Animal Crossing: New Horizons January update detailed, releasing January 28th

[DredPirateStorm]

Well yeah it repeats. They're not going to handwrite new dialog every time a player talks to a villager. There has to be a limit to how much text is in the game, especially because for every instance of villager dialog, they need 8 variations (one for each villager type) and then they need to take those 8 variations and translate them into like a dozen languages.

That said, the amount of writing currently in the game is immense. I found out yesterday (after 1000 hours) that each villager type has dialog for every piece of art in the museum. And it's all charming! I was following my little Koala friends (Gonzo and Eugene were there at the same time) and seeing what they had to say about all the art I've collected up until now.

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It almost feels like they spent too much effort on dialogue in one off situations like viewing a specific piece of art. But they didn't put in more variety in common situations like learning a recipe from a villager. If I have to hear about Maglevs in Love going off the rails one more time...

 

[ZugZug123]

Where is my Coffee Shop and High End items/clothes shop? I miss those a lot! This game is coming up on 1year and those are still missing....

 

[Derachi]

It almost feels like they spent too much effort on dialogue in one off situations like viewing a specific piece of art. But they didn't put in more variety in common situations like learning a recipe from a villager. If I have to hear about Maglevs in Love going off the rails one more time...

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I don't disagree. I think they need a "conversational heatmap" to see where the dialogue is repeating the most and take some time to add some variations there. Because yeah, Maglevs in Love is a funny thing to read once and an infuriating thing to read 100 times.

 

[OryxTheBakinKing]

after 300 hours and untold updates i can officially declare this game not good

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The Destiny community says hello.

 

[Dyle]

Villagers with dialogue actually worth something.
That is very subjective. I find it actually worth and charming, and have made the same kind of connections to the islanders that people have made in the past with their villagers.

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Sorry but this isn't really subjective, past Animal Crossing games had much more advanced and complex villager interaction systems which made for more compelling and diverse encounters. In New Horizons villagers don't have hobbies, there are no personality subtypes, and the number and types of requests they ask of you are a shell of what was available in New Leaf. This video does a good job of breaking down the history of villagers throughout the series and explains why they are less compelling, mechanically speaking, in New Horizons than in any previous entry.

 

[Mobu]

Im tired of these motherfuckers in the plaza, i want some actual buildings

 

[painey]

This game needs a battle royale mode

 

[ZugZug123]

The Roost and Brewster.
Gyroids.
Club LOL with Dr. Shrunk.
Re-Tail with Reese and Cyrus.
Villagers visiting houses.
Gems.
Tortimer Island.
Minigames.
Events that aren't just boring holidays.
Missing fruits.
RV Site
TONS OF MISSING FURNITURE SETS.
Missing Nook's Cranny upgrades.
Villagers with dialogue actually worth something.
Most of the shops in general (most got relegated to just randomly appearing in the plaza).
Half the NPCs
Fortune Cookies
Museum Renting Rooms
Museum Shop
The Megaphone
Nintendo Villagers
Nintendo Items

These are just off the top of my head and only from New Leaf, i could go longer into the stuff missing from things past that.

Animal Crossing used to really mean a lot to me, so I've just been incredibly disappointed at how this game took away most of the things I liked about past games and...never really replaced it? Villagers are the main thing. I used to love talking to villagers but now they're just so...boring! They repeat sentences way too often and there's nothing interesting with them. I feel like the fact that we have to get the bare bones updates if proof right there that most of the stuff from past games is missing. I hope I enlightened you a little bit, animal crossing means a lot to me.

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Yikes, I really forgot how much was missing. My museum rented rooms were filled with seasonal furniture, one for each major holiday :)

 

[LostSkullKid]

I don't mind certain stuff being saved for big updates. But there's certain stuff that's kind of baffling to save for updates. Something like Brewster and gyroids being saved for a big update is fine. But like something like villagers visiting your house is a feature that has no reason not to be in since day one, that does not feel like something that should be "update material". Also, one thing I never see people talk about (and I have doubts we'll ever get back) that should've been in day one is ordinances. The abilitiy to make it so your shops open earlier or close later was such a nice addition to New Leaf that allowed you to adjust the game to your schedule and it's a really bizarre feature to leave out or to "save" for an update.
Also, I gotta say the new features in New Horizons really don't do it for me. Having to collect stuff to craft furniture and make tools (with even gold tools being breakable despite how hard they can be to get like I still don't have the gold shovel despite playing every day just to check for Gulliver) is just an annoyance. Outdoor furniture is nice but New Leaf already had public works projects and basically all the furniture I have outside is either stuff that was a public works project or would've been one in New Leaf. I really don't care about being able to put a fucking toilet outside or whatever. And the landscaping stuff is more hassle than it's worth. You get that stuff after all your island has a bunch of houses and the shops and museum and stuff. So, you try building a river and there's a house in the way. And you can't just move the house slightly to the right. You gotta move it somewhere else entirely. Then wait a day. Then build the river. And then move the house back where you want it. You try building a cliff and there's trees and furniture in the way, so you gotta move all that stuff out of the way but your inventory is full. Even it wasn't such a pain in the ass to deal with I really don't care enough about it for it to make up for the missing things from previous games that I care about.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

