Topic: Animal Crossing: New Horizons

OMG...!!!
I forgot to post this picture.

Happy 4th Anniversary ACNH !

Great article in 'The Guardian' (UK based newspaper) about the positive impact of AC during the pandemic, really good read: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/mar/21/animal-crossing...

I just hope the next game in the series will be more balanced in the life-sim aspect. All my other switch games are eclipsing the few hours I've spent with New Horizons.

I enjoy ACNH way more than older Animal Crossing.
Even I haven't played the GameCube, NDS and Wii version but I don't want to feel losing my villagers by themselves when I don't play the game for certain days.
I don't like that antics that still considered as a charm by some Nintendo gamers here.
I just don't like at all to be forced losing my belongings by playing the game everyday.
I have a control here, I'm the Boss here, I decide what I want.
I really hope the next Animal Crossing still bring the ACNH feature, the villagers that WILL NEVER MOVING OUT by themselves.
We don't need the antics from older games.
Be like The Sims games, more customization and going to Full 3D.

Google Photos gave me a collage of photos from March 20th 2020. I remember getting some Animal Crossing amiibo for dirt cheap (RIP amiibo festival), so I went to pick them up on the other side of town. But this collage is just Animal Crossing mixed with empty streets and cancelled events posters. Really takes me back.

It's not my favourite Animal Crossing game, haven't played it in years. But I remember enjoying it when the real world was quite strange. Good thing it came out when it did

@CJD87 Thanks for sharing that article with us. Yeah, this game helped me and so many others emotionally... the game's release was great timing when the pandemic first started. Met a lot of great folks in this thread like @BrittGOAL14, @Gret8888, @foxyflimflam and @FattyWhale_42 (I changed my Nintendo Life username, I'm still the same MarioLover92/D-Pad/D that you've known!), and our islands and homes were a great way to express ourselves and our creativity. It helps that ACNH has a cute and cozy vibe to it, too... I love the cute art style that the Animal Crossing games have, and this game makes that look even better. Honestly, this might just be one of my favorite games of all time... and it made me even more of an Animal Crossing fan. All because of the experiences that I've explained in this post.

@Kimyonaakuma I still have a picture of my villager self when I first played... and it was right on launch day! I'll go ahead and share it with everyone...

@MarioVillager92 Dude, I so hope they’re working on a new game. So we can all have many more visits and trade stuff again.

@BrittGOAL14 I hope so too! Maybe they're brainstorming ideas for the next game as we chat. If I recall correctly, the Animal Crossing devs also work on the Splatoon series, so I think that Splatoon 3 is their main focus right now. Nevertheless, I'd love to play the next Animal Crossing game whenever that comes out!

@BrittGOAL14 Same! I started playing in 2023 after all the hype lol so I want to get the next game when it comes out!

@Kimyonaakuma
Surprisingly, Amiibo Festival Wii U is quite addictive for me, even better than older Animal Crossing games on GameCube, NDS and Wii.

@GalaxicGlobe That’s awesome!

@MarioVillager92 Yeah, I heard that too. I hope the next one is a town again like New Leaf but I’m sure I’ll be happy no matter what. 😂

@Anti-Matter I'm glad somebody enjoyed it! Didn't mind Happy Home Designer as a spin off, but amiibo festival was a disappointment for me.

...that was a weird time for the series. That's what happens when a mainline game doesn't happen on Wii U

I don't really find myself excited for the next game in the series. New Horizons kinda killed any and all hope I have for the series to ever reach the heights of New Leaf. It feels like in pursuit of new ideas, the devs really forgot what made animal crossing special in the first place. While people enjoyed the game in 2020, it basically became an object or reminder of how eventually, everything you like will move on and become something that isn't for you anymore. That nothing you hold close to your heart will remain as good as it used to be. Guess that's what I've been feeling for most of the Switch generation.

I can predict next Animal Crossing will be more The Sims style, less the antics from GameCube era.
Animal Crossing doesn't need unnecessary penalty for not playing the game by one day.
It's already outdated in this era.

@BrittGOAL14 That'd be cool. Maybe if they go back to the towns for the next game, they could have a job system or something, that would be pretty neat. That's one idea I have for the next Animal Crossing... Fantasy Life on the 3DS did have something similar to what I'm thinking of.

@Anti-Matter Agreed. I got fed up with ACNH three years ago and stopped cold after more than 450 hours. I picked it up for the first time Saturday, and all my villagers were still there, the message board only had one new message, and I think I had maybe three or four pieces of new mail. It was no different than if I'd been playing all along, save for more weeds and flowers, which I can deal with. With all the other Animal Crossings, my whole life revolved around playing at least once a week so I didn't lose my flowers and villagers.

Ironically this is why I dislike New Horizons. It feels like no matter what I do, the game is fine. It doesn't need me to play- so therefore why should I? None of my actions truly matter in the end, and thus the pull to keep going and keep checking in is no longer there anymore. This- combined with a lot of other things in the game is why I stopped playing and never looked back. It's a dollhouse sim that has the skin of Animal Crossing, and I genuinely hate that direction.

To be fair, that is true for literally all games. But ACNH is definitely more self-motivated then most. I would argue the game gives you 3 main directions/goals — collect-a-thon, decoration, and sharing online. Getting the villagers you want (and friendship photos from them) isn't exactly easy, but in the end it is basically a subset of collect-a-thon and decoration, often using online friend islands to make it easier. collect-a-thons of any genre are fundamentally all get and no lose unless you choose to throw something away. It's less a life sim and more a paradise sim.

@FishyS I disagree that all games are meaningless. A good amount of them have stakes or tales that make them worth it in the end. New Horizons itself isn't meaningless from a gameplay perspective. What I mean is that in terms of Animal Crossing, your actions are pretty much meaningless. At least- unless you enjoy the dollhouse sim aspects of the series and always hated the life sim aspects.

New Horizons strays far away from the appeal of the series for me. In previous games, what kept me playing was the charm. How it felt like this was truly another world that kept going- even if you weren't there to constantly play it. It didn't revolve around us as players, but instead we were apart of said world. Flowers would die, people would move. If you didn't play- the world would forget about you, as you would be locked away in your home most of the time.

New Horizons just doesn't give me that motivation to keep going. To keep playing. Most of the game is centered around being as soft as possible to the player. No consequences exist for your actions, and the world stops when you quit playing. It became a game where only those who are creative can truly enjoy it- while those who used to play for the original aspects of the series are left to flounder. Villagers no longer move away on their own, and flowers no longer die. It feels like the island is a hostage situation, where you get your few villagers you really want- and where the random aspects are completely gone.

I miss when villagers moved out on their own. How it felt like it was a microcosm of real-life, where you forge a friendship with it eventually coming to an end as the villager decides to leave in order to pursue something which would make them happiest. I miss when the holidays actually presented some form of slight challenge, instead of just giving you the rewards for doing absolutely nothing. I miss when the games had all of the content at launch, instead of trickle feeding updates that end up just being the developers trying to play "catch-up," with a lot of the older features still being missing in turn.

Maybe Animal Crossing 6 will be more like what I'm looking for- but given how well New Horizons sold, I'm sure they're just going to keep going down the path that this game is taking the series down. One where the game is vastly incomplete at launch, and one where a lot of the game's appeal is decorating your town- instead of having a blend of both town decorating and life sim aspects.