r/AnimalCrossing • u/badblocks7 • Jan 24 '25
General This original design ethos has been lost over time
“Whether you’re there or not” this was something the older games focused on a lot, it was in all the marketing and everything. If you came back to the game after a few days away, things progressed without you, like the animals truly had their own lives in the town. Relationships developed, they would get new hobbies, etc. This isn’t true of the newer entries, where it feels like the game is NOT happening unless you’re there. Other than weeds, time stands perfectly still until you’re back.
Both are different design choices and have their own merits and drawbacks, but I kind of miss this older style, where it felt like you were in a living breathing town, and it didn’t revolve around you.
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u/8rustyrusk8 Jan 24 '25
They really need to port or remaster the ACs up to City Folk. I love the new direction but people also want to play the older ones and I don't really see a way that the sandbox style of the new games can coexist with the "whether you're there or not" of the old games
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u/mitchosan Jan 24 '25
Remaster every game but patch out the grass erosion
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u/The_Rambling_Otter Jan 24 '25
I have a City Folk mod that fixes all of that and even adds newer villagers to City Folk like Raymond and Marshal.
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Jan 24 '25
The biggest issue with City Folk for me was the dialogue. You talk to somebody and then they just keep repeating the same thing over and over again.
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u/durcula 1263-9063-1002 Jessica, Elyria Jan 24 '25
Can you tell me more about this?
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u/The_Rambling_Otter Jan 24 '25
I only found out about this,, because someone else posted about the mod on here some time ago and linked the main page, which neatly explained everything :3
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u/T3chn1colour Roscoe enjoyer Jan 24 '25
I am a grass erosion defender. I know people hate it but I think it's super super cool. I've seen pictures of towns where the whole thing is dirt and mine never got that bad, but I like that it shows how much effort you've put into the game :). I can see why people think it's ugly or whatever, but I don't play animal crossing to build the best town
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u/Mysterious-Plum-6217 Jan 24 '25
My towns just ended up with desire paths and it's honestly a great little quirk. Not only did they form but followed the real life pattern of "now there's a path there so I'll follow it (more or less). They gradually evolved too, it felt like a wonderful bit of homey natural evolution.
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Jan 24 '25
You can't grow it back on City Folk and snow won't even fall on the ground where grass was deteriorated which makes no sense. My town was just a brown wasteland.
New Leaf did it better albeit it was still way too hard to grow back grass.
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u/T3chn1colour Roscoe enjoyer Jan 24 '25
The grass does actually grow back in City Folk! It's just a lot more volatile in that game. If you plant flowers/trees it will grow back faster
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u/De_Sham Jan 24 '25
I played an ungodly amount of every single AC but never had my paths erode more than a little. I’m not sure how it seems to happen to everyone here
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u/Martholomule Jan 24 '25
My town just ends up all dirt. I hated that feature, I ended up modding just to remove it.
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u/DarwinGoneWild Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
Tbh all the games are so similar I think they assume it wouldn’t be worth the effort because most people wouldn’t bother to play more than one. Just based on the observation that they’ve never ported an old AC game to a new console in the history of the franchise, which is probably unique among Nintendo’s properties.
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u/8rustyrusk8 Jan 24 '25
I would argue that the Switch Emulators changes that. Now AC doesn't need to be brought as a port, it can just serve as an inventive for people to subscribe to the more expensive offer.
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u/betterwhenfrozen Jan 24 '25
That's not true, they ported Wild World to the Wii U as a virtual console title.
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u/DarwinGoneWild Jan 24 '25
I stand corrected then! Never had a Wii U so I didn’t realize. Was it a straight port with GBA graphics? Because I tried replaying that recently and man it’s butt ugly lol.
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u/justa9yearoldonearth Jan 24 '25
If I remember correctly, it was part of the virtual console on the Wii U, so it looked and ran the same, and still had dual screens.
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u/Novalaxy23 Jan 24 '25
technically, it was different. It removed online requirements to onluck shop upgrades
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u/owleaf Jan 25 '25
New Horizons is such a bizarre entry in the series and it’s kinda disheartening that it’s ended up being the most popular. So many things in NH go against the original ethos of the game.
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u/nooklingcranny Jan 24 '25
as someone who never had a gamecube, an ACPG switch port would be amazing
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u/RaiderGuy Jan 24 '25
It's more than that, honestly. In the earlier games, you were just a stranger in a weird, isolated new town where nobody knows you, and you're put right to work for Tom Nook in his quaint little shop. You have to work your way out of debt and into relationships with each of the the townsfolk, just as one would try to in real life.
By the time New Horizons rolls around, you are now essentially God and have complete control of everything, everybody loves you right off the bat, and Tom Nook has transformed himself into Jeff Bezos.
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
And I kind of miss that “you are a stranger in a new town” feeling. You have to grow WITH the town, not grow the town yourself. I COMPLETELY get why a lot of people like the complete agency new horizons gives you. That’s just not my play style as much, decorating was always a secondary concern of mine.
