Miitopia Review

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Fast Facts

Originally releasing on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2016, the quirky RPG game from Nintendo is back and better than ever after being remastered for the Nintendo Switch. Is Miitopia worth diving into? Or should it have stayed in the past? Let’s find out!

It’s All About Mii!

We all remember the Mii’s that have followed us across our Nintendo consoles, don’t we? Numerous lifeless faces made to imitate ourselves that serve no real purpose except being there. Well, now they have a purpose! Sort of…

In the Kingdom of Miitopia, everything seems quiet, but that’s only because the Dark Lord has stolen the faces of Miitopia’s residents – including the King! You know what that means, right? As the good ol’ Hobbit, Bilbo once said – you’re going on an adventure!

Miitopia features a pretty basic storyline, but one that you will love nonetheless. Players must claim back all the stolen faces, and to do this they must battle a number of creatures. Defeat a creature, and you get its face – well, someone else’s face (that it seems to be wearing). It’s really that simple (and creepy). But it’s the journey along the way that really captures the essence of this RPG game.

Pick A Face, Any Face

The first thing that had me very excited about Miitopia was the character creation – or Mii creation. Every character you meet you’re able to craft into whatever you want, allowing the game to feel more personal to you. This includes the big bad The Dark Lord himself. Whether you want to make your party look like your family, or something totally wacky – it’s completely up to you!

The best part is, if you’re too lazy or don’t care to spend time creating your characters – like me – you can simply select a face that somebody else has made. Simply look through the ever-expanding list of masks and choose one to compliment your character. It’s brilliant. Also, I must say some people have a talent for creating well-known faces. I had a party consisting of Link, Master Chief and Ghastly, because why not?

My First RPG

I would describe Miitopia as almost a ‘My First RPG’ adventure. It’s not overly complicated in its approach and as far as RPG games go, it doesn’t have too much to it. Don’t see this as a negative though, it’s a fantastic game with fantastic gameplay that is accessible to most.

The gameplay is simple; select a level (displayed by an almost dot-to-dot world map) to which you will enter an automatic side-scrolling section showing your party walking through the said level, usually finding some loot of some sorts and some enemies to defeat before entering an inn at the end. That’s the majority of it, a loop of these things. See? Simple. But oh so fun.

The combat is set out like any good old turn-based RPG. Players and enemies take turns attacking and using items and abilities. The one difference here though is that you will only control your character, all other characters make their own decisions as to what they do in battle. Certain things can also trigger random events to occur in battle such as one character helping to attack alongside another, resulting in higher damage being done to the enemy.

When you get to the inn this is where most of your ‘RPG-ness’ comes into play. You can place your characters into rooms of which you desire, which order you place them affects their relationship. You can place each player in their own room or put two together, the choice is yours. After choosing your characters’ rooms (which can be changed at any time) you can use your hard-earned gold to purchase new items, weapons and armour for them but this is done a little differently from other RPG games. Instead of looking through a shop of items and choosing what you would like, your characters will tell you what they want. Give them the money and they will go and get it – or they won’t. It’s really up to them. As well as this you will be able to feed your warriors, check on them to have conversations and also go on outings and use the arcade.

Outings in the game are sort of little dates for your characters – of which you can choose who goes and what they do. Fishing, cinemas or just a general coffee date – the choice is yours. Of course, you can’t do this as many times as you want though. You must use Outings tickets to do so. These dates can go extremely well, and bring two characters closer. Or, it can go horribly wrong and well, you can guess the rest. Similarly, Arcade tickets are used to play little games such as Rock, Paper, Scissors and Roulette to win money and prizes.

Dating Is A Scary Game

As mentioned above, all your party characters will build a relationship with one another, allowing them to become closer and closer. They will give each other gifts, have a meaningful conversation and even help each other out during battles, using abilities unlocked by them simply getting close. Be careful though, it’s not all fun and games because party members can actually get jealous of others’ relations and well, that can end badly. It is quite amusing though. I had one instance where a character gave me a present and a scene afterwards showed a particular character peering through the window at us with some ominous music playing. Terrifying.

Is This Worth Going Back To?

I guess the question for people who have already had the pleasure of playing Miitopia on the 3DS want to answer is, is it worth playing on the Nintendo Switch too? I mean, I didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing this on the 3DS so I can’t say for sure, but I would say that I can’t imagine the experience is that different that you would feel the need to replay it. Not to mention it’s not a particularly long game, as far as RPGs go.

Summary

Overall, Miitopia is a fun, light RPG experience that can be enjoyed by all ages. Though, I found this one better to play in short bursts due to its repetitive gameplay. It’s incredibly easy to pick up and play, and its quirky and whimsical features and characters make this to be a fantastic game – if you hadn’t played it previously.

4 out of 5

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