This post is really eye-opening and shows a lot of why New Horizons feels kind of middling to me. The problem with Nintendo's "release game as minimal viable product then add content progressively" tactic that they've used since Splatoon is that when something like, say, a global pandemic, makes development harder, a lot of intended features are delayed. My hope is that they are indeed delayed and not fully cancelled, because the game as-is is far more anemic than New Leaf was

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That list is pretty misleading though.
Lots of that functionality isn't gone, just repurposed.


The Roost and Brewster. - Actually missing

Gyroids. - Actually missing

Club LOL with Dr. Shrunk. - NPC gone, purpose of Club changed to receiving reactions from villagers, K.K. Plays at the plaza instead.

Re-Tail with Reese and Cyrus. - No point in having NPCs to recolour items when you can do it anywhere as part of the crafting system. You also never needed them to sell items to visitors to your island...

Villagers visiting houses. - Actually missing

Gems. - Technically missing but replaced by a vast wider range of crafting materials and a much expanded crafting system.

Tortimer Island. - You can visit many more island designs in this game than in NL, they just don't call them tortimer island...

Minigames. -- Actually missing, and these are the one part of tortimer island that is missing.

Events that aren't just boring holidays. - Uh, Animal crossing events have always been 'boring' holidays.

Missing fruits. - Tropical fruits are still missing, yes. They'll probably come...eventually. But this is hardly a big thing.

RV Site. - Replaced by combination of buildable campsite, the NPC from the RV site starting his own photo island, and the system where you earn points became the nook miles.

TONS OF MISSING FURNITURE SETS. -Can't argue this one.

Missing Nook's Cranny upgrades. - The problem here is the amount of items on sale started out way higher than in previous games. They could have artificially limited the initial store size to give more upgrades... but is that seriously a thing you want?

To compare the starting stores: New Leaf has, 2 tools, 2 furniture, 1 stationary, 1 wrapping paper and a fortune cookie.
After 1 upgrade NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture, 1x carpets, 1x wallpaper, 2x fortune cookie, 1x stationary/wrapping paper/medicine.
After 2 upgrades NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets , 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookie, 2x stationary, 1x wrapping paper/medicine.
After 3 upgrades: 3x tools, 4x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets, 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookies, 2x stationary, and one k.k slider song.

Meanwhile: The starting store in new horizons has: all flimsy tools, plus slingshot, an umbrella, wet suit, wrapping paper, 4x wallpapers, 4x carpets, 2 limited furniture items and 2 unlimited items. Also some DIY recipes. The k.k. slider songs are sold too, but through the nook atm thing.

the starting point of the NH store immediately being somewhere around the NL store with 2/3 upgrades already applied (and so only one more to come) seems to have gone way over a lot of peoples heads. You can't even buy wallpaper or carpets without any upgrades in new leaf!

Villagers with dialogue actually worth something. - This is the worst mistake in NH.

Most of the shops in general (most got relegated to just randomly appearing in the plaza). - Shops being shuffled around isn't less content. At this point the only one with functionality missing from the game is the coffee shop.

Half the NPCs - Can't argue that.

Fortune Cookies - This is the same point as Nintendo items being held back below...

Museum Renting Rooms - Replaced because you can build anywhere.

Museum Shop. - Celeste got a new job in astronomy, having a separate store in the museum doesn't actually add much of value.

The Megaphone. - There's no microphone on switch, they couldn't have brought this over even if they wanted to...

Nintendo Villagers - Yeah, this sucks.

Nintendo Items - Actually missing, but missing furniture is already up above.

 

[Derachi]

New Horizons villagers don't have hobbies

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This is wrong. Villagers have hobbies like music, play, nature, education, fashion etc.