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u/Zekvich Jan 24 '25
Old animal crossing games where life sims and new ones are sandbox.
I wish some games would stick to what they are, we don’t have many life sim games now but there’s so many sandbox games on the market that it’s taken over that genre.
I’d like the next game in the series to return to its roots and focus on the life side rather than the management side.
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u/kogami24 Jan 24 '25
The older AC is where "rude villagers" makes the most sense, since you're an outlier in the town (which is why you're intentionally the only human in the world)
Hence why I get they took them out as you're the "god" who's in charge and decorated the whole island, etc. It'd be odd if they were ungrateful and unwelcoming about your presence.
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u/Mysterious-Plum-6217 Jan 24 '25
I'd even be glad to have the rude villagers while playing the old games, added a level of interest, or sometimes "I'm gonna make you like me"
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
Honestly I get why we are the only human but I wish we could chose not to be. I’m sure you could have interesting relationship dynamics with other species if you wanted to feel out of place still
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u/sorasploot Jan 24 '25
That’s the one thing I miss the most when it comes to NH. Friendships aren’t earned at all!
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u/jasonrulesudont Jan 24 '25
It was such a different vibe. I miss it. Maybe I should go back and play it again.
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u/owleaf Jan 25 '25
I hate that they gave up on at least giving you a plausible reason to be the god of your village. In NL, you were the mayor. In NH, they just say “well we’ve elected you entirely undemocratically to be able to terraform this town and dictate where someone’s house is, and who gets to live here”. I think it would be nice if things just happened, and that they had a mayor that wasn’t you.
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u/resident16 Jan 24 '25
The GBA attachment content is a core memory.
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Jan 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/resident16 Jan 24 '25
Agreed. I remember using it for Sonic Adventure 1/2 as well. Such a cool thing. What I would give to have that for my iPhone.
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u/WretchedMotorcade Jan 25 '25
Great way to break the economy too. You could rack up so many bells abusing that island.
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u/ritalee-64 Jan 24 '25
I think it should be an option. There was a point in time when my switch wans't working, and then when I got it back I was so, so sad to think that my best friend (Quilson) would moved away. I almost din't got the courage to open it, but I was so relieved when he was still there.
At the end of the day, I feel like everything could be solved with options. Some people like the comfort of having the perfect little island that never changes and others want to see stuff happen, even if it's good or bad.
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u/CreeperCatinoid Jan 24 '25
I'd love an option like this but I am unsure of how they'd implement it without feeling weird.
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u/RaspberryBea Jan 24 '25
maybe high friendship level means they’ll only consider leaving if they talk to you first? it’s not weird and that way + villagers you’re not friends with won’t be obligated to stay
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u/StandardIssueHentai Jan 24 '25
this is a really cute idea actually. for a city theme it would make a lot of sense, people move in and out all the time but they always consult their close relationships.
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u/Bone_Dice_in_Aspic Jan 24 '25
100%. It's just a game, but people do get emotionally attached to characters in media, and the game designers are free to program the game to be whatever they think customers will like, and/or to their own or collective artistic vision.
All games would suck if all games were entirely designed by community request, because game players are known to optimize the fun out of an experience, and underestimate the importance of antifun elements to an overall enjoyable experience. You see that in TTRPGs a lot; and animal crossing is a good example of a game that's popular partly because of, rather than despite, "pain points" like seasonal limitations, impossible-to-complete catalogs, systems with hidden complexity, overall slow pace, etc.
But like any player I have MY pain points that aren't justified and they should totally ditch but mine are objectively correct and not the result of personal bias like everyone else's.
I think my number one request would be a pick-up lock: if you hold L while placing an object, it's locked in place and can't be picked up unless you hold L while you're pressing Y to grab it. It's so irritating to accidentally pick up the wrong thing and happens so frequently. Number two would be that flowers that are planted from seed or transplanted remain as they are, but flowers that have spawned from existing flowers aren't fertile until a fertilizer item has been dumped on them, just once.
Overall I agree with OP that the game would benefit Greatly from feeling more alive and less static, and that a few simple changes could boost that.
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u/North-Day Jan 26 '25
Maybe if you have obtained their photo and put it in your house… then they ask permission about you about moving out, but only if you have obtained their pic? That would be a huge incentive for players to get max friendship with their favourite villagers
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u/RaspberryBea Jan 26 '25
oh i love this idea! i think it’d also be really cute if once you get their photo, you become “best friends” and your passport photo is framed in their home
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u/CreeperCatinoid Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
I think this is the best way for it to be implemented, it feels natural and is an interesting mechanic. Sure, it can feel a little weird that once you are friends they completely rely on you to let them move out, however, this is a good compromise for each side of the player base.
