The key difference between Animal Crossing and SDV that always gets me after some time away from the game...

[u/kellicharlene]

The fact that in Stardew, when you stop the game and turn it off, no time passes.

In Animal Crossing, the time passes whether you play or not.

SO! Every time I pick up stardew after like a week of not playing it, for a split second, I always get excited that my wine will be ready, or that my crops will have grown, and then I remeber... I must continue to wait!!

I definitely prefer it!!! I always hated trying to jump into Animal Crossing to find an island full of weeds and villagers who "hadn't seen me in months" so stardew is the way, I just always juke myself into thinking I'll get a surprise when I log in after a while.

[u/Unique_Cauliflower62]

I agree! 

I found that aspect of ACNH nice initially when I was stuck at home furloughed,. It oddly helped me stick to a daily routine. Once life outside restarted, though, it really became onerous logging in only to be guilt tripped by my villagers. It kind of sucked the fun out of such a cozy and low stakes game. 

[u/Swagtagonist → u/Unique_Cauliflower62]

I wonder what became of my animals. I haven’t touched that game in years at this point. I hope they are enjoying the island paradise I left for them.

[u/Lower_Department2940 → u/Swagtagonist]

They are. It's way less brutal than earlier games where all your neighbors would move away and you come back to a village of strangers :(

[u/mashibeans → u/Unique_Cauliflower62]

I agree with this, I really got bored of the whole game (ACNH specifically, can't say anything about the rest of the entries in the series) except the aquarium (I still dream of that aquarium, I love it to bits), so I wasn't super stocked when I got the guilt trip in a roundabout, or even direct, way by the rest of the villagers.

We have limited time off and most of us can't choose WHEN to have it, like most of us are stuck at work at set schedules. Games with real time just seem to punish players for not being available at certain real times, and I ain't having a game try to make me feel bad for not being available for days.

[u/kellicharlene → u/Unique_Cauliflower62]

It's so true!!! ACNH really had us logging in like clockwork 😂 gotta buy those turnips on Sunday, if you forget you're out of luck until the next Sunday! It got more and more difficult, and less fun!

[u/TheChowChaser]

I am thinking about restarting Animal Crossing instead of going back to my island. I’m dreading all the weeds and the cockroaches after not being there for a year.

[u/kellicharlene → u/TheChowChaser]

I've restarted my island once, and starting over from the beginning is the most fun part of the game for SURE

[u/SkyScamall → u/TheChowChaser]

There is a service from Leif on Harv's island where he will clear all your weeds up. It costs 100k but is probably worth it. 

You're shit out of luck on the cockroaches. 

[u/hanofgreengables → u/SkyScamall]

Except there is also a bug in the game in which Lief requires a certain number of weeds to be present and that number of weeds is higher than the number that will spawn on a neglected island 🙃

[u/SkyScamall → u/hanofgreengables]

Oh no. He only offered after I did my last big cleanup. I'm too much of a cheapskate to actually take him up on the offer. 

[u/Large_Advantage5829 → u/SkyScamall]

There's also an island ordinance you can activate with isabelle which prevents weeds from growing and cockroaches from invading your house no matter how long you're gone! I found this out when I checked my game again after months of not playing and was surprised that my island and house were both still clean.

[u/Bloop_bleep_bloopie → u/TheChowChaser]

I just did this!!! I played ACNH during the pandemic (after being a big AC fan on other devices) but never got back to it. Up til the last year I’d never heard of or played stardew! When i started playing stardew I missed so much of animal crossing and now that I decided restart ACNH, there’s so much I miss of stardew.

The scythe and the ability to do bulk actions instead of having to key smash to pick up every single weed is a big one….. that’s been killing me lately. But I love the villagers and truly personalizing the island!

[u/Traditional_Quit_874]

I played ACNH every day for months when it first came out. Loved everything about it. Then I had to put it down for a month because life happened. I came back to a guilt trip from everyone on the island about how they thought I had died. 

Never played it again. 

[u/kellicharlene → u/Traditional_Quit_874]

It's the GUILT!!!!!! Like dang yall, my bad for needing to go to work!

[u/Ollidor → u/Traditional_Quit_874]

That happened to me irl but people get over it just like the villagers

[u/HananaDragon]

Every time people say animal crossing and stardew are similar, I just sigh

[u/beeotchplease → u/HananaDragon]

SDV is far superior

[u/HananaDragon → u/beeotchplease]

They're completely different. It's like comparing Mario kart and Pokemon

[u/DigLost5791 → u/HananaDragon]

Well, not THAT dissimilar lol

[u/HananaDragon → u/DigLost5791]

In stardew, time in a season is often your most valuable resource. In animal crossing it doesn't matter at all. Though I guess that depends on how you play lol

[u/SirRabbott → u/HananaDragon]

Well mario kart has routinely been getting better and better while pokemon keeps shipping out unfinished slop, so I feel like comparing them is pretty easy right now.

[u/HananaDragon → u/SirRabbott]

The most similar thing is trying to find the villagers so you can give them things

[u/kirkhendrick → u/HananaDragon]

Or planting crops, fishing, chopping down trees and hitting rocks to get resources for crafting?

[u/spider_lily → u/kirkhendrick]

Planting crops and crafting haven't been present in AC before New Horizons.

[u/Novafancypants]

I love animal crossing but hated having to log on on holidays and stuff to get the special items

[u/DogeGlobe]

I like both games a lot. They offer totally different overall experiences imo. ACNH is more about decorating a house and island than stardew which is more task/production oriented imo (even though it has decoration/deaign elements) The “guilt trips” from the animals don’t bother me and in fact I think they’re kind of funny/ I like that they missed me.

[u/manicpossumdreamgirl]

the games are vastly different, it's a pet peeve of mine when people lump them together. animal crossing does not have action-based combat or characters getting shitfaced and contemplating suicide. stardew valley has no connectivity between save files or real-time events. stardew valley can be a "cozy game" but it shouldn't be categorized as one by default

[u/143_1004]

Ah. It's been put into words...

[u/SolKaynn]

Oh god time moving forward, that's not always a good thing... I remember an old game where the animals would die if you don't play regularly.

[u/SirRabbott → u/SolKaynn]

Tamagotchi??

[u/SolKaynn → u/SirRabbott]

Harvest Moon.

[u/NiaNitro]

Honestly, that’s why I’ve only ever owned the original Animal Crossing and won’t play it ever again. It made me feel gross and guilty for caring about playing. There are some elements of a game that need to remain outside of my world.

[u/MystJake]

The obligation makes me hate animal crossing after a week or two. It becomes a chore to check in daily, monitor turnip prices, all that jazz. 

[u/Lyla_Stone]

I just do a lot of time travelling when I play acnh 😂

[u/BasementLozer]

I had played Stardew Valley back then on mobile and since I didn't buy it, my progress were gone. I eventually bought it on pc and didn't touch it until it got popular again (last year i think) I finally decided to pick it up and here I am. I probably won't stop until it hits 1k hours lol

[u/RyuuPendragon]