Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream review – Worth the 12-year wait

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After 12 years, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is here! It offers a comforting and updated experience that fans of relaxing games will love.

Tomodachi Life first gained a dedicated following back in 2014 with its release on the Nintendo 3DS. Fans have been eager for a sequel ever since, and ‘Living the Dream’ delivers – it expands on the original game with a host of new and improved features.

This game is delightfully strange and charming, filled with hilarious moments, unique character customization, and tons of creative freedom. While it can get a little repetitive at times, it’s sure to spark the imagination of any player.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Living the Dream is a delightfully chaotic and creative game. You get to build your own island paradise and create characters that look eerily similar to infamous movie and TV villains. What really makes the game special are the surprising moments – like setting up a campsite where your characters might just warm themselves a little too close to the fire, turning a cozy scene into something unexpected.

Creating your character is now more detailed and customizable than before. You’ll find fresh designs, options to represent diverse gender identities and relationship preferences, and a fun facepaint tool with tons of creative possibilities.

One of the most significant improvements is that you can now have Miis interact with the world around them. Unlike previous versions where interactions were limited, ‘Living the Dream’ lets you create fun situations – like putting a Mii on a seesaw, having them awkwardly crash a date, or organizing a beach day with a group of friends.

You’ll also be able to personalize and grow your island with things you design or ideas from other players. The result is a game that feels comfortably familiar, yet significantly improved with plenty of new features.

Over and over and over again

While Living the Dream has successfully enhanced its best qualities, it still struggles with issues from previous versions, most notably its repetitive gameplay.

Early and mid-game, the process of creating a Mii, trying out a new feature, and then making another Mii can become repetitive, particularly if you struggle to come up with interesting Mii designs.

Later in the game, there aren’t many new things to build or discover. Even with a large number of Mii characters—over 50 in my case—I often found myself with nothing to do after just a few hours. I ended up either playfully bothering my friend’s Mii or repeatedly performing simple tasks to unlock furniture for my island.

It can be a bit slow at times, but when you get inspired, it’s really fun to start creating characters and designing something new.

Almost perfect character creation

Creating characters is the main focus of Living the Dream, and it’s almost flawless. Beyond the fun and unusual things your Mii characters do, the character creation itself is incredibly well-done.

Many cozy games let you create detailed characters, so ‘Living the Dream’ faces tough competition. It handles this by offering players a lot of freedom when designing their characters, similar to how ‘Tomodachi Life’ works – you can customize almost anything!

You can customize almost anything about your virtual character, from details like nose size and eye width to broader traits like voice, birthday, pronouns, and even personality. I often ended up creating some surprisingly unsettling and strangely realistic versions of my friends while experimenting with these features.

The face painting feature, which allows you to use tools like pencils and highlighters, isn’t very smooth. It feels scratchy on the Switch 2 and is difficult to control. Even if you were good at drawing before, don’t expect to create detailed artwork, as the lack of a stylus makes it challenging.

Even so, the character creation tool is surprisingly imaginative and offers a lot of possibilities. Just remember it won’t let you make characters that look exactly like those from Disney Dreamlight Valley.

Verdict

Tomodachi is returning, and it’s better than ever! The character creation is almost flawless, and ‘Living the Dream’ offers a nostalgic experience for those who enjoyed the first game.

This game takes everything players loved about the original 3DS title and expands on it, delivering a richer experience packed with quirky characters, hilarious moments, and witty dialogue. It’s a wonderfully strange and captivating world you’ll want to revisit again and again.

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2026-04-15 16:20