How One Mud Discovered Nintendo’s Most Advanced Mice Hiding in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

How One Mud Discovered Nintendo’s Most Advanced Mice Hiding in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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After two generations in the middle of Nintendo’s consoles, Miis apparently took a back seat for Switch. You can still design an avatar of Nintendo design on the hand-hybrid system, but Nintendo games support them much less frequently, with apparent appearances in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, their most striking appearance. It has led many to believe that the age of the Mii is over, but a new discovery reveals that Miis is secretly at the heart of one of Nintendo’s most beloved Switch games – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

. You would not necessarily know this at first glance.

On January 4, Mii mud HEYimHeroic posted a discovery that appears to confirm that Mii-like parameters were used to create NPCs in Breath of the Wild, using modding to inject personal Miis details into the game and see their famous cartoon faces as Hylians in Breath of the Wild’s art style. These results seem to prove that Breath of the Wild’s NPCs are a form of advanced Mii – a point that helps the game’s code to call it ‘UMiis’.

HEYimHeroic has been doing research on Miis for about a year now, starting with the depth Wii Facts Plus Twitter Account and a library of all Nintendo-made Miis on the go. In a conversation with me on Twitter, they explain that the Breath of the Wild modding community has had the theory that Miis is related to NPCs from Breath of the Wild since shortly after the game was launched, and even the term UMii found associated with NPCs when combing the files of the game. However, the search seems to have died down in the intervening years: ‘The mud I spoke to assumed that after a while it was just a name and that the similarities end,’ explains HEYimHeroic. “No one ever tried to transfer Miis into the game … and I did it out of sheer curiosity!”

The breakthrough was to realize that UMiis share ID values ​​for parts of their construction with traditional Miis: ‘Every type of mouth, eyes, hair, etc., all have a certain ID value that Miis attaches to them. The great thing here is that UMiis also shares exactly the same ID values, so this part is probably the easiest – copy and paste the ID value of the Mii into the UMii! HEYimHeroic then discovered that Mii color values ​​came from modified Wii U versions of the avatars, rather than from the original Mii Studio, and discovered (with the help of an anonymous friend) how to convert and assign them. Mii size is one of the more confusing elements, with existing values ​​not always matching how it comes out within Breath of the Wild. ‘More testing is needed,’ explains the mud, ‘but we know enough about it to make Miis mostly can transmit! ‘

HEYimHeroic believes Nintendo has used a manual creation tool, such as Mii Maker. Or, maybe … UMii Maker? ‘

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The end result was that on December 30, HEYimHeroic managed to inject their own Mii design into the game and – using a Breath of the Wild modding server – managed to create a UMii version of an existing Mii to create. “Looking back, now that I know more about the format,” they explain, “I could certainly improve more, but at the time it was more than enough to convince people that Miis and UMiis are not that different. . ”

What HEYimHeroic discovered was that Nintendo – in addition to key characters like Link and Zelda – apparently used the UMii system to create every NPC in the game. While non-human races like Gorons use a very limited set of variables, Hylians and Sheikah human races use many of the same kinds of backend values ​​as Miis in their creation. Each NPC appears to be customized, rather than generated, which according to HEYimHeroic means Nintendo used, ‘a manual creation tool, like Mii Maker. Or, maybe … UMii Maker? ‘

If a formal UMii Maker does exist, the differences between the classic Mii Maker are just as interesting as the similarities. For example, the option to add moles to Miis is not supported for UMiis, and not all Mii hairstyles are replicated (although the game automatically converts an unsupported hairstyle into a similar one). “The glasses’ size, position and mustache position are also removed,” adds HEYimHeroic. ‘These values ​​are no longer set manually, but the game automatically determines them based on the rest of the face. For example, if you move the mouth lower on the face, the mustache will also be automatically moved lower on the face. ‘

Despite these changes, there seems to be much more nuance about how a UMii can be created compared to a Mii. “This is easily the most complicated use of Miis yet,” HEYimHeroic explains when I ask if this is the most advanced version of Mii they’ve discovered. ‘In fact, it’s so complex that it’s hard to keep calling them’ Miis’. Depending on how strict your definition of what a ‘Mii’ is, you can say that it is not even Miis at all! Previously, I thought the most interesting use of Miis was actually in Super Mario 3D Land, of all games, where some levels you get are based on your Mii’s favorite color. But it takes the cake! ”

This is easily the most complicated use of Miis to date. In fact, it’s so complicated that it’s hard to keep calling them ‘Miis’.

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At the time of writing, many of the new features for creating NPCs are unknown, but HEYimHeroic is looking to document them. ‘For example,’ explains the mud, ‘there are only four values ​​left to control the students of the NPC. [And] there are only 12 favorite colors that support Miis, but I have seen UMiis rise to 14, possibly higher! […] There are many more color options than the game currently allows, so I would like to explore that. Also finding out about the unknown values ​​(like the 4 learner values) can really edit the subtle details, which really contributes to the magic of the UMiis. “

There is a long way to go, but there seems to be no doubt that UMiis is indeed a step further than the Miis we know. Which begs the question: is it possible that we could see UMiis used in other Nintendo games, or even created in a non-modding context? HEYimHeroic has bad news up front:

“Most likely, no. Well, we may see UMiis back in Breath of the Wild’s sequel … but what about completely different games? No. There is also way [much] BotW-specific stuff here, is hard to imagine that UMiis was made for general use. We believe the name ‘UMii’ occurs [Breath of the Wild’s] internal name found in the files: UKing. So, the name ‘UMiis’ may literally mean ‘Breath of the Wild Miis’, but there is no way to know for sure! ‘

If so, what about Miis in general? What does the world’s latest Mii mud see as the future of Nintendo’s increasingly invisible mascots?

‘Before I found it all, I would not have given you a very optimistic answer. But that was because I did not even know Nintendo was willing to transform Miis like that! I have a good feeling that Miis will at least appear on the next platform, but I can see that Nintendo has no more reasons to stay, which is very unfortunate. However, as long as they are willing to do things like UMiis with a lot of Mii DNA in their files, I will eventually be able to find solutions and get Miis into games that it shouldn’t even have. At least then we still have Miis in some form. ”

Even if we are is When we look at the last piece of Mii evolution, it feels like a fitting tribute. Miis represents so much of Nintendo’s recent past, and has been the friendly face of Nintendo games for over a decade, becoming icons in the process. They are just as much a part of the company’s visible history as Mario or Link himself. So it only seems fair that they make up an integral (if almost invisible) piece of perhaps Nintendo’s greatest game of the same period.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s editor – in – chief of News. Follow him further Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Send an email to [email protected].

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