Miitopia was a peaceful place. That is, until the Dark Lord started stealing people’s faces. There is only one Mii who can defeat this fiend: you.

This is basically the concept of “Miitopia”, a Mii-based RPG released by Nintendo in 2016. In this game, you control your Mii avatar (usually your Mii look-alike, but if you want to play as Makoto Naegi from “Danganronpa” or something like that, no one is stopping you) as you assemble your band of heroes and travel across the magical land of Miitopia in order to defeat the Dark Lord and save everyone. This game puts a cute and quirky spin on what most of us call the RPG.

As with Mii games, the most important part of this game is the Miis you cast in the different roles. Actually, it is not so much important as it pretty darn fun to cast all the NPCs. You can choose a Mii from your Mii Maker or “Tomodachi Life” save data if you have it, or you can have the game auto-assign a celebrity or a fictional character. Both sides have their perks. On one end, you have not lived until you have seen Lovey Dovey Couple Han Solo and Nurse Joy, but on the other, you can cast your brother as the Worried Mother or better yet, the Dark Lord.

There is also the matter of the characters you can play as, more particularly the wide variety of classes. You have your warrior, your mage and your cleric like in other games, but you also have your pop star, your scientist and your vampire. There is not anything particularly better battle-wise about these unconventional jobs. There is just something fun about playing as a pop star who fights by throwing their microphone at their enemies.

Many have described “Miitopia” as being a spiritual successor to “Tomodachi Life”, and I tend to agree with them because just like in “Tomodachi Life”, you can do whatever you want, but you have no control over your Miis. You cannot determine what foods they like, you cannot choose anyone’s actions in battle except for your own, and you cannot decide whether two party members suddenly stop getting along, but you can still dress your brother in frilly pop star outfits, and that makes it all worth it.

All in all, “Miitopia” is a wonderful, whimsical game with lots of twist and turns. It is better than “Tomodachi Life” in that you can play at your own pace because the Miis don’t get cranky if you go a few days without playing, but sadly, you cannot get your party members to start dating, which is bad for people who are used to playing God in their Mii games. It is currently available on Amazon for the Nintendo 3DS.