Nintendo mudders have discovered a way to transfer Miis to and from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
In a thread on Twitter, user HEYimHeroic, curator of Wii Facts Plus, documented findings that show how the game’s NPCs are built using an ‘advanced version’ of Nintendo’s character creator.
Hello, Mii expert here. It appears that the NPCs in TLoZ: BotW use an advanced version of the Mii format. This means that you can spray Miis with the mud in the game. 🙂 Think about opening commissions for Mii injection, both screenshots / images of your Mii and mod downloads! pic.twitter.com/8NfVr4zyqA4 January 2021
HEYimHeroic says that “with modding, it’s possible to transform and import Miis” as NPCs in the game, showing characters inspired by Final Fantasy VII’s Barret, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Gunner and Wii Sports’ Matt, as well a character based on their own Mii. However, this is not a perfect system – the mud explains that Breath of the Wild’s NPCs use ‘an evolution of Miis’. Those updated characters “almost all have the same parameters as Wii U / 3DS Miis, with a few minor differences here and there.”
These differences extend to a number of unsupported facial features, but the most obvious change is in hairstyles and colors, some of which are not included in Breath of the Wild. If you try to load an unsupported haircut, the game will use a different style, but it will try to make sure it looks like the original version.
The discovery means that it’s also possible to turn the game’s NPCs into your own Miis, though characters that aren’t behind will be as accurate as going the other way around. HEYimHeroic explains that Hyrule’s Miis’ ‘is too advanced’ for exact copies, and that you’ll probably lose a lot of information if the systems try to convert the characters. However, this does not mean that you can download characters such as Link and Zelda – many of Hyrule’s most important heroes are pre-made, specially built 3D models. Since they are not Miis, they are not subject to the same rules.
Currently, the consequences of the discovery of HEYimHeroic not only extend beyond the creation of characters, but it will be interesting to see to what extent Nintendo has adapted its approach when Breath of the Wild 2 arrives. We have not seen or heard much about the upcoming sequel since its first launch, but with a new year on the doorstep, we can learn a lot more soon.
While we wait to return to Hyrule, here are some of the best Nintendo Switch games to help give up time.