When you first begin the game and are greeted by your eccentric uncle Tim, you are given the option to customise your in-game character. There is a variety of features that you can customise and it was a great that the developers added in the option to have single or double eyelids. When designing my character, I tend to stick to the same looking character in each game. I found it difficult to pick the eyes as some of them look a bit scary/empty looking and the new game graphics make some of them too shiny.
Now we'll talk about the story line of the game. The franchise took a new direction and focus on a idol/pop star story this time round. At first I was sceptical of this as I thought the entire game would be about the songs rather than fashion. I was proved wrong when the actual story line focuses on helping three girls achieve their dreams of becoming idols with your assistance as their stylist. The three idol girls (Rosie, Yolanda and Alina) come to your boutique asking for your assistance in picking outfits for their debuts and performances. Their company NIN10 Productions pays you in return for your work. There is another idol in the game, the famous Angelique, and you do get to interact with her as well plus many other main characters. All the characters are endearing and have unique personalities. My favourite character from the main story line would have to be Camilla as I found her personality and story line amusing. The story line does drag on for a long time however. It took myself about 42 hours of gameplay to just play the full main story line. There was points were nothing much happened in the game and you just have to keep working on getting Stylist Points whilst waiting for the next story event to occur.
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| Camilla would have to be my favourite character in the game. |
The developers decided to go with a in-game clock system in this game rather than the real-time one used in Fashion Forward. I'm not sure which one I prefer really. I like the real-time clock (based off the 3DS clock) as you would always know what time it was in the game and could play for hours on end. But with the in-game clock, time moves quicker and you can pass more days easily to obtain new items. The main part I don't like about the in-game clock is that the days sometimes go too quick and customers barely appear (more on that in the next paragraph).
The customer request system has changed in Styling Star. In the previous game Fashion Forward, you would normally get the same style customers visiting your boutique all the time and there was always a constant stream of customers. With Styling Star, customers will either ask for a particular item with usually no set theme or an outfit based off a theme. I prefer the outfit one as you get to be more creative with your choices and you make more money. I wish the developers would create a mix between the two so you can make a substantial amount of money from items. The number one thing I hate about customers at the boutique in Styling Star is the frequency. In one day, I reckon you'll have tops 10 customers. I find I just never have enough visiting my boutique and some times during the day, I'll have none! I have to often exit and reenter to trigger at least one customer. You can message people to visit but you can only send three requests per day. I miss the old system from Fashion Forward with the floor display on the bottom screen and it would always be full of customers no matter what time it was.
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| This red trousers in one try request is a bizarre one that happens often. |
Once you finish the main story line, there isn't really much to do in the game. The developers decided to remove all the challenging aspects such as unlocking things and fashion shows. Oh how I miss fashion shows! It was always a fun challenge to try and find five star outfits and work out what make-up and hairstyle matched the theme. Watching the fashion show was fun as well and taking photos was always a favourite of mine. Now all that's gone and unfortunately nothing has replaced it. Modelling jobs were also removed so no chance of doing those. I think the developers really failed with content in Styling Star. They took out so many fun features and replaced them with nothing. Once you finish the main story, there's nothing to do besides getting the awards and collecting items. Which you don't really get anything valuable from, at least with fashion shows and modelling jobs you had fun designing concepts. You don't get invited to attend locations or events with NPC's anymore. It was always fun visiting places like the Meadows or Maple Crescent with characters. Nothing like that is in Styling Star. The only time you visit locations is in the main story line but it's all pre-programmed with what happens. After the main story line, there are a few little events with siblings of certain characters, but nothing as exciting as say the Five Sisters from Fashion Forward.
