Think i need to shift expectations. After playing stardew and a few other survival games i figured since AC was the grandaddy there would be similar loops and pacing.
This is its own animal though. Little variety in activities and no way to accelerate daily progression? AC is an odd bird. Its like it wants me to play something else.
It's definitely unique. Animal Crossing is a game which you aren't necessarily supposed to grind out for several hours every play session. It's a game where you'll sometimes find yourself checking in for just 30 minutes or so to do your daily routine. But there are also days where you'll easily spend hours.
The early days of a new animal crossing game are always somewhat slow, but New Horizons takes things to a new level since the island is completely barren and you have to build it up. This does give the game a little more direction, but it also means that I'm these early days it's easy to run out of things to work towards. Obviously as you build up the island that will change, and it's easy to see how the game will open up. In most games you'd be able to set aside a few hours and grind out the opening tutorial, but because animal crossing is synchronized with the real world you have to actually wait days.
when you say "its like it wants me to play something else" you're not actually all that wrong. You will eventually run out of things to do. You'll learn soon enough that animal crossing is about the long haul. Don't worry about grinding out little things every day. Nook miles and the "challenges" associated with them are nice, but I do fear that they will encourage people to just do repetitive things for hours each day in order to clear all the checklists as fast as possible when in reality those goals are probably supposed to last for months (it seems like people here are really grinding them out). If it feels like you've run out of meaningful things to do, then it's ok to put the game down and come back tomorrow or later at night. That's how animal crossing works. Some days you'll play for hours, some days you'll play for 30 minutes.
I think you'll learn to love it. Take your time. Don't feel pressured to blitz through everything. Animal Crossing is a chill game that you take at your own pace.
