We interrupt to bring you some breaking news: Alana’s verdict for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is in.
Fans of the 3DS game are champing at the bit to lose their lives to this long-dreamt-for sequel. Many have waited since 2014 to create more freakishly terrifying Miis and test the limits of humanity and absurdity.
We asked the residents for their reaction. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” said Jim, an advocate for the previous game.
I’m Alana, and you’re up-to-date.
Well, you’re not quite up-to-date, but if you have no idea what Tomodachi Life is like, this update is a good little snippet. This isn’t a life sim, it’s more like a simplistic, absurdist, Nintendo-esque take on The Sims.
You are the master of your own island, which you populate with Miis of all kinds: yourself, real-life family members, friends, celebrities, or characters from TV shows and media you love (or hate). Add more Miis to your island and you unlock more stores and buildings, plus your island will gradually get bigger, allowing you to place more decorations and continue creating the most chaotic set of island residents imaginable. This is all about creating Miis and letting them live their lives. Oh, and what silly lives they lead.
Living the Dream started off as one of the funniest video games I’ve ever played. The laughter starts at minute one, when I’m creating my own Mii and messing around with the voice filters. The Mii creator is absurdly detailed with hundreds of options and the ability to draw on your character’s face – more on that later.
But the voices, once you start giving your character tones that make them sound like everything is a question, or they speak so high-pitched you can’t understand a word they’re saying – that’s when the uncontrollable giggles kick in.
As I began to populate my island, I got to witness some of the most absurdly funny interactions. I snorted way too many times at the bizarre dreams my Miis were having. Seances with rabbits, coral, or shells, spring rides through safari parks, an avalanche of chocolate-chip cakes (poorly designed by me).
One time, some Miis gathered at the local restaurant and a sitcom-like scenario would play out. It’s like being in a Nathan Fielder show, except you’re sort of in control of what happens.
And that’s the thing: Living the Dream is much more interactive than Tomodachi Life was on 3DS. Miis will actually walk around the island now and talk to other Miis themselves; you can pick them up and take them to any place of your choosing, have them stare at trees or use vending machines, or sit at tables on their own. You can pet them on the head or give them food or new clothes to make them happy.
Raising happiness is the one thing you really want to do in Living the Dream, as doing so gives you wishes, which you can spend at the Wishing Fountain. The best way to do this is to figure out what kind of clothes, gifts, or foods each Mii likes — which is basically trial-and-error — or to solve their Troubles by talking to them when they have a little bubble above their heads.
There’s a rhythm to Living the Dream, a kind of short-session game where I’ll load up my island, see what new food items the shop has, how much money I’ll spend on clothes, and go around and fix Miis’ problems by feeding them what they want or getting them to make friends with another resident. Sometimes I’ll play a minigame with a few of them, like bowling, or What’s Missing?
Or I can just muck about: I can drag my Mii to hang out with Vivi from Final Fantasy IX and talk about the concept of death, as long as I’ve introduced the word ‘death’ to the in-game lexicon. Or Dante from Devil May Cry can talk to Guts from Berserk about “a silver-haired man”. Romances, marriages, and relationships can flourish or fizzle out with a little encouragement. I can even draw an approximation of my cat as a Mii or as a Treasure to give to another resident.
You can see via the screenshots that I’m not an artist; you’re probably terrified of my cat Miles and his gormless eyes and weird stripes, and you’re probably asking, “Is that Tom Nook from Animal Crossing?” But you don’t have to be good at drawing to design a hilarious congregation of Miis. (Shoutout to TomodachiShare for buckets of inspiration.)
In fact, the creativity is incredible across the board. Not only can you draw your Mii’s face, but you can actually design structures — Moomintroll has become fond of sleeping next to my strange purple Eiffel Tower — create interiors and exteriors for your Mii’s houses, design your own food, books, and video games, and even create custom pathways.
You can use the touchscreen for all of these things, and for a few other moments in-game, like petting your Miis and using the in-game keyboard. But the touchscreen functionality is weirdly limited. I can’t use it to pick up my Miis or decorate my island in Build Mode. I can’t even use it in most menus. It’s a bizarre choice, which extends to the lack of Mouse Mode implementation on Switch 2.
It’s good that Living the Dream looks great on both Switch 1 and Switch 2, with the latter getting a resolution boost, but at least on the new console, I’m surprised the game runs at 30fps. It’s a little jarring, especially in some of the dream sequences where it drops frames thanks to some high-octane falling action (you’ll need to see to understand). Perhaps a Switch 2 patch is incoming, and I hope Nintendo at least adds Mouse Mode and perhaps expands the number of Miis you can have on the island (70, down from 100 on 3DS).
Back to Build Mode, this was one of my favourite parts of the preview period, but as I unlocked more and more decorations, the variety felt a little limited. I still redecorate and rearrange my island frequently thanks to how simple it is, but it’s here where I start to see my issues with the game.
Because, without the customisation options, Living the Dream is basically an elaborate game of watching goldfish and imagining personalities for them. And that’s been a struggle for me. As funny as the game can be (and sometimes still is), the novelty of the bizarre hijinks wore off after about 10 hours.
I’m more than triple that now, and I’ve seen at least five different Miis ride a spring bear in front of a realistic photo of a lion. I’ve watched multiple residents get stuck in a hiccup rut. I might get a new cutscene every so often if I drag Tom Nook over to Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII, but they also might just walk off and chat together.
Even as I unlocked new buildings and got a few new cutscenes and interactions, or got Miis to move in together, I felt like I was falling into the same rhythms all the time. Poke and prod Miis, drag them around, feed them, create a new Mii, get them integrated, and so on. I got bored of the loop, which the short play sessions helped with, but it sometimes felt meaningless.
Trying to get certain Miis to fall in love, especially the more Miis you have, sometimes felt a little hit-and-miss. I put my Mii with my partner Zach’s Mii many times and, for a while, there was the threat of Lydia taking him away from me. It did make the eventual joining together and marriage all the sweeter, at least.
But then we had a squabble over something absolutely ridiculous, and I had to live in fear that I might be breaking up with my IRL husband. Don’t worry, though, you can usually repair those relationships, and it adds a little more drama to friendships and dating.
In fact, relationships are another area where Living the Dream has made big strides forward. The game has no restrictions on gender or relationships, to the point where you essentially have aro/ace Miis who just want to be friends and live together. That, plus the addition of a non-binary gender option, choice of pronouns, and lack of clothing restrictions means this is a win for everyone.
Creating a plethora of Miis has been a bit of a tonic for me over the past few weeks, and is the most surprising thing I love about Living the Dream. But once that creative process is over, despite all of the improvements the game makes over the original Tomodachi Life, I feel myself slipping back into that rhythm that has worn me out a little.
For as many times as I’ve laughed, I’ve sat blank-faced, trying to figure out whether Guts likes fried spring rolls or milkshake. I wish it’s an experience I could share with others a little easier, too, but with the online restrictions — including restricting sharing Miis, which I do understand — it feels a lot more solitary than it should. Unlocking new things brings a little spark to it, too, but I’d say I’ve been Living the Nice Life rather than the Dream, and that’s okay.
