Tag: Video Games

Miitopia takes players on a Charming, Unforgettable Adventure

April 5th, 2023

If you haven’t played Miitopia, you’re seriously missing out. The game is quirky and funny in the absolute best way possible. If you’ve played the game, you’d know what I mean. So, to show you why this game is one of my top ten favorite games, today we are taking a deep dive into the cute and charming world of Miitopia.

There probably isn’t a better way to start than to talk about the crazy story this game has. They explain the basic plot in the opening sequence. It goes something like this:

“This is the world of Miitopia. It is a world where every Mii can live in peace and harmony. Or at least… it was. The darkness came without warning. A great terrible shadow threatening all of Miitopia An unspeakably evil fiend started stealing everyone’s faces. And then, to add insult to injury… the fiend gave the faces to monsters!”
Miitopia Opening Cutscene*

They then go on to show your character wandering around. They explain that you are a simple traveler who wanders “wherever the path takes” you. After you witness the Dark Lord steal the faces of some people in town, you then receive an amulet from one of the villagers and are asked to go save the villagers’ faces. A voice comes out of the amulet and tells you that you are the chosen one and you have to stop the “unspeakably evil fiend,” the Dark Lord, and save everyone’s faces. So that’s what you do. The plot is quite simple, but I think that adds to the game.

As for the gameplay, the game is the definition of RPG. You and your team of Miis are all assigned jobs (no, not the kind you get paid for). Warrior, chef, or popstar are a few examples. Each job comes with different abilities. If you’re a mage, you’d wear robes and cast spells, whereas a thief would steal enemies’ HP bananas and attack with a dagger. There are fourteen jobs in total.

Being an RPG, the main gameplay hook is turn-based battling. It is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Your Miis will learn new abilities and attacks as they level up. On your turn, you’ll attack, eat an HP banana or an MP candy, or use a special unlocked attack. The other Miis in your party will unlock things as they progress, but you can’t control them in battle. Your Miis could also do some other things automatically in battle depending on their personality or friendship levels with other Miis. You, as the player, can also do some things to sway the battle such as using sprinkles (which are almost like potions), or putting your Miis in the safe spot. The strategy of it is simple, yet complicated at the same time. It’s quite fun when you get into it.

Inns are another important part of the world of Miitopia. Inns are like the home base for your Miis. There’s plenty to do at the inn. You could buy Miis new gear, feed them to level them up, or even try your luck at rock-paper-scissors. You can place your Miis in different rooms in the inn. The friendship levels between roommates will go up over time. The inn is a very good way to get your Miis ready for the battle.

Now, I must address the elephant in the room, the fact that all of the characters in this game are Miis. The main selling point of the game, rightfully, is that your team of Miis, as well as all of the other characters in the game, can be played by any Miis you’d like. They refer to it as “casting” (like in a play). You decide who you want each character to be. You could cast your brother as the Dark Lord and put your aunt on your team. You could cast Mario as the king, and Luigi as the Great Sage. You could even do what I did and make up your own characters. That’s the beauty of this game. You can do whatever you want. I think casting Miis is this game’s cherry on top.

The game is basically made up of funny dialogue and silly scenes. It’s hard to put into words just how charming the cut-scenes are. The Miis have the funniest animations, and their interactions with each other just can’t be topped.

From the story, to the battles, to all of the Miis, this game is an unforgettable experience. It is complicated and still feels simple enough. The Miis are so funny, and the battles are repetitive, yet fun. This game takes you on an adventure that is more epic than you could imagine without playing the game. It is so charming and awesome. This game is very close to my heart and that will never change.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
Nintendogs + Cats Chapter 1: Millie and the Flying Disc Competition

April 1st, 2023

The game opens and the first thing I see are adorable puppies. I looked around the kennel. There were so many dogs to choose from! I ended up picking the cutest toy poodle. The poodle and I returned home, and I watched her run around for a while. I called her over to pet her. The game told me it was time to name my new puppy. I hadn’t really thought about what to name her, so I had to look at some lists of female dog names on google. I decided on the name Millie (I mean, you read the title).

