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In what ways is ACNL easier/harder than previous games?

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As Nintendo has gotten in the habit of making their games easier, ACNL with or without the amiibo update has been a bit easier than the rest of the series. At the same time, they raised the difficulty on some features to make them harder.

One thing I noticed that is much easier in ACNL than before was obtaining the golden axe. In previous games, getting the golden axe was a lot harder (I'm looking at you red turnip trade). Now all you need to do is buy 50 saplings. It always has been the hardest tool to get. But now it's the easiest to get.

On a related note, getting the golden shovel is a lot harder than before. In Wild World and City Folk, it was the easiest golden tool to get (heck, it's not even a challenge). Now it's impossible to get if you can't pass Gracie's fashion checks. And even if you do, you still have to buy 50 bags of fertilizer. And shopping is a bit harder than burying and waiting 24 hours.
