Nintendo has finally revealed a spread of information regarding Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, the long anticipated life sim sequel. In today’s fully dedicated Nintendo Direct, the company revealed that the game is less than 3 months away. They also gave the first proper look at its Mii customization, island setting, and random events. Here’s a breakdown of all that was shown during today’s Direct.
Mii Customization
The first thing revealed during the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Nintendo Direct was a look at the Mii customization. You can fully create a Mii from scratch. Or, for the more unsure, by answering a series of questions to have one created based on your responses. Players will be able to choose the gender identity of their Mii, including the option to make their character non-binary. This will be a first in series’ history. This likely determines which pronouns will be used by other characters in-game.
Players can also choose their Mii’s dating preferences. This will also be the first entry to allow same-sex romances between characters. This makes good on Nintendo of America’s promise following controversy surrounding the 3DSTomodachi Life‘s lack of diverse romance options.
Following this and a fully new Mii character customization suite building off the one found in the Nintendo Switch version of Miitopia, players can choose their character’s voice and personalities. There’s also a new face-paint option, which is showcased in the Direct through the character “Mocha”, a teddy bear-looking Mii. Via this demonstration, it’s completely different from anything possible with the customization suites in previous Mii games.
Island Customization
The islands in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream feature a host of shops that allow the player to buy items and outfits for their Mii, and also where they can buy items to customize their Mii’s apartments. Taking a note from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the entire island is also fully customizable, with players able to change the layout and formation of the central location. Some of the islands showcased can grow quite large in scale, which looks like it brings a potentially massive layer of depth to this entry.
Relationships
Players will have a more direct role to play in relationships between Mii characters this time compared to the 3DS game. Due to the more physical nature of its setting, players can pick up and place Miis beside each other in order to motivate them to interact. The Direct shows this resulting in one character becoming infatuated with another, which results in her growing romantic feelings and eventually confessing to him.
Characters can also live together in households of up to 8 Mii. This creates a sort of group dynamic, where they can bond as housemates and have more direct relationships outside of the traditional relationships and friendships.
Altogether, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is looking to be a massive upgrade on the 3DS original (and its Japan-only DS predecessor). Thankfully, it won’t be too long before players get their hands on the game, with Nintendo finally announcing its release for April 16. The game still only has a Nintendo Switch version confirmed, with it being playable using the Nintendo Switch 2’s backwards compatibility.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on April 16.
