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A lot of RPGs can be really daunting and overwhelming for new players or too laborious even for fans of the genre. With complicated systems and endless sidequests, not every RPG will be everybody’s cup of tea. But everybody deserves an entry point into the genre if they want one, and they should play Miitopia —a perfect first RPG. With endless character customization (and memeification), a strong relationship system, and perfect simplicity to its combat system, new RPG players and veterans alike can find a lot of joy in Nintendo’s latest first-party title.
Here are three reasons why old and new RPG players alike should play Miitopia.
A Strong Relationship System
One of Miitopia‘s strongest and most relatively unique qualities is its relationship system. Each character in your game levels up their relationships to one another over the course of the game by having them share rooms at the inn, go on outings together, perform certain moves in combat, or just by random events. These relationships are the key to success in combat. Since your party members’ max health begins small and can be taken out in just two hits very frequently, the skills they acquire with stronger relationships are essential for maximizing damage and keeping players in good health.
Not only are the mechanics for building these relationships a strong, simple mini-game themselves, they also teach players the importance of keeping your party well-rounded and attending to all of your players. Growing your characters’ relationship levels feels constantly rewarding, since it happens so frequently and always comes with new skills. this makes it smartly incentivized for players who may otherwise not be inclined to give it much focus. And tying your success to careful attention to this mechanic is as smart a game design move as any.
A Vast and Meme-able Character Creation
Ever wanted to go on an adventure with your best friends to defeat the neighborhood bully? Or wanted to see Luigi, Saitama, and, a hamburger, and Rick Sanchez go on a quest to stop Nick Offerman from wreaking havoc on the world? Play Miitopia; it’s got you covered. Is the character customization inherent in Miis deep? Absolutely not. Is the binary gender assignment it imposes on you okay? Not at all. But does it have a certain charm that makes trying to create your favorite character out of its minimal options very attractive? You bet.
Making Miis that look like your faves has been a serious feat for a decade now and Miitopia is finally the ultimate opportunity to show off your Mii skills. Or, it’s an equally excellent chance to borrow your friends’ designs or download your favorite meme characters from the web. No matter how you go about it, the charm of picking the most absurd set of characters for each scenario may never get old.
You Don’t Even Have To Fight
Hear me out on this one. When you play Miitopia, you only have control over your original starting character. The rest of your party automatically makes their moves. But if you like, you can even set your own character to automatically fight as well. Autobattling isn’t necessarily unique to Miitopia. A lot of RPGs have used it over the years, especially to help you grind levels or rare drops faster or with less of a burden on your fingers.
For Miitopia, the value in this autobattleing isn’t how much faster you can level up. It’s just a novel option for players who are simply not interested in mashing A over and over. Sure, there’s some fun in picking your moves and managing your resources. Any player is allowed to enjoy that. But not everybody has to in Miitopia, and I think that’s grand. If your interest in RPGs, or this game in particular, is more in the character customization, the relationship and stat-boosting mini-games, and the story, then perfect! Autobattling will have you focusing on just the parts of the game you enjoy without having to mindlessly use the same moves against the same enemies over and over again.
Miitopia is a perfect first RPG for new players to the genre. It’s also a great game for longtime fans of the gametype. It’s available now on Nintendo Switch.
Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He’s usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp, when he isn’t working as a music educator in his day job.