Animal Crossing: New Horizons has found major success on Nintendo Switch, both from a business perspective and in terms of the reaction it's received from fans. In many ways, the game has taken the franchise to a whole new level, introducing several new features and playstyles that have instantly gelled with the series' classic life-sim formula.
The game's director, Aya Kyoguku, has spoken about how she believes New Horizons sits within the franchise to date in an interview with Spanish outlet, La Vanguardia. Intriguingly, she believes the game to be "the beginning of the third generation of the series", highlighting how each game can be placed into a specific era based on the way in which they handle communication and multiplayer gameplay.
Here are her full comments, with thanks to Nintendo Everything and @jesusxd96 for the translation:
"Looking back on the series, for the mainline titles specifically, I consider Animal Crossing: New Horizons to be the beginning of the third generation of the series.
The first Animal Crossing had no online play features – it was created under the premise that players could communicate in an asynchronous manner without an internet connection.
Online functions were added in Animal Crossing: City Folk and it was possible to play together even with people living in different places.
In New Horizons, due to the fact that you start by not having a normal town, there are a lot of changes even if you play alone. We also added a mode called ‘Party Play’ where you can play with people living on the same island simultaneously instead of doing it asynchronously like before.
The fact that Animal Crossing is a game about communication has been constant through the franchise’s history, but the options relating to how you communicate are changing in a flexible way alongside the times and technology."
An intriguing - and logical - way to look at things, huh?
How have you been getting on with New Horizons? Remember there are new limited-time items to pick up this month.
[source lavanguardia.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 57
The game is awesome, and looks so good, I also like the additions over time, plus the obvious seasonal events.
So there’s more?
She is truly a genius in video game developing. We need more female directors behind games like her. This is one of the best videogames ever made. A true masterpiece. Thank you Aya.
I still have to wait until July 2020 after i get my salary to buy ACNH.
19 days to go Salary day. 😊
RIP Gen 8 Animal Crossing when they snap half the villagers out of existence.
I thought the first generation was the N64/Gamecube games, second was Wild World/Let's Go to the City and then the third was New Leaf and the spin-offs.
Meh, whatever. It's nice to see a series that's always growing in new exciting ways
I don't believe that's right, weren't they introduced in Animal Crossing: Wild World?
500 hours now, Island is looking pretty awesome, few more bits to do, but very happy with it.
I doubt we are gonna see another entry on this generation of the Switch. So hopefully, this means part of this generation includes continued, significant support for the consoles life cycle. Not just small updates like items and/or clothes. But really big gameplay updates to keep it really fresh. Especially if their plan is for the Switch to go as long as they want it to
@RupeeClock Correct. I used to play wirelessly and online with my brother and friends in Wild World back in the day. The Wii version didn't add much to the online aspect aside from Wii Speak support and some special event items if I remember correctly.
@UmbreonsPapa agreed, I don’t see why they won’t as the game seems to have so much scope for additions.
Look I love this game, but Animal Crossing and Nintendo in general have a looonnngggg way to go on ease of connectivity. Party Play is great, but it is such a hassle
@Anti-Matter It is worth the wait!
I love this game, but the next installment needs a bit better online capabilities. I know it's really the fault of switch online, but still.
To me is the most boring AC to date, in ACNL I used to play multiplayer games.on the island for hours, now you dont have anything to do in multiplayer. Also the dialogues with the animals are limited and repeated, the shop sells the same furniture again and again, and most of New Leaf stores are missing. It's only about decorating your island, and I'm no interested in this.
So you put online in when online was possible, well done. The only real innovations in this entry are a few extra steps before it becomes a regular Animal Crossing game and more customisation, oh and most of the content isn't in the game yet. I've already stopped playing it and doubt I'll return anytime soon
This is a single player game in my case so I don’t really care about more connection features. Keep that sweet daily grind in tact and I’ll be a happy fellow!
Did she just forgot about Animal Crossong Wild World or did she chose not to acknowledge it? I mean she is the director of the game series, how can she just simply forget?!
And what does she mean by “3rd generation” when it is obviously the 5th generation of this series?!