Later I took her out on our first walk together. I have to admit, it was quite relaxing. We found a present lying in the road. No, I don’t mean dog poop, that would be gross. It was a literal wrapped gift lying in the road. Millie picked it up and handed it to me. I opened it and inside was a shoe. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do with it, but cool, I guess.

We got back and I decided to enter her in the Flying Disc Competition. We visited the supply shop to buy a disc as well as a few other things (including a new collar). Then it was time to compete. Millie competed in the Flying Disc Junior Cup. It was her first time competing, so I didn’t really expect too much. Once the competition started, my muscle memory for this game kicked in. I threw the disc just like I used to. Millie, on the other hand, didn’t have any idea what she was doing. I guess I didn’t really realize she isn’t as fast as my old nintendog. Not yet, that is. We came in last place with zero points.

I started really training with her the next morning. I started by playing fetch with her. She started to lose interest, so I brushed her and gave her treats before we continued playing. We played until she lost interest again. I blew up a balloon and let her hit it around until it popped. That seemed to entertain her. Then I got out the disc we had been using for the competition and started practicing with that. I even taught her a couple of new tricks.

Once we were done training, I decided to take Millie on a pedometer walk. I would have liked to go on a real walk, but it hasn’t exactly been the nicest weather for that recently. Instead, I got out my Wii Balance Board and opened up Wii Fit U. I ran a lap around Wuhu Island and even tried some other activities with the 3DS in my pocket. By the time I’d finished my workout, we’d walked around eighteen hundred steps.

We made another attempt at the disc competition. I wasn’t sure how much the training would help, but there’s no reason not to try again, so we entered the competition. This time we came in third and last place again, but on the plus side, we finished with five points. Listen, five is an improvement from zero. I’m allowed to be happy.

After a week or so of training every day, we were finally ready. I figured out how to throw the disc in a way where Millie could catch it. I’m sure Millie improved, too. So, we entered the competition, more determined than ever. This time, remarkably, we finished in first place with twenty-two points. We celebrated the victory with a nice, relaxing walk.
Minecraft Adventures Chapter 3: Steady Food Source

January 9th, 2023

I spent the seventeenth and eighteenth days collecting wood and expanding the treehouse. It became abundantly clear I needed a stable food source, so I cleared a space for farms at the base of the treehouse. On the nineteenth morning, I finished adding a room coming off the staircase. I went over to the clearing I had made and begun working on my farms. I started by making a cocoa bean farm.

I found a wandering trader while I was working and took this as an opportunity. I killed both his llamas because I needed leads for catching animals. If you read the other weeks so far, you’d know I don’t really care about wandering traders. I caught a chicken, thinking I could farm chickens, and was about to make a pen for it when I heard a zombie. I didn’t think it was that dark out, but it was raining, so I couldn’t really tell. I ran up the stairs without even turning to look at what I assumed was a zombie. I rushed over to my bed and slept through the night.

On day twenty, I made a pen for the chicken. I also made a fire pit and some seats. I foraged for watermelons with the hope it would last until my farms were done. I went to bed and the next morning I visited the dripstone cave. I collected nearly two stacks of cobblestone and some coal before my pickaxe broke. It was dark out by then, but luckily not too many monsters bothered me before I got to my base and fell asleep.

On the twenty-second day, I started building a hut by the pond. It took me all day and all the next morning to finish it. I spent the afternoon building a storage hut over by the clearing. When I finished the hut, I decided to check in on my chicken. I walked over to the chicken pen only to find that an ocelot had eaten my chicken.

The next day, after taming some parrots, I headed out into the woods to find some sheep to replace my chicken. Why sheep, you ask? I couldn’t replace my chicken with another chicken because it would just be killed again. To be honest with you, I wanted cows, but I found sheep first and figured it would do.

I realized there was no avoiding making a wheat field if I wanted to breed animals, so I dug through my chest before realizing I had used all my seeds on taming parrots. I headed down to the clearing and collected seeds from the grass. I didn’t really have any other choice but planting the seeds by the fishing pond, considering I don’t have any buckets, so that’s what I did. I crafted hoe and tilled a small patch of land near the pond.