 

[Cubs017]

I'm still kind of waiting for something to pull me back in. I still play occasionally (I can't catch the fucking stringfish) but haven't been hooked in a while. I feel like you run out of things to do once you've paid off all of your loans and upgraded your house. There's no reason for me to pick fruit or really make any money now.

 

[Aurica]

Does the game really need it, though?

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Yes. It's still missing a bunch of stuff from the old games. That sucks.

Where is my Coffee Shop and High End items/clothes shop? I miss those a lot! This game is coming up on 1year and those are still missing....

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It's seriously unbelievable. I'm not convinced that this is a covid thing. Seems very on-brand for Nintendo to slowly give us nothing. That they shipped the game without a bunch of staples and are taking a year (or more, or they never get added) to put old stuff back in is super disappointing.

 

[Rolling Antony]

Sorry but this isn't really subjective, past Animal Crossing games had much more advanced and complex villager interaction systems which made for more compelling and diverse encounters. In New Horizons villagers don't have hobbies, there are no personality subtypes, and the number and types of requests they ask of you are a shell of what was available in New Leaf. This video does a good job of breaking down the history of villagers throughout the series and explains why they are less compelling, mechanically speaking, in New Horizons than in any previous entry.

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Don't worry, I've seen that video where she disregards all the islanders activities as "pure Instagram-bait". The video states that mostly the original iirc had conversation trees, but other games, like NL, got rid of them. She also makes a good point on the "ping" frequency and how you could ask for requests instead of waiting for them which I agree that should be improved.

Islanders have hobbies and personality subtypes. They impact their activities and there are also details like how each islander has a designated type of food or bag to carry around. For example, Boots and Antonio are both jocks. However, Boots has the "Play" hobby and I'll see him running around the island while Antonio has the "Fitness" hobby and will constantly lift dumbbells. Boots will also eat a lollipop sometimes and Antonio is instead munching on a donut.

I recently listed the requests on the OT and they are mostly the same, aside from the visiting system, NL-specific things like asking for PWP and other reaaaaally specific things like asking for a fruit or furniture of x size. Sure, the visiting system should return, not denying that.

At the end, the dialogue is very subjective. Most people think it's bad, but I find it charming enough. Others want the complete rudeness from the original game back and I really really hope the kind of dialogue where they call me an idiot doesn't come back ever.

edited to remove the word.

Yikes, I really forgot how much was missing. My museum rented rooms were filled with seasonal furniture, one for each major holiday :)

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Don't worry, you can instead fill Photopia with your seasonal furniture. And it comes with a way bigger space and the added feature of being able to use any customisation option. It also has all your catalog available, it doesn't pulls from your storage.

 

[GK86]

The post-launch content/updates have been disappointing. Loved my time with the game though.

 

[Aleh]

I just want an easier way to delete flowers.

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THIS! 😭😭 I cry every time it rains and snows, it's so frustrating

 

[mnk]

THIS! 😭😭 I cry every time it rains and snows, it's so frustrating

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I've completely given up on controlling them during winter. I'll just do a massive 5-hour clean up next month or something.

 

[Mickagau]

One thing they greatly improved upon New Leaf is how lifelike the villagers behave outside of conversations. I booted NL to compare and they look so stiff in comparison ! Here in NH they sing, run, read, do yoga, sports, sit etc.
Also you can clearly see each villagers have a preference for certain actions. On my island Olivia is singing all the time, Daisy is reading a lot, Dotty all dressed up for shopping and so on. It is charming.
Sure the game has some flaws but it has also some great things going for it.

 

[Grifter]

I rarely hop on now, but easily got my money's worth and think about the game constantly. I get that it doesn't have all the features of its predecessors, but it's also doing a lot that's new. Not every follow-up needs to have the exponential scope and work involved with newer gens and still encompass the feature set of older versions. Gotta also say, it's jarring to check in on these threads for a game I associate with some much positivity and get a vibe that's the complete opposite.

 

[AnimeJesus]

Im enjoying playing this game with my daughter on the same island but ya the variety in villager interactions is really dissapointing. Also why am I repeating the Gulliver quests all the time...they really couldn't come up with more.

It's a fun game but feels incredible shallow when you think about it.

 

[Deleted member 5127]

I enjoyed my 250ish hours with this game but I honestly don't understand how AC is so popular, there's so much more stuff to add gameplay wise, the gameplay is mostly just designing with super slow UX.

 

[Sparks]

Cool, can't wait to DL it, play it for 8 minutes and then turn off till the next update.

I really dislike they frame these things as "FREE UPDATES" when that's your ENTIRE game is seasonal changes and new activities. This is the literal bare minimum you could provide...

