Tomodachi Life

Tomodachi Life is the quirky sequel to Nintendo's already weird take on the life simulation genre.

It received two spiritual successors in the form of Miitomo and Miitopia, and eventually a full-on sequel for the Nintendo Switch called Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. After 13 years.

Sub-Pages#

Prerelease Info Notes Regional DifferencesOhhhhh boy, there's a LOT.

Unused Text#

Enka Lyrics#

Located in message/Song/Song_xx_LZ.bin/ArcBase/EnkaLyrics.msbt (replace xx with the corresponding Language Code) are lyrics for the Enka song, which was removed from all International releases of the game, in American English and German only. Both of them seem to be a very early and unfinished translation. The rest of the languages are filled with a placeholder while German has only placeholders in the last 2 lines.

A more accurate translation of the song's lyrics can be found at the Regional Differences section for the Concert Hall.

Unused News Broadcasts#

Located in message/News/News_xx_LZ.bin/News (see language code instructions) above in the American/European version of the game is a localized version of the "Mr. [Mii] who was fat?" broadcast from the Japanese/Korean versions of the game, which cannot normally be viewed in the western versions.

Interestingly, the context of the news changes between languages, in US English, EU English, French and Italian the news are about the Mii being a former sumo wrestler, in German and Spanish the news are about how the Mii used to be addicted to a food, and in Dutch the news are about how the Mii developed a rare sleep disorder, which made them sleepwalk until they lost all their weight.

Japanese naming system#

Located in message/Game/Game_xx_LZ.bin/ArcBase/Birth.msbt (replace xx with the corresponding Language Code), at Caption_008, there are translated lines for the Japanese naming system for babies, in the international versions the game chooses the name from a list containing 100 names for each gender, the files for the US English, Dutch and Korean translations leave the section where the text should be blank.

Demo Leftovers#

You can continue where you
left off in the Tomodachi Life:
Move-In Version!

Enjoy!

You can continue where you
left off in the Tomodachi Life
demo version!

Enjoy!

Leftover text from the demo versions.

Unused Music#

To do: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aevSdEd-aF8

Enka#

Located in sound/clone_sound.bcsar are BGM_SONG_ENKA_CLICK.bcseq and BGM_SONG_ENKA.bcseq – the music sequence files for the Enka song, which is exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. Sadly, the sequences appear to have been blanked out from both files in the international versions of the game, but the instrumentation is still intact in the BANK_ENKA.cbnk file.

Japanese New Year's#

The Japanese version of Tomodachi Life plays a special theme on Japanese New Year's. The soundtrack has been left over in all versions of the game. The file is called newyear1214.dspadpcm.bcstm and is located in sound/stream, hidden among other soundtracks.

Unused Models#

TestCube#

Located in model/sample_TestCube_LZ.bin is... How surprising, an untextured cube! Likely a leftover example from the SDK.

Unseen Geometry#

The room from the "Giant" dream has a door which is completely unseen in the game due to the camera angle.

Unused Graphics#

To do: A lot more of these dummy graphics.

Dummy Graphics#

Many dummy/placeholder graphics are found in the files. Most are found in several locations, and the blue/white checker pattern is especially common, labeled with red text stating what it's a placeholder for.

offscreen#

In model/sample_DebugTextureRender_LZ.bin, this flat model with a weird texture applied over it can be found. Likely also from the SDK.

To do: There are more in-game placeholder graphics.

Tomodachi Collection Island#

The island from Tomodachi Collection, with a second island. It is probably an early version of Leisure Island.

Placeholder Logos#

The banner data for the original Japanese release of the game contains placeholders for localized versions of the game's logo.

While technically used, these placeholder logos can only be seen by trying to play the Japanese version of the game on a modded out-of-region console.

America

Europe

Internal Project Name#

The game's internal project name is "clone", according to the sound/clone_sound.bcsar archive and many of the sound files contained within. This is further evidenced in the partial 3DS lotcheck document that was contained in the December 21st, 2020 Nintendo leak (located in Documents.7z\Documents\セキュリティチーム運営\プロジェクト\Knock_And_Talk_directcnotact\報奨金制度\LEGO抽出CTRdata.xls), which also references the game by this name.

Revision Differences#

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: What exactly changed in version 1.1? Nintendo's own changelogs usually aren't of much use here because of how vague they are.

To do: Document the demo versions.

Version 1.1 - released June 6, 2014 - enhances gameplay stability and performance.

Version 2.0 was released exclusively in Europe on October 16, 2015, adding the option to play the game in Dutch.