For years, fans have theorized that Nintendo used Miis to build many of the NPCs (non-player characters) on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Many share similar features to the Mii – the shape of the face, eyes, nose and mouth, for example – and modders know that they were built with a file format called “UMii”. Now, however, we have even more proof of the cast’s design and origins. A Mii specialist with the cable HEYimHeroic found that it is possible to convert and import traditional Miis – those you can create on Wii, Wii U, 3DS and Switch – for the game.
HEYimHeroic emphasized that the Mii and UMii file formats are not identical. “The file formats are extremely different,” the modder explained on Twitter. “That’s why it takes me a while to import the Miis into the game. There are many conversions going on, please don’t get the wrong idea. ”There are some clear differences between the two. Breath of the Wild’s NPCs have slightly more detailed hairstyles, for example, and life-size bodies. And while all fictional races in the game use the UMii format, HEYimHeroic explained, only the characters from Hylian and Sheikah “use values similar to the Mii. ”Still, UMiis does not support moles and select Mii hairstyles, said the modder in a series of posts on Reddit and Twitter.