u/PancakeMoth

I'm new at an office job. I like using these accessories on my glasses, sometimes shorter. I don't use earrings so I use these instead as kinda like a replacement.

My dad saw it today and said they don't look good, but I think they do, and he said that "what I wear leaves a message of status". My boss haven't said anything about these and they definitely don't get in the way while I work, but now I'm wondering if they are actually unprofessional or too weird.

Edit: For people talking about my shirt, that is a sleeping gown. I would never wear something like this at an office, I usually wear shirts that are either long neck or square neck, and avoid showing my shoulders because they are always bruised. And I wear long skirts most of the time.

Clothes are not the point here, just the glasses charms. Thank you.

Edit 2: About my shoulders, since I've noticed people are a bit worried: I scratch myself when I'm anxious, it's a habit I took from teenager years and haven't been able to get rid of yet. They have some permanent marks too. I am trying to stop, I'm fine.

Yes, I am going through mental health treatment, and no, I don't have any intentions of actually hurting or bruising myself, I don't like pain and it is not a conscious self harm behavior. I do it without noticing.

I've made a heart to put inside of the plushie as well. His name was Finn, he was very loved by everyone. I'm happy to have him by my side, even if just in spirit now.

OBS.: TIPS ARE IN THE END OF THE REVIEW!!

TRIGGER WARNING: This game talks a lot about the character's weight in a negative light. If you struggle with comments about weight or people telling you to go to the gym to make your appearance better, I suggest you to not pick this up.

I need to start this review by saying that I have no nostalgia for this device, so this review will be written by the POV of an adult collector. I am posting this on this sub because this handheld feels a mix between a virtual pet and a life sim game. I will also assume you know the basics of it, since explaining things that are already on the manual online would make this way too long.

I did try to look up a lot of information before buying this device, but I got caught up by a bunch of suprises while playing. There are a couple of manuals online, and they explain the gameplay on a surface level. The jist of it is that you create a female teernager character and you have to control her and achieve things in life. It is a lot like The Sims.

So it is easy right? After all is a device for kids and teens.

HA! I WISH! Saying that this game is hard is an understatement!!!

I went to it without looking much of the gameplay, because i did get it by a fairly cheap price, unopened, but the portuguese/spanish version of it. I had to keep it in mind that it is a device from the 2000's, and the game looks like a flash style game, so keep that in mind if you are thinking of getting it.

I was a little bummed out by the lack of customization on the MC, there wasn't any curly or wavy hairs that looked good and there are only 3 shades of skin color. Makeup on dark skin looks off and you can clearly see that it was made thinking more on the lighter shades. You can also choose hight and body type, although that doesn't really change anything on your character's appearence or on gameplay I think.

You can also choose a pet, which you also need to take care of as well. I chose a cat, but thry barked instead of meowing and i still had to take it out for necessities instead of having a litter box.

Entering the game, you start by the time you typed when you booted the game. I did start it in the middle of the week, in the afternoon, so I was immediately late for school and my parents a bit upset. The movement controls are quite difficult to grasp and even playing it after a couple of days I still struggle. There is no tutorial in-game whatsoever!

I also suggest to mute the device on the menu immediately, the song is very repetitive and the device is quite loud.

The first few in game days it was basically me struggling to understand how to make people like me, everyone I interacted with was mean to me (later on i discovered that my character was sad) and receiving messages of a clock telling me to go to the gym otherwise I would get fat (every couple minutes or so). Turns out there is no gym, there are dance classes at school and that is what it is referring to apparently. Ah, and good luck with the school minigames, they are hard! I can't see how a kid would be able to play this.

I did go to the hospital once because I couldn't find any food. Thankfully I had money, and I was able to get out of there.

After persisting on the game for two real life days, I finally got the hang of it, but since everyone in town hated me already and I didn't know how to fix it, I just restarted the device and didn't touch it for 2 months.

Final Thoughts: This device requires a lot of concentration and it is very challenging. It can be fun if you have around 30 minutes where you know you won't be interrupted and you are up for a challenge. I don't see myself picking it up often since I have a 3DS and a Switch, but I still love how it gives me a nostalgic 2000's vibe, and I am glad to have it on my collection.

However I cannot reccommend this to anyone that wants something chill to play on commute or while waiting in line, and never would reccommend if you have any kind of body dysmorphia or eating disorders. I also cannot see myself giving this to a kid or teen and I see why they weren't that much of a hit.

I hope this review has helped you to understand more on how the gameplay feels like and evaluate if you want this device or not. Feel free to comment your experiences on the comments and any other tips youmight have as well.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

- Do NOT use rechargeable batteries on the device, the box and instructions ask you not to and to only use new batteries. They last long enough, I still use the same ones i did from day 1 and didn't had them die on me yet. Take them out of the device after playing it to avoid damages.

- Start the game by inputing 7 am or 8 am real time, the game will start by that time and it doesn't run real life time.

- Mute the game on the menu (heart button) ASAP.

- Check the pet twice per day, and check the care menu to see what does it needs, since there isn't any cue that your actions had effect on it.

- Check your own stats frequently.

- Your schedule is one of the most important things in game, check it frequently as well.

- You can pause the game by opening the menu (heart button).

- You can buy things at the mall or flowers and send them to characters at the post office. It looks like its sending to another device, but it's not.

- Don't talk to othercharacters if you are upset, otherwise they will be mean and people won't like you.

- Dance classes are on the left room at school, normal classes are on the top room.

- If you need food you will have to go to shop on the mall, you cannot pick any from the kitchen. And to get food from the mall you will have to talk with the shop owners until the prompt to get food appears, sometimes it doesn't.

- You can increase hapiness by eating icecream on the plaza or going to events with other characters (they usually last 1h in game).

- Use the "lunch" time between classes to increase happiness and food meters.

- There is a bathroom in the thiord floor at the mall.

- There is a way to get free gas in the game at the Arcade (it is a bit hard tho).

- At dinner time, help your mom out to increase relationship points. You can also gift her flowers through the mail office.

- You gift characters through the mail office, I still haven't found how to get itens.

- Always have some extra money to take pet to the vet if necessary or if you get sick.

- Always check how much gas you have on the motorbike. I always run out, and often choose to walk rather than to use it, unless it is to school to home and vice versa.

- If you get stuck at the hospital AND you don't have money for medicine, you will have to restart the device (press restart button while turning the device on and pressing a and b together, I think).

- When you turn the device off, next time you start it your character will be at the bedroom with the clock set when you left off (which already caused me to be late for things).