#based off my obsession with becoming a mii

[minthepm]

HE’S JUST LIKE MII... FR?!

[doorbloggr]

Saturday 2/7/21 - Media Recommendations #9

Contents:

Anime: Demon Slayer

Videogame: Miitopia

Back in lockdown in Australia rn, and I'm also on School Holiday break, so had a lot of time to binge videogames and finally catch up on anime again. So this week's recommendations, I'll discuss how I've been spending my time this past week.

Anime: Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer is firstly, a really good looking anime. I read the manga in its entirety a while ago, and one thing that really set apart from other manga was its beautiful full-page action panels, and the anime does not disappoint in recreating those visuals. Beautiful colourful effects and lighting paint each scene as an art-piece worthy of being in a museum.

Character designs are fun, interesting, and varied. Lots of characters have very colourful outfits and hairstyles that make every character unique. One detail I only picked up recently is that almost every character, human and demon, have completely unique designs for the iris of their eyes. And I just think that's neat.

I won't spoil too much in the way of story, but I feel I gotta set the stage to truly sell this to potential watchers. Demon Slayer has a truly unique setting for a yokai hunting style anime, in that it is based in the Taisho period, or the early 1900s. Much of the story takes place in rural countryside and forest Japan, with settings that would not look out of place in a samurai-style flick, but characters also visit bigger cities, with early cars, trams, and electricity.

The main character, Tanjiro Kamado, sets out to join the Demon Slayer Corp, a secret society of warriors who have dedicated their lives to hunting and slaying Demons, undead monsters who have infiltrated society or hide out in the wilderness, and eat people for sustenance. Tanjiro's sister, Nezuko, was transformed into a Demon, but through strong familial bonds, she refuses to harm humans. Tanjiro and Nezuko work their way through the ranks and hunt ever more powerful demons in the hope that one day, they can find a way to restore Nezuko's humanity. The supporting cast are all endearing and deep characters, all with interesting personalities, backstories, and fighting styles.

Demon Slayer is a beautiful anime with interesting characters and truly unique and fun action. If you like shonen, fun monster designs, or even just Japanese settings, I 100% recommend watching it.

Videogame: Miitopia

My experience with RPGs is very shallow, in that the only RPG series I've truly dipped fully into is Pokemon. But it's not like I don't like the appeal of the genre. The typical JRPG idea where you control a group of heroes adventuring through a wide fantasy world, defeating monsters, defending towns, and becoming strong enough to destroy the dark lord, all sounds very appealing to me. The problem is mostly scale; I am very much an obsessive completionist with many games I play. I collected all 900 Koroks in Breath of the Wild after all. So exploring the world of an RPG and losing myself for hundreds of hours in the combat system and gigantic world sounds... intimidating, for lack of a better word. So in order to ramp myself up towards more meaty titles, I decided I would take a dive into baby's first JRPG, Miitopia.

Miitopia is a Nintendo Switch Game with fairly linear, but somewhat freeform progression. Encounters and towns are explored on a world map, that sometimes branches off, but there's a general trend of beat Level A, unlock Level B to the right and continue on until you beat the boss of this world and move on. In combat encounters, the player has direct control over their Avatar character, but other party members auto battle, adjusting to the situation.

The game is not just a dumbed down JRPG however, there's a lot that sets it apart as a truly unique experience within its genre. Because the game works with the Nintendo Mii system as its base, every single character in the world from the protagonist, to the Big Bad Evil Guy, to the snappy Grandma in town, are all up to the player to decide their identities. And the Switch version of the game has a truly advanced character customiser on top of the usual Mii Maker, so people can get truly wild with their designs, with thankfully, you can download from more talented artists online.

Every party member is given a Job, which vary from usual RPG classes like Warrior, Mage, and Thief, to classes that don't really have equivalents elsewhere, like Chef, Cat, and Tank. Every character is also given a personality type, which adds even more chaos to the autobattle system. Kind characters will sometimes jump in to shield friends, but also sometimes spare enemies. Stubborn characters will attack again and again, but will often refuse healing from allies. Energetic characters sometimes hurt themselves when attacking, but will often cheer allies to restore MP, and so on.

Every character also has a relationship tracker with other members of the party, and when they get to certain levels, they will learn new ways to help each other. Early on, this can mean they will praise each other's attacks, or warn them to get out of the way, and later, they can sacrifice themselves or get revenge when their allies fall. This version also adds a horse, which also has relationships with each party member, leading to team up attacks and abilities when they trust each other more.

For my party, I chose to base party characters on past and present D&D characters, living out an AU where they are united against a common cause, but your heroes can be anyone, from OCs to Mr Bean and Steven Universe, teaming up as super heroes to save the world from Dark Lord Shadow the Hedgehog.

Miitopia is a solid, albeit simplified JRPG, with a tonne of freedom on how you want to build the world. And if you are a noob to RPGS like me, or enjoy the genre but wanna try something unique, I definitely recommend giving Miitopia a try.

[roseandmae]

Miitopia Review

Nintendo recently released a game on the 3DS called Miitopia, which is a role playing game where you can create Mii characters that either resemble your friends or other people. And you have to face the world from the Dark Lord, who is stealing people's faces and putting them onto monsters. You travel with a party of four each with their own class or specialty that you can choose. Characters also gain relationship between each other outside of battle that effects battles with monsters. And it's adorable and fun to play.

One of my favorite things is that you can customize every character in the world of Miitopia, not just the characters in your party. From the town people to the Dark Lord, you can configure it all. Plus you get to see your hard work of creating Miis riped away and you have to go put it back together again. Add on that you can pick their personality type and get appropriate scripted lines to fit those tropes. Cautious character will take a moment to stretch before attacking, while stubborn characters may choose not to fight during their turn. And you don't control it, the AI will just do it. It's amazing! And makes the game so much more interesting. As sometimes characters in your party will have quarrels based off their relationship. And sometimes this will lead to issues where their will sabotage themselves and you have to step in to stop them.  Cause you can only control the hero, not the party members.

I love RPGs. I will obsess over skill trees and equipment, to make sure everyone has the best thing possible and the team is balanced. And the skill tree isn't really available in the game but you do level up characters and give them grub to level up certain aspects. And not every character loves every type of grub. And there's not a whole lot of story, it's more just the journey and facing battles or dungeons over and over again. You do have the option to turn on auto-battle, but I personally wouldn't do that unless I was multi-tasking while playing the game. And luckily the battles are switched up often enough that they don't becoming ignoring or boring. Cause the humor and quirks in the game make it worth while to pay attention to.

Overall, I think Miitopia is a delight! Nintendo makes the best use of their Mii creations from the Wii and use them in a creative yet cute fashion. It isn't revolutionary by any means, but it a pleasant riff on a familiar RPG formula.