Fashion-loving gamers had cause to celebrate after the first Nintendo Direct of 2023 with the announcement of upcoming release Fashion Dreamer. The new fashion video game will allow players to live and work as fashion influencers while creating outfits and growing a fan base. Even though Fashion Dreamer is decidedly not a sequel to the Style Savvy series from the Nintendo DS and 3DS, many fans were quick to point out similarities in the art and concepts featured in the recent Fashion Dreamer trailer.
The announcement of Fashion Dreamer's 2023 release was among several trailers for other Nintendo DS game HD remasters and sequels that will arrive in 2023 for the Switch, so it's clear that Nintendo is placing some focus on fan-favorite DS series. Fashion Dreamer is a product of XSEED Games, the company behind upcoming remakes and remasters including Rune Factory 3 and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Additionally, Fashion Dreamer was developed by Syn Sophia, the developer that created the original four Style Savvy games, leading many fans to quickly make the connection between the older series and the upcoming title despite any explicit mention of Style Savvy in Fashion Dreamer's trailer or official material.
What Was Style Savvy?
Originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2008, Style Savvy was a fashion simulation video game that tasked players with creating and running their own fashion boutiques. While managing the business, players would travel to various locations in their towns and compete in fashion competitions. These fashion competitions would increase in notoriety and difficulty until players were competing on the international level, and winning these contests would lead their boutiques being featured in various fashion magazines, increasing the success and reach of the boutiques. The game required players to hold the DS sideways as if reading a book, and this approach to the dual screens allowed players to see the full outfits of their characters in greater detail.
While the original Style Savvy game received average critical reviews, it was extremely popular and spawned three sequels on the DS and 3DS. The original Style Savvy eventually received a Wii U release and the four games sold 5.87 million copies worldwide. Since the most recent game, Style Savvy: Styling Star's release, many loyal fans have been hopeful that a Switch port or remake would be in the future, and while Fashion Dreamer is not part of the Style Savvy series, this new game by XSEED Games and Syn Sophia could easily called a sister series or revival due to the extreme similarities.
Fashion Dreamer and Style Savvy's Similarities
The content shown in the Fashion Dreamer official trailer during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct is strikingly similar to Style Savvy, both in content and art style. The graphics are instantly recognizable to fans of the older series, with Fashion Dreamer looking like a scaled-up version of what players have come to expect when picking up a Style Savvy game. From the soft pastel color palette of the world to the frilly, feminine fashion styles on display, it's not surprising that fans are instantly identifying the connection to Style Savvy.
Beyond visual style, the contents of the game appear similar to Style Savvy as well. Though the main storyline has been changed from players running a boutique to an updated fashion influencer plot, players will still be able to purchase and customize clothes from a massive catalog of thousands of tops, bottoms, accessories, dresses, shoes, and more. Additionally, Style Savvy already featured fashion competitions, and in Fashion Dreamer's trailer, players can be seen interacting with NPCs and online, building outfits for contests and in-game events. While players in Style Savvy would work to improve their shop rank and notoriety, fashionable players in Fashion Dreamer will be working to improve their status as influencers.
While Fashion Dreamer is not explicitly a Style Savvy revival, the game does come from the same developer, feature extremely similar mechanics, and pay heavy homage to the original series' art style. It remains to be seen if fans of the Style Savvy series will be happy with this new approach to the fashion and dress-up simulator genres, but if the game meets expectations, it could possibly perform as well as its predecessor did on the DS and 3DS.
Fashion Dreamer will be released in 2023 for the Nintendo Switch.