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7.9 excellent
Today started out grumpy! Anyone who knows me knows that style is my middle name. Could be haute style, could be bargain style, sometimes maybe even dumpster style - it's not about how much you pay, but about creating your own unique look. That's why I really get upset when my favorite brand of boots changes their styles so frequently. What happens is that when I need to replace a pair I go back to the boutique (or an online store) ... and find a key part of my ensemble has been discontinued! It wouldn't be so bad if they'd come out with a new style that kinda sorta maybe matches the one I've been wearing for two years, but somehow I always seem to choose a quirky one-off design that the brand buries. It's enough to make someone shave their head in frustration!
Anyway, I was pleased that today's game throws the player a set, definite clutch of fashionable styles, from boots to trousers to skirts to tops.
Posh Boutique 2, from Puzzle Lab Studio, is another time management game starring Alicia as the young, super-cool fashion boutique manager. Alicia worked hard to make her grandmother's tiny boutique a success, and then treated herself to a well-deserved vacation. But before she even arrived in the Galapagos Islands, she discovered she had won one million dollars from the airline as part of a special promotion! Wow! Some people have all the luck! Suddenly rich, she decides she doesn't want a vacation after all; she wants to invest in more posh boutiques. This is one of those businesses (like owning Taco Bell franchises) that is too addictive to quit easily!
Customers enter the boutique and wait for Alicia to direct them to the appropriate section, based on what they're looking for. You can always tell what they want by looking at the tiny bubble above their heads. Directing them requires picking them up with the mouse and dragging them to a changing room or hat mirror or jewelry station, etc. (I still find this Diner Dash mechanic silly, but fighting it at this point is like punching a windmill in the face.) When they need Alicia's assistance, as they always will when shopping, they'll ask for her.
Alicia spends a week in each boutique, and each day a required amount of merchandise must be sold. Do so and you can move on to the next day. Fail and you'll have to repeat that day. As with most time management games, besides the regular target amount of sales an expert goal also exists to strive for. Getting an expert score in some of the later boutiques is easier said than done in Posh Boutique 2!
Clicking on a customer in need sends Alicia to their service, and some sort of minigame will appear in a popup window for you to complete. A customer may want a specific fashion of shoes, which will be scrolling by among a handful of other styles. Clicking the correct two gives them to the customer. Or you'll have to choose a specific necklace from a group of several. Or simply dress the customer in a mixture of styles until you hit upon the combination worth the most money. (Cha-ching!) Usually a customer will inquire about another part of the store, and you'll repeat the process, except with luggage. Or hats. Or sunglasses. When they're finally ready to check out, they'll wander over to the cash register. Clicking on the till sends Alicia over to accept their credit card... and any tips they'd like to offer.
All these actions consume time, and the longer it takes Alicia to help a client, the more impatient other customers will become! You can't posh it up with unhappy customers, so time is of the essence. Customers enter the boutique with a certain number of green smiley faces floating above them. These smiley faces represent their patience level, and slowly degrade into red frowney faces over time, as customers are left waiting. Luckily impassioned service improves customers' spirits, so be sure to help someone about to lose a smiley face - do so in time and that smiley will be reset.
Customers who become all frowns will leave the boutique in frustration. Not only does that mean less money for the day, but you'll lose a heart. Hearts act as your lives in the game - lose all of them and it's game over! There are ways to turn frowns upside down. You can offer upset customers in-store bargains by giving them a special sale price. And as you upgrade the boutique it will become a more pleasant place, slowing down the drain on customers' patience or even giving them more initial happy faces. (Hint: if you're having difficulty making enough money, pay attention to the window dressing and store upgrades. Read what each one does - some make a big difference!)
Occasionally clients will mess up a changing booth or part of the store. Luckily you can hire a maid service to stand in the background and rush to the mess when needed, so Alicia doesn't have to interrupt her day with cleaning.
There are a number of customer types, from school girls to burly leather jacketed bikers. Two special kinds of customer, members of the press and VIP clients, offer additional minigames and rewards. Fashion reporters impressed with Alicia's swish retail skills will return to write an article about her boutique. To prepare their story they'll ask to see a number of store items, resulting in what amounts to a simple hidden object minigame. You might be asked to click on eight red shoes, or ten pairs of trousers. Success means bonus sales for the shop. VIPs, on the other hand, (assuming they like Alicia's style) will return after the store closes for a special fashion consultation. You'll have to match an outfit with their ideal, which - since they aren't good at explaining properly (customers don't always know what they want!) - is an image shimmering and twisting just out of focus. Naturally if you succeed the boutique earns a premium.
There are bonuses to collect for serving loving couples at once, or even matching up groups of customers and sending them in one bundle to a certain section of the store.
I really enjoyed the sound effects and comments made when clients are handed part of an outfit they really like. "Oh, it's pretty pretty!" And the cute startled valley girl exclamations when you pick them up and drag them to a changing room. "What!? Oh!" Many of the guy comments are equally funny. It seems as if they're even more vain than the girls... something which doesn't surprise me concerning men walking into a shop called Posh Boutique! If you want a quick cheery game to get you out of the grumps, Posh Boutique 2 is an excellent choice.
I used to walk past dozens of these posh little specialty stores in Omotesando, Tokyo. Now I feel like I've worked in one.