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xyzzysqrlSo I ran into a slight problem with the opening of Style Savvy: Fashion Forward -- It doesn't give you your camera right away. This means I can't get any screenshots of the opening of the game and boy howdy did I want to get screenshots of the opening because this game starts off kind of insane. Once I was finished flopping around in panic mode and decided not to call off the gameblog because of this, I looked for some solutions.
Instead of screenshotting a Youtube video, I've decided to just link one right here in case you want a visual version of what I'm typing, or if you can't believe what I'm saying is real and require actual video proof. It doesn't cover everything we're doing here today but it is enough to give you the gist. (it's ALSO not my video. I am not NintenDaan but I respect his good work.)
The MOMENT the camera becomes available in-game I will be using it extensively. Until then, please bear with me(RAAAAARRR BEAR WITH ME) in this time of heavy text.
Are you ready?
Excellent. Let's embrace magic.
The first thing Style Savvy: Fashion Forward wants from us after the musical intro video is for us to name our character. That's an important note, we're playing a character in this game and that character is always a young lady. (If you are a guy playing Style Savvy, you too can be a young lady. That's fine as well.)
In the spirit of young men becoming young ladies, I have named our character Ozma. The game next wants our character's birthday, so I do a little research and discover to my absolute shock that Ozma's birthday is canonically August 21st. I did not plan this but isn't it a beautiful coincidence?
We begin in Ozma's bedroom, and on her desk is a letter from her grandmother, not to be opened until 8/21. Which is today! We have a real coincidence-based plot rolling, don't we? Out comes a note: Grandma is sure Ozma is a beautiful young woman now on 8/21 of some unspecific year and misses her very much. Enclosed with the note is a tiny key, so Ozma can open a very special door to an experience that will change her entire life. It opens "that" door.
The camera zooms to a dollhouse diorama against the wall, the key slips into the lock, and with a musical little chime the door opens... and out steps a very small girl.
Remember how I said things would be getting weird?
The doll-girl, after a moment of "Aah!" at the scale of things, recognizes Ozma as Elaine, her grandmother's enormous best friend. A headshake later she's forced to revise things: Maybe... Ozma's grandmother was named Elaine? A quick wander around Ozma's desktop to marvel at the scale of coffee mugs and books later, doll-girl finds the cutest white beret hat on a hook, so Ozma makes a gift of it to her.
This completely transforms the unnamed girl's mood. (Ozma has given her a hat! She is FREE! Wait, wrong story.) Elaine had an amazing, life-transforming sense of fashion and was always convincing people to wear interesting and new clothing... and it seems this tendency was handed down to young Ozma. Of course, everyone in town loved fashion back in Elaine's time...
"Hey... let's go. Let's show the whole town what a life full of excitement feels like!" the doll-girl blurts out. She introduces herself properly as Sophie, and pushes the deal again: Her and Ozma, making the town behind that door a better place. ... there's just one problem: Ozma could just about get her nose throught that door and nothing else. Now ALICE would just drink a little something and shrink down to size, but Ozma needs to be coached. Luckily, Sophie's heard how to do this from her grandma.
"Here we go. Close your eyes." she starts. "Relax. First, picture the shape of your character's face..."
So we're not going to be Ozma after all? Let's trace the levels of abstraction here: We're playing a game (1) where we're playing a character (2) who will be playing a second, smaller character (3) who will go through a magical door into a different world (4) where a small town needs help finding their fashion groove again.
(Also at one point Sophie asks "What do your character's eyebrows look like? Try to picture them." Reader, have you ever tried to close your eyes and imagine your own eyebrows? I just did. It's hard. I don't THINK about my eyebrows.)
How am I going to deal with this layer of abstraction after abstraction? I'm going to ignore it very hard unless I can't anymore. Ozma is me is Ozma's character unless it's narratively interesting or funny for it to be otherwise. Deal? Deal.
Anyway when Ozma opens her eyes again she's two-ish apples tall and ready to head through the doorway to ADVENTURE.
Adventure looks a lot like a city street. Actually, we're in Beaumonde (french for Fine World, usually used to mean fashion society) City, familiar to us from the Style Savvy demo. Sophie ponders. It's always been a lovely city, but something feels like it's missing. Some ... spark. Oops, wait. She knows what SHE'S missing: She left someone waiting back at her shop! So it's off to Sophie's boutique where we bump into another familiar face -- It's Callie!
Not that she knows us. Last time we met, we were Alice.
