Miitopia is an odd game because I actually have a deep history with it that goes back to its original english release checks calendar SIX YEARS AGO?? I uh... wow. When the demo first dropped I remember my younger self dismissing it as another random mii game, but after trying it... I was so hooked. I just wanted to keep playing. But as all demos do, it came to an end, and I couldn't progress in the story further, and this was before I could get income for myself so it was basically it for me. About half a year later, I had saved JUST enough Christmas money to finally buy a copy.
To say that I loved it was an understatement. To my younger self it was my favorite game ever. I played it nonstop, playthrough after playthrough, casting all these characters as my friends. I couldn't get enough of it. But then, I started getting into other games, I started to expand my horizons beyond Nintendo because of Final Fantasy VII, and its importance floated away slowly. It didn't help that nobody really played the game either aside from two friends I had at my old school, and me not being on social media at all during the time. Flash forward to 2021 and the Switch version with new QoL dropped, exposing it to a wider audience. It was certainly... interesting seeing what people had to say about this game, especially as someone who was a fan during the original release. I didn't bother picking up this version until 2022 and played it on and off for a while.
The game isn't as good as I used to think it was, I won't lie. Do I think it's bad? No, absolutely not. But the game has so much potential and doesn't do very much with that, restricting exploration to "levels" which are a straight line with scripted enemy encounters and "routes" that force you to go through the stage multiple times to find everything. To say it gets repetitive is an understatement, and the combat does not help. There are some unique ideas with how you manage your team during battles but having your other party members AI controlled is lame. Even Dragon Quest has more complex systems than this game with real status effects and such. There's also a relationship system but compared to Tomodachi Life it is significantly shallower and dumbs down to "level up by being in an inn room together or random event". On the topic of Tomodachi Life, it has a similar problem to that game where there's not that many quirky random events in the game so you end up seeing repeats of the same event a LOT, except now in a 25 hour JRPG.
It's a bit sad seeing this game in a new light, because I know the IP has so much that it can do. I'd love to see the world of Miitopia in a more traditional JRPG format with actual systems and exploration to mess with, but knowing Nintendo's lack of interest in Mii games I doubt a sequel would happen. I still like this game a lot, it still means so much to me, and I doubt this will be my last playthrough even with the numerous flaws it has. This game is just too damn charming. I don't really know if I can recommend Miitopia, but this is the definitive version of the game with its new features. Just don't expect much from this game outside of it's main charm of being able to cast every single character as anything you want. I guess growing up will change your perspective on things sometimes.
To say that I loved it was an understatement. To my younger self it was my favorite game ever. I played it nonstop, playthrough after playthrough, casting all these characters as my friends. I couldn't get enough of it. But then, I started getting into other games, I started to expand my horizons beyond Nintendo because of Final Fantasy VII, and its importance floated away slowly. It didn't help that nobody really played the game either aside from two friends I had at my old school, and me not being on social media at all during the time. Flash forward to 2021 and the Switch version with new QoL dropped, exposing it to a wider audience. It was certainly... interesting seeing what people had to say about this game, especially as someone who was a fan during the original release. I didn't bother picking up this version until 2022 and played it on and off for a while.
The game isn't as good as I used to think it was, I won't lie. Do I think it's bad? No, absolutely not. But the game has so much potential and doesn't do very much with that, restricting exploration to "levels" which are a straight line with scripted enemy encounters and "routes" that force you to go through the stage multiple times to find everything. To say it gets repetitive is an understatement, and the combat does not help. There are some unique ideas with how you manage your team during battles but having your other party members AI controlled is lame. Even Dragon Quest has more complex systems than this game with real status effects and such. There's also a relationship system but compared to Tomodachi Life it is significantly shallower and dumbs down to "level up by being in an inn room together or random event". On the topic of Tomodachi Life, it has a similar problem to that game where there's not that many quirky random events in the game so you end up seeing repeats of the same event a LOT, except now in a 25 hour JRPG.
It's a bit sad seeing this game in a new light, because I know the IP has so much that it can do. I'd love to see the world of Miitopia in a more traditional JRPG format with actual systems and exploration to mess with, but knowing Nintendo's lack of interest in Mii games I doubt a sequel would happen. I still like this game a lot, it still means so much to me, and I doubt this will be my last playthrough even with the numerous flaws it has. This game is just too damn charming. I don't really know if I can recommend Miitopia, but this is the definitive version of the game with its new features. Just don't expect much from this game outside of it's main charm of being able to cast every single character as anything you want. I guess growing up will change your perspective on things sometimes.
HylianBran
1 year ago