The announcement of a Miitopia port for Nintendo Switch was pretty bogus: considering it didn’t generate much buzz at the time and the reviews weren’t very encouraging, it seemed like a controversial idea. Nor will it be because of the huge number of incredible 3DS titles we’d love to see on this other platform. Anyway, we were happy to hear that they wanted to try again one of the games that came out later in the 3DS lifecycle, and we were excited to see what we’d missed out on in 2017.
Miitopia tells a story that may be too scary for the children she is targeting. In it, an evil being known as the Dark Lord has come up with an evil plan: stealing people’s faces to create an army of monsters. In this situation, our main goal is to stop him. We might think that the story isn’t the most creative in the world; However, what sets Miitopia apart from other RPG games is the fact that we can characterize any character we meet from our allies to the NPCs and even modify the Dark Lord himself.
The Mii can be customized using the character creation tool or by browsing a catalog of the thousands of designs the community has created. The creation tool has many options, and it’s amazing how well some popular culture figures can be captured in the form of Mii. It’s still very fun to see replicas of Squidward, Donald Trump, and Diddy Kong interact with each other and roam around the map. A strange mix that undoubtedly helps us immerse ourselves in this experience.
When it comes to fighting, Miitopia is probably the easiest RPG we’ve ever played – it’s kid friendly. In the battles, which take place according to a turn-based system, you only have to control your character as the rest of the team moves and acts autonomously. There are also no resistance factors to consider when performing magical attacks. something that even has Pokémon whose combat system has been widely criticized for being too simple. Occasionally we would use the lightning spell on an enemy whose appearance was modeled on the typical storm cloud, and to our surprise, the attack did the same damage it would do any other enemy.
Another pillar of Miitopia is exploration, as achieving a new objective in history requires traveling a map with branches. These sections bored us the most about the title: as we scroll through the map, we find characters moving on the autopilot and posting some mild comments, such as how much they’d like a cat to hug. The game contains some random objects that are scattered on different paths, as well as treasure chests that can be opened. Given how much we go through these places as we move from one place to another, these elements only add to the monotony.
Much of the game also takes place in the inns, accommodations that are meant to rest while traveling between one area and another. They are a perfect place to make connections between characters, either by sharing a room or by participating in different activities together. Having a good relationship with a character helps in helping each other better in battle as they learn new skills that will help them protect and incentivize each other. On the contrary, if the bonds suffer, the Mii will beat each other and take damage in the middle of battle.
In addition to the relationships between Miis, you will have to feed them to improve their stats and buy specific equipment for each class with the gold received. Only a limited number of meals can be administered between zones, and each meal enhances a different skill, such as: B. Defense, attack or speed. Hence, if we want to have a team with some, we have to play with strategy in feeding it statistics
In addition to being able to play Miitopia on TV and the fact that it’s in HD, this port for Switch gives us some new features: the character creation tool has more wigs and a different makeup, and a horse became than Companion added. This last change is very nice as we can customize the appearance of our four-legged companion and mount his mount during battle, which allows us to use some skills that were not present in the original work. Even so, we have to admit that the differences between the two versions are negligible and it is not clear to us whether they have enough weight to encourage players to buy the title again.
Although this version that was brought to Switch doesn’t offer a lot of useful news, we recommend Miitopia both for the most childish audience and for those who want to get into the world of role-playing. The combat system is simple and undemanding, and customizing the Miis before starting the adventure is very fun. However, exploration degrades the overall game significantly, and the lack of freedom to move around and guide the group is likely to prove frustrating for the more experienced portion of the community.
