Dream House Days is Kairosoft's second foray into the freemium model, the game is free to download but features in-app purchases. However, it strikes a good balance between pay features and in-game features, and you do not need to pay to enjoy the game. The game is supported by advertisements which pop up when you start the game. There is also a permanent advertisement at the bottom of the screen. Dream House Days is a rental apartment simulator but mixed with elements of a family simulator and house-arrange simulator.
You start off with three apartments and you need to buy furniture and furnishings, create walls and doors in order to spruce up your apartment enough to get tenants interested to rent the place. Of course, not only does putting these items into your apartment cost money, but they cost money each month as upkeep. This is offset by the rent your tenant pays, except that depending on their job and how much they earn, they might not be able to pay the full amount of rent. This is especially true for students who has high potential from their impressive stats, but they only earn a meager amount and as they need to spend money on recreation as well, you'll probably only recover 10% of your full rent.
Rent is determined by the quantity and quality of furniture you place in the apartment. All this combines into a higher difficulty of earning money and expanding during the beginning of the game. You'll more than likely encounter massive losses and need to ride it out. Once you've expanded the number of apartments twice, it starts to become much easier to make a profit and retain that profit, with more freedom to do what you want. As the building manager, you heavily influence your tenants' lives including their love interests, when they marry, whether they have children or pets, and the type of job that they have.
Tenants will age, and kids will move out once they are old enough. When it is time for them to move you are given the option of renting them a spare apartment and you tend to do want to keep them as they are better than the random tenants you get when you advertise. Aged tenants also move out eventually which means you need to find new tenants. As tenants grow old, their income streams also decrease, meaning that while they can afford the premium rent before, they might not do so now, causing you to wanting to kick them out.
Dream House Days has a lot of furniture to discover and unlock, which requires Research Points. These points are earned fairly easily in the game, you just have to be patient. There is another in-game currency called Tickets, these are items you can buy with real money or earned slowly by playing the game. You get one Ticket for every fifteen minutes you play (not including time spent in menus), capped at ten at a time. These Tickets are used for apartment expansions, allow second chances during some events and purchasing items such as Fast Mode or a New Game+ carryover feature. As expected, the graphics are Kairosoft's staple 8-bit sprites but are as charming as ever. It's very fun to look at what your tenants do and how they interact with the furniture.
Once a piece of furniture is used enough times, they can be leveled up to increase rent and improve comfort. There are in-game achievements called Trophies. Earning them will contribute to a higher score once the game "ends" after 21 in-game years. After the 21st year, you can play indefinitely but it just won't contribute to your high score. Overall, Dream House Days can get very addictive and it is a great game to play in your spare time. You might find yourself not being able to resist opening up the app and looking at what's happened, waiting for the next big unlock. This game is highly recommended although you need to put in the effort and patience to learn the game mechanics when you first start out.
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