Life Makeover is an anime style dressup game that’s coming out soon for IOS and Android devices. I got tired of waiting for the Americas version, so I downloaded the SEA (Southeast Asian) version, and it might be the best game I’ve ever played on my mobile phone. And it’s already in English, both the text and the voice acting. The only downside is I’m stuck as a free to play user unless I buy some apple giftcards for the region I selected. I chose Singapore, but any SEA country will work. I haven’t decided if I will abandon the SEA version once the US version is released or play both versions. We shall see what happens.
Here’s how I would rate Life Makeover:
Geeky: 5/5 – I believe there’s so much to do in this game, it goes way beyond other dressup games and almost rivals that of “The Sims” in terms of gameplay and customization. It’s more than just another cute dressup game.
Sweetie 5/5 – This game is hella’ cute!!!! And it allows for crazy amounts of customization. A girl’s dream.
Gameplay: 9/10 – Almost a perfect 10 here from me. From the first moments of creating your unique avatar, to the fashion battles, to building your own home, think there’s dancing too maybe I just haven’t gotten there yet, there’s the guild and online features, and the fully voiced story. My only complaint is the choices and consequences are not meaningful and just an illusion of choice. And new stuff is being added all the time. Can’t wait for the pets!
Story: 6/10 – Okay, it’s not the best story ever, but for a mobile game, come on, it’s pretty good!! And it’s fully voiced! NICE! I do wish that the visual novel-esque choice and consequence format had more meaningful choices that really did result in the story changing in a dramatic way, but that’s just my own preference.
Characters: 10/10 – I gotta give it 10/10 just for the level of customization of the playable character alone, plus as noted, all of the NPCs are fully voiced, and have unique appearances and characteristics.
Graphics: 8/10 – I notice a few “clipping” issues and have some issues with the shadows at times – but otherwise, I think this is an amazingly beautiful game and I love both the 3D and 2D aspects and the level of customization which I keep repeating over and over in here.
Music: 5/10 – It’s nice but forgettable, a sorta middle score for me.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – I’m playing on the SEA server and it’s already fully voiced in English. Was not expecting that. Pleasant surprise!
Replay Value: 10/10 – With new gacha being released and new events added – and more significant huge content updates yet to come – such as the pets system – oh yeah, for sure a very replayable game. I’m already a daily player.
Customization: 10/10 – obviously I keep geeking out over the amazing levels of customization in this game. It’s just THAT good.
Overall Score: 78/90 87% B+ “Very Good Game For Girls”
That may sound low – but it only missed our “Top 10” list by 2% – and I’ve been reviewing games here for almost 10 years, so that’s a damn fine score. 🙂 Life Makeover is easily one of my favorite games of all time. Read on to learn why.
I’m a huge fan of Shining Nikki (and Love Nikki) and this game borrows heavily from that type of game in many ways. You can get new clothes from a gacha machine (which means you get random outfits, and the rarest ones are highly desirable and difficult to obtain.) You have to compete in fashion battles to meet certain themes by wearing clothes with the correct tags such as Lively, Cool, Sexy, Elegant, Cute, etc. And you get I dunno if they’re called Companions or what I forget, which are like the Ark system in Shining Nikki that add to your fashion score.
But, Life Makeover doesn’t stop there. It combines another one of my very favorite games, The Sims. In Life Makeover, every single thing about your character is customizable. The customization options are unreal!!! Seriously, you can customize how thick her eyelashes are, how curly the eyelashes are, how perky or saggy her breasts are, how thicc she is, how big or small that booty is, her cheekbones, forehead, eyebrows, nose tip, nostrils, nose bridge, nose width and length, jawbones, chin, how big/small her feet are, how full her lips are, the color and pattern of her eyes, how big her irises are, if the irises look up or down, the angle and corners of her eyes, her eyeshadow, her ears, how shiny or matte her default lipgloss is, how white or not white the “whites” of her eyes are, the colors of her skin, and her hair, and not just one hair color, but multiple pieces of the hair. Crazy.
That isn’t the only resemblance to the Sims – but let’s be honest, who else is guilty of spending weeks making Sims, and then never or barely actually playing the game? *raises hand* lol. But for those that actually DO play the Sims, check this out. You can build and decorate a house, and later when you have more money, move into a bigger house or plot of land and start decorating that one too.
Pets are “coming soon” to Life Makeover and they look cute as hell.
Everything in this game is too cute!!! Kawaii!!!!!
It also has a rich story with interesting characters and some parts of the game allow you to make choices and change the flow of the story similar to a visual novel or otome game. Often those consequences end up branching back to the same end result so it’s kinda trivial and just for fun, but still a nice touch.
The graphics use a mix of Live2D for story scenes and the NPC illustrations, and a mix of 3D for the actual dressup portions of the game and home building (and from the looks of it, the pets which are coming soon. I want that fat fluffy persian cat so bad lol).
Everything is fully voiced and the music is great too.
This game is to die for.
It’s hard to believe the level of detail and artistry put into a free to play mobile game.
Make no mistake though, although it is free to play, the gacha mechanisms make a ton of money. I’m guilty of spending way too much on Shining Nikki, probably dropping $35-$50 everytime a new “set” that I want comes out, which means they’re not just making $50-60 from purchasing the game one time, but making that, maybe monthly or bimonthly depending how quickly they release new event items.
You don’t have to go for all the rarest and newest items, and if it’s like Shining Nikki, those items will be back again in a year or two. We are seeing a lot of repeats now in Nikki already and so I haven’t bought anything since the Erika/Elenka event. So the burden of having to buy stuff eases over time, or if you’re patient enough *not me lol* it truly is possible to complete sets without spending anything it just takes literally years to do so after it’s rotated and repeated back into the game a few times.
Gacha games are addicting and even illegal in some countries. It is a form of gambling in a way, and the companies behind them make the drop rates very low for the best items to keep you spending more.
But yet, despite this, Gacha games are one of my favorite genres.
I look forward to seeing all of you soon in Life Makeover! It’s worth the wait! Or if you don’t want to wait, do what I did and create an account on the SEA server. 🙂 “SEA” you soon!
