STYLIST is looking sharp!
Style Savvy was an immediate success in 2008, leading to the series getting three sequels (all on the 3DS). While I have not played a Style Savvy game (probably because 9 year old me couldn't be caught dead playing a
girly game-yuck!), but I figure the series and its gameplay can't be that difficult to understand as an outsider.
In Style Savvy, you approach customers, they tell you want they want, and you (the Stylist) pick out clothes for them, trying to satisfy them. As far as I can tell, the games rarely diverge from this formula going forward. You must pick out a clothing article or oufit that meets their budget and wants. You do get some different jobs in Fashion Forward, but they are practically the same as the Stylist, just with hair or makeup. Some of your customers will come often for your service, so it's helpful to memorize things about them so you can better fit their needs.
Keeping this in mind, Stylist is a Smash Brother that not only wears different clothes to boost her stats, but she attacks her opponents using coat hangers, handbags, hair dryers, makeup, hairspray, and everything in between. But she has a budget, so keep an eye on that when attacking or wearing clothes. Overall, Stylist, in my eyes, will be our most complicated character yet, despite having some of the most simple gameplay in her home series.
With that out of the way, here's my moveset for Stylist!
Stylist has a buget of $800 that cannot be increased, except when losing a stock (or grabbing an opponent), when it goes back to 800. This is always displayed beneath her icon, in green text, like this:
$800.
Down B-Try it on!
In Style Savvy, after picking out a clothing article for your customer, you can choose
Try It On! so you can see how they look before selling them the clothes.
In Smash Bros, in a rather quick motion, a curtain is flung up in front of Stylist. From here, five squares appear on the left bottom, left upper, right bottom, right upper, and top of the curtain. These squares look like the icons for clothes when picking them out in Style Savvy. There's a blue winter coat; an orange T-shirt and blue jeans; a plain beige vest with a lighter beige shirt and a medium-length brown skirt; a hooded top that is fiery red and comes with leggings; and finally, at the top, Stylist's default outfit. You can select any one of these just as if it were Shulk's Monado wheel. When you have chosen with either the B button or by letting go of the left stick, the curtain will pull back and the disapear, revealing Stylist's new outfit.
(I know nothing about women's fashion-please, if you have any experience in that field point out what I can improve here).
Anyways, each outfit icon (or square) has something labled above and below it, in small-ish but still very visible text. On top is the outfit's
Mood, and on the bottom is how much it
costs. Each outfit has its own mood (except for default), and this is a reference to Style Savvy, where the mood of an outfit basically just referred to its color scheme and theme. In Smash, however, it refers to both that and the stat boost you get from the outfit.
The blue winter coat is a
Cool mood-it increases defense, decreasing the damage and knockback you take.
The orange T-shirt and blue jeans is a
Warm mood-it increases the amount of damage you do to an opponent, but not the knockback.
The plain vest, shirt, and skirt is a
Pale mood-it increases her speed.
The fiery red hooded top and leggings is a
Strong mood-it increases your knockback greatly, letting Stylist get in early kills.
The cost of each outfit is $100 (for simplicity's sake, not realism), and since you have a buget of $800, that means you get 8 outfits per match. But how do you get rid of an outfit?
Well, three ways. One-you change outfits. Two-you get hit with a strong enough attack, and your outfit instantly reverts back to the default costume. And three-you die, and respawn with the default outfit and $800.
Neutral B-Hairspray
Stylist starts shaking a hairspray canister in her hand, in a charging like attack similar to Samus' CS. When finished, she can press B again to spray. It has a small hitbox, but a lasting one-for a visual aid, a purple, almost invisible cloud right in front of Stylist. You'll need to be pretty close to land it-but if you do, the opponent will be stunned! How long they are stunned depends on how long you charged the hairspray and how much damage your opponent has.
However, after being used five times, the canister is empty. If you try to use the move again, Stylist will toss it behind her (it can hit opponents and be picked up), and a new one immedeatly appears in her hand, setting her back $30.
Side B-Lipstick
Stylist winds up, and then throws a lipstick thing (don't know the name of it) forward. It travels in an arc similarly to Young Link's Fire Arrows. This is pretty strong for a projectile. The longer you hold B, the stronger the lipstick projectile will be.
However, while this move can be spammed, it does set you back $10 per containter, so be wary.