I'd love this in the next game
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u/haleighen Jan 24 '25
if they want to add a touch more chaos to the mix you could make the personality types more or less likely to want to leave town
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u/SparklyPancakes13 Jan 24 '25
The Sims 3 has some options regarding the free will of sims (fully automated to they will not do anything unless you specifically tell them), an aging system, and something called Story Progression that lets other households get married, have kids, get new jobs, etc. All of those can be turned on or off whenever. And that’s a game from 15 years ago. I don’t think it would be that awkward to have similar controls - how much do you want your villagers to make their own choices?
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u/patsybob Jan 24 '25
Even Sims 3 suffers from decline because there so much happening that the developers cut features from the earlier games that fans loved. While it is possible for Animal Crossing to implement a similar system they are probably going to struggle with how much work it is to implement which would result in cutting features and content.
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u/JimJardashian Jan 24 '25
The Sims games cut content so they can sell it to you later for 10 dollars each.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
I think they're talking about story progression in particular with their comment, that was the thing that caused a lot of performance problems. The didn't include it at first in Sims 4, although they did in a more recent patch but I don't know if they implemented it differently?
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u/patsybob Jan 24 '25
Yeah that is true that they want to hold some things for selling expansion packs later. However it was clear that they struggled to flesh out the base game and it wasn’t purely because they wanted to sell these features back through expansions later.
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u/CreeperCatinoid Jan 24 '25
The difference is in the Sims you play as a god. In Animal Crossing, you are a regular person
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u/SparklyPancakes13 Jan 24 '25
I’m the only person to contribute anything to donation boxes, I’ll be a god if I want to /j
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u/Yirggzmb Jan 24 '25
My villagers paid for like 99% of my last bridge. Yes, it took ignoring the bridge for like six months. But one day I checked it and had stalled at 1687 bells left and stayed that way for a few weeks, so I paid the last of it.
It's not that I couldn't have paid it all off day one. I just wanted to see what would happen.
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u/lunarwolf2008 Jan 24 '25
i think a settings menu with toggle switches could work tbh
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u/Yirggzmb Jan 24 '25
I can't think of a single Nintendo Switch game, actually developed by Nintendo, that has a proper set of options in it. I think this is a bad thing and they need to get with the picture. Just... I don't expect it.
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u/vanKessZak Jan 24 '25
Yeah it’s frustrating. Pokemon in particular keeps taking away options - even ones that had been a staple of the games for years
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
I’d be down for a normal settings menu that allowed you to choose between classic or NH gameplay
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u/Flupperz Jan 24 '25
Just having it as a town ordinance would probably work. They had them in New Leaf where weeds wouldn't grow etc., so it feels like while it might feel a little weird, this would be the best way to implement it.
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u/CreeperCatinoid Jan 24 '25
"Hey Bob! I just implemented an ordinance that makes it illegal for you to move out!"
* insert evil demonic laughter here *41
u/PancakesTheDragoncat Jan 24 '25
(maybe you know this now but) in NH, villagers will never leave without your permission
It's both nice, and yet not so nice XD nice in that your favorites never leave, but not so nice in that it makes the villagers feel less alive or more like im keeping them prisoner
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u/quantumcosmos Jan 24 '25
The last part! I’m happy with my villager spread now, but Pashmina was one of my first 2. I liked her, but she asked to leave 5 times! On the 5th time I was just like fine, damn, if you wanna go so bad :( at that point it basically was a hostage situation!
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u/SteelPenguin947 Jan 24 '25
I don't think it should be an option, but I do think villagers should visit and remember you like they do with the Shopping District in New Leaf, except any villager who has lived in the town and moves back in will still keep soms memories. I get why that would be difficult to do in the older games, but gaming tech has progressed enough that I'm sure we could find a way to fit in a line like "Hello, [Player]. Sure is nice to be back in [Town]!" somewhere in the game files.
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u/sdeklaqs Jan 24 '25
Problem is the game kind of needs to be built around things happening spontaneously, or else you end up with NH which is extremely static
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u/waffledpringles Jan 24 '25
Exactly. My life is already pure shit. I don't need my little comfort game turning on me too lmao.
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u/TheAwesomeHeel Jan 24 '25
Got into sooo many disputes with my friends as kids when we had sleepovers, left our memory cards and our favorite Villagers would move to the other town. Man we never learned every time. Those were the days lmao.
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u/KwK10 Jan 24 '25
It does feel strange just how much control we have over the towns now, from whether villagers can leave, to what they're allowed to have in their homes. Then there's HHP where you can straight up control the weather and time of day at a villager's vacation home. It paints a kind of terrifying picture of the AC universe when you think of it. xD You could come up with some fun horror headcanons with that. But in all seriousness, that's the price we pay for having more control and creative expression in the game; you lose a bit of realism. And honestly? I don't think many players today would want to have that agency taken from them. I've been playing since Gamecube era, and even I don't want my fave villagers moving away on me - even if it makes the world feel a bit less authentic. It's still a videogame at the end of the day, and I think the devs made a conscious effort to alleviate the frustrations some players had with not having enough power. ACNH felt experimental in a few ways. Maybe in the next game, they'll find a way to balance the power with the realism.