For a forum well aware of how covid has impacted game development, people sure like their entitlement tantrums. Get a grip.

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Yea I get that. But I think people also forget that this is the entire point of the game. It has always been about the seasons changing and the cute events that go along with it ect. Framing it as "free support" for the game is disingenuous to me...

 

[Wetflix]

I'm going to start a new playthrough once all the updates are released, and see how all the content retroactively improves the beginning, but I do enjoy turning on the game every now and then to experience the new stuff.

 

[Parthenios]

Sorry but this isn't really subjective, past Animal Crossing games had much more advanced and complex villager interaction systems which made for more compelling and diverse encounters. In New Horizons villagers don't have hobbies, there are no personality subtypes, and the number and types of requests they ask of you are a shell of what was available in New Leaf. This video does a good job of breaking down the history of villagers throughout the series and explains why they are less compelling, mechanically speaking, in New Horizons than in any previous entry.

Click to shrink...

Yeah the biggest issue with New Horizons isn't all the missing content (though that is a big issue itself) it's that villages are so much worse in this one. They are very shallow and almost never have any interactions or games to play with them or tasks they need help with. Didn't the older games have a complex letter writing system? This one surely doesn't.

It feels like Nintendo wanted the focus to be on multiplayer with humans so the villagers are an afterthought.

 

[The Boat]

That list is pretty misleading though.
Lots of that functionality isn't gone, just repurposed.


The Roost and Brewster. - Actually missing

Gyroids. - Actually missing

Club LOL with Dr. Shrunk. - NPC gone, purpose of Club changed to receiving reactions from villagers, K.K. Plays at the plaza instead.

Re-Tail with Reese and Cyrus. - No point in having NPCs to recolour items when you can do it anywhere as part of the crafting system. You also never needed them to sell items to visitors to your island...

Villagers visiting houses. - Actually missing

Gems. - Technically missing but replaced by a vast wider range of crafting materials and a much expanded crafting system.

Tortimer Island. - You can visit many more island designs in this game than in NL, they just don't call them tortimer island...

Minigames. -- Actually missing, and these are the one part of tortimer island that is missing.

Events that aren't just boring holidays. - Uh, Animal crossing events have always been 'boring' holidays.

Missing fruits. - Tropical fruits are still missing, yes. They'll probably come...eventually. But this is hardly a big thing.

RV Site. - Replaced by combination of buildable campsite, the NPC from the RV site starting his own photo island, and the system where you earn points became the nook miles.

TONS OF MISSING FURNITURE SETS. -Can't argue this one.

Missing Nook's Cranny upgrades. - The problem here is the amount of items on sale started out way higher than in previous games. They could have artificially limited the initial store size to give more upgrades... but is that seriously a thing you want?

To compare the starting stores: New Leaf has, 2 tools, 2 furniture, 1 stationary, 1 wrapping paper and a fortune cookie.
After 1 upgrade NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture, 1x carpets, 1x wallpaper, 2x fortune cookie, 1x stationary/wrapping paper/medicine.
After 2 upgrades NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets , 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookie, 2x stationary, 1x wrapping paper/medicine.
After 3 upgrades: 3x tools, 4x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets, 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookies, 2x stationary, and one k.k slider song.

Meanwhile: The starting store in new horizons has: all flimsy tools, plus slingshot, an umbrella, wet suit, wrapping paper, 4x wallpapers, 4x carpets, 2 limited furniture items and 2 unlimited items. Also some DIY recipes. The k.k. slider songs are sold too, but through the nook atm thing.

the starting point of the NH store immediately being somewhere around the NL store with 2/3 upgrades already applied (and so only one more to come) seems to have gone way over a lot of peoples heads. You can't even buy wallpaper or carpets without any upgrades in new leaf!

Villagers with dialogue actually worth something. - This is the worst mistake in NH.

Most of the shops in general (most got relegated to just randomly appearing in the plaza). - Shops being shuffled around isn't less content. At this point the only one with functionality missing from the game is the coffee shop.

Half the NPCs - Can't argue that.

Fortune Cookies - This is the same point as Nintendo items being held back below...

Museum Renting Rooms - Replaced because you can build anywhere.

Museum Shop. - Celeste got a new job in astronomy, having a separate store in the museum doesn't actually add much of value.

The Megaphone. - There's no microphone on switch, they couldn't have brought this over even if they wanted to...

Nintendo Villagers - Yeah, this sucks.

Nintendo Items - Actually missing, but missing furniture is already up above.

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Good post.