As was planting the seeds, I heard a noise that sounded sort of like a creeper. I looked around. I must have been hearing things. I heard it again. It sounded like a parrot was imitating a creeper. I looked around again, looking for a parrot this time. Nothing. I planted another seed. There it was again. I heard the noise again and realized what was happening. There was a parrot on my shoulder.

I ignored my annoying parrot and finished the wheat and melon patch. I had done it! I finally had finished enough farms to actually start farming! It was almost sundown though, so I climbed up the treehouse and checked in on Reuben. I sorted out my messy inventory into my chests and watched the sunset before climbing into bed and falling asleep. To be continued…

Make sure to check out the previous weeks if you haven’t already. I play on bedrock edition. The seed is -4855815448293228302. If I’m not mistaken, last week I said I would choose a name for my dog this week. So, without further ado, I have decided on… drumroll please… Thingy. All I’m going to say about next time is that there will be plenty of exploring. And with that, make sure to leave a like before you go and stay tuned for the next chapter!
Minecraft Adventures Chapter 2: The Reuben Suite

January 1st, 2023

To be honest, the sixth and seventh days were all over the place. Just to catch you up; I got attacked by mobs, collected wood, took photos, got attacked some more, and worked on my treehouse.

On the morning of the eighth day, there was a huge creeper invasion at the base of the tree. After being blown up a few times, I decided to stop messing around and get something done. I had been wanting to visit the mesa biome nearby. I started building a huge bridge system over the tops of the trees, slowly expanding toward the mesa. I made a pickaxe, and by the next morning, I was ready to explore.

I didn’t really explore very deep into the mesa. I spent a decent amount of time mining the coal and copper out of a small dripstone cave on the side of the terracotta mountain. I also found another wandering trader. I thought about it, but I decided to leave him and his llama alone for now. I headed back over the brides to the treehouse. I crafted my first furnaces and started smelting wood to make torches. The sun was setting so I rushed over to my bed and slept.

                The wood had finished smelting when I woke up and I immediately made torches. I spent a little while placing torches around, making sure I lit up every inch of my base. I lit up the stairs, the roof, the bridges, everything. I was determined not to make the same mistakes again. I quickly ran out of torches, so I made my way back to the mesa to collect some more coal, as well as some cobblestone. I returned home to finally make myself a set of stone tools, as well as some more torches. I spent the rest of the evening putting a roof on the top floor of my base.

                I spent the eleventh morning finishing the roof. I realized I was running out of food. I wandered the forest for a little while and foraged for watermelon. I found a little pond and thought it was cool, so I used my new shovel to make a path from the treehouse to the pond so I can find it again. I must have enjoyed the walk, because just like that the sun had started to set. I hurried up the stairs and fell asleep.

                I wanted to do something interesting for day twelve. I decided the most interesting thing would be to tame a pet. I grabbed a lead and raced down the stairs. I found a pig. I brought him up to my treehouse. You could call it kidnapping, but I prefer to think of it as befriending. I rightfully named my new pig Reuben, as a reference to Minecraft Story Mode (which by the way, I watched before I ever even played Minecraft), and attached him to a fencepost in the treehouse.

                I decided Reuben couldn’t just live in my bedroom forever, so I began collecting materials for what I’m going to refer to as the “Reuben Suite.” I spent the next few days going back and forth, collecting and building. At one point, I mined a block of stone, only to find a pit of lava underneath. Luckily, I avoided falling in, and covered it with some terracotta so I can find it later.

