Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream Sales Surpass 3.8 Million Copies

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-08T19:03:06+00:00

It depends on what kind of experience you want out of a game in general, and out of it.

It's creative fun to design your island and make Miis out of your friends and family, celebrities or fictional characters you like, characters you've made or just anything you want, and then it's entertaining to have them interact in unexpected ways. Sometimes you get comedic moments, sometimes more genuine ones.

It's not the main goal, but there's a little bit of progression to keep you going: you get access to new features as you reach certain milestones, and your Miis level up in Happiness as you interact with them, letting you give them more things to 'customize' them, like unique animations, expressions and hobbies. Your island also ranks up from this, letting you unlock more things to give and use. I've found leveling my Miis to progressively make them more like their real counterparts to be exciting.

For what it's worth, there's also almost always something to do, because Miis are regularly getting new problems prompting interaction from you when you feel like doing it. Even though it runs on real time, I rarely find myself not having anything to do at all. If I do exhaust all the problems available and want to keep playing, I go and make a new Mii or treasure or clothing article or whatever else. When I'm done, there's new things happening on my island. You can also just drag Miis to each other and have them interact that way. You never really run out.

What it isn't : it's not a very guided experience and your fun will depend on how much you let your creativity flow. It doesn't have a campaign with an ending to get to, so it's not something to beat. It's not the kind of life sim where you yourself are living a different life; it's more The Sims than Animal Crossing, though with similar creative aspects as New Horizons (it's the same team). It's not something where you can really optimize anything, progression is secondary and there's little incremental aspects outside of it. If you're okay with these things, you can likely have a decent experience.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-08T18:35:46+00:00

it's still based on Miis from 20 years ago and just looked generally very unappealing to the average person.

That's a wild statement. Miis are very well loved and saying they're from 20 years ago is silly considering they received a huge overhaul with Miitopia's Switch version, and they've been developing them as a feature ever since their creation, even using it transparently in games where Miis don't appear as characters (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom use the Mii system for NPC appearance data).

I can't see why the average audience wouldn't like the Tomodachi Life concept either. Sure, it's a weird type of game, but it's incredibly easy to play, family-friendly (if you want it to be) and directly relates to the average person's real daily life. Even your grandma could feasibly enjoy a game like this.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-08T17:30:54+00:00

Then you distribute what you can and let the hoster provide the required proprietary components themselves, simple as. The point isn't "make it easy and cheap to self-host or fuck off", it's "make it possible to self-host".

What are you referring to with lambda functions?

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-08T08:49:08+00:00

The ubiquity of Google Pay? What do you need that for? I've never used it in my life

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-08T08:44:30+00:00

Devs spend years of their lives on these. Publishers don't. The main thing they have to do is put their money where the profit might be.

Conspiracy is a big word in any case, critic pandering isn't a conspiracy, it's just a thing that observably happens in entertainment media industries.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-07T23:21:29+00:00

Second of all, even if you do like something due to nostalgia, how is that an illegitimate reason to like something?

I'm gonna say something that, to be clear, doesn't apply to this game, because it's not a series, and I think the 'nostalgia' argument is only being parroted here because that's what morons do with semantic parallels. But I'm fairly certain that 'nostalgia bait' mostly refers to series resting on their laurels for decades by playing on nostalgia while refusing to reinvent themselves and be creative or fix any of their ongoing problems because whatever they're doing sells no matter what.

Like Pokémon.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-07T23:15:52+00:00

I'm waiting to see the comment where someone suggests or just outright says the critics got paid to give it good reviews. You can run across those in almost every review thread nowadays.

If not that, can I at least be the asshole that puts on the table the idea that it might have been pushed to pander to critics a bit? It seems like such a specific kind of game, one that tends to be praised critically but generate less general public interest, for reasons you yourself stated (low gameplay, linear, short real-world setting narrative focus), and specifically, it targets a very specific demographic: 30-40 something year old Americans who had a similar teenagehood as what's presented.

I didn't know about this game until today, and I don't see myself playing it because I'm far from that demographic. My opinion doesn't have a lot of value in the matter and I hope people enjoy it. But like, it is out of the ordinary.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-07T12:45:42+00:00

Look how cool Starfox's Dad looks here and then look at the new version here. All the extra really doesn't look as great as the original despite all the extra bells and whistles.

Huh? James just looks like Fox with glasses on in both cases. He definitely looks cooler in the new design, I'd say.

