I’ve finally done it, dear readers! I have finally completed my grand adventure in Miitopia, at long last! The Darker Lord has been defeated, and I’ve thoroughly explored the generous post-game as thoroughly as I care to. I’ll be writing a full review eventually, but for now, this post shall offer a recap of the final two major chunks of Miitopia, leaving off after our victory over Dark Lord Mr. Bean. Spoilers to follow, but Miitopia doesn’t exactly have the most riveting story in the world anyway.
Immediately upon vanquishing the dastardly Mr. Bean, the curse that was controlling him all along swapped bodies and took control of Great Sage Temmie. At this point, I was really regretting not putting more thought into who I chose to play the Great Sage. I didn’t really care all that much when the choice was first given to me, and I now feel the emotional impact would have been a lot stronger had I picked someone I actually cared about. Looking back, I now wish I had chosen someone like Papyrus instead, another Undertale character that I like a lot better. Yes, I’m aware that I can change characters’ faces at any time, but I had committed to Temmie, and I wasn’t changing her at this point!
The next chunk of the game is much more open, during which you can explore several new lands, the snowy Ghontu Waste, the weird world of Peculia, and the land of Nimbus high up in the clouds. (I mistakenly believed this to be the post-game at first, in much the same manner as the White Witch portion of Ni no Kuni that takes place after you defeat the Dark Djinn.) We adventured through the three new realms, fighting sasquatches and sentient burgers and seeking out jewels along the way, all of which culminated in an epic showdown against Darker Lord Temmie, a three-part battle that required the use of all ten team members. After that, we learn the backstory of the Dark Curse that had been behind this whole mess all along (was I supposed to feel sympathetic towards him…because I don’t!) and the credits roll.
And thus begins the post-game, during which we are granted two new major locations, the tropical Galados Isle and the neon-lit city of New Lumos. We are also introduced to the villa, a pretty swanky place for your characters to stay, which, in the process, makes room at the inn for new friends to go adventuring with you. As cool as this is, I had grown so attached to my current team that I couldn’t bear to be separated from them for any length of time and demanded that they all return to the inn immediately!
For a while, I had been saying that I wished Miitopia was just a bit more difficult, and boy, did I get my wish! While most of Galados Isle was about as easy as the rest of the game, the latter section that we find behind the mysterious door is way more challenging, as are the higher numbered districts in New Lumos. As much as the added difficulty was appreciated, I did find myself getting rather tired of random characters falling ill (a new occurrence that began after defeating Dark Lord Mr. Bean) because this often made my stronger team members indisposed for varying periods of time. We were especially doomed when Dr. Loboto became sick during our visit to New Lumos, as he’s probably the best character on the team. At one point (I want to say District 5), we could scarcely make any progress until he was healthy again.
By the way, I now realize that I spent the entire game not really utilizing the Safe Spot properly because I usually didn’t need it for healing, but rather, simply as a means to remove status ailments from my characters. By the time I started to actually use the Safe Spot for healing both HP and MP and as a way to avoid extra powerful attacks, I was already in the Tower of Dread and feeling just a bit silly for not properly understanding one of the game’s features after having played for several months! Did you know that you could save on a Shield Sprinkle by placing a targeted Mii in the Safe Spot? Me neither!
Right, the Tower of Dread and Despair are two wickedly difficult boss gauntlets that only become available if you choose the “Save Him” option after defeating the Darker Lord (and after completing a few districts in New Lumos). I initially chose to “Break the Curse”, meaning I had to redo the final boss fight in order to pick the other option (which was extremely easy the second time around because my team was so much stronger by then). As for how far I managed to get in the Tower of Dread/Despair, well, you’re just going to have to watch the final episode to find out….
And now, a few random things that didn’t fit elsewhere:
- You can unlock the Vampire job by speaking to a Vampire at the Traveler’s Hub and completing a sidequest at Manor Macabre in Peculia. I gave this to Ghirahim, which was greatly preferable to the Imp job he had before. He was even granted a snazzy cape, though he didn’t get to wear the top hat due to his wig.
- The post-game allows you to unlock the Elf job in Galados Isle, which I awarded to Charlotte to replace her Cat job. Something about a person wandering around in a cat outfit is just decidedly strange to me.
- Medli got my old Princess job, as well. I wasn’t a big fan of the Flower job, either, mainly due to the form-fitting outfits and that weird swaying dance they do. It’s just…a bit creepy…
- I never ended up utilizing the Tank job. I just didn’t like the looks of it, and I heard that it starts fights a lot because of its habit of launching people from its cannon with the Human Cannonball ability. As if Midna feeding everyone spicy food wasn’t bad enough!
- I managed to become soul mates (relationship level 50 and up) with both of my favorites, Crispin and Dr. Loboto, and they became soul mates with each other, too! Although I became a bit of a jerk as a result and kept getting jealous whenever people gave Crispin gifts. Then the gift-giver was eventually forced to apologize to me even though they didn’t actually do anything wrong!
- As the game got harder and the need to heal became more frequent, Crispin began starting a lot of fights when he refused to accept any help. Eventually, I became rather afraid of healing Crispin because I just couldn’t risk fighting with my favorite character! Even so, it was still worth giving him such an inconvenient personality, if only to make him more in-character.
With that out of the way, I do want to quickly discuss one negative, the fact that Miitopia became just a bit tedious after a while. I think a major factor sustaining my interest was my attachment to my characters, with whom I had now shared no shortage of adventures and trials. Nevertheless, the game really needed more unique character interactions and outings to keep things interesting over such a long period of time. Honestly, one of the only things keeping me from holding down the fast forward button was the fact that I was recording my playthrough for Youtube and didn’t want to rush through everything for the sake of my viewers.
Fortunately, my close bond with my team members helped to make up for this annoyance. By the end, the higher relationships between all my friends made for some entertaining battles. Characters get better at warning each other of danger or share items when the others are low. Sometimes, the other three characters will pitch in during someone else’s turn, allowing all four to attack at once. And other times, they will protect other team members from damage or even get back up after a KO to take the place of someone else who had just been defeated.
Probably my favorite example of all is when my team members get angry at the death of a friend, during which they will stomp their feet in rage and attack the perpetrator with renewed strength, sometimes even multiple times in one turn. It’s certainly rewarding to grow everyone’s relationships and see all your hard work pay off in such an amusing manner as enemies are pummeled by your angry Mii’s!
But I’ve rambled on for long enough. With Miitopia finally at an end, I had no choice but to bid my dear Mii’s a final farewell. And I have to admit, our parting was rather bittersweet, to say the least. After all, I had spent roughly eight months recording this game, so it’s only natural that I developed quite a strong bond with my little fictional team members. I’ll especially miss Crispin and Dr. Loboto in particular, two new favorites of mine with whom I fell in love after playing Psychonauts for the first time roughly a year ago. At the same time, I’m also rather relieved to be done with the game after so long, and it’s not like this farewell has to be forever. I can still continue building relationships with my current team or I can always start a new adventure in the future. And maybe some old faces can tag alongside the new ones.
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This post was originally published on The Duck of Indeed on September 30, 2022.
VIRTUAL BASTION 
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