                By the sixteenth day, the Reuben Suite was finally finished. I think Reuben likes it, or at least I hope so. I spent the rest of the day organizing my chest and taking photos. I checked in on Reuben again before watching the sunset and falling asleep. To be continued…

I have so many ideas for this series! I really hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Next time I would like to start farming for real, but I guess we’ll see. If you for whatever reason have not read last week’s adventure, then I don’t think you can blame me for encouraging you to do so. It’s not like this week spoiled it too much. I will be deciding on a name for my dog either next week or the week after, so if you still haven’t suggested one, and want to, don’t worry, there’s still time. I play on bedrock edition. The seed is -4855815448293228302. And with that, I’m also going to encourage you to leave a like if you enjoyed and stay tuned for next time!
Minecraft Adventures Chapter 1: Beginnings

December 24th, 2022

It was dawn of the first day and I spawned on top of a large jungle tree. I looked around and assessed the situation. From what I could tell, a mesa biome and forest surrounded the jungle. Past the forest was a savanna. I took a few pictures and mined my way down the tree. I wandered around the forest for a while, looking for some sheep to make a bed. I eventually gave up and climbed back up the tree to start building a makeshift base. I thought maybe I could just wait out the night on top of the tree.

Eventually the sun went down. I tried to ignore it and continued working on my makeshift treehouse. I thought it was safe enough. It probably would have been if I hadn’t stopped for a photoshoot. I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of how many mobs were out. So, I crouched at the tip of the leaves taking pics of the mobs below. I fell off the tree. Somehow, I survived the fall. While I had been saved by vines, the monsters killed me anyway. It was a jungle of monsters down there. I respawned back on top of the tree, which would’ve been a good thing if I had actually lit it up. But, alas, I hadn’t bothered.

Mobs may not have spawned on top of the tree, if I had stayed up there the whole time, but because I fell, mobs started spawning up there too. When I respawned, there were zombies and skeletons everywhere. I died multiple times, respawning back in the treehouse to continue defending the tree. Eventually I had taken care of the mobs and luckily not long after the sun finally rose.

I descended the tree, only to find an insane number of mobs. I’m not really going to go into it, but as you can imagine, madness ensued. I decided what I really needed was a bed, so I set out toward the savanna in search of sheep for wool. As soon as I was out of the jungle, I immediately found sheep. Then I found a wandering trader, but I didn’t have any emeralds. I walked further through the oak/birch forest and saw a wolf attack a sheep. It occurred to me that I had some bones on me, meaning I could tame one of the dogs. I found a dog and tamed it with a single bone. That’s either amazing luck or destiny. The dog followed me through the rest of the forest and eventually we made it to the savanna.

I briefly stopped to take pictures and then spotted a ruined portal in the distance and headed that way. I found some armor, a clock, and some other junk in the chest at the portal. I then saw a village not too far out and headed that way. In the village I took a picture with the iron golem, killed a few cows, kicked a villager out of his bed, and fell asleep.

On day three, I decided to build some farms outside the village. I sorted out my inventory into a chest and was just about to start planting wheat when I realized I lost track of my dog. Luckily, I retraced my steps and found him again. I spent the rest of the day planning farms and eating melons I had found in the jungle.

I spent most of the fourth day working on my farms. I completed a wheat and melon field before deciding to build a hut. I didn’t really have that many materials, so I just threw together what I could. I’ll spend more time decorating in the future. I finished my hut just in time for sunset and slept inside. Just like that it was day five.

I left the dog to watch the farms and headed back toward the jungle. I found a wandering trader, the same one I assume, but I still didn’t have any emeralds. I ultimately decided to kill his llama for a lead. I would have felt bad, but it was a better deal than any of the other ones he was offering. I finally made it back to the jungle. I didn’t have to wander for too long to find my base. I climbed up the tree and watched the sunset before falling asleep. To be continued…

Next episode I plan to go mining and hopefully make tools and torches. For the record, the whole time I kept telling myself that I should go make tools or that I should light up my base. I just kept getting sidetracked. Though, even if I light up my base, I think you’ll see throughout the series how prone to death I am. Currently the file is titled “Blog World 1” due to a lack of ideas, so if you guys have any ideas, let me know in the comments. I also would like to name my dog, because I am tired of calling him “my dog” or “the dog,” so again, let me know. For those of you wondering, I play on bedrock edition. The seed is -4855815448293228302. Leave a like if you enjoyed and stay tuned for next time!