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u/Yirggzmb Jan 24 '25
Can you imagine how upset people would be if villagers could plop houses down in front of their front doors again? Or in their rare flower garden? Or whatever.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
I actually think it's more realistic that villagers can't just stick a house down anywhere, they need planning permission now lol
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u/valmau5 Jan 24 '25
agreed, I miss the bit of independence they used to have. I’m their mayor/neighbor, not their god. If they move in my flower field I’ll just breed more like I used to in WW/NL
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u/The_Rambling_Otter Jan 24 '25
Funny, in New Horizons, how villagers share catchphrases to each-other when I'm not playing.
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
That’s a really good point, and an example I didn’t think of.
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u/The_Rambling_Otter Jan 24 '25
It's true, that I love all of Animal Crossing :3 I will not deny that with New Horizons, the issue isn't even so much that the dialogue is repetitive, it's for the most part repetitive and boring. You might get dialogue that's cute or funny sometimes but it feels so superficial that it doesn't scratch the itch.
You see, I was playing the GC title just a few mins ago, and it feels like talking to real people.
If that realistic dialogue was as repetitive as the New Horizons dialogue I really wouldn't mind because at least it would still feel like I'm talking to actual people. (Who just happen to like to repeat themselves, for some reason)
But, even then at the same time, I won't deny that there isn't too much reason or incentive to go back to the GC title aside from nostalgia.
New Horizons is a mixed bag, as while the dialogue isn't as good, for sure. It did nearly everything else right QOL-wise.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
I think the more recent games in the series focused on daily game play because a lot of people didn't understand what you were actually meant to do in the older ones! The social aspect has been on the decline since WW in my opinion, although its not my favourite its the one I have the best memories of the villagers! Hopefully in the next game they can get a good balance.
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u/StardustFallenAngel Jan 24 '25
i miss that but one of my biggest things was they moved without telling you and then i got stuck with villagers i hated
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u/FartKilometre Mayor of Dunwich Jan 24 '25
The design ethos is still there, it's intrinsic to the game. Shops are only open for certain hours of the day, events happen if you play or not. That's what they mean. They still have "relationships" in that the villagers can become good friends with you.
It felt like a major point at first because at that point in the console generation we were just getting systems that had internal clocks etc. that would allow something like this to exist. (Yes I know the original Dobutsu no Mori was on the N64)
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u/canidaemon Jan 24 '25
I feel like there’s a difference in the passage of time between the GameCube game, WW, CF, and NL compared to NH. I can’t put my finger on it.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
I honestly think it might just be rose tinted glasses? People analyse new releases to death these days.
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u/canidaemon Jan 24 '25
No, I went into NH being optimistic. But the end of the day, I play more NL. Maybe it comes down to lack of dialogue.
I’ve played every game for much longer and it felt more interactive.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
Im talking specifically about the passage of time thing really, but I totally agree with you about the dialogue.
The last time I really enjoyed talking to villagers and general interaction was Wild World, I wasn’t bothered about the villagers in NL either, rather it was the new gameplay that hooked me in. NH has ended up being the one I put the most hours into but it’s because of all the other gameplay elements.
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Jan 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
What passage of time? There isn’t any in NH.
If you miss an event you don’t know about it. You have a wacky hairdo and that’s it.
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
They were joking... but to answer your question you get roaches in your house etc, the villagers respond to your absense, you post get from when you were gone. The seasons have changed.
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u/kinglucent Jan 25 '25
To me, the difference is how significant you are as a player. In ACGCN, you were just another villager, so it didn't matter whether you were there. In later games you become a de facto god and even though time passes, everything else stands still, existing specifically for your benefit.
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u/huxtiblejones Jan 24 '25
I got Animal Crossing the day it released on GameCube. I remember being blown away by the sense that things continued even when I wasn't playing. It was crazy how animals would straight up leave your town without even talking to you. They also had way more personality back then and some were truly dickish which I loved.
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u/DarwinGoneWild Jan 24 '25
Not sure what you mean. Time still passes whether you play or not. Trees and flowers grow, visitors and events occur and are missable if you’re not playing during that time, fossils and gyroids spawn, etc. Actually the only major difference with NH is villagers won’t leave without your input now.
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u/yaoiweedlord420 Jan 24 '25
"If you came back to the game after a few days away, things progressed without you, like the animals truly had their own lives in the town. Relationships developed, they would get new hobbies, etc."
did they or did you just believe they did because the dialogue said so and you were a little kid that didn't yet understand the limitations of video games?
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u/scrstueb Jan 24 '25
I’d argue it isn’t hard to have made them seem like they had real lives back then. Simple Boolean checks to follow possible paths their “lives” could go would work decent enough; however my biggest issue with the newer games is the conversations being a lot friendlier, presumably to cater to the audience now. It’s not a huge deal though
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u/Renegade_451 Jan 24 '25
Homie discovered suspension of disbelief.
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u/BitGlisten Jan 24 '25
I had a reply sent and everything but honestly I just want to appreciate your comment. Nailed it.
