Breath of the Wild NPCs appear to be based on ‘advanced’ Miis

If you have watched any of the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildThe villagers randomly and thought, “Hey, that looks like a Mii”, it could be because the two could be related.

Overnight Twitter user and self-proclaimed Mii expert HEYimHeroic wrote that some non-player characters Breath of the wild are based on an advanced version of existing Mii designs, which are used for player avatars on Nintendo consoles and in some games. According to HEYimHeroic, this means that in addition to Breath of the wildSince NPCs look like more detailed Miis, it is also possible to modify players’ existing Miis directly in hacked versions of the game.

“Fundamentally, [Breath of the Wild NPCs] use an evolution of the Miis, which the game files call ‘UMii’ (that’s what I’ll call them from now on), ”writes HEYimHeroic in a Reddit thread. “The UMiis have almost all the same settings as the Wii U / 3DS Miis, with a few minor differences here and there, as moles are no longer supported.” Although all of the NPCs in the game are apparently based on “UMiis”, only hylian (human) characters have physical features that mimic traditional Mii characters.

For example, with the help of Zelda Mod Discord, HEYi’mHeroic was able to modify the recently added Smash Bros. Ultimate Mii for Barret’s Final Fantasy VII in Breath of the wild, as well as Matt, one of the first Mii opponents you face in the original Wii Sports. They also managed to inject their own Mii, Alice, into the game, as her original hairstyle is not supported in Breath of the wild“UMii” designs, it defaults to something else. In theory, this means that modders can also do a “backport” Breath of the wild NPCs as Mii characters, although this process is much more complicated.

HEYimHeroic, who could not be reached immediately for comment, is responsible for both WiiFactsPlus Twitter account and Tumblr, which collect and share hyper-specific information about Miis, as well as Mii Library Project, which seeks to document every official Mii that has appeared in a game. Nintndo uses the avatar format, which allows players to customize faces, body types, and accessories, since the Wii’s release in 2006. As HEYimHeroic documents , there are also dozens of pre-made Miis with names that have appeared as actual characters in games. .

There is still a lot of work to be done to analyze exactly how Breath of the wildThe “UMiis” however compare to the traditional Miis. “[N]ot each value is known, there are still many interactions that we are not sure about etc. HEYi’mHeroic wrote, adding that they would provide more comprehensive documentation of the discovery and how people can Breath of the wild once it’s ready.