The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was back in the news this weekend, but not because of its recent prequel Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, nor because of its sequel. Rather, one fan discovered Breath of the Wild uses similar tech to Nintendo's Mii editor, and thus custom characters can be modded into Hyrule. This discovery left another player feeling validated for an off-hand remark they made over three years ago.
Twitter user HEYimHeroic, a self-proclaimed Mii expert who runs the Wii Facts Plus blog and the Mii Library documenting "every single Mii to ever exist within Nintendo's games," posted examples of characters they inserted into Breath of the Wild yesterday. They describe the in-game models as UMiis, an evolution of what can be found on the Wii U and 3DS, and answer fan questions in their Twitter thread while crediting others who helped with the conversion.
Following that announcement, another Twitter user named ShadGandel found a post from March 16, 2017 depicting a child in Breath of the Wild. In the post they said, "I'm convinced they made this character's face using the mii editor," and today they were able to follow up saying they were "right all along." Given how popular Breath of the Wild was at launch, it's unlikely ShadGandel was the only one to notice the similarity to Miis. However, many have taken to calling her post "prophetic" because she put the idea out publicly so long ago.
Nintendo has more or less phased out Miis in the Switch era, except for fringe cases like new Mii Fighter costumes appearing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so the idea that the developer secretly utilized the concept on its blockbuster Legend of Zelda title is interesting. HEYimHeroic said they will be releasing documentation on how people can create their own Breath of the Wild characters via the Mii Library once they have a complete, digestible understanding of the process.
In the meantime, they said they are interested in opening commissions as a way to get "Mii injects" for those who would rather not mod the game themselves. Many have fond memories of the Switch launch title, after all, and Nintendo has capitalized on this by releasing a Breath of the Wild website for fans to share images and stories.
The gaming community's lingering interest in Breath of the Wild is not surprising. Its upcoming sequel and Dynasty Warriors-styled spin-off provide players more time to absorb this version of Hyrule, and even then Breath of the Wild was one of Amazon's best-selling games of 2020 in the US. Interesting discoveries such as UMiis are likely to increase people's affection that much more.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Sources: Wii Facts Plus, Mii Library