Nintendo has kept Miitopia close to the vest since announcing it for Japanese audiences during a September Nintendo Direct presentation. A preview build of the game is now on Nintendo eShop out East, and YouTuber NintenDaan played through and uploaded what’s now our first concrete look at the game, due in Japan early next month.
It’s still hard to tell what, exactly, Miitopia is, but we can say this: It’s inspired by classic role-playing games, where a party of Miis each don a class to take down monsters. There’s a knight, a black mage, a ... character in a cat costume and a white mage, a role NintenDaan assigns to Nikki, the face of the defunct Swapnote app.
It doesn’t look like the player has much control over how its party controls in battle; instead, it looks like the group’s fight against a vampire big bad is a cinematic affair. This could just be the limitation of the preview build, however, but it’s reminiscent of StreetPass minigames like Find Mii where players had a limited set of options in fighting opponents.
It looks like Miitopia has a little of Tomodachi Life in it too. Outside of battle, the various RPG heroes can bond by training together, exchanging gifts, poking fun at an unpopular teammate or generally chilling out around the monster-filled land of Miis.
Tomodachi Life took its time in getting to North American audiences, and it’s possible Miitopia will do the same. Nintendo will focus its next special presentation on the game on Nov. 5, ahead of its Dec. 8 debut in Japan. The announcement video for the Miitopia Direct, by the way, is ... certainly something; you can watch it in below.