 

[SunshinePuppies]

Others want the complete rudeness from the original game back and I really really hope the kind of dialogue where they call me a retard doesn't come back ever.

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hey buddy, just a heads up. Using "retard" as a noun is very offensive in American English and some consider it a slur.

 

[Alfredo]

I really just need new furniture and an easy way to get them. There are still tons of items in the catalog that I've never seen on my island. I ALWAYS get the SAME freaking furniture every day, be it at the Nook shop or from trees or whatever. I don't even get different colors. It's always the same furniture in the same colors. It's so irritating. I feel like having an upgrade to the Nook shop with a bigger selection of items could solve this if they implemented is correctly.

I would also love it if they brought back Digby and let you buy stuff from Dream Addresses or something. Or bring back RVs.

 

[ZugZug123]

THIS! 😭😭 I cry every time it rains and snows, it's so frustrating

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My flowers are completely out of control, I will have to dedicate an entire day to clean it up....

 

[Unicorn]

I find it concerning this needed its own update and wasn't just pulled into the winter update. Only thing I can think of, that's visible to players, is wanting to gate access to the Pave set items.

It's concerning if they are brushing this close to deadlines for new animations and item sets and makes me wonder how long of a tail covid impact had on their work flow if nearly a year later they're still dealing with the set backs.

March I imagine will be a similar sized update if all they can tease are 2 Mario Clipart images.

March would also mark the 1 year anniversary, so I'm sure they're aware of the anticipation fork their HUGE install base and many are probably hoping for a blowout in a full "2.0" style update. We'll see, I suppose. It's either hot or cold lol.

 

[Deleted member 1238]

Where is my Coffee Shop and High End items/clothes shop? I miss those a lot! This game is coming up on 1year and those are still missing....

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This is one of the most successful switch games. It's going to get support for years to come. They want to save things for years two and three.

 

[Dolce]

I find it concerning this needed its own update and wasn't just pulled into the winter update. Only thing I can think of, that's visible to players, is wanting to gate access to the Pave set items.

It's concerning if they are brushing this close to deadlines for new animations and item sets and makes me wonder how long of a tail covid impact had on their work flow if nearly a year later they're still dealing with the set backs.

March I imagine will be a similar sized update if all they can tease are 2 Mario Clipart images.

March would also mark the 1 year anniversary, so I'm sure they're aware of the anticipation fork their HUGE install base and many are probably hoping for a blowout in a full "2.0" style update. We'll see, I suppose. It's either hot or cold lol.

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It's important to remember New Horizons already had one delay. I've floated this before, but I have a feeling that the initial delay was a result of them re-evaluating how to launch the game. It's possible they had so much ready to go, but they would have needed more time to finish everything up. So they decided to release what they did have finished as polished as they could and work on what they couldn't finish as patches. Then COVID-19 happened.

 

[SpankyDoodle]

Jesus dude, I'm starting to get genuinely worried that the Mario stuff is going to be it for the game. What a disaster that would be.

The music sounds nice at least and the dance emote is cute

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It won't be, there's no need to worry about that.. They've committed to supporting the game for a minimum of 2-3 years. There will be more beyond Mario items.

I imagine COVID probably delayed their plans but even still, I would've rather they released later in the year with more content baked into the game instead of this GAAS style rollout. No Brewster's, No Tortimer Island-style mini games, no gyroids, is a shame. I dunno how long it would've taken for them to develop all those features, but I abandoned the game for New Leaf. The villagers are way more interactive and fun to talk to and the game feels more complete.

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It had nothing to do with Covid, this was always the plan for this version of the game to prevent people from data mining and time traveling all the future goodies a week into the game's release. Expect every future version of Animal Crossing to be this way.

Spoiler

Also, Brewster is coming and so are Gyroids. They've both been found in data mines, the Villagers refer to Brewster in-game, and the official guide talks about Gyroids and how to get them. There's also going to be an expansion to the "cooking" they introduced with the Turkey Day update, with more crops to grow and dishes you can make. Also hooks for expansions to the Museum and Nookling's. There is more content coming.

 

[Rolling Antony]

hey buddy, just a heads up. Using "retard" as a noun is very offensive in American English and some consider it a slur.

