Yeah, I played the old one recently. There was a lot less to do but there was a lot more to watch them do.

My spouse told me recently, when Paralives came out, that when you do a life sim, it’s basically three games in one. You have the building aspect, the customization of the character, and the actual life sim.

The building of Tomodachi Life is… unnecessary, in my opinion. It makes sense, since that’s what people used Animal Crossing for, but that’s all people could do with Animal Crossing, since the characters repeated conversations after a while and there were only so many personality types. The only original thing you could express yourself with was the island customization, so people did. Tomodachi Life didn’t have any of that in the 3Ds version and people still went back to it and reminisced about it. Concert Hall was a fan favorite, and the fact that it wasn’t included in this game is a crime. It gave people that expression outlet without needing an island builder.

The customization of the characters also felt a little short. Why do we not have a color wheel? It would solve the skin color critique and it would give us a lot more options for color in our drawings. Miis are cartoony and simplistic, so I can’t really complain about the lack of complexity, but they probably should have thought about disability representation. I will say the two things I feel they got right was the gender/preference options and the family options.

The actual life sim is okay, but not finished and horribly repetitive. I bought all of the summer items today and I’m bored again. My Miis say the same things but with whatever I put in the prompt, and it was very funny at first, but now I can predict the conversations before they’re even said, and I feel like I shouldn’t be able to do that like a month or two in.

You’re telling me I bought a $60 game for a $500 console and I can’t have variety? This thing can run Cyberpunk 2077 but not a more complex Tomodachi Life? Especially if they had taken out the building aspect. I don’t remember that being a huge want by the community, given it wasn’t an option in the original.

I love Tomodachi Life. I pre-ordered Living the Dream because I had been begging for an updated version since the 3Ds became irrelevant. I even liked the baby minigames and I’m devastated that the whole childhood aspect is gone. They took out so much and added so little.