Style Savvy: Reload Blast

A few days ago I started playing the demo of Style Savvy: Styling Star... I was almost shocked that the demo was already out, I was thinking in terms of Nintendo's usual delays. I figured... next year, maybe. But here it is! I've replayed it multiple times already. While I started out just making another character that sort of looked like me, as I was selecting the droopy eyes... I noticed a similarity to a familiar character...

Behold! Female Genjo Sanzo. Maybe all he needed to cure his grouchiness was for his worst nightmare to come true. Now he'll have to spend the rest of his life fighting off a certain horny water sprite. Uahahahaha...

Don't smile like that, Female Sanzo, people will think you've lost your mind. Where's the cranky bastard we all know and... love(??)...?

So, yes... Winceworthy as it is, I really did have a genderbent Genjo Sanzo running around my demo version in charge of a boutique named Saiyuki. Running around monkeyless. Totally monkeyless. Where is the monkey? Nothing fun happens without the monkey. (Maybe that's why s/he's smiling so serenely...)

I had a lot of fun with the demo... I'm just a little frustrated that Nintendo is opting for no retail version in North America. I'm really not fond of the push towards digital only.

And now for a huge long string of pictures, ended with some little vapid blurb of opinions.

The demo's first customer.

Now with boots.

A sugar-sweet little outfit for Rosie.

The demo gives the option to take a close look at the finished outfit or totally skip it. Now I just wish you could ask them to pose here instead of standing there like cardboard standees...

It's Jiamin... It looks as if they kept some of the characters, or at least their basic looks, from the previous game... On the other hand, the Cleo being announced as just walking into the store looked nothing like my crazy bold Cleo in the jumpsuits and weird bling from the previous game.

My, that's pretty.

It is a good morning, because there is no annoying monkey in my apartment.

It's Harue! Or is it? Same name, same look... different vocation.

There was a Lilia in the previous game who was entirely different from this lady here.

Um... Yes, it is. (???)

A performance outfit for Rosie, now an up-and-coming pop idol.

It looks to me as if Styling Star is a return to many of the elements of the first game, including the visual style, but with significant improvements they picked up all along the way. I've got mixed feelings about the visuals, but it's not that much of a concern. It's a relief to see the game returning a bit to the challenge-based system in the first and second games... I loved Fashion Forward, but they pretty much removed almost every actual "gameplay" element they could find. There was basically no element of challenge at all. Styling Star seems to be returning to this and much more... The customer purchase history button is like a dream come true for me, along with the hint that many characters will now have their own little stories and subplots to follow. Plus that affection/trust/happiness gauge or whatever... I'm really looking forward to the full game's release. And the fact that you can dress guys again... Man, I missed that feature. Also, it looks as if they really diversified the lineup of items for males. I almost can't wait to get my hands on it. Well, I won't be getting my hands on anything from a literal standpoint, since there's no physical release of the game, but you know what I mean.