Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is best described as a fishbowl, you aren’t really a player and are instead more of an observer to the characters you create. This might seem like a weakness to other games, but in a time that is especially overstimulating with doom-scrolling, bed-rotting, and brain rot, Tomodachi Life stands out with its simple gameplay and weird styling which is what makes the game so great.
Tomodachi Life, in short, is a casual and relaxed game with a focus on creating Miis, small chibi-style characters that are highly customizable, similar to a Minecraft skin or Roblox character. These Miis have their own distinct looks, names, voices and even personalities depending on a short quiz during creation. The game centers around the lives of these characters, whether it be their clothes, rooms, hobbies or the relationships between them. The player has the role of a caretaker, who interacts with these Miis and generally sparks interactions that happen in between them.
Tomodachi Life might seem like it doesn’t have a place when compared with the other popular games similar to this, such as Pokopia or Minecraft. However, the difference between Tomodachi Life and these other games is how the games are structured. Many “cozy”’ games tend to be about completion, making something great or having every little thing. While this in itself isn’t a bad thing, comparison tends to be a thief of joy. Tomodachi Life doesn’t have this problem because there isn’t much to compare. It completely throws away the materialistic basis that the other games favor.
Every island in Tomodachi Life unlocks the same things at the same time and the progression is relatively simple. I’ve already ‘completed’ the game, as I’ve unlocked everything from the wishing fountain within only about a week without much play time, which might seem like it makes the game boring but it tends to make the experience more enjoyable for this kind of game. Less progression leads to the game having less of a focus on unlocking and busy work and more emphasis on having fun and seeing what happens in the game. Much of the most interesting features of the game are unlocked within the first 30 minutes, and the fun comes from watching what happens rather than being in complete control and customizing your island. This is great for the game because Tomodachi Life is inherently silly and weird. It lets you enjoy its comedic and fun moments without having to put in unnecessary work that might make these moments feel disappointing.
That isn’t to say the game doesn’t allow you to customize your characters though. It has by far one of the most extensive customization systems of the genre, from props, clothes to even pets—all of these things can be customized and textured to be whatever you desire. This level of creativity further reinforces that idea of weirdness and individuality. Your characters can wear and use things you design for them in their everyday lives which fit well thanks to the game’s unique art style of using stock photos for many items rather than full models.
There are some problems though, a main one being that the game requires definitely center much more around creativity than other games in this genre, which wouldn’t be much of a critique if it didn’t feel so empty compared to the first game, which almost entirely focused on its variety of gags and comedic moments. Many things from the original such as quirky questions (a minigame) and unique locations and features (like the pier and travelers) added fun and cool interactions that were rare. With this increase of variety and variability comes sacrifices to the game’s humor and uniqueness, some even
Events tend to repeat and may get old quickly for some players.
This could have been solved through online sharing but to be fair, I imagine Nintendo, a company that centers many of its games as being for kids, making a game with no censorship and having online sharing of anything created in the game could be a very bad idea. So much of the time the responsibility of creating fun in the game is left up to you, similar to Minecraft, rather than the game.
Overall though, this game is amazing. It’s the first recently released creative game I’ve really had fun with for a long time, because it doesn’t feel like I’m doing lots and lots of busy work just to unlock something cool, I can kind of just do the cool things and play for a little bit before getting off and coming back when I’m ready. It makes me feel like I’m in control rather than the game allowing me to make some decisions that customize my experience.
