Avoid this to get the most out of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Demo

The demo for the highly anticipated life simulator for Nintendo Switch Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream went up on the Nintendo eShop on March 25th, but fans are purposefully avoiding one major gameplay mechanic to stretch things out as long as possible: dressing up their Miis. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the latest in the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2's vast library of life sims, and fans are dying for the April 16th release date to finally arrive.

The long awaited sequel to the 3DS cult classic Tomodachi life puts Nintendo's player avatars, the Miis, back in the spotlight for the first time in a long time. As the caretaker of an island inhabited by Miis of their own creation, the player will be able to dress up the Miis, feed them, give them gifts and even watch them fall in love. But what's the difference To live the dream from games like Animal Crossing or The Sims is just how surreal the game can get. If the player rushes through the game's demo, however, they may miss a lot of that absurdity, so fans have taken to avoiding the demo ending.

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How to avoid the infamous “Lobotomii” in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Demo

As shared by WeirdHumanBeing (@weirdbeingg) on Twitter, if the player completes the tutorial in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dreams demo, Miis will be put under “house arrest.” In other words, they will stop leaving their homes to interact with each other or play with their gifts, and will only talk about why the player should buy the retail version of the game if you talk to them. If the player quits right before completing the tutorial, the Miis they created will still roam the island, chatting with each other, receiving gifts, and more.

To prevent the Mii from isolating themselves in their homes, players can go as far as making a third Mii in the demo. After the third Mii is created, the first Mii will have a “Trouble Bubble”. Players should not click on that trouble bubble, as the Mii will make them open the “Where & Wear” clothing store, which will lock them into buying something and dressing up the Mii. From there, Miis will stay at home, whether they were gifted threads or not, only willing to accept gifts and talk about the wonders of the retail version of To live the dreamwhich comes out April 16.

So to keep the demo going as long as possible there are two main options: either don't make a third Mii, or don't click the first Mii's trouble bubble if you make a third Mii. If the player makes a third Mii, the first Mii will not leave the house of their own volition, but they can still manually drag them outside to interact with the others and even have dialogue without issue. Once the clothing store is built, it's over.

It makes sense to demo for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream would be so short and have such a strict limit. The main appeal of the game is seeing the Miis interact, so letting the player have a lot of islanders or having Mii relationships progress too far would defeat the point of a demo. Nintendo wants people to buy the full game, so of course they made sure the demo excluded parts that fans are really excited about. Still, it's disappointing that players can't at least make more Miis to experiment with the face painting system, even if they have to wait until the full release to actually add them to the island itself. Fellow Mii game Miitopia let players make as many Miis as they wanted in their Switch version demo, but put the extra Miis in a kind of “storage” so they couldn't appear in the actual story until the player bought the full version.

Even if the player avoids the clothing store Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo is very limited. The island can only hold 3 Mii, relationships can't go beyond crushes, and there are a number of Mii problems to solve. The small taste of the game did its job though, as the fact that players refuse to build Where & Wear in the first place so they can keep playing shows. From what is known about the full version of To live the dreamfans have much more to look forward to.