of Christ? It's classic Edward Said Orientalism all the way down in this one.

To quote from the article on Said's work from Wikipedia: "These cultural representations [of the Middle East] usually depict the 'Orient' as primitive, irrational, violent, despotic, fanatic, and essentially inferior to the westerner or native informant, and hence, 'enlightenment' can only occur when "traditional" and "reactionary" values are replaced by "contemporary" and "progressive" ideas that are either western or western-influenced."

I finished the game largely to see just how islamophobic it gets and it is rough. I was pretty unsettled not to see it mentioned in most critical reviews of the game, either.

The tactics were great and I loved most of the characters, but I cannot forgive them for that.

First, its not Style Savvy. I think being compared to it alone its not going to be better but just worse off. I kind of wish people would stop comparing it to style savvy, because it was never promoted (jk it wasn't promoted much at all, thanks nintendo) to be a style savvy game or anything quite like a fashion boutique, so i wont be doing that.

Moving on to the game itself - for what it is..its quite lacking and feels empty, like its missing a lot, perhaps something to make what you are doing more rewarding. The game actually feels unfinished.

The vitual word seems really interesting as a concept and i wish they did more with it to make you feel like a fashion influencer - but with that, there is actually no story. After the quests/tutorial they kind of just drop you and leave you be to go on your own. Now don't get me wrong i love walking around playing dress up and looking really pretty and cute, but you can alone go so long before it just gets repetitive especially when there is no real reward other than followers.

Pros:
- It looks a lot better/cuter and the modern fashion styles give me LIFE
- The fashion customization is actually good and in-depth
- the show rooms and obtaining of new styles is easy and quick if thats your thing
- you get to decorate your own showroom
- cute photo modes
- you dont need nintendo online service to go online (but need nintendo account)

cons:
- No Story whatsoever not even close to one.
- Repetitive gameplay
- Whats up with the hair/make up customization and not saving it??
- gacha...bingo..what?
- Lacking a lot of features that seem like it should be there (maybe future updates will give us something?)
- The vitual world seems empty and do nothing with this concept other than place you in it.
- clothes are 'gender' locked. And there are only 2 body types
- There is really nothing else to do than walk in circles, doing lookits for people and collecting clothes, doing gacha and bingo - thats really it other than showrooms


Personally - im unsure if i have faith in devs to wait what they bring to the table in updates and content. Though i literally hate when games do this after release rather than coming out with full content, im curious still to see what happens. I like it for what it is so far as a game that stands alone, it feels like something you can just go back to when you're bored and in the mood to play dress up. But you can only do like 10 things in the game and again, it feels unfinished.

I can't overstate how humbling it is when strangers find your character charming enough to pop them into cute outfits. The game is clearly aware of this, too: it makes such a production out of getting Lookit Mail that opening one is a guaranteed serotonin boost. In a similar vein, it's extremely satisfying to work some color-coordination magic with another player's Muse. Going off their preferences and accessorizing properly will shower you in huge bonuses and stars galore, which is an undeniable rush. There's a clever sort of open-ended puzzle aspect to this game — and knowing that your unique solution will make someone on the other end of the screen smile really sweetens the solve.

Sadly, it's hard to get that same satisfaction from dressing up the NPCs spattered in the overworld, and the menuing itself is finicky. This is a notable problem, given how much time you spend in menus. It's frustrating that there's no way to save previously-worn outfits, or sort any of your clothing beyond extremely general categories of tops, bottoms, onepieces, etc. This becomes especially burdensome as your inventory becomes inundated with (literally) thousands of items — which happens much faster than you might think.

As much as the style pops, the setting itself is pretty barren, and lacks any significant way to interact with it. It's just a space for you to walk around, gather clothes, and dress people up, but there's not much to do even as you unlock more Cocoons. Progression is a bit haphazard without a dedicated campaign, and the fatigue doesn't take too long to set in.

At the end of the day, the social aspect is what really lifts Fashion Dreamer up and sets it apart from its predecessors. That being said, without some significant content additions and major QOL changes, that probably isn't enough to carry it long-term.

>ask the developer if the game has genderlock or not
>they seem unsure. explain what is genderlock and what is not
>"there's no gender, muse :)"
>find nice shoes
>they're locked