Sophie apologizes to Callie for dashing off to restock the store supplies, and explains that while she was out, THAT DOOR opened and of course Sophie had to look through. Callie's more interested in that hat, though, which leads to Ozma's introduction. Sophie gets a thought -- Ozma should pick out some clothing for Callie too! Callie is less than thrilled, but is talked into allowing Ozma to pick one thing.
We have three choices of jacket, but given that Callie only wants something "cool" the baby-peep-yellow hoodie and the pink sparkly overcoat are kind of out. Black floral it is, and what do you know, she likes it.
"Of course, when you look as good as I do, anything looks good." ... "I'm just kidding." Callie snickers. "But this does suit me well. I'm impressed, just a bit contrary sometimes." Yeah, some people get sniffy about doing or wearing anything they didn't pick out themselves. Sophie is SUPER impressed, however, because she's never sold anything to Callie that Callie didn't ask specifically for. Maybe this boutique needs a shake-up. Maybe... just maybe...
"I think YOU should run it." Sophie enthuses. Of course, the first manager WAS Elaine, then Sophie's grandma, Sophie... and now Ozma.
This is the true magic of Beaumonde City. It's a magical place where as long as your grandmother knew someone else's grandmother and you prove competent at basic salesmanship, you can walk in off the street and have a management position.
We slap a piano-rock CD into the player to celebrate our successful business merger and then it's back out into the street, where the current talk is all about Sophie's new hat. (Wow, news spreads fast...?) Since I still don't have a phone or any ability to SAVE THE GAME, I guess we'll just keep this update rolling!
Sophie is out on the street doing "Advertising" the old-fashioned way: By telling everyone who passes that there's a new shop manager with a MYSTERIOUS TALENT for picking exactly the clothes you need to be wearing. Ozma cheerfully informs us that soon the entire town will know how awesome Ozma is, but first -- Ozma should head to her apartment.
...The apartment that she... has... now. *ahem* I swear I didn't skip anything, first I've heard of it. Out at the apartment, we get a big box of adorable cutesy clothing because I picked the "Adorable cute clothing" option during character creation (shush, I'm a pink cartoon squirrel) and Sophie explains that these are "sample" goods from the store.
Uhm. Is that legal?
I guess so. Every time we buy new clothing for the store, we buy X amount for the shop and one free sample for our personal wardrobe. You have to dress well to sell, after all. Sophie also thank god gives us a complimentary smartphone because you cannot BE a contemporary small business owner without a smartphone and a good app suite.
I can now save, snap screenshots, enter internet contests, all that great stuff. I click a celebratory photo of Sophie, and one of Ozma (who has decided to dress tonight as the sky).
That seems like a good place to break, for now. Now that we have screens, the next parts should be less verbose. (ahahaha as if I could be less verbose)
See you later today for part two!
Instead of screenshotting a Youtube video, I've decided to just link one right here in case you want a visual version of what I'm typing, or if you can't believe what I'm saying is real and require actual video proof. It doesn't cover everything we're doing here today but it is enough to give you the gist. (it's ALSO not my video. I am not NintenDaan but I respect his good work.)
The MOMENT the camera becomes available in-game I will be using it extensively. Until then, please bear with me(RAAAAARRR BEAR WITH ME) in this time of heavy text.
Are you ready?
Excellent. Let's embrace magic.
The first thing Style Savvy: Fashion Forward wants from us after the musical intro video is for us to name our character. That's an important note, we're playing a character in this game and that character is always a young lady. (If you are a guy playing Style Savvy, you too can be a young lady. That's fine as well.)
In the spirit of young men becoming young ladies, I have named our character Ozma. The game next wants our character's birthday, so I do a little research and discover to my absolute shock that Ozma's birthday is canonically August 21st. I did not plan this but isn't it a beautiful coincidence?
We begin in Ozma's bedroom, and on her desk is a letter from her grandmother, not to be opened until 8/21. Which is today! We have a real coincidence-based plot rolling, don't we? Out comes a note: Grandma is sure Ozma is a beautiful young woman now on 8/21 of some unspecific year and misses her very much. Enclosed with the note is a tiny key, so Ozma can open a very special door to an experience that will change her entire life. It opens "that" door.
The camera zooms to a dollhouse diorama against the wall, the key slips into the lock, and with a musical little chime the door opens... and out steps a very small girl.
Remember how I said things would be getting weird?
The doll-girl, after a moment of "Aah!" at the scale of things, recognizes Ozma as Elaine, her grandmother's enormous best friend. A headshake later she's forced to revise things: Maybe... Ozma's grandmother was named Elaine? A quick wander around Ozma's desktop to marvel at the scale of coffee mugs and books later, doll-girl finds the cutest white beret hat on a hook, so Ozma makes a gift of it to her.