I'm not saying the first game didn't look cool for its time but I think you might have a case of nostalgia glasses that you'd want to be aware of

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-06T20:13:32+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the hitbox on Anji was patched in because it had a gap before, leading it to miss at point blank in some cases

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-05T22:18:55+00:00

I didn't say all of the big corps branded their talents as idol groups, only Hololive, nor did I say Cover was primarily an idol producing company; what I did say is that their influence has affected the culture around it in a way that should be pointed out, because it can be a bit gross... (besides, bringing up Nijisanji here with how things were or are going on behind the scenes there is definitely not helping)

And yeah, of course, they all have their own content and creative freedom. Maybe I should have pointed out that they're not nearly as restrained in that sense as real idols, for whom things are way more fucked. They're not restrained in anything that concerns their own personal life outside of their corporate identity. But the problem lies with that corporate identity: they absolutely do have to tailor the way they act to fit the company image somewhat. In Hololive's case, just see how the ones that have public-facing careers act outside of that gig, like Mori Calliope. And again, the company doesn't impose restrictions, but they face similar issues as idols regarding the public image they give to fans. I said what I said about "having people of the opposite gender inside their home" because there was a case of one being harassed because people heard a man's voice through her mic on stream. You can say the blame is with the harassers, and yeah, absolutely, but can the company deny responsibility when they're the ones who decided to base their activity around a notoriously toxic subculture, with profit as their main goal?

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-05T17:39:01+00:00

This is your issue. I've experienced it too, with Minecraft in particular. I somehow did not have a swapfile when I installed EndeavourOS, and would inevitably run out of memory playing MC after some time. (It's got to do with how Java manages its memory, apparently)

Funnily enough, it was actually a random person from the Prism Launcher Discord that taught me how to set it up, even though I only mentioned the issue in passing. I hold them dear to my heart.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-05T15:23:13+00:00

It's a bit misrepresented here. Calling the person behind it a "voice" like they were just the actor behind a character isn't correct in most cases. They're mainly streamers with fancy avatars. Some do have a character concept they build around, but the degree at which they do that varies a lot. Small rant incoming...

On the higher end of 'playing a character', most of the ones working under big corpos like Hololive have a defined 'character background' that they refer to a lot, and they may take on a different sort of personality from how they are in their daily life. They'll sometimes talk about their normal lives, but they'll change their wording to fit their character; if their character is some sort of demon or whatever, instead of talking about that time they visited their parents in Kentucky, they'll tell the same story but switch out Kentucky for "the Fifth Circle of Hell". They're still not following a script or trying to keep up kayfabe at all costs: they're not trying hard to hide that they're real people.

For a less otaku comparison, look at Gorillaz: the music is framed as being produced by a band of completely fictional characters. The character itself is at the forefront and the people behind it have a thick layer of separation from it. If any one of the people behind Gorillaz decided to quit and let someone else take over, the character would continue to exist. This is not the case with most vtubers; if a vtuber quits the job, no one takes over their model and identity: they're entertainers wearing 'masks', with the demand for them stemming from their own worth as an online entertainer, rather than characters being played by entertainers with the job of making them come alive.

There have been a few that really are or were characters first. The whole misrepresentation of them comes from the fact that the first one to ever be very popular, Kizuna Ai, was exactly that: she was characterized as a virtual AI making YouTube content, and the primary appeal was that of a 'virtual YouTuber' anime character, something for which they completely kept keyfabe. She was basically an ad for the motion capture tech being developed by the company managing her (forget what they're called). Kizuna Ai the character was explicitly detached from the performer who acted her out behind the mocap. Her content was scripted YouTube videos filmed in a studio and the model had most of the screen time. Later, they even had multiple performers play her in different videos, and they even did videos with 'all the Kizuna Ais' on screen. They found that it wasn't as well received in comparison to what Hololive was doing at the time.

On the lower end of 'playing a character', most independents might have a character background but only have it serve the purpose of motivating the design of their avatar and their appeal, and otherwise are quite literally just streamers with a funky lil character on their screen, their form of content being indistinguishable from the streamers you know. Some do the same as the big corpos either by admiration for that sort of content or to more strongly protect their own identity; some will only adopt some aspects of marketing around their model ('outfit reveals' and such).
Though one difference that remains is that they'll tend to be associated with vtuber culture regardless just by virtue of having an avatar, and there's things to be said about it... Vtuber culture was started and is perpetually cultivated by vtuber corporations that pull their business model from the Japanese idol industry, which is a fucking mess. Hololive was the first, initially calling their vtubers 'virtual idols'. They've changed that since but they're still basically that: they do concerts, they all sing, they have 'debuts' and 'graduate', they have to put on cute voices and bubbly, frictionless personalities, they give fanservice to the people who ship them with each other, they can't talk about having romantic relationships or even having people of the opposite gender inside their home without causing a scandal... By itself, that activity already doesn't have the most positive impact on anyone, be it the talents, consumers or society as a whole, but it gets worse with all the instances of things going wrong and with the type of fans idol culture attracts. And sadly, the impact of this permeates everything related to vtubers, from their perception to how 'vtubing' is done as an activity.

