Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Hopes

Of all the Nintendo games currently announced but not yet released, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is probably the one I'm most excited for juuust behind Rhythm Heaven Groove. I played Tomodachi Life a ton on the 3DS and is one of my most played games for the system. It's one of the few games my sister actually enjoyed playing with me and I have alot of great memories of the summers we spent playing it. That said, it's not a perfect game. It gets pretty dang close though! There are some changes that I'd like to see that I believe would enhance the experience. So before Nintendo reveals anything else about Living the Dream, I'd like to list some of my wants in this blog here.

The main premise of Tomodachi Life is that you are an omnipotent, omniscient being that takes care of the Miis on your island while they go about their own lives. All in all, you have little control over what they do which gives very little ways you can interact with the game. You can choose which clothes they wear or what food they eat, but in terms of who they want to be friends with or where they want to hang out for the day you just have to go along with what they choose. And I like it like that! I wouldn't want to change it. However, it does get a little boring playing Tomodachi Life for so long doing the same things over and over and over and over again. I would like more unique ways to interact with your Miis. For example, currently when you level up your Mii you're able to give them an item. They'll sometimes be seen around the island using it, but that's as deep as it gets. What if each item unlocked a small activity? A skateboard would give a little skateboarding minigame, the make-up kit would let you draw on your Mii's face, the Rent-a-Dog coupon would let you play with their dog, you get the idea. I think this would be cool, and would actually give a purpose to which items you give them. Any sort of additional interactivity with the game would be appreciated regardless of which form it takes, though.

Problems are a core part of the gameplay of Tomodachi Life. It's how your Miis let you know that they want or need something from you, whether that just be a new hat or romantic advice. There's a finite number of problems that exist in the game and as I mentioned earlier I've played this game alot. I've probably seen each problem at least a couple hundred times. A whole batch of new ones would be much appreciated. I don't know what they would look like, since they've already got most of the major problems covered in Tomodachi Life on the 3DS, but I'm sure Nintendo can come up with something good. Also I would like to request that my Miis stop fighting each other all the time, I am sick and tired of having to break them up. Thank you.

Nintendo seems mostly done with amiibo these days. They still release the figures, sure, but in terms of giving them actually interesting functionality in games they seem to have given up. Nevertheless, I think it would be cool to have amiibo give costumes based on the figure you put down (i.e. a Mario amiibo gives you a Mario costume). There's a whole bunch of costumes in Miitopia and Miitomo that they could just copy over and use. Even if they don't feel like making a unique costume for every amiibo, giving some appropriately themed items when you scan it could also be cool (i.e. a bunch of tomatoes for Kirby, a yoga studio room for Wii Fit Trainer, etc.).

Pretty self-explanatory. Previous Tomodachi Life games only allowed for opposite-sex couples. This received some backlash from players, particularly from gay-mers that were unable to play the game in their preferred way without having to use some sort of workaround, like changing the gender of one of their Miis in order to simulate same-sex marriage. Nintendo promised that if they were to ever make another Tomodachi Life game that they would allow for same-sex couples.^[1] This was just over ten years ago, and for a long time people were speculating that this statement was the reason there hadn't been a Tomodachi Life game in so long, due to many major markets for Nintendo not being very receptive to the idea of gay marriage. In particular, gay marriage is still not legal in Japan (which is something I only just found out while working on this blog), though from what I could tell by reading through the Wikipedia article on LGBTQ rights in Japan^[2] it seems like it'll be legalized sooner rather than later. Nintendo of Japan also specifically said that they recognize same-sex relationships^[3] so I get the impression that that it might be included in Tomodachi Life even if it isn't technically legal in Japan. I'd also like bisexuality and asexuality to be potential Mii sexualities since they would work well with the way Mii genders work already. A random option would be nice, too, if you aren't very particular about that sort of stuff. Though it would also be pretty funny if it was always random and wasn't something you could control, just like everything else in the game, but that would probably get alot of backlash from people who are particular about that sort of stuff, so it probably won't happen.

When Miitopia was rereleased on the Switch there was a short period where it went viral due to just how in-depth it's Mii creator was, allowing users to create some really weird and insanely detailed recreations of famous people, characters, and whatever else they set their hearts desire. Naturally people started wanting this for other games, most notably Tomodachi Life. It seems that, from the trailers, wigs have been brought over, though I'm not sure if any of the Miis are wearing make-up. I would be surprised if they didn’t bring it over, seeing how well liked the feature was and how well it would fit in with Tomodachi Life’s style of gameplay. Honestly? it might even fit in better here than in Miitopia. It's probably not a feature I would make much use of myself given that a) I lack the necessary skills to create something that looks good, and b) I just prefer the simplistic look of the regular Miis, but I would rather have this feature than not have it especially for the people who would really want it.

In Tomodachi Life you're able to buy rooms from the room store. When you give these rooms to your Miis, it changes the entire room to be an exact match. There's no way to just choose a floor or piece of furniture you like, it's either all or nothing. I would like to see the ability to pick out a floor, ceiling and walls for ourselves, as well as the ability to manually place and rearrange furniture around the room. It would lend itself to more interesting room design, which would be great in an era where people will share screenshots of what’s happening in their game. I feel like this feature could carry a Tomodachi Life game by itself even if it was the only new one added. I think it might not be coming judging from the trailer, since they only show one store where you can buy things for your house, and I feel like they would probably split these two things up. I could be wrong, though, since it's not like selling these things in one store is completely crazy.

PLEASE Nintendo. Of all the things on this list this is the one I want the most. For one, I just like looking at Family Trees. But for two, the way family relationships work in Tomodachi Life currently is STUPID. When you add a Mii to your island you're able to choose how they're related to you (parent, grandparent, sibling, etc.), which blocks off your Mii from trying to start a relationship with those Miis and vice versa. However, this option is only available for the Mii based on the player which leaves no way to let the game know that two Miis are related to each other if they aren't related to you. That means that your friend can try to start a relationship with his grandma! I'm sure there are certain folks that appreciate this """feature""", but I am not among them.

Help, that's it for my most major wants for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Even if none of these end up coming over I'm still going to be excited for the game. Judging from the trailer it looks like there are some pretty significant changes to the gameplay, like replacing the apartments with individual houses for each Mii as well as Miis just wandering around the island. Living the Dream has got some big shoes to fill, since there is a cult following for previous Tomodachi games, though I'm sure it will still be very good regardless of how it lives up to its predecessors. I guess my final main hope is that it innovates on the previous games and brings the Tomodachi series to new heights. Kind of vague, and also kind of redundant when talking about Nintendo, but hey. It's still true.

That's all from me for now. Thanks for reading!

© Me