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Apologies, I swear I saw a screenshot with that word used. Guess I must have been fooled by an edit. Will edit my post. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Maple]

Sorry but this isn't really subjective, past Animal Crossing games had much more advanced and complex villager interaction systems which made for more compelling and diverse encounters. In New Horizons villagers don't have hobbies, there are no personality subtypes, and the number and types of requests they ask of you are a shell of what was available in New Leaf. This video does a good job of breaking down the history of villagers throughout the series and explains why they are less compelling, mechanically speaking, in New Horizons than in any previous entry.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for this video. As I've been playing New Horizons I keep thinking to myself that the villager interactions seem super basic and felt more dynamic with more depth all the way back on the GameCube version - but I chalked it up to the fact that I was just younger at the time and probably had an inflated perception of how organic the village simulation was on the first game.

Nope. Apparently it really was that much deeper. The villagers in New Horizons just seem to exist to give you recipes and items every day. There just isn't a sense of community or village simulation at all.

 

[Zutrax]

Nintendo please... please just let me craft in bulk. I'm begging you for literally any minor quality of life improvements, it'd help the gameplay experience so much. I'd take an entire update of just quality of life stuff, even if it meant I got zero new actual content.

 

[Parthenios]

It had nothing to do with Covid, this was always the plan for this version of the game to prevent people from data mining and time traveling all the future goodies a week into the game's release. Expect every future version of Animal Crossing to be this way.

Click to shrink...

I agree, and this is why I'm probably out of future Animal Crossing games. ACNH slowly doling out content from previous games is already annoying and I'm not here for that a second, third, etc time. Instead of holding back the existing store upgrades as updates, they should have just come up with entirely new upgrades as updates.

This is cutting a chapter out of Assassin's Creed II to release as DLC later. All of this should have been in the base game, and the updates should have included actual new stuff. Even the Mario stuff is likely going to be mostly fortune cookie items from New Leaf (without the Zelda and Metroid and etc items, surely to be included in additional future updates).

This is one of the biggest video games on the planet from one of the biggest video game companies. The bar should absolutely be set higher than what we're getting.

 

[totofogo]

That list is pretty misleading though.
Lots of that functionality isn't gone, just repurposed.


The Roost and Brewster. - Actually missing

Gyroids. - Actually missing

Club LOL with Dr. Shrunk. - NPC gone, purpose of Club changed to receiving reactions from villagers, K.K. Plays at the plaza instead.

Re-Tail with Reese and Cyrus. - No point in having NPCs to recolour items when you can do it anywhere as part of the crafting system. You also never needed them to sell items to visitors to your island...

Villagers visiting houses. - Actually missing

Gems. - Technically missing but replaced by a vast wider range of crafting materials and a much expanded crafting system.

Tortimer Island. - You can visit many more island designs in this game than in NL, they just don't call them tortimer island...

Minigames. -- Actually missing, and these are the one part of tortimer island that is missing.

Events that aren't just boring holidays. - Uh, Animal crossing events have always been 'boring' holidays.

Missing fruits. - Tropical fruits are still missing, yes. They'll probably come...eventually. But this is hardly a big thing.

RV Site. - Replaced by combination of buildable campsite, the NPC from the RV site starting his own photo island, and the system where you earn points became the nook miles.

TONS OF MISSING FURNITURE SETS. -Can't argue this one.

Missing Nook's Cranny upgrades. - The problem here is the amount of items on sale started out way higher than in previous games. They could have artificially limited the initial store size to give more upgrades... but is that seriously a thing you want?

To compare the starting stores: New Leaf has, 2 tools, 2 furniture, 1 stationary, 1 wrapping paper and a fortune cookie.
After 1 upgrade NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture, 1x carpets, 1x wallpaper, 2x fortune cookie, 1x stationary/wrapping paper/medicine.
After 2 upgrades NL has: 3x tools, 3x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets , 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookie, 2x stationary, 1x wrapping paper/medicine.
After 3 upgrades: 3x tools, 4x furniture (floor), 1x furniture(wall), 2x carpets, 2x wallpapers, 2x fortune cookies, 2x stationary, and one k.k slider song.

Meanwhile: The starting store in new horizons has: all flimsy tools, plus slingshot, an umbrella, wet suit, wrapping paper, 4x wallpapers, 4x carpets, 2 limited furniture items and 2 unlimited items. Also some DIY recipes. The k.k. slider songs are sold too, but through the nook atm thing.

the starting point of the NH store immediately being somewhere around the NL store with 2/3 upgrades already applied (and so only one more to come) seems to have gone way over a lot of peoples heads. You can't even buy wallpaper or carpets without any upgrades in new leaf!

Villagers with dialogue actually worth something. - This is the worst mistake in NH.

Most of the shops in general (most got relegated to just randomly appearing in the plaza). - Shops being shuffled around isn't less content. At this point the only one with functionality missing from the game is the coffee shop.

