Remember Find Mii? It’s the StreetPass pack-in included with every Nintendo 3DS system. People would use other peoples’ Miis to complete a quest to aid a kingdom’s royal family. Miitopia, a full fledged game coming soon to the Nintendo 3DS, offers a slightly different and richer take on the formula. Once again, Miis are the stars, heading out across a continent to reclaim Mii faces stolen by a Dark Lord and placed on monsters. This time, accomplishing goals and getting characters in the game is more convenient.
Miitopia begins with people easily importing Miis to propagate their game. You can connect to Spotpass for Miis, which will cast minor NPC roles. When it comes to main party members or major NPCs, the game will offer people an opportunity to pick who you want in your game. It is a very simple process and draws from multiple locations. You can grab Miis from Mii Central or Mii Maker, pull from your friends’ list, scan a QR code, and even tap into a Tomodachi Life save file for additional folks. You can even let the game automatically assign someone to that role. When you turn on the game after an absence, a brief quiz will ask you to pick well-designed characters or ones that seem to fit certain qualities.
Assigning jobs is just as simple. After acquiring a new party member and getting them set up, you get to choose their role in the party. There’s a convenient story-based system that gives you excuses to add people to your party and switch jobs. Weapons and outfits help improve stats, but eating foods dropped by monsters at inns will also boost characters’ HP, MP, attack, magic, defense, and speed. Level-grinding against the right groups can get you the snacks you need to get your party’s builds to your liking.
You traverse the world in Miitopia by visiting designated spots. Some have icons or characters on them, alerting you to quests, special events, and treasure. For example, one of the earliest special spots is an amiibo fan who will give you character costumes (which all offer no defense that unfortunately makes them a bit impractical to use) or tickets to use in the inns’ roulette and rock-paper-scissors minigames. Once in a location, characters automatically move. You can fast-forward and sometimes even make decisions that lead to different or hidden paths. What’s nice is that a yellow flag appears on spots where you have seen absolutely everything, letting you know when you’re completely finished in an area.
Battles proceed in an equally efficient manner. You are an omnipresent force. You can direct the actions of the Mii based on you, but your allies act independently. There’s an auto-battle and fast forward option, should you wish to speed through fights with standard mooks. There are even HP, MP, and Life Sprinkles, as well as a Safe Spot, which improve as you rescue more Mii faces and allow you to step in and directly aid the party. As long as you aren’t facing a boss, the turn-based battles tend to last about a minute.
Even when you find rewards and treasures in Miitopia, the game makes it easy to arrange and organize things. Should you find something special while exploring, the game automatically gives it to the character who can use it and asks if you want it equipped, showing the difference in stats. Healing items are doled out automatically too, with characters sharing in-battle if their relationship is good enough. You don’t need to worry about searching for the best equipment, as the new weapons and outfits characters will ask for money to buy or appearing on the roulette wheel will always be the next most powerful item you might want or need.
Miitopia is a game that seems to do its best to streamline things. Putting new Miis into the game is a simple process that a player can oversee or allow it to automatically assign. Traveling and battling is easy, with clear indicators telling you which areas may still need exploring. It even aids in organizing your equipment and getting it to the right people. It does its best to help people quickly get started.
Miitopia will come to the Nintendo 3DS on July 28, 2017.
