PoupeeGirl (“poupee” is a French word that means “doll”, and was used to refer to French fashion dolls) is a Japanese website that features a more developed take on regular old dress-up doll games. Members make an account and create their own avatar (or “Poupee”, as they are referred to at the website), and are given basic dress-up items.

Members can then customize their Poupee through purchasing new clothes and accessories using Ribbons, which are earned through changing their Poupees’ outfits daily and through posting pictures of their “fashion items”. Fashion items can be anything from shoes and dresses to keychains and dolls. Members are also rewarded with a free dress-up item for their Poupee when they post a photo of a fashion item.

The Ribbons earned can be spent at Katharine’s Shop, the “official” shop of the PoupeeGirl mascot named Katharine; the Poupee Market, where members can sell their old/unwanted dress-up items; and shops sponsored by Japanese celebrities like Kimura Kaela. Players may also sell their unwanted dress-up items and/or purchase dress-up items from other players at the Poupee Market.

Unlike most social-ish websites that seem to encourage camwhoring, you can only camwhore your possessions in PoupeeGirl. The site has a rule that states that members aren’t allowed to upload photos that depict their (or their friends’) faces. Members can choose to comment on other members’ photos (commenting earns both parties a Ribbon), and they may also choose to mark an item as “Suteki” (a term meaning “wonderful”; “fantastic”) through clicking the “Suteki” button beneath the posted photo.

PoupeeGirl’s design and interface is neat and aesthetically-pleasing. Navigation is really straightforward and simple, and the loading time’s pretty fast (which is impressive considering how damn slow my internet is).

I have three complaints about PoupeeGirl though. First of all, there’s no “Search” function for the Poupee Market. That makes it really hard to look for the items you want to find. Second, the items at the market have no default prices. I was looking for a Pearl Headband for my Poupee once, and the prices ranged from 150 to 500+ Ribbons. I also saw this one dress that someone was selling for 50 Ribbons, while someone else was selling the same dress for over 1000 Ribbons. The third problem is that there’s no “Preview” option for the items you’re buying, so when you buy an item there’s a chance that you’ll have wasted Ribbons on something that doesn’t even look good on your Poupee.

Despite those three complaints I have about PoupeeGirl, I still find it to be a fun and addictive game. I guess I’m just a sucker for stuff with cute graphics.

El

El Santos is a marketing & advertising professional by day and gamer/bookworm/tarot reader by night. She’s prone to sudden fits of fangirling over her varied interests: video games, fiction, art, folkore, anime, and tarot. She currently lives with her husband and 2 rescue cats.