One of the most shocking reveals during the latest Nintendo Direct was that Miitopia is coming to the Nintendo Switch. A lesser-known Nintendo 3DS title that many consider to be the spiritual successor to the underrated classic, Tomodachi Life, Miitopia appears to be a simple port at first glance. However, the reveal trailer indicates that it's far more than another old game being rereleased for the Switch.
Miitopia is an RPG where Miis take on the role of various characters throughout the story. Players select Miis as the characters in their party, assigning them a class from a wide variety of options. The game capitalized on the player's ability to add anyone they wanted to their story (just like Tomodachi Life did), providing a unique, often comedic, RPG experience unlike anything else out there.
The 3DS version of Miitopia was a fantastic experience for players who enjoyed seeing their friends, family or favorite characters interact and form relationships. The RPG systems even managed to add more direct gameplay, with players using their starting Mii's abilities to help their party in battle. Players could only directly control their Mii, referred to as a look-alike, in battle, with the other party members being controlled by the CPU.
The Miis themselves were just as much of a focus in Miitopia as they were in Tomodachi Life, with their relationships being a core mechanic in the combat system. As Miis build relationships, they'll gain new co-op abilities that help them work together in battle. These abilities could include cheering on an ally for extra damage or even taking an attack for a close friend.
The world of Miitopia was populated with a huge set of characters, whose names and faces could be selected by the player. Everyone from the Dark Lord (the main antagonist of the game) to a small child in a town were played by Miis. Players could set any Mii that they or other players had created to fill these roles. There was also a system where townspeople would be auto-populated by Miis that other players had selected and voted on.
The more significant roles in the game, such as the Dark Lord and a King, were all manually assigned by the player. It was still possible to see and select the most popular Miis for each major role, just as was possible to change the auto-selected townspeople. As for the party, these Miis were selected by the player and could be customized.
Miitopia has a huge selection of weapons and armor for each class. These can be freely assigned to characters as long as they fit the Mii's class, or job. Speaking of jobs, the original Miitopia featured 14 selectable jobs that are gradually unlocked as the player progresses. Two of these classes are unlocked in the post-game, which provides an even more difficult set of encounters and bosses.
The Switch release of Miitopia is more than just a graphical glow-up of the game, though the reworked graphics and new UI are certainly notable. There are a few new customization features being added, and it also looks to incorporate some gameplay changes as well. Most notable is the addition of animals, with horses specifically being shown off in the trailer. It's currently unknown if there are any other animals beyond horses.
The Nintendo Direct trailer show Miis building their relationships with animals similar to how relationships with other Miis are built. A higher relationship was shown to unlock combat abilities for animals, as well as what appeared to be a faster movement speed on the world map. This extra layer to Miitopia's combat mechanics may help players optimize their party builds, such as by giving a healer offensive options through a befriended horse.
Something else to pay attention to is how certain key features of the 3DS version were not mentioned, such as how other players' Miis could auto-populate the world. Every character in Miitopia is a Mii, and with how many Miis populated each of the game's major locations, it'd be a bit of a hassle for players to choose a character for each role. The 3DS version featured a system where the game could auto-select Miis based on who other players assigned to certain roles, but this wasn't mentioned in the trailer.
The last major difference between the two versions of Miitopia appears to be the new customization options which are always great to see in an RPG. Wigs and makeup have been added, allowing players to create much more accurate versions of fictional characters. That's been a major complaint with the Mii Maker in the past, since that was centered around letting players recreate real people. The color, brightness and saturation sliders shown off with the wigs are also a huge step forward for Mii customizability.
Revisiting an older title and updating it with new features is great to see, especially when Nintendo has a bit of reputation for porting past games to the Switch with very few changes. Given how good but underrated Tomodachi Life was, it's great to see its spiritual successor get some love from Nintendo. The Switch remake of Miitopia is set to release May 21, so additional changes and features may be revealed with additional trailers.