A tour of DS Style: Anata mo DS de Classic Kiite Mimasenka

When you start DS Style: Anata mo DS de Classic Kiite Mimasenka you’re taken into a room with a dog that is causally enjoying classical music in the background. In one song he is looking at a butterfly and in another the dog is snoring on the couch. The game quickly rotates through songs and animations, each one lasts about ten seconds. I found myself leaving the DS open in the mode, which make DS Style: Anata mo DS de Classic Kiite Mimasenka act as an animated classical music jukebox with occasional dog barks. If you want to find out more about a song you can tap the touch screen and it brings up a fact sheet about the song.

If you just want to listen to music you can tap open up the songlist in the menu. The screen switches locations and the dog acts as a conductor on the top screen. The bottom screen has a list of the songs in DS Style: Anata mo DS de Classic Kiite Mimasenka. You can tap on a song to listen to it and mark your favorites in one of three playlists. However, you don’t have full songs here either. Each clip clocks in at around a minute. I’m not sure why Inis/Square-Enix went for this approach. Maybe it was to pack in more songs or maybe it was because there are semi-ads in the game that tell you which CD you need to buy out of the Best Classics collection. Similar to the jukebox mode you can pull up factoids by clicking on usochiku (the button with the dog icon).

Here’s a look at the entry for Eine Kleine. The top screen cycles through a few pictures with text on the bottom. Yeah, it’s in Japanese and there isn’t a language option. Don’t expect to get any musical appreciation enrichment unless you’re fairly literate in Japanese.

Contrary to popular belief, but there is a “game” in DS Style: Anata mo DS de Classic Kiite Mimasenka. In the main menu you can tap quiz and you’re given multiple choice questions. Some are based on the musical appreciation facts and others ask you to name the tune.

When you get questions right you earn points. Get enough points and your rank increases. Each rank comes with a series of rewards too: increased cultural awareness, pride and clothes for the dog. I hope all the way at the end there is an easter egg where the dog wears a chocobo costume, an Ouendan suit or something surprising. As you can see I've got a long way to go to find out if that's the case.