by Apartment living isn’t always the easiest thing. Between bills, managing limited physical space, and juggling a social life, ambition, and sanity, one’s existence in a hundreds-square-foot box is tough enough to maintain alone. Now imagine looking after 10, 20, or even 50 residents, all with their own faults and goals – not to mention keeping up with the maintenance and improvement of the building they live in. This is the task Dream House Days asks of you in assuming the role of apartment manager.
Maintaining a successful apartment building requires profit. You can set (or raise the rent) and add all sorts of amenities for your tenants, but you’re also expected to help shape your residents’ relative happiness too, making sure they can get good jobs and eventually settle down or otherwise prosper. So comfort enters into the equation as well; you can gain new furnishings and construction expansions using points earned when tenants interact with objects. Yes, it’s a little strange.
Cash earned may also go towards, say, improving a college student’s intellect or helping one of your residents change jobs. It even goes as far as letting you choose their outfits and hairstyle, both of which increase stats. Kairosoft titles (like the engaging Game Dev Story) have always somehow managed to blend hectic statistical management with an air of tranquility and Japanese charm, and in that regard Dream House Days doesn’t disappoint. It does come with a rather significant caveat, however: certain improvement items needed for career changes, as well as helpful stat boosters, can only be bought with tickets that are much more readily available for purchase with real money. Without them, you’re easily stuck in limbo. You can’t buy tickets with collected rent money, and you can’t improve your residents’ employment paths easily without tickets. And lower income in turn means less general growth.
This sad free-to-play element almost kills the game. It’s possible to still earn tickets just by playing (you can earn up to 10 for every seven minutes played), but the process is needlessly slow. And the $4.99 in-app purchase upgrade within merely kills the ads, not this sluggish approach. Think carefully before signing on the dotted line.
The bottom line. Dream House Days is a cute concept that’s almost ruined by free-to-play shenanigans.
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