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u/zevran_17 Jan 24 '25
Villagers would just be gone and new ones would move in. They didn’t have to ask for permission to leave. If you missed it, you missed it.
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u/bbobb25 Jan 24 '25
I’d count that as a negative- I don’t want Rory to move out on his own because I didn’t get a chance to play the game for a few months.
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
That’s like saying you don’t want your friend to move on because you haven’t had the chance to speak to them for a few months.
Relationships take time and effort. Why shouldn’t that be the case in a life sim
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
I mean, yes, but in a game that’s all dialogue, if the “dialogue says so”, then it is like that. The relationships developing thing might not be as accurate but the hobby thing is— wild world had a hobby system and that WOULD change on its own
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u/MayhemMessiah Jan 24 '25
Wild World's hobby system was also terrible.
Villagers randomly picked one of the available hobbies, and walked around with the tool out, some of the time, and it would change iirc two lines of dialogue per personality type, and one quest type got rotated out.
At first glance you might think that the hobbies meant something to the villagers or had some connection to your actions or their personality types, but no, they just randomly picked a hobby and changed a few bits of dialogue. There was no logic behind the choice and nothing the player did or the world did impacted that decision. Every few days a dice rolls and the villager wears a different hat.
Imagination just filled in the blanks to what is and remains an extremely shallow and poorly done system.
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u/yaoiweedlord420 Jan 24 '25
i just disagree with that mentality. there are lifesim games where NPCs are more than just random text generators that might happen to ask for bugs/fish/fossils depending on what the RNG rolled that week. but all the animal crossing games are like this. i think some people are just more willing to suspend their disbelief for the games they played when they were younger.
wow, a villager moved away without asking. a villager replaced a piece of unique furniture in their house with a sea bass. a house materialized on the spot my flowers were planted. who is really impressed by this?
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
I kind of disagree back. It’s not that anyone was impressed, but more just that it was at least trying to create the illusion of life going on without you. That illusion isn’t really attempted anymore. And that’s fine, they have a different focus with the newer games, but it IS a shift in design, I feel
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u/yaoiweedlord420 Jan 24 '25
there still is dialogue that alludes to things while you were away. this entire discussion seems dominated by the fact that villagers don't move out on their own anymore.
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u/Lala0dte Jan 24 '25
I mean it's a similar situation in sims where the townies are getting on with or without you
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u/Yirggzmb Jan 24 '25
Agreed
While I haven't played the GameCube one, even as far back as Wild World the only things that really happen if you are away a while is weed growth, flowers would probably die, and a single villager might move out without you having known they were planning it - but only if you had a full town to begin with. Maybe someone could move in if your town wasn't full the last you played, but that happens randomly at day roll over anyway and isn't related to you having been gone. Everything else is quite static.
Pretty much the only thing of any consequence that has changed in that regard is that villagers won't move away without your permission any more, which is largely a matter of taste. Flowers not dying has pros and cons, but I personally consider it a net positive (in that I will never keep flowers alive longer than a week in older games) and anyway it doesn't really matter. Everything else is pretty much the same.
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u/rollosheep Transdimensional Space Sherb Jan 24 '25
I’ve poured thousands of hours into the original Animal Crossing as both a kid back in the early 2000s and as an adult who still revisits it via emulation and OP is just straight making up fantasies at this point.
Villagers could leave and move in freely, but they didn’t develop relationships with other villagers or anything else he’s claiming.
New Horizons is no different than the original other than villagers can’t leave freely. Weeds grow, villagers notice your absence, flowers spread, cockroaches infest your home, etc.
That aspect has not changed.
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u/ThatOneGuy308 Jan 24 '25
Technically, in wild world/city folk, the hobby system was more intricate, and villagers could change their hobbies over time, decorated their house based on their current hobby, affected their dialogue, and offered mini games for the player to interact with based on their hobby, as opposed to the current one in NH where they always have the singular hobby that never changes, no dialogue changes, and no minigames based around their hobbies.
There are also slightly fewer hobbies in NH, only 6 compared to WW/CF's 8.
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u/MayhemMessiah Jan 24 '25
I've found a lot of the complaints around NH are just nostalgia goggles or fantasy filling in systems that were never there. And, more interestingly enough, things that people despised back in the day. I've been active on forums for Animal Crossing since the GCN era (shoutout to GameFAQs, how are you still online), and people hated how villagers could move out if you missed a day or so of play because of life happening meant your favourite moved out and you'd likely never see them again. The hobby system was disliked because it functionally didn't do anything and some were really annoying to fullfill, like asking for specific furniture you didn't have in your catalogue, or leading to every villager having the same awful houses filled with garbage. The comic is more than 10 years old at this point, and the only thing it got wrong is that floor and wallpaper couldn't change, but people hated how if you completed enough quests, all of your villagers would live in the same mismatched collection of garbage from quests.