@Chibi_Manny when it is obviously the 5th generation of this series
Really it's the 4th generation (you could class the Wii and DS games as the 2nd generation since the Wii game is just a slightly modified version of the DS original, and you could class the Gamecube game as the same as the Japanese N64 one and the other two Japanese Gamecube versions, making those the 1st generation), and I don't get what she means, either.
@mesome713 not really. This game is very incomplete and lacks the content of other animal crossings. I also hate the fact that they're withholding content for updates. Really should be complete at launch.
@personauser93 also New Horizons online is arguably more primitive than New Leafs
If it’s about communication, then Pekoe should respond with “I love you too.”
If they want to make communication a priority then why is it so painfully slow to go throught all the steps to play online multiplayer- if you don't get an error?
You can't even open your inventory in.party play if you're not the leader. I guess being able to trade between residents of the same island easily would bw too much interaction.
THE GAME IS BORING filled with dumb timewasters which aren't even fun...
It it is cute, looks awesome etc. but it lack what make great games great... GAMEPLAY.
Stardew Valley > AC/
@Gauchorino now that i think about it, is as if she is not counting the handheld Animal Crossings as part of the core series which makes very little sense since both Wild World & New Leaf are a huge part of the core series.
@tgchan I could say the same thing about Stardew Valley what you've said about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The games are in the same genre after all.
I love New Horizon, but can I have my own island instead sharing with rest of the family, which consist of an over-bearing daughter and a destructive son.
It's nice how the game has evolved, but while ACNH does have all that multi-player support, it still needs some serious quality of life improvements for online play. The fact that everyone has to sit and wait every, single, time, someone comes or goes from an island is so grinding. You have more than 1 or 2 friends and it will probably take you a half hour just to get everyone on one island!
@Chibi_Manny generation, not entry. She’s counting the first generation as the N64, GameCube, and DS entries. She’s counting the second generation as the Wii and 3DS entries. And she’s counting the third generation as the Switch entry (and possibly upcoming entries).
@Heavyarms55 I’m not sure how they’d manage to change that if the game is P2P rather than server based though.
@LowRyder don’t they remove some villagers every generation anyways?
@Dog yea they are very similar but still I feel like AC really lacks content and gameplay... it feels like a doll house simulator + some interactions with npcs.
It feels like a stripped down/poor version of Stardev Valley, The Sims all rounded in nice and cute factor. That's it. Lacks depth and fun factor.
This is like a few years back phone game.
If all AC games were like that before I can really rest my mind that I have not played them.
This game is just poor. Once you look under the beautiful cover, there's nothing really there. Almost every game in similar genre will give you much more in almost every aspect./
I flip flopped a few times but I'm full on out of the game now. The lack of QoL kills it for me. Stardew and Terraria scratch an itch this game can't even come close to. Years and years of attention to both QoL AND content in both titles. Returning back to both after 200 hours or so in ACNH was like a dream come true, especially Terraria 1.4.
@ShadJV I think so yeah, though usually not very many each time aside the first game. First game got rid of quite a few from my understanding.
@ShadJV I mean, why does everyone have to stop and wait while someone joins? I'm no programmer but I don't see why the majority of the loading cannot take place in the background. And even if there has to be a pause, I really feel like we could limit it to just the scene of the person walking in through the gate. Is the whole speel of sitting there, watching that silly airport screen for like 4 minutes per person really needed?
@Heavyarms55 it’s how P2P works. Basically... think of how, when you’re copying a file, you can’t have the file open. This is because, if anything is altered while it’s being copied, it could require the process to restart or even corrupt the data. This is essentially what is happening during that time. The entire island is being copied to the entering player’s RAM. Having things move and change during that time could create major problems. This is what happens with P2P. The other players have to create copies of the island so that it has minimal information to update their end of the experience every time a player moves. It’s simply a lot of data to copy.
Other games avoid this by using servers. If it’s a server, only the player joining has to load anything in. Nobody’s console is in the process of copying massive amounts of data and sending it out. When it’s P2P, both the guest and the host have to exchange a bunch of information directly, so they’re both pretty busy, but with a server that’s avoided. It’s not that simple to add servers to the game though, it would be a pretty massive patch assuming it’s possible without heavily ripping apart the code. Not to mention there are disadvantages to having a server here. Either the games would have to be always connected to the internet or the island would have to be uploaded to the server every time the gates are opened. It would save some time in the long run but it does have drawbacks.