This completely transforms the unnamed girl's mood. (Ozma has given her a hat! She is FREE! Wait, wrong story.) Elaine had an amazing, life-transforming sense of fashion and was always convincing people to wear interesting and new clothing... and it seems this tendency was handed down to young Ozma. Of course, everyone in town loved fashion back in Elaine's time...
"Hey... let's go. Let's show the whole town what a life full of excitement feels like!" the doll-girl blurts out. She introduces herself properly as Sophie, and pushes the deal again: Her and Ozma, making the town behind that door a better place. ... there's just one problem: Ozma could just about get her nose throught that door and nothing else. Now ALICE would just drink a little something and shrink down to size, but Ozma needs to be coached. Luckily, Sophie's heard how to do this from her grandma.
"Here we go. Close your eyes." she starts. "Relax. First, picture the shape of your character's face..."
So we're not going to be Ozma after all? Let's trace the levels of abstraction here: We're playing a game (1) where we're playing a character (2) who will be playing a second, smaller character (3) who will go through a magical door into a different world (4) where a small town needs help finding their fashion groove again.
(Also at one point Sophie asks "What do your character's eyebrows look like? Try to picture them." Reader, have you ever tried to close your eyes and imagine your own eyebrows? I just did. It's hard. I don't THINK about my eyebrows.)
How am I going to deal with this layer of abstraction after abstraction? I'm going to ignore it very hard unless I can't anymore. Ozma is me is Ozma's character unless it's narratively interesting or funny for it to be otherwise. Deal? Deal.
Anyway when Ozma opens her eyes again she's two-ish apples tall and ready to head through the doorway to ADVENTURE.
Adventure looks a lot like a city street. Actually, we're in Beaumonde (french for Fine World, usually used to mean fashion society) City, familiar to us from the Style Savvy demo. Sophie ponders. It's always been a lovely city, but something feels like it's missing. Some ... spark. Oops, wait. She knows what SHE'S missing: She left someone waiting back at her shop! So it's off to Sophie's boutique where we bump into another familiar face -- It's Callie!
Not that she knows us. Last time we met, we were Alice.
Sophie apologizes to Callie for dashing off to restock the store supplies, and explains that while she was out, THAT DOOR opened and of course Sophie had to look through. Callie's more interested in that hat, though, which leads to Ozma's introduction. Sophie gets a thought -- Ozma should pick out some clothing for Callie too! Callie is less than thrilled, but is talked into allowing Ozma to pick one thing.
We have three choices of jacket, but given that Callie only wants something "cool" the baby-peep-yellow hoodie and the pink sparkly overcoat are kind of out. Black floral it is, and what do you know, she likes it.
"Of course, when you look as good as I do, anything looks good." ... "I'm just kidding." Callie snickers. "But this does suit me well. I'm impressed, just a bit contrary sometimes." Yeah, some people get sniffy about doing or wearing anything they didn't pick out themselves. Sophie is SUPER impressed, however, because she's never sold anything to Callie that Callie didn't ask specifically for. Maybe this boutique needs a shake-up. Maybe... just maybe...
"I think YOU should run it." Sophie enthuses. Of course, the first manager WAS Elaine, then Sophie's grandma, Sophie... and now Ozma.
This is the true magic of Beaumonde City. It's a magical place where as long as your grandmother knew someone else's grandmother and you prove competent at basic salesmanship, you can walk in off the street and have a management position.
We slap a piano-rock CD into the player to celebrate our successful business merger and then it's back out into the street, where the current talk is all about Sophie's new hat. (Wow, news spreads fast...?) Since I still don't have a phone or any ability to SAVE THE GAME, I guess we'll just keep this update rolling!
Sophie is out on the street doing "Advertising" the old-fashioned way: By telling everyone who passes that there's a new shop manager with a MYSTERIOUS TALENT for picking exactly the clothes you need to be wearing. Ozma cheerfully informs us that soon the entire town will know how awesome Ozma is, but first -- Ozma should head to her apartment.
...The apartment that she... has... now. *ahem* I swear I didn't skip anything, first I've heard of it. Out at the apartment, we get a big box of adorable cutesy clothing because I picked the "Adorable cute clothing" option during character creation (shush, I'm a pink cartoon squirrel) and Sophie explains that these are "sample" goods from the store.
Uhm. Is that legal?
