Hometown Map and the Six Facilities
Hometown holds six facilities: Game Park for boards and the Minigame Corner, Shopping Mall with the free Make-Up Salon, Sky Farm for Petit Games, Creative Labo for music and art, Photo Studio with the Partner Room, and the dock.
Hometown is the part of Party Land you walk around between games, and it is where every system lives. Six facilities, and the number you can use grows as you progress, so a locked building early on is not a bug.
The six facilities
| Facility | What is inside | Why you go |
|---|---|---|
| Game Park | Board game reception desk in the centre; Minigame Corner at the rightmost counter | Start a board, or free-play any unlocked mini-game |
| Shopping Mall | Shops on the floors below; Make-Up Salon on the 3rd floor | Buy clothes and accessories; change your look for free |
| Sky Farm | A garden above the clouds | Petit Games in a quieter setting |
| Creative Labo | Melody Cake at the left end, Poster Studio at the right end, Labo Puzzle | Compose music, draw posters, earn coins, stickers or tools |
| Photo Studio | Backdrops and the Partner Room | Take photos; change your partner |
| Exit | The dock | Return to the title screen |
The Waterwheel sits next to the Creative Labo, and it is not one of the six: it is a prize draw that runs on Waterwheel Tickets.
The Game Park
Two doors, two purposes. The receptionist in the centre starts a board game — all three boards are launched from there. The rightmost counter is the Minigame Corner, a free-select list of every mini-game you have unlocked. Games marked with a present icon are the ones where a new character can turn up, so the corner doubles as a roster checklist.
The Shopping Mall
Shops sell clothing and accessories, and the purchase flow is unusual: you control your partner to buy, standing in front of a shelf and pressing the interact button to see the item on the Game Pad. Prices sit under the item, and anything you already own shows a check mark instead of a number. A colour marker means the style comes in several colours, chosen after the style.
Two things are free. Trying clothes on costs nothing — select a piece and see it on you. And the Make-Up Salon on the 3rd floor changes your appearance at no cost, which is where you fix a character-creation choice you regret.
The Creative Labo
The busiest building. Three systems:
- Melody Cake (left end) turns decorations into notes; the top of the cake is percussion, the sides are melody.
- Poster Studio (right end) layers stamps into a picture, up to 16 pages per sketchbook, playable as an animation.
- Labo Puzzle pays coins, stickers or tools, and is the only place in town that hands out tools directly.
The melody cake and poster studio pages cover the interfaces; the Labo Puzzle page covers what it pays.
The Sky Farm
A garden above the clouds where Petit Games live. It is also where the tool set earns its keep — watering can, shovel, fishing rod, fruit basket and bug net all have ability gauges, and the farm is the friendliest place to raise them. Details on Sky Farm and tools.
The Photo Studio
Two jobs. It takes photos against backdrops unlocked by the mini-games you have played, and it holds the Partner Room, where you swap the character travelling with you. Photos save to the console's storage, so nothing is trapped in the game.
Getting around, and the free tickets
The dock returns you to the title screen. Pressing the map button opens the map, and the sticker book shares the same button on the default layout.
Hide-and-seek requests are the reason to talk to characters in town: someone asks you to find a missing friend, you use the drone camera to look, and the reward is Waterwheel Tickets. That is one of only two ways to get tickets, and it costs nothing but a walk. The other is simply time — tickets accumulate as you play.
Next: Waterwheel tickets and prizes for what the draw pays, or characters and partners if you want to know who is standing in the square.
