Miitopia was one of those games that I had a hunch I’d enjoy, but had no idea it would tick off so many boxes for me. I’ll just say that it’s the solo-player RPG game that I’ve been needing for quite a while.
Going into this, I had no idea it was a full-on fantasy RPG with jobs and a turn-based battle system. I’m not sure what I thought it was – maybe something more along the lines of that Miitomo app I messed around with a long time ago. Maybe I got it confused with Tomodachi Life – which I’ve never played either.
When this originally came out on the Nintendo 3DS, I sorta had my eye on it, but then forgot about it. So when it was re-released on the Switch, I put it on my Amazon wishlist – and received it for Christmas!
The story is pretty basic in Miitopia – you have to defeat the big bad and save the world. But I’m not playing for the story (for once). I’m there to watch the Miis I created connect, grow in their relationships, and interact with each other as they journey together.
You can be as creative as you want in making your team. Put yourself, your friends and your family in the story if you like. Or, as I did, choose characters from other stories that you write or enjoy.
You can not only craft your own Miis (it looks like you can also share and import them from friends), but you can also customize their personality type and their job. Personality comes with perks and quirks which can effect the way battles and interactive scenarios turn out.
Battle is also pretty straightforward – in fact, the other characters in your party default to auto-battle. I’m not sure if you can change that, but I’m fine letting them make their own choices and focusing on my one character alone. Even if the system is simple, the relationship and personality system adds layers to what can happen in battle.
The closer your characters are with each other, the more automatic actions and reactions happen during a fight. This can be anything from encouraging a party member to do their best, helping to boost a party member’s next attack to taking blows for other party members and dealing extra damage if someone falls in battle.
You do get to control how relationships grow whenever your Miis stop to visit an inn. There are opportunities for Miis to go on outings together to further bond, such as watching a movie or visiting the seaside. These scenarios have a lot of randomly generated outcomes – as many as I’ve done so far, I rarely see a repeat.
I’ve put a number of hours into this game already and I’m still having just plain old fun making my way through it and seeing how my Miis change over time. There’s nothing super serious or difficult about the game, but that’s why I think I enjoy it.
It’s one of those laid back romps where your heroes take a moment to ponder whether someone just tooted. You know, the real questions in life.