Up B-Hair Dryers
Stylist pulls out two electric hair dryers and aims them down before turning them on, and they propel her upwards. This causes a windbox beneath you, so it's pretty good for gimping an opponent offstage. It's also a pretty fast move. However, the move only has decent horizontal range, and good vertical range, so you can't go too far left or right offstage.
Jab: Stylist slaps the opponent once, twice, before a combo-finishing kick. It's pretty average in damage and knockback. Stylist makes sure to look to the camera and smile during the kick.
Up tilt: Stylist will strike a pose, where she faces the camera, with one hand on her left (player's right) hip and the other pointing to the sky. Both arms have a hitbox, kind of like Wii Fit's weird hitboxes. This move is pretty good for starting combos but because it is relatively weak, not your best kill move by any means.
Forward tilt: Stylist swings her handbag forward. This is one of her strongest attacks, killing pretty early, however it is pretty slow-maybe she just has so many beauty products in there?
Down tilt: Stylist bends down and holds a piece of measuring tape out, like she's helping a client find the right size pair of shoes. This move doesn't last very long, but its knockback is good for comboing, its quick, and it can trip your opponent at certain percents.
Dash attack: Stylist runs forward and reaches out a bag, as if checking out a customer in a forceful sort of way. The move is pretty quick but isn't that strong for a dash attack.
Forward Smash: During the wind up, Stylist leans back and begins rumaging around in her handbag. When the move is unleashed, Stylist pulls out a hand mirror and thrusts it in front of her, and begins to do her makeup. This move has abysmal endlag and not-great startup, however its her strongest move, and kills deceptively early.
Down Smash: Stylist raises up her foot during the start up. When it's unleashed, she slams her foot down at an angle and poses, as if showing off her spectacular shoes. This move can hit below the ledge and is very strong, and quite fast. However the ranges is very lacking.
Up Smash: Stylist brings up a hairspray container and, when the move is unleashed, sprays her hair. The move hits all around her head and a bit above it, and its the weakest of her smashes. Be wary, as this move will take one of your five Hairspray uses away.
Neutral Air: Stylist swings her handbag around on her finger, and it swings all around her, being a very good edgeguarding move. It can also be used for combos at low percents.
Forward air: Stylist swings a coat hanger in front of her. It's a pretty weak forward air, but it is good for combos like forward air to forward air etc, even at higher percents.
Back air: Stylist brushes her hair with a single, forceful stronke, and anyone right behind her will be hit with a weak-ish spike that scales in knockback past mid-percents.
Up air: Stylist does a standard backflip kick move, with properties similar to Min Min's.
Down air: Stylist swaps out her current heels for winter boots and thrusts down with them. Because she's changing shoes the move has slow startup, but the endlag and landing lag isn't that bad, and the spike is very strong.
Grab: Stylist reaches out in front of her and clenches her fist. If the grab is unsuccessful, she will look at her hand and groan, annoyed she couldn't land the move. If it's successful, a hair styling chair will appear, and the opponent will sit on it, bound to the chair, with Stylist holding a brush and in deep thought-how should she style her opponent? Pummels have her cut at an opponent's hair (or just their general head area).
Forward throw: Stylist spins the chair around at dangerous speeds, then kicks it, sending her opponent flying. The chair dissapears after a bit. This move is really good for KO'ing.
Down throw: Stylist bends down to shine her opponent's shoes, then tips over the chair so that they fall onto the floor. Like Snake's, this down throw puts your opponent in a tech situation. However they aren't right in front of her, so while she can predict where they will go, she can't combo into any moves at any percent.
Back throw: Stylist combs her opponent's hair, then picks them up and throws them in the opposite direction. This throw is mainly used for positioning.
Up throw: Stylist kicks down the lever underneath the chair, which causes her opponent to eject straight up! This move is about as strong as K. Rool's up throw.
Her throws are special because it's the only way she can earn back money! For every throw she earns $25, meaning its a slow but worthwhile process to earn enough money to get a new outfit.
EDIT: One last thing I forgot to say: what happens when Stylist runs out of cash?
Well, when she does, her neutral B, side B, and down B will not function anymore, and pressing those buttons won't do anything.
And that's Stylist! Overall, she's the kind of character who needs to keep an eye on her in-game meter (in this case, money). She's pretty good at combos, but her kill power isn't lacking either, especially with her potent Strong clothes. She's sort of a passive-aggressive character-not entirely defense or offense, but more so half and half.