I can’t really see a way to handle this in P2P without the load times though. There might be a way to cut the time down a bit and I at least have my fingers crossed there.
@LowRyder yeah, but it’s still something that sets it apart from Pokémon. Perhaps Pokémon should’ve done that from the start, then maybe people would accept that. If you add up the number of villagers cut in each game, it does add up.
City Folk was just Wild World for the TV though, did having online really warrant it being a new generation? If we're going to talk about generations then we should talk about how the online in this game feels generations behind the competition, from talking to the stupid Dodo over and over again to the 2 minute wait everytime someone else comes to the island, it's really just a mind numbing process but I love the game so I put up with it and it's the only reason I spend an extra $20 a year for online despite it being free on the Wii and 3DS. I am paying $20 a year for tedious *****.
@tgchan You have a very shallow understanding of what this game offers.
@johnvboy Very much agreed.
@LowRyder Gen 8 Isabelle: I am inevitable!
@PickledKong64,
But then people overlook the features they have added, the customisation options and terra forming add a whole new dimension to the game, I have never sank this many hours into any of the previous games, and as you say they will be adding the features that are initially missing anyway, I doubt I would have found the time to decorate my island, which by the way is still not totally complete after 500 hours, and do all this other stuff that's missing.
This game is also a little more crucial on how you manage your time, as if you have two of three people sharing your island you need to all find time to do things, that being said I love the idea of a shared Island, it's a great option and provides me and my daughter hours of fun, I am back at work at the moment, so when I get home she can't wait to tell me which new fish and insects she has caught, I looked in her inventory yesterday and she has 50 great white sharks !!
@Chibi_Manny Good point. Very bizarre of her. She definitely developed at least New Leaf, too, making this even stranger.
@johnvboy I'm not arguing with you you comment on all of my comments.
@johnvboy I hate the idea of a shared island. Theres not enough resources for everyone I have to share with 5 other ppl.
@PickledKong64,
Was i arguing with you in the first place?, I thought I just responded to your comment.
@PickledKong64,
I think 5 people would be harder, although i would imagine the museum would be easier to fill with artwork.
@ShadJV I don't take huge issue with either games, it was just a passing joke I figured some people would appreciate.
@johnvboy it is complete 100%
@PickledKong64,
Well done, there are some advantages to having multiple players on one island.
@RustyToolBox Our original copy of AC:NL was a birthday present to me along with a Switch Lite. My husband and daughters, ages 4 and 12, started a 2nd island on his Switch.
Having seen solo island and community island play up close, I see a few pluses and a lot of down sides. Sharing watering responsibilities while flower breeding is nice. Letting the 12yo check am turnip prices and emailing her dad is good. The rest is managed mostly by not allowing the 4yo access to a ladder since my husband put everything he cares about out of reach that way.
Meanwhile, I'll be keeping my solo island. I may eventually build a 2nd house themed after my 4yo's love of clothes when I'm ready for more space to keep mid-week turnips.
@Heavyarms55 Felt that loading time for plane rides with a hard oof tonight. One of my villagers was crafting something that has a special significance to all 4 players in my family. The other 3 are on an island together; I have my own.
It took 23 minutes to get 3 players logged in, fly to my island, and go to the house right off the dock to learn the DIY. Glad I could hook up the husband and the littles, but yeesh.
@tgchan I disagree on so many levels. The game isn't for everyone and certainly the amount of grinding for supplies varies player by player. However, a game that not only my husband and I both enjoy playing daily 2 months after launch but our daughters enjoy at 4 and 12 is clearly doing something right.
The youngest enjoys the clothing scene by far the most. She also gets a big kick out of the facts Blathers shares about dinosaurs and more. I like being able to start some sight word awareness while knowing a game is thematically safe for a preschooler.
My husband has logged by far the most hours, well over 100. He'll burn out soon and simplify a lot. The rest of us continue to enjoy all the randomness with a simple yet pretty game.
@BulbasaurusRex At least Isabelle is less annoying than Navi. Usually.
@tinkeramma It's just not conductive to playing with a group of more than really one other person.
@tinkeramma If only my house hold can be this well manage. You have no idea how my children are. Believe me, it is not that easy over at my pad.
Tap here to load 57 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...