Half the NPCs - Can't argue that.

Fortune Cookies - This is the same point as Nintendo items being held back below...

Museum Renting Rooms - Replaced because you can build anywhere.

Museum Shop. - Celeste got a new job in astronomy, having a separate store in the museum doesn't actually add much of value.

The Megaphone. - There's no microphone on switch, they couldn't have brought this over even if they wanted to...

Nintendo Villagers - Yeah, this sucks.

Nintendo Items - Actually missing, but missing furniture is already up above.

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Thank you for this. This is the true state of the game in comparison to previous titles. 80% of what people complain about is baseless.

 

[SpankyDoodle]

I agree, and this is why I'm probably out of future Animal Crossing games. ACNH slowly doling out content from previous games is already annoying and I'm not here for that a second, third, etc time. Instead of holding back the existing store upgrades as updates, they should have just come up with entirely new upgrades as updates.

This is cutting a chapter out of Assassin's Creed II to release as DLC later. All of this should have been in the base game, and the updates should have included actual new stuff. Even the Mario stuff is likely going to be mostly fortune cookie items from New Leaf (without the Zelda and Metroid and etc items, surely to be included in additional future updates).

This is one of the biggest video games on the planet from one of the biggest video game companies. The bar should absolutely be set higher than what we're getting.

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In the post you quoted I said the reason why they didn't and won't do that, though. Like what you want them to do is specifically why they didn't do it. You or I might not have any interest in time traveling or hacking the game but there are plenty who do, and with how connected everyone is now, visiting friends towns and posting pictures and videos online, the content you or I are happy to wait for naturally (say, mushrooms in fall) would be spoiled for us early. I don't know if you care about that, but Nintendo does.

That list is pretty misleading though.
Lots of that functionality isn't gone, just repurposed.

Villagers visiting houses. - Actually missing

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What? No, Villagers still hang out with each other in their houses. Unless you mean Villagers coming into YOUR house?

 

[Axe]

Re-Tail with Reese and Cyrus.
Their functions are still on the game. You can now customise without waiting 30 minutes for a piece and you can dispose of any object through trash bins.

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The whole point of Re-Tail was to easily get hold of villagers' furniture and sell them your own. It's far more cumbersome to do this in NH. Also, customisation is restricted to fabrics only for all non-craftable items in NH, whereas Cyrus could customise anything that had a variant.

Museum Renting Rooms
Replaced by a much much bigger feature with Harvey and Photopia.

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This isn't even remotely suitable as a replacement, because other players cannot visit your own Photopia. Also NL had museum-themed items to help present them as proper exhibits.

What? No, Villagers still hang out with each other in their houses. Unless you mean Villagers coming into YOUR house?

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In New Leaf, villagers can visit your own home either randomly or by appointment. You can also arrange to visit their houses at a certain time too.

 

[Rolling Antony]

The whole point of Re-Tail was to easily get hold of villagers' furniture and sell them your own. It's far more cumbersome to do this in NH. Also, customisation is restricted to fabrics only for all non-craftable items in NH, whereas Cyrus could customise anything that had a variant.

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The customisation feature as a whole got a rework, with some color variations being locked and some being able to be done with the kits. It's a minor thing that well, doesn't really makes a building needed- nor it makes the game has less content as you still have access to all variations one way or another. I don't think it matters if it is less or more cumbersome, the content and function is still there. I mean it goes both ways, you can now customise 30 items on like 10 minutes whereas you had to wait 30 minutes for a piece before. If anything, the loss of miniature fossils and music boxes is more relevant, but that ties into the "missing furniture" thing.

This isn't even remotely suitable as a replacement, because other players cannot visit your own Photopia. Also NL had museum-themed items to help present them as proper exhibits.

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So the only difference is that you can't make people visit the themed rooms. I guess it's fair, even if you can easily share photos around but it's not the same. But why isn't it "even remotely" a replacement, if the main function of the place is to have a special room aside from your house to display furniture. Or was the main objective of the exhibits was to have other players visiting the rooms? It adds to it of course, but I don't really think that was the point.

 

[Hokey]

This game hasn't had any meaningful content since it launched! It's the only game my SO plays and it's very sad to see her logging in every day just to do the routine with absolutely nothing new. It would be OK if there were atleast some other new games worth buying on the system but there really isn't. We bought Age of Calamity and it's such a boring button masher we stopped playing after a few hours. We're happy to pay for some significant content on AC. Hopefully the new Story of Seasons game in March will be a good replacement.

