Ever Wanted to Play an RPG Starring You and Your Friends? Try Miitopia
If you've ever wanted to play an RPG that stars you, your celebrity crush, your school crush, your favorite Pokémon and your BFF, Miitopia for the Nintendo 3DS might be exactly the game for you.
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Like other RPGs, the game involves taking control of a party of characters with different personalities and character classes, leveling them up through battle and with special items and outfitting them with the gear to make them as powerful as possible. But unlike other similar games, all of the main characters are customizable Nintendo Miis, so your party consists of anyone you can dream up.
The story begins in Miitopia, a peaceful world where Miis live together in harmony until a shadowy figure called the Dark Lord appears, stealing people's facial features and putting them on monsters.
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Your mission is to defeat the monsters you encounter on your journey across the land of Miitopia, restoring their faces to their original owners. The game keeps a count of how many folks you save along the way, and as that number rises, so do your abilities.
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And you don't only design the characters in your party. You'll also be responsible for creating key people you meet on your quest, including the Dark Lord himself (or herself) and the participants in a royal love triangle.
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But Miitopia is anything but a solo mission. As you move through the game, your party grows. Luckily for you, the look and abilities of each new character are entirely in your hands.
Once you've created a Mii who joins you on your journey, you pick their class, which will dictate their clothing options, as well as their battle abilities. In the beginning, you can pick from classic classes like knight, mage, cleric and thief, as well as quirkier ones including chef and pop star. Each is substantially different with its own unique move set and abilities.
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But the customization doesn't end there. You also assign the characters with traits, such as cautious, laidback or airheaded. The personality types come into play often during battle, with "nice" characters sharing their stock of items with a teammate in need and "cool" ones smoothly dodging enemy attacks. Each class has its pros and cons which are fun to discover over the course of the game.
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Setting these traits also gives the Miis a sense of autonomy. Outside of battle, their choices are up to them, and their personalities drive their interactions as well as each individual Mii's likes, dislikes and aspirations. Each Mii also has their own tastes, so while a slice of red velvet cake might delight my Mii and greatly increase her stats, it might disgust another and result in only a tiny boost.
You'll also want to ensure that your adventuring Miis are all somewhat friendly with one another. Every pair of Miis has their own relationship level and neglecting to foster a bond between any two characters can be hazardous. Unfriendly Miis may start disagreements or refuse to work with one another, which will hinder you in battle. On the opposite end, Miis with good relationships will praise one another, boosting their attack, or collaborate to strike extra powerful blows in a fight.
(via Nintendo)
(via Nintendo)
As you travel along, your characters have small nonsense conversations. While they don't add to the plot (or even consistently make sense), it definitely breaks up the monotony of running along looking for the next battle.
When it comes to these fights, the turn-based battle system is probably the most sophisticated part of the game. Here, the interplay between your unique characters allows the battle to unfold.
For example, the pop star class has a special move that raises everyone's relationship with them to equal the highest relationship level of the group. This maximizes the potential for each character to aid the pop star in their attacks and vice versa.
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But keep in mind that you're only in direct control of your own Mii during battles leaving the other party members to make their own decisions, which might not always line up with what you want. As the other characters make their moves, you're free to stick characters in a safe recovery spot or help refill their magic of health points, but the rest is up to the game's AI.
In addition to fighting baddies, you'll also be solving problems across Miitopia. You'll be saving people's kids, chasing down wizards and jumping right into the middle of a love triangle between a snotty prince, a loyal but cowardly boy and the princess they both love.
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And just when you think your characters are really getting along and your party is where you want it to be, the Dark Lord arrives again, only to kidnap the three characters who've assisted your main character in getting this far.
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At this point, it's up to you to develop brand new Mii companions. Starting from scratch, you'll need to build up their stats and forge new bonds to get your team back up to snuff. After some time with an overpowered team, adjusting can be tough, but it's also fun to get a fresh start.
At this point, even more classes are added to the roster, including cat, scientist and imp. Delightfully, the final group of classes is even stranger.
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The game also has Amiibo functionality, so if you have any figures lying around, be sure to test them out! While many Amiibos will simply give you tickets to allow you to play a roulette wheel or rock, paper, scissors in the game, others will give you unique outfits. While these looks don't have great stats, they're pretty cute and totally worth unlocking.
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You can also take photos of your adventure with a single button press, making it easy to capture your funniest moments to share with friends (particularly when they happen to be involved).
Overall, Miitopia's premise of allowing players to create their own RPG characters from scratch is ingenious. The RPG itself has enough depth to keep players engaged, while the quirky charm of the character interactions will entertain even when the game feels more shallow.
The story is never particularly absorbing, but it doesn't matter that much when you inherently know and love all of the characters involved and the battle system has real complexity. There's never a dull moment in Miitopia, and that should keep players coming back for more for a while. It retails for $39.99 and is out now on the Nintendo 3DS.
Can't get enough of Miis? Click HERE to check out our review of Tomodachi Life.