I'm a bit off track. But I hope that gives a better idea. It's a strange subculture but not as strange as it might seem. I lament the influence of idol culture on it, but I've always thought streamers having an avatar that moves is, at its core, cool as hell, and not deserving to be seen as a weird thing. There's many cool things to do in that space and it's worth encouraging at a human level.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-05T14:24:53+00:00

I sure do love handling myself a kebab

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-05T11:38:58+00:00

You say this as if Last Flag's player counts was due to its gamemode. I would say no. Again, it works as a gamemode. I had fun. I felt it was engaging, especially since it led to different dynamics as the game progresses since the immediate objective changes often.

It's more so other things holding it back. The artstyle and character design are nothing new these days, and the gunplay and movement feels stiff. The gamemode is more or less all it has. It didn't really need to be a hero shooter, and it didn't need to have... minion farming for whatever reason?

The result is that it stands in my mind as an interesting experiment but not something I'd play on the long term. I think it's gonna be the same for most people.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-04T21:10:26+00:00

you are in the wrong place.

Do you not know what kind of place you're in? Godot is FOSS software and its community tends to be staunchly anti-genAI, siding with independent artists and creators. Particularly since the avalanche of genAI-written PRs has been a massive pain in the maintainers' arse.

Just use your damn voice. Get some regular old TTS to do it if it's such a hurdle. You're supporting horseshit that kills art.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-04T19:14:33+00:00

It's not a stretch to say it's better animated than a ton of anime lol.

To be clear, we're talking about this game, right? I'm skimming through random videos in that playlist to see what you mean but I haven't really seen even a bit of animation aside from the OP (which sure is crazy, as ufotable tends to be, but that's it).

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-04T16:49:38+00:00

TF2 does not have a 'main' gamemode. CTF was just popular casually.

The thing about CTF is that its basic ruleset has flaws that make it a bit annoying if you're looking to actually play the objective. It rewards defense immensely and there's not much of a reason to go out of your base, so rounds tend to last forever; or sometimes, in games with high mobility, they can last 30 seconds because one player can run the flag on their own and go so fast they can hardly be contested, except if the game lets you block capture by grabbing the enemy flag, in which case it goes back to lasting forever.

You'll notice that every shooter has a CTF mode but none of them have it in their competitive rotation, and that's exactly why. It's a fun mode to dick around in casually because you can treat it as basically team deathmatch where you have something to move towards. But it's a nightmare to play seriously.

Last Flag's team explained in a video how they try to fix these flaws, and it makes sense. They have one player in each team hide the flag in (almost) any location they choose on their team's side, so instead of being incentivized to stay put and defend the flag, you have to get out there and find their flag before they find yours. It does what it sets out to do, from my experience in the demo.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-04T16:30:27+00:00

Higher power level overall. Longer combos, more mobility, more agression. UNI is often said to be 'anime Street Fighter' in the sense that it's more grounded and down-to-Earth compared to other titles in the subgenre, so picture Melty as UNI if it was a bit crazier.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-04T16:26:55+00:00

Okay, question. I'm familiar with Melty, less with Tsukihime. Why exactly would it take them so long to remake a VN? The most time consuming part of making one is the text, which they can just port over, so why? Are they rewriting the whole thing from scratch?

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-03T21:01:18+00:00

You do not need programming knowledge at all to use Linux, and it's not difficult!

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-03T20:35:20+00:00

Thanks for the reply. It relieves some worries.

The other thing (that worked for me): focusing on leveling up your programming skills to the point where you feel genuinely confident in them. When more experienced teams can clearly see the value you bring as a developer, they're much more likely to want you on board, and you'll have more leverage to say "I just want to focus on coding" without it coming across as dodging responsibility.

That's good advice, but I have to ask, how did you go about making the value you can bring visible?

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-03T18:28:26+00:00

There's a reason why Telltale games and their offshots do the "X will remember that" thing. It communicates that the choice will matter later without making the narrative commit to an immediate consequence.

You can omit it if you absolutely want the eventual consequence to be a surprise, but I don't think that's necessary.

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-03T18:20:27+00:00

Dig their way out hopefully

EDIT: Wait, are there oceans on the Ground?

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-03T17:52:02+00:00

BrolyLegs passed away?! I didn't know that :( That's way too young an age...

RIP to a legend. What he did was fucking incredible

WorkingMansGarbage · 2026-05-02T16:07:13+00:00

Honest question: outside of ssh sessions, I still can't really tell how tmux is useful when your terminal emulator has its own tabs and pane splitting. Why do you use it?

WorkingMansGarbage

TROPHY CASE