I guess so. Every time we buy new clothing for the store, we buy X amount for the shop and one free sample for our personal wardrobe. You have to dress well to sell, after all. Sophie also thank god gives us a complimentary smartphone because you cannot BE a contemporary small business owner without a smartphone and a good app suite.
I can now save, snap screenshots, enter internet contests, all that great stuff. I click a celebratory photo of Sophie, and one of Ozma (who has decided to dress tonight as the sky).
That seems like a good place to break, for now. Now that we have screens, the next parts should be less verbose. (ahahaha as if I could be less verbose)
See you later today for part two!
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no subject
Date: 2016-08-22 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 06:16 am (UTC)I got a little nervous when Sophie kind of put me on the spot with her "no seriously this girl knows EVERYTHING and she knows what clothes you want better than YOU do you HAVE to let her dress you" spiel, but if anything, the experience with Callie only confirmed my theory about this town.
Callie: Which of these tops goes with my outfit?
Tops: *There are three of them: neon pink and green ones that are each probably visible from space, and a sensible black one*
Callie: *Is wearing all black*
Me: ... the black one?
The entire city: *gasp* HOW DID YOU KNOW
Welcome to easily-impressed doll world!
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 06:19 am (UTC)*90s X-men cartoon intro theme*
...wait no that's horrible. But yeah it's clearly pitching slow ball to get us used to being girls who know how to dress. I am pretty sure it will pick up later ... and if it doesn't at least the surreality of the premise can carry.
[EDIT]: Also the term is Fashion Witch thank you. Good witch, not wicked. There is a difference.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 06:29 am (UTC)On a more serious note, I should also point out that this game gave me a legitimate identity crisis with character creation, which I had to go through like three times, but for completely different reasons than what you experienced.
I went into the last Style Savvy game thinking I was a very feminine guy, so the whole thing about "If you are a guy playing Style Savvy, you too can be a young lady" was... uh... I didn't actually recognize the reaction but it was kind of nice in an mysterious unidentified way, like that feeling you get seeing attractive Disney animals before you're old enough to recognize that it's because you're a goddamn furry. Now that I'm all the way into full-blown identifying as female and all, I wanted to approach this game really going all in and indulging the gender aspect of it, even more eager to be a girl and all. For that reason, and as embarrassing as it is to admit this, the "Assuming you have [opened this letter on the correct day], you must now be a beautiful young woman" line in Grandma's letter actually hit me kind of hard and got me a bit misty for a second there. I'm being legitimately moved by a weird dressup game that hasn't even STARTED yet. Shut up.
But then it gets to the part where it asks me my name. Oh, geez, that's a good one. What IS my name? Kjorteo? I mean, that is my online name and has been since like 1999, but the "-o" ending makes it seem... I don't know... kind of ill-fitting for something I'm treating with that kind of direction. (I did come up with that name like a decade before I stopped considering myself male, after all.) But then, what else could I put? I've been sort of on-a-whim daydreaming about what I'd ever get my name changed to if I ever seriously approached transitioning, like, to the point of needing to do that. Way back even before I was Kjorteo Kalante, I spent most of my teen phase as ChocoboKick Lowe. Therefore, I thought maybe Celine Kalante Love [IRL last name] as my new name kind of sounds pretty, puts me in the "authors with four names" club along with Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, and it even lets me go back to the CKL initials for old time's sake. I'm not 100% set in stone on that, mind. Just a thought.
So I tried CK to see how that feels, was kind of "eh..." on that, started over again, went with Celine and kept that one if only because I was tired of going through the intro so many times by that point. It was a CLOSE ENOUGH sort of decision, but I guess that means I'm Celine in this game now. I... honestly don't know how I feel about that. Maybe good? It's... it's a pretty name, in general. Is it me? I really, truly do not know. If anything, going through the game with everyone I speak to calling me that will be a learning experience, though.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 06:40 am (UTC)Further thoughts via IM. But I felt a need to be public-supportive/acknowledging/cheering of this comment.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 06:42 am (UTC)(Edit: Wow that was the wrong icon.)
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-22 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-22 11:27 pm (UTC)I am unimpressed with Callie who is more interested in a hat than in a MAGICAL DOOR INTO ANOTHER WORLD THAT OPENED.
This game sounds ridiculous.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-23 01:03 am (UTC)Also for all I know this is some kind of dimensional nexus hub and Callie's just like "uh-huh my homeworld was sweet too but it didn't have BERETS!"
no subject
Date: 2016-09-04 04:04 am (UTC)WHAT.
... okay then. To the fashion!