 

[SpankyDoodle]

The whole point of Re-Tail was to easily get hold of villagers' furniture and sell them your own. It's far more cumbersome to do this in NH. Also, customisation is restricted to fabrics only for all non-craftable items in NH, whereas Cyrus could customise anything that had a variant.


This isn't even remotely suitable as a replacement, because other players cannot visit your own Photopia. Also NL had museum-themed items to help present them as proper exhibits.


In New Leaf, villagers can visit your own home either randomly or by appointment. You can also arrange to visit their houses at a certain time too.

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Ahh ok. I knew about that and didn't realize it was absent from NH (I suspected it was though since it's been almost a year without it happening lol, figured maybe I just wasn't good enough friends with any of mine) but I've seen Villagers hanging out in groups of 2 in each other's houses before so I wasn't sure which event they were talking about. If you're not playing and talking to your islanders every day I could see missing that.

 

[Mario_Bones]

Man, COVID must have wrecked the dev schedule for this game. I thought the lack of features in the base game was because they were going for a Splatoon-style constant rollout of content but instead you get a one-and-done event every few months which doesn't involve much beyond grinding a menial activity over and over. The villagers are less engaging than they've ever been and there's barely anything to do so once I got my island layout close to how I wanted it was a struggle to keep myself engaged. Once I missed a couple of days I found it so easy to just forget about it and play other things.

You have too much control over most things which makes it feel too artificial and impersonal, but then it's also so hard to get the furniture you want because you either need to wait until a villager happens to be crafting the exact recipe you need or you find the item in the store but it's not the colour you want and so you're just completely out of luck. It's so demotivating going into the store and seeing the same items looping over and over because the furniture pool is small and most of it is gated behind DIY instead. At this point in New Leaf I was still logging in every now and then to browse the StreetPass houses for new things I could use, and working my way towards decking out my house the way I wanted. This time around I've barely touched my house at all, things felt more geared towards decorating the exteriors than your interior.

 

[Beamerball]

🤔🤔🤔🤔

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Super Mario Galaxy 2 being released as an arcade machine in the nook store jk. But wait what if

 

[That1GoodHunter]

I really don't get it, I just don't. This game has sold gargantuan numbers. There is not a single IP in Nintendo's arsenal that is better suited to receiving a massive post lanch support effort than Animal crossing. There is a laundry list of features people want, either quality of life improvements, upgrades to the nook store, and returning legacy features.

The support just isn't materializing like it should/could.

 

[Dolce]

I really don't get it, I just don't. This game has sold gargantuan numbers. There is not a single IP in Nintendo's arsenal that is better suited to receiving a massive post lanch support effort than Animal crossing. There is a laundry list of features people want, either quality of life improvements, upgrades to the nook store, and returning legacy features.

The support just isn't materializing like it should.

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It's COVID-19 but it's also their own internal development map. But it's also likely that a lot of things people want aren't going to materialize for a few years if they indeed react to that.

 

[Deleted member 37151]

I really want them to add more dialogue for villagers. I get a lot of repetition and a few of my villagers say the same things (ie sporty types having repeated dialogue).

 

[etrain911]

I rarely hop on now, but easily got my money's worth and think about the game constantly. I get that it doesn't have all the features of its predecessors, but it's also doing a lot that's new. Not every follow-up needs to have the exponential scope and work involved with newer gens and still encompass the feature set of older versions. Gotta also say, it's jarring to check in on these threads for a game I associate with some much positivity and get a vibe that's the complete opposite.

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You're totally allowed to enjoy the thing you bought, but other people are also allowed to criticize it. Personally, the new stuff for me doesn't outweigh the stuff I liked about the last games that isn't present here which is why I'm playing New Leaf instead.

 

[FinalArcadia]

I feel like every single seasonal event is the same shit over and over again (moreso than in previous games; like, I'm still mad that they ruined Toy Day after getting it so right in New Leaf), and crafting is just not fun. I really wish crafting had never been added, it is one of the two roots of my major issues with New Horizons. Hopefully the March update is something meaty, because boy does this game need it. At least give some new furniture to rotate in the Nooklings store or something, like damn.

Now don't get me wrong, I do generally enjoy the game still, but not as much as any previous Animal Crossing (except City Folk, which it's about even with and I think is the other weak link).

 

[That1GoodHunter]

I really don't see the Mario update, any themed update for that matter, bringing much in terms of fan favorite features. Hopefully they are running out of seasonal/crossover themes, and we might start getting more feature centric stuff later into the year 😕