Fashion Dreamer is a fashion doll fantasy that’s almost modern enough
After going hands on with XSEED Games’ Fashion Dreamer at PAX West, all I could think about was paper dolls. The models (or Muses, as the game calls them) have unique tastes and ideas of what they want to wear, but they’re ultimately still there for you to play with and dress up. If you enjoyed getting to pick out different outfits for your toys as a kid, this is definitely a game for you.
Fashion Dreamer allows you to create your own avatar to move through the various, small maps in the game. You get to choose your gender and body type, though these are currently restricted to binary genders. Certain clothes are also currently locked to male or female body types, but PR did tell us that they’ve heard requests to include skirts for men in the game, and there may be changes by the time the game releases or in future updates. Though some of the outfits and body types are restrictive, the make-up in Fashion Dreamer isn’t. Male Muses can wear lipstick, eyeshadow, mascara, and more right alongside their suit or joggers or whatever.
The main loop of the game actually revolves around dressing up other Muses, however. As you go through the different hub areas, you will encounter other Muses that you can talk to and dress. They’ll tell you what kinds of colors and patterns they like, as well as their general style sense. Some will want you to stick pretty closely to those elements, while others will be surprised and delighted if you go away from their expectations. If the Muse likes how you’ve dressed them, you’ll get a boost to your social media rating, which will help you build your brand. You can also earn currency for mini games by doing this, so it’s never a bad idea to give someone a new fit.
If you decide to take your game online, you are also able to dress up other people’s Muses from their games. This is a global feature, which gives cute insight into how players across the world are assembling outfits. During my demo, I saw multiple Muses with German phrases attached to them because they had been created during recent Gamescom demos. That alone put a smile on my face, so seeing everyone in the full release is sure to be exciting.
Beyond having a world of interactive dolls at your fingertips, Fashion Dreamer also provides a cute new tool for creating visual representations of original characters from fiction, tabletop campaigns, or whatever other creative endeavors you may have cooking. If you loved the customization in Baldur’s Gate 3, Fashion Dreamer’s character creation and clothing/make-up features will probably scratch that same itch, though maybe not on quite the same scale. Hopefully the game will add even more gender inclusive features in the future to really give us that customization freedom.
Fashion Dreamer is coming to Nintendo Switch on November 3.
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