Topic: Please explain Animal Crossing

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain Animal Crossing to me? Like actually what the point of it is and how do you play it? The reviews of the new game are obviously glowing but they all seem to assume you've played it before or at least understand the series. I know nothing about it as Switch renewed my interest in Nintendo after ignoring them for several generations.

So what is it? It seems like it's somewhere between Sim City and The Sims but with little animals. Everything about it looks like a children's game but I see many grown men losing their over it.

Please explain and sell me on this game. Thank you.

You play it by playing it. The point is playing it.

@MikeHiscoe
If you know My Sims from Wii, you play Animal Crossing like My Sims but way much better than My Sims. ACNH is much like kiddie version of The Sims with terraforming like Minecraft and socializing with animals as your friends.

I am grown up 35 years old man who get addicted with this game. Nothing wrong for grown up peoples to enjoy kiddie games. We are still normal.

Btw, please do Not type with profanity word here. You have typed one profanity word on how did you explained the adult lost their mind by animal Crossing games.

I would look at youtube footage if I were you.

@MikeHiscoe I thought Splatoon looked too much like a kids game. I almost never tried it, but a friend kept nagging me. And now Splatoon is the best shooter I've ever played, has the most hours on my Switch. In Japan, cute things are part of Japanese culture, and it's for everyone. So, don't judge it too hard by it's cutesy-ness.

Animal Crossing...It's life simulator? You earn, play, craft, build, and interact with an endearing world. It's not just for kids. I don't know if it's a genre for me, but I may give it a go, this time.

@MikeHiscoe yes just look at youtube footage, you can skip throughit bit by bit and it will show exactley how it plays, i mean it is you in a big village wondering around working at odd jobs, but its not just any odd jobs there really enjoyable odd jobs, i also think what ever they use to make the game is qutite good like code or programming not sure what it is ( you know like your mind )

@MikeHiscoe This is how I described it recently:

@MikeHiscoe You're probably going to get a ton of replies for the question, by the way. haha For days & days

@MikeHiscoe You live a virtual life in an expanding and shifting community of animal people. You can be as relaxed or as goal-oriented as you life. Most people tend to play it in small bursts every day, completing daily chores such as collecting fruit or digging up fossils. You schedule social appointments with neighbors, work on improving your community, customize your house, go shopping, and often just goof around.

It sounds mind-numbingly boring when describing it to people, but the series is relaxing and unbelievably charming. It's really something you need to play over a period of weeks in order to "get" it.

With that said, if you require your games to have concrete goals, plots, character arcs, or even a defined structure to them, you might not like it, because the games have no real endpoint to speak of.

@gcunit
I think ACNH will be completely different than ACNL.
Better we wait until a lot of peoples playing and they will develop their own ideas to create their unique experience with ACNH.

Think it's quite largely about a game that's relaxing/calming to play, and fits into your daily routine.

It works in real-time, so playing at different times of day will mean certain shops or events are available to you, so it encourages you to pick it up at different times and play for a little bit.

If you've ever played Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley, I kind of associate it in a similar vein to those. Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing games are essentially about amassing money, and seeing what you can do with that money. Animal Crossing has the advantage of being a lot more customizable and having multiplayer though. Although lacks an end-point. The end-point would essentially be when you've unlocked everything, got the highest level of house, and decorated it with everything you wanted. Which could take many many hours.

Visiting other players towns and seeing what they've done/created and using their designs they've made in your town is also a part of it.

TL;DR It's a relaxing/social game, that is mostly designed to be picked up for a few minutes throughout the day, and occasionally going in for longer sessions.

And here's an example interaction I had today in New Leaf. Rowan is this dude that looks like a tiger and is obsessed with fitness. I approached him and triggered an interaction. He asked me how fast I could run 50m. The game then have me a slider to select something between about 6 and 12 seconds or similar. I chose 6 seconds and he said something along the lines of "Wow, I had no idea you were so fast". And that was it. As far as I know so far that has not triggered anything else, it was seemingly some random question, which I answered, and then we go on with our lives as if it had never happened.

I should emphasise that I don't dislike the game, and some of the things the NPCs say are genuinely funny or insightful, but the degree of interaction you can have with them is shallow.

@gcunit
If you named your town with My Butt, you will find yourself giggle a lot to see My Butt on the villager's conversations. 🤣

I'm sold.

@Anti-Matter ah do'nt call it names like that.

This is where the game night not be for me. Thanks everyone who gave a thoughtful response. It was exactly what I was looking for.

@MikeHiscoe Animal Crossing is one of my favorite games - but it's also one of the hardest games from my point of view to explain and sell to people without just having them sit down and try it.

Basically it's a vacation or an escape from real life. It's a digital fantasy where you can relax and live basically in a near-utopia entirely at your own pace and doing what you want to do.

It's the exact kind of game I suggest playing alongside other games. Have your Doom, Fire Emblem and Skyrim, Xenoblade, your action, story heavy, intense game of choice, then also have Animal Crossing for when you just want to wind down and chill. Play it alongside your morning coffee, or when you want to relax before bed. Or when you need a break from a stressful day at work/school.

Even if you think it's not normally what would be your cup of tea, see if you can borrow a copy from someone for a couple days and just try it. (Or maybe find a used copy, try it, and if you don't like it, return it). You might well be surprised at how addicting it can be.

On another note, about the kid's game thing - what is a kid's game? If by that you mean a game that has no content you might be uncomfortable allowing kids to play, then yeah. But if you mean a game that can only really be enjoyed by kids... absolutely not. Honestly I think little kids might get somewhat less enjoyment out of the game because what kinds of worries or stresses to kids have in real life? Little kids aren't looking for that relaxation or escape, they're looking for exciting things to get them pumped up when they can't be outside running around like the little hyperactive monkeys they are. I think teens and older will get the most enjoyment out of AC. Once you're in jr high or high school, university, and then once you're a working adult is when I think people are going to get the most enjoyment from it - from my point of view.

Personally I had never considered AC until my best friend talked me into it during university. With the stresses of university, exams, money, crappy part time jobs, AC was absolutely perfect! I played it daily for so long! It was only about a year and a half later that I started running out of things to do. But I was no where near 100%ing everything in the game. I used to play it before class, on break at work, and at lunch when my schedule didn't cooperate with my roommates. Now I imagine I'll be playing the game every morning before work, after I get home from work, and probably before I go to bed. I'll play it on the train, at the coffee shop and more.

This game is about to take over my life!

If this isn't your game type game-play anything anyone tells you isn't going to change your mind. Just go and watch A/C or Similar on YT and you can see the appeal of it. The game is more then just cute Anime animal but a Strategy game play. You learn resource management and how to grow your value and money and resources. If you can't see beyond that cute animal scenario then it will be hard for anyone say otherwise. As to grown men loosing over it - that's a to far simplistic view that doesn't tell much. Those grown men played arcade and NES from the start to know what the appeal was. You should go to YT and lookup Animal Crossing type games to see the appeal.

It's a feng shui simulator. Although you could treat AC: NH as a sim life game, one of the game's goals is to work towards earning the largest house and decorate your rooms with themes. Some of the rarest decorations are locked behind the Happy Home Academy. Build your score up, showcase your trophies, and make your house look dope in the process.

In short, it's style over substance 😆