We pick up the Nintendo Switch to bring you a preview of our first impressions of Miitopia, the rematered of the title originally released on 3DS arriving at the end of May
The video game industry has, over the last few years, shifted a lot towards the old glories of the past, whether near or far. Just think of the very recent Nier Replicant ver. 122, or a moment before in Final Fantasy VII Remake or the upcoming Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Whether they are remakes, remastered or something between the two concepts, there is no doubt that this market is a great way for companies to return to show off the franchises we all loved as children or teenagers and to attract a new slice of users, curious to discover them. And Nintendo is obviously no exception.
Miitopia is a very special title released on Nintendo 3DS in 2017, so not too long ago, but which was promptly forgotten due to the little impact it had on the public (although, the fact that Nintendo has fished out suggests that perhaps as an IP his little success had it). It was not a bad game, certainly very simple and uninspiring in the long run, but which aimed to exploit that creation of the great N that had been lost since the end of the Wii era. S.Yes, exactly, let’s talk about Miis! Welcome to our preview of the Miitopia remastered.
Mii everywhere!
In recent days, Nintendo has released on the eStore a demo of the remastered version of Miitopia, the JRPG which will arrive on May 21 as an exclusive Nintendo Switch. The demo allowed us to test the first game area first hand, until arriving at the castle of Verdalboria, for just over two hours. Furthermore, a notice at the start of the trial version informs us that the game data of the demo will be transferable in the final version when it becomes available.
The protagonists of Miitopia are obviously the THOUSAND, the weird (and rather ugly, let us tell you) avatars that Nintendo created in the days of the Wii. All the characters, from our protagonist to the NPCs, can in fact be created from scratch. A concept that includes not only the inhabitants of the various cities, but also the same villain of the game, the mysterious Dark Lord who goes around stealing people’s faces to create monsters. The narrative pretext is exactly this: our “fearless” adventurer will have to recruit allies and level up to then defeat the Dark Lord, with the help of a strange God and his special abilities.
For creative minds… – Miitopia preview: our first impressions!
We will be able to customize anything of our protagonist, thanks to both the Nintendo Switch editor, and to an internal one added in this new version of Miitopia that allows you to apply clothes, make-up and wigs to the characters we create. The degree of aesthetic customization is incredibly high and allows you to really create anything, maybe even from your favorite series. If, on the other hand, you do not have a particularly creative mind, like who writes to you on the other hand (ed), you can very well use the preset sets by the Miitopia developers or import the creations of other players via the internet.
If the narrative premises are decidedly basic and not very exciting it is because, simply, Miitopia bases its entire being on gameplay. During the adventure, our protagonist will be joined by three companions, to whom we will have to associate a character trait (which will affect the skills learned and the interactions with the other NPCs) and a class among those available, all rather classic. The game then develops into a map divided into zones, which will all be explored automatically by the party and on which the player will be decidedly not very effective.
Key B – Miitopia preview: our first impressions!
The interactions regarding exploration are based exclusively on choosing one path over another (right or left, for example) and constantly holding down B to make the party run. The exploration is therefore reduced to the bone, as in reality the management of the actual clashes. In fact, we will be able to control exclusively the protagonist, and the management of the rest of the party members will be completely devoted to chance, because it is controlled by Artificial Intelligence.
It all boils down to luck and Miitopia’s ability to figure out when it is more appropriate to use a cure rather than an area attack. Let’s admit that in the two hours or so we spent in the demo everything seems to go pretty smoothly, but it’s still a great shame. And it remains that everything is too smooth, to be honest, because the general challenge level is simply given by the brute strength and the level of the enemies: very little tactics and a lot of level up, in short. An all too basic JRPG.
Inntopia! – Miitopia preview: our first impressions!
The exploration and the fighting with the enemies are interspersed with the very frequent stops at the various inns scattered around the game world, which, of course, offer the possibility to our party to rest and recover energy … but not only. Inns play a very important role in Miitopia, being the operational base for all the management of relations between the various components of the party, their level up and obtaining equipment through the game currency. To improve the characteristics of our characters, for example, in addition to making them fight we will have to feed them inside the inns, making several attempts with the foods available to understand which are the favorites of each. The most important factor, however, is certainly that of relationships.
In fact, the relationships that we will undertake between our characters are very important in Miitopia. Do not think of anything too complex, simply making them sleep in the same room or making them go out together through specific Coupons (the Encounters, another novelty of this Remastered) or through other interactions, their degree of affinity will increase and with it the chances that they can interact in battle with special abilities. Interactions that we can also have during the exploration of the map, which will in fact be interspersed with a series of particular events in addition to the fights.
Minigames and technicalities – Miitopia preview: our first impressions!
Furthermore, in the inns we will be able to face some minigame (always paying specific in-game coupons) that will allow us to obtain some additional coins, to be given to our characters in order to have them buy Snacks for the recovery of life or new equipment. Another novelty of this new version of Miitopia is the introduction of the Horse, but in the demo we have just been able to understand that it is customizable as well as the Mii and that it can undertake relationships with the protagonists, nothing else. We therefore reserve the right to express a more complete judgment in this regard in a possible review.
Technically speaking, the remastered version of Miitopia has adapted discreetly to the hardware upgrade and modern times. Although basically it has (obviously) remained the same game, texture upscaling and new lighting management seem to have given new life to a title that is certainly not that old, but which ran on a much less performing machine than Switch. We did not notice any kind of technical problem, such as framerate drops or other smudges, neither in portable mode nor with the console inserted in the Dock.
Let’s wait!
We end this preview of Miitopia here, hoping to be able to talk about it in more detail in the review when the full title is in our hands. This new version of the Mii fair obviously has all the strengths and weaknesses of the original title, with a few more additions that will have to be evaluated in the hours following this demo. In the meantime, however, we can say that on a technical level Nintendo did not leave any smudges. And from this point of view, we had no doubts.
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