One of Nintendo’s more enduring creations from the past decade are “Miis”–cartoony, user-created avatars that have since appeared in numerous titles across Nintendo platforms. Nintendo has expanded upon these avatars through games like the 3DS StreetPass titles and Tomodachi Life, which saw players put Miis in a variety of comedic relationships and situations.
With Miitopia, Nintendo aims to further evolve the concept of a Mii-focused game–a role-playing adventure in world populated with Miis of all kinds. Sadly, however, Miitopia is far from the virtual paradise its title might suggest.
In the colorful world of Miitopia, sinister happenings are afoot. The Dark Lord has been stealing the faces of the world’s populace and placing the visages on its horde of minions. This wave of terror has left many eyeless, mouthless, noseless Mii-people in its wake. A mysterious traveler–played either by your personal Mii or another Mii living on your 3DS that you select–stumbles into a city during one of the Dark Lord’s attacks and is called upon by a higher power to put a stop to the face-taking madness.
It’s a pretty silly story, but that’s the point. Miitopia isn’t supposed to be a “serious” RPG, but rather a goofy adventure you plop your Miis into. Your party members–as well as the roles of major non-player characters–consist of Miis you make, download, or add to the game via QR codes. Want to make the Dark Lord look like your boss at work, fill up your party with your coworkers, and create a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson lookalike to play the part of a helpful sage? Or create a love triangle between Princess Bubblegum, Bobby Hill, and Peter Griffin? You can do all that–and more.
Making a fantasy world filled with Miis is a cute idea inspired by Tomodachi Life, but another concept that carries over from that game is inter-character relationships. As your party members hang out together at inns, travel to new locations, and fight at each others’ side, little events occur that will raise and lower their affinity for each other.
These events are often depicted with funny cinematics and dialogue as characters talk, argue, train, and help each other out in combat. The randomness and goofiness of these scenes is part of Miitopia’s appeal: It’s fun watching the Miis you’ve put into the game gradually become weird BFFs (and maybe more).
Unfortunately, once the novelty wears off and you look beyond the basic “putting Miis in a silly fantasy world” concept, Miitopia starts to lose its luster. The role-playing adventure behind this silliness is an incredibly basic affair that quickly grows tiresome Come from Sports betting site VPbet . It initially shows some promise: As your party-member Miis come into the world, you assign them various jobs for combat (with some unlocking later in the game). Some are based on typical fantasy archetypes, such as Warrior, Cleric, and Thief. However, the game also offers more out-there classes like Pop Star, Chef, and Cat. You also assign characters a personality type, such as Cool, Stubborn, or Airheaded, that can affect the way they take actions and guard against attacks: A Cool character might dodge enemy attacks more frequently, while a Stubborn one can sometimes take extra turns.
Unfortunately, aside from your main character, all your comrades are controlled by AI and act according to their own whims.
Mixing a job, a personality type, and a Mii of your choosing sounds like it has potential for some really fun implementations in turn-based combat. Unfortunately, aside from your main character, all your comrades are controlled by AI and act according to their own whims–and the status of their current inter-character relationships. It’s frustrating watching them waste MP and items when you know that you could do a better job fighting if only you had control over them.
However, you can do a little bit more than just watch your three allies fight. You can pull party members aside to give them HP- and MP-restoring “sprinkles” or put them in a “safe spot” to recover from status ailments, but the lack of full party control or even limited AI guidance makes you feel like a passive observer rather than a leader.