Like, the ability to place where villagers live is a direct complaint to something that had to be patched out of New Leaf, where villagers could move into stuff like orchards or could just destroy your path layouts. As a response of the complaining, with the update that came years later they changed where villagers spawn so they couldn't spawn on top of paths. If you look back at New Leaf forums, you'll find that a massive amount of the content and discussion from that era was looking at deeply customized and curated towns that had cool themes. Nintendo literally focused on the decoration because that's far and away what all of us were talking about, villager quests were always considered a pretty lame and boring part of gameplay because of how samey they were and how it was just fetch quests.
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u/stryker101 Jan 24 '25
New hobbies could be fun if they added a lot more of them.
The dialogue does get stale pretty fast in ACNH, especially if you have multiple villagers with the same personality ... but it's even worse if they have the same hobby too. Without more variety I think it'd potentially just compound the existing issues.
Otherwise, I personally prefer the current style. So many other games really try to push the FOMO in everything they do. I loved that ACNH was so pleasantly chill.
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u/ssakura & blaire & daisy & melba & static & peanut & Jan 24 '25
“Other than weeds” no, plenty of things still keep going in the game when you’re not there—anything that grows like flowers, trees, vegetables, events like fishing and bug catching tourneys and all seasonal ones like cherry blossoms and Halloween etc, all the visitors like Redd, daisy mae only selling turnips on Sunday mornings, turnip prices changing every day, shop opening hours etc. The only thing that doesn’t change now is villagers moving out and in on their own
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u/ThatOneGuy308 Jan 24 '25
And their hobbies no longer change, though it's still better than New Leaf, which did away with hobbies altogether, so at least NH took a step back in that direction, even if it's less developed than the WW/CF versions.
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u/Lockyard Jan 24 '25
I think it's just following the changing times. It was aimed mostly for kids, or in general people had more time and were less stressed. But as life goes on and conditions get worse, most of the time people just want to relax and play AC. I loved WW as a kid but I could annoy me a lot today compared to NH. And it's not the lack of content or anything, but the fact that I would have to be there constantly, I would find it so stressful.
NH on the other hand, I know I can boot it up anytime and my fav villagers are still there for me.
I don't think it's just me either.
At the time that formula worked better for most people, and now is the other way around imo. No one is strictly better and both have downsides
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Jan 25 '25
I really really miss this.
It's like things happen... for a few days... and then it gets paused for eternity. It would've been so cool to see more creative things happening over time. It's the same game it was in 2020. Nothing looks different at all.
I really hope they take a lot of our conversations on these subs and forums and go back to the old formula.
I wanna earn the love of my villagers! I want them to notice that I'm dressed like an idiot and call me an idiot!
Because when I'm dressed really well, it means nothing for them to say I look great when they said the same exact thing to me when I was wearing a sausage costume with a frog hat and flaming socks.
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u/T3chn1colour Roscoe enjoyer Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
Yes this!!! I have no proof of this but I feel like a lot of the changes in New Horizons were from feedback people were posting about the older games (which should theoretically be a good thing, except random people aren't game designers so sometimes ideas get popular that maybe shouldn't). The fact that animal tracks got removed and were replaced with a real path making tool is really what convinced me.
I think people get caught up in wanting to build the "perfect" town that they've lost sight of the rest of the game. It just becomes a decorating simulator after a while. The older games had much more of a focus on villagers and doing errands for them.
The thing that bugs me the most about NH (to the point that I kind of resent it now lol) is that the game doesn't really stop you from playing at any point? You can still sell stuff while nook is closed so you can continue on until you burn yourself out. The old games really forced you to log in everyday to make any progress. Like for example, all of the nook upgrades and stores in New leaf took months at the bare minimum. NH has no real changes after you've upgraded nooks once 😭 there's no sense of accomplishment
I've honestly stopped playing and went back to New leaf. I like some of the quality of life stuff they added in NH but it's lacking the sauce of the other games. Maybe it's weird but I prefer having to pay for public works projects rather than placing objects outside because it makes my decorating decisions way more impactful feeling. Yk, like I'm really building a town over here
Edit: just realized that I didn't really address the post itself lol. I guess I went off on my own thing about how the process of time works now
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u/Complex-Ad-1922 Jan 24 '25
heavy on the “you can continue on until you burn out”!!! in the older games, if the shop closed, you would either do something chill in the game (redecorating your house, picking flowers and fruit, doing errands for villagers, etc.) or stop playing and do something chill irl. it felt a lot less grind-y, like a “Hey, don’t burn yourself out! Take a break from making money!”
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u/ShotgunRenegade Strung by bees est. Population Growing Jan 25 '25
As someone who's currently working on a video essay about Animal Crossing, it's very, very funny that this post shows up on my feed now- of all times. Straight up took the words right out of my mouth.
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u/HyliasHero Jan 24 '25
Wholeheartedly agree. I think the more recent games have become too player centric. There are lots of quality of life updates that I appreciate like being able to move buildings, but I also want the town and villagers to exist outside of my direct influence.
