With the announcement of the New Nintendo 2DS XL, the release dates to two upcoming games were also revealed.
Those looking to get into the 3DS family of Nintendo games can pick up Hey! Pikmin and Miitopia on July 28, the same day as the new 2DS XL releases. Nintendo invited iDigitalTimes to have some hands-on time with the new 2DS and three upcoming games, including Miitopia.
Miitopia has been out in Japan since December and those who are familiar with the Streetpass Mii minigames will get to experience a full-fledged Mii RPG for their 3DS. But don’t be fooled, Miitopia is a lot deeper than the built-in Mii RPG game you can play using your Mii and those of fellow players nearby.
The first thing I noticed while playing Miitopia is that the game is very easy. Nintendo is definitely targeting all ages with Miitopia and it shows. There aren’t many controls and the “moving” through the land of Miitopia is handled by the game (unless you come to a fork in the road and you can decide where to travel), but the most control you have at any point is when you’re in the Inn or the rest stop after each journey.
While at the Inn, players can feed their Mii characters to raise their stats. It’s interesting because each Mii is different and likes a specific food. So the amount of stats boosted by food depend on whether they like it or not.
You can also shop for new weapons and apparel in the Inn using money earned by defeating enemies. However, a Nintendo representative clarified that just because you request an item doesn’t mean that Inn will have it in stock. An example of a scenario is a banana being brought out instead of the sword you requested.
Those sort of scenarios are actually the meat of Miitopia. The little conversations and interactions between Miis are comical and have that Nintendo-style humor that even adults can’t help but smirk at.
Battles in Miitopia are normal turn-based fare. You can be attacked by one or multiple enemies and it’s up to you to overcome them. There is an auto-battle function for younger players that will allow the game to fight and make decisions for them.
Each enemy has different properties, and weapons and apparel can affect your Mii’s strength. Relationships between Miis can impact their combat strength in a similar fashion to how Fire Emblem’s relationships affect battle.
Those familiar with this sort of turn-based battling will have no problem, but the issue of the game’s difficulty does pop up when you are barely taking damage from enemies, even from bosses. Hopefully, the difficulty increases as you proceed in the game. Early on, there isn’t much of a challenge.
Miitopia ’s customization is the most impressive part of what I saw from the game. You can choose your Mii’s class, looks and attitudes. Each class gives certain skills and affinities to particular spells and stat increases, though how attitudes affect battles and the overall experience wasn’t that apparent. Still, I look forward to discovering how deep these customizations and skills go.
Another way Nintendo helps younger players get the most out of Miitopia is through the introduction of Mii Central, which allows players to download Miis to join their party instead of having to rely on Streetpass. It’s a neat little function, in principle, and it’ll be interesting to see if some of the Nintendo bigwigs will be present.
Overall, Miitopia is a fun RPG with surprising depth in how you can play. While the difficulty leaves much to be desired, the potential for tougher battles is there and I’d recommend a wait-and-see approach.
Miitopia for Nintendo 3DS releases July 28.
