Style Savvy

Style Savvy

Style Savvy is a fashion-based DS title from Nintendo and developer syn Sophia.

Overview

Style Savvy is a DS fashion game developed by syn Sophia and published by Nintendo. The basic premise puts the player in the role of an employee at a clothing store who is quickly made the manager of her own shop. The player's goal involves building the success of the store by helping customers make choices in their potential purchases and expanding and maintaining the store's stock to cater to a wide variety of tastes.

Gameplay

Players must help customers by catering to their tastes while remaining within their budgets.
Players must help customers by catering to their tastes while remaining within their budgets.

The player takes the role of a young woman as she begins her first day of work at Strata, a successful clothing store run by Grace, who takes the role of the player's mentor. Here, the player is introduced to the central crux of the gameplay, which involves helping customers by suggesting articles of clothing or entire outfits for them to purchase based on the customer's preferred tastes and budget. The player must pay particular attention to what the customer is wearing as well as the nature of her request. The player may ask the customer to try on a suggested garment right away, or have her examine it first to make sure it's what she's looking for. Customers that like the player's suggestions will purchase the items, while customers that don't feel good about the suggestion after trying it on or who still haven't found a style after looking at several suggestions will leave the store without buying anything.

Running a Store

After a series of unusual events involving the rescue of Godfrey, the store owner's butler, from a malicious water fowl attack, the player's character is quickly put in charge of managing her own store. Running the store begins with giving the new shop a name, selecting a backdrop to represent the store, and background music. All of these components may be changed at any time during the game, and new backdrops and music tracks can be unlocked over the course of play.

Additionally, the player can create display outfits by dressing mannequins in collections of garments taken from the store's stockroom. Customers that come in the store may occasionally request to purchase an outfit on display. The player may also send out advertisements, enticing customers to purchase specific items.

Shop Rank

The player's shop is ranked on a scale of one to five stars. The rank goes up as gradually as the player helps customers and makes successful sales. The shop rank affects various in-game activities, such as requirements to unlock new store backgrounds and music and what fashion contests the player may enter.

Character Customization

In addition to giving the player character a name, the player also creates her appearance by selecting from a variety of face shapes, skin tones, eye shapes and colors, lip shapes, eyebrow styles and hair styles. Any item added to the store's stockroom is also added to the player's personal wardrobe, and she may be dressed freely at her apartment. The player may also visit the cosmetics store to purchase new eyeshadow, mascara, colored contacts, and lipstick colors, and new hairstyles and colors may be purchased at the hair salon.

Fashion Contests

Each time the player's shop rises in rank, a new fashion contest becomes available. In a fashion contest, the player is assigned the task of coordinating an outfit to fulfill specific requirements by selecting from a collection of predetermined garments. For example, in a contest where the assignment is to create an outfit that a punk rocker would wear, the player should pick fashions and accessories that correspond with that style. When a fashion contest is won, the player is awarded a special garment from the Masquerade brand, and that contest may be reentered as often as desired. If the player loses, she must wait until the following day to enter the contest again. The five contests are, in order, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and International.

Buyer's Center

The Buyer's Center is where the player goes to purchase new stock to sell in the store. Each of the game's brands is represented by an outlet at the Buyer's Center, though which ones are open vary by the day, governed by the DS handheld's internal clock. Each day, one of the brand outlets puts a unique garment up for sale. The player can hold up to ten of a particular garment in the store's stock room.

Brands

The available clothing brands in the game are:

  • GSX: Sport and athletic wear.
  • Dazies: Colorful and quirky fashions.
  • AZ-USA: Glitzy, glam, and daring garments.
  • April Bonbon: Whimsical fashions for a playful appearance.
  • Alvarado: High end, polished fashions.
  • Terra: Boho-chic fashion.
  • Karamomo: Asian-inspired fashion.
  • Epoque: Delicate, vintage fashion.
  • Capsule: Retro, mod fashion.
  • Marble Lily: Frilly, girly fashions.
  • Raven Candle: Gothic fashions.
  • Penbridge: Preppy fashions.
  • Mad Jack: Punk fashions.
  • Sonata: Refined, sophisticated fashion
  • Pure Cloth: Basic, everyday styles.
  • Masquerade: A secret brand that appears in the Buyer's Center on rare occasions only. Masquerade items are awarded to the player for winning fashion contests.