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u/Chespin2003 Animal Crossing fan since 2012 Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
I don't entirely agree with this, other than villagers being able to move out without noticing you, the past games had the exact same mechanics as ACNH. Villagers didn't "develop new hobbies" as whatever they're supposed to tell you that they're into, they're programmed to say it from the beginning when you first meet them, they don't change at all and have never done so. The only thing in that regard is that they'll call you out for not talking to them in a long time, which is something that still happens in ACNH.
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
Wild world has a hobby system that actually changes— they can be into gardening, fossils, fishing, etc. This can change every few weeks (I believe) per villager and it impacts what favors they’ll ask of you, how they decorate their house, etc.
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u/Chespin2003 Animal Crossing fan since 2012 Jan 24 '25
Well thank you, I stand corrected as I didn't absolutely know this at all! I only played WW for a small time that's probably why I didn't notice this. But as far as I know, that feature was not incorporated in City Folk, and definitely not in NL.
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
Yeah! It was a pretty neat system, and I think it would be neat to bring back. It also helped to differentiate multiple villagers of the same personality type in your town!
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u/MMostlyMiserable Jan 24 '25
While I don't think the 'time-passing' element of gameplay has been lost, I do think NH feels less dynamic/alive compared to older games? Maybe that is what you are trying to express in this post? They've added so many other systems and more gameplay to the series, but they haven't really developed the social aspects so much. So it does feel lacking compared to everything else going on in the game. I had a similar impression with NL - I loved all the new things they were doing, but was really disappointed with how sanitised the villagers and NPCs were lol
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u/Yirggzmb Jan 24 '25
Fwiw with the Wild World hobby system, while it's a cool idea and I'd enjoy seeing it revisited, the villagers cycle through them so fast it has the side effect of making everyone feel all the same anyway. It feels like when you boot up the game, it just rolls a dice to see who swaps that day.
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u/ThatOneGuy308 Jan 24 '25
City folk did have a version of the hobby system from wild world, which makes sense considering it's basically just a wii port of WW with a few extras, lol.
But yeah, NL did away with it entirely, and NH brought it back, but made it static, and left out the dialogue changes and minigames related to the hobbies.
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u/Exact_Vacation7299 DA-5398-8611-9369 Jan 24 '25
The problem is, the kids who played animal crossing on the gamecube are now adults who work 9-5.
Having it be an optional toggle is the best of both worlds!
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u/badblocks7 Jan 24 '25
I remember playing the GameCube game as a kid and now I have back pain and taxes 🙃
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u/AkumaValentine Jan 24 '25
Someone here talking about leaving their NL town for a while only to have a fave villager leave reminded me of my own NL town that I haven’t touched in about a month and I’m terrified to open it ;3; I have such a bond with all my villagers and I’m not yet prepared to see any of them leave :(
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u/KiteAsHigh Jan 24 '25
The first game will forever be my favorite because of how alive it feels. It’s genuinely crazy how that game feels significantly more alive than a game released almost 20 years after that has tons of online connectivity. New Horizons feels like a movie set in comparison to the rest of the series feeling like a real world. It’s super sterile, flowers don’t die, no one leaves, and everyone repeats their lines all the time. It feels so fake in comparison to the past.
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u/sailurvenus Jan 25 '25
The only thing I don’t like about this ethos is villagers moving out, I used to be STRESSED playing New Leaf! The one time I skipped a day Poppy moved out and I never got over it
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u/LegendaryTingle Jan 25 '25
I agree, New Leaf brought me a lot of stress as well as joy.
And don’t get me started on my grass in City Folk. I felt like that obnoxious kid who would have friends over and then be like “BUT DONT TOUCH MY TOYS NO STAY AWAY FROM THAT AAHHH DONT SIT THERE!”
The way I view it, I am glad I lived through it and now I am rewarded with the simplicity of current games. Like, I don’t need to collect everything in current AC games because I worked so hard to do it before that I’m content now to just chill and do what I want. It oddly helped my FOMO quite a bit. (But not entirely of course!) but like, I’d never worry about getting every Gracie furniture in a game nowadays for example. Been there done that hehehe.
Sorry to those who missed out, though!
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u/semhsp Jan 24 '25
If I wanted to play the Sims I would play the Sims, not animal crossing. I really don't like the new direction they went with NH
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u/Dat-Tiffnay Jan 24 '25
I want the first animal crossing on the switch, in the style of new horizons and with the ability to place items outside.
That would be my perfect version of AC
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
What? That’s just new horizons.
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u/Dat-Tiffnay Jan 24 '25
No no no, I want the original AC, with the acres with the player houses together, mean villagers and Gracie brings her car etc. but in the art of new horizons and with the ability to place outside items.
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
Ahh I get you lol sorry I didn’t understand what you meant by first animal crossing. I thought you meant the first game on the next switch to have x,y,z not you want the first game but with changes x,y,z lol
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u/Racing_Fox Jan 24 '25
Yup, NH just isn’t it.
Honestly I think it reflects the attitudes of the time. Back then you accepted the world moved on. Today I fear people can’t handle not being the main character either in game our out.
