Genre: Simulation

Completion: Completed

Rating: 7/10 for nostalgia

One of the only decent games in the "Imagine" series in my opinion. I had other games from the series, such as Figure Skater, Family Doctor, Baby Sitter, and Pet Vet, but I loved this one the most. The quality and aesthetics of the Imagine games vary greatly, and most of them ended up as loose cartridges in the pre-owned section of GameStop for less than ten bucks.

Recently I found out there's some differences between the Japan and global releases, including another playable character (girl on the left)! I know what game I'm replaying next to practice my Japanese I guess. The Japanese release also has much better box art (American and European release box art), honestly, the global box art does not even match the game.

The gameplay itself is pretty simple, it has somewhat of a visual novel aspect to it, if I remember correctly, as you play through the story of whichever girl you chose to play as. You also have to level up by practicing individual moves and routines and completing minigames in order to progress the story. I liked going to the ballet shop and picking out different outfits for the performances, there were actually quite a few to choose from. Each playable character has her own story arc, mostly revolving around their lives and personal struggles outside of ballet.

Another aspect of this game that I really enjoyed was the ability to read about each ballet performance. All the recitals in the game are based off of real ballet such as, Giselle, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Swan Lake, and many more. You can read about each story under the "textbooks" section in your character's room.