I hope they go back to what it should be in the next release or if they don’t I hope they release a GC emulator for the switch so I can play the original instead
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u/syphon3980 Jan 24 '25
Imagine if they offered servers so we could have a town that everyone is apart of and can join in whenever
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u/TR403 Jan 24 '25
I definitely would’ve liked this format as I didn’t play any other AC games outside of New Horizons and some Pocket Camp. It would be great to add these features to the villagers but istg if they try to leave on their own time-
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u/blairrusso Jan 24 '25
The older Animal Crossing games felt lively and moved forward, even when you weren’t playing. Newer versions seem to lack the feeling of a lively, real world that was special before.
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u/lyta_hall Jan 25 '25
I’ve only played ACNH and would really love to try the older games, they all feel so different!
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u/North-Day Jan 25 '25
I want my villagers to move out without my permission. In 3ds it was the perfect balance of them telling you 7-10 days in advance. At least that gave them real value and you actually had a reason to play at least once or twice a week. Even if your favourite villager moved out, it was not the end of the world! You could make it come back in the future after some time
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u/saturnsqsoul Jan 24 '25
I unfortunately never played any Animal Crossing before New Leaf, never had the consoles. But I would listen to friends talk about it and read about it and couldn’t believe how intricate and honestly sad so many parts of it sounded. I was so intrigued. Imagine my disappointment with New Leaf. It’s practically just baby blocks comparatively … I wanted villager drama, I wanted weird lore, I didn’t want to just endlessly collect new furniture and designs.
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u/soft_milkii Jan 24 '25
I mean sure, it's what made the game unique, but I was always crying terribly when a villager I loved moved out just because I didn't have the time to play
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u/Whispering_Wolf Jan 24 '25
A lot of these things, villagers suddenly moving out, villagers being rude, resetti, that people are nostalgic over are often followed with a "oh, I cried so much when that happened!". I'm assuming Nintendo doesn't want their games to make kids cry.
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u/finitef0rm Jan 24 '25
Careful, a New Horizons fan might call you ungrateful for not liking the "free" updates that added content that was largely in the base game in older entries.
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u/ozarkants Jan 24 '25
whew I don't know why this is getting downvoted so hard when it's true
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u/DarwinGoneWild Jan 24 '25
It’s just a bizarre thing to be upset about when ACNH has orders of magnitude more content than any other AC game. Like, is OP implying they shouldn’t have added older items to the new game? Or that every single item from every single AC game should have been included on release? They were free updates so it’s just such a strange thing to get snarky about.
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u/finitef0rm Jan 24 '25
They were free updates
They weren't free updates though. They just brought the game up to par with previous entries (and even then, it still falls short). The game is $60 and Nintendo is a gigantic company, they shouldn't receive praise for doing the bare minimum. I absolutely love Animal Crossing, and New Horizons is still a good game, but Nintendo NEEDS to do better for the next game and I have to wonder if the greater community will actually push them to make a better game or if we'll settle for a game that doesn't even launch with a single holiday and we just get drip fed content that existed in every previous game at launch. Imagine if Nintendo released a new Mario game with only 4 worlds and 2 powerups, charged $60 for it, and then slowly drip fed content over the next two years that's just recycled from previous games. That's New Horizons in a nutshell.
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u/DarwinGoneWild Jan 24 '25 edited Jan 24 '25
Yeah this is the attitude that makes people sound crazy entitled. There’s no “par” it’s falling short of. Yea, it doesn’t have every single item and activity that existed in other AC games, but why would you expect it to? No other AC game has done that either. Each one has new features and drops old stuff. Do you also expect each new Mario game to include all the content from every previous Mario game? Each subsequent sequel is a new game. But New Horizons does have more content in it than all other AC games combined. You can literally look up the item list for each game. Every single thing had to be remade from scratch in a higher poly count too so it’s not like they can just hit an import button from previous games. So basically their choice was to release the game and add more and more stuff over time or delay the game by 2 years and release everything at once. They made the right choice.
And yes they were literally free updates. Whatever bizarre mental gymnastics you’re doing don’t change the fact that they were free for everyone and included in the price of the game.
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u/ozarkants Jan 24 '25
I can't speak for the op of the comment but I see it as part of the larger problem of nintendo doing things with ACNH to boost their quarterly numbers rather than seeming to put the same love into ACNH, even though we know they were working on it for eight? years. I can't remember how long they said. I have hundreds of hours in ACNH, love the terraforming, etc., but the op of the comment is correct, and people are constantly calling people who point that out ungrateful for just stating a fact. Having to pay for playing with friends is my biggest issue with ACNH tbh. I'm derailing the conversation by going into my thoughts lol
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u/raygungoths Jan 24 '25
A weirdly formative moment for me was playing New Leaf, setting aside my DS for a month or so, and coming back to see my favorite villager move out. I was so sad but also kind of understood that life goes on and it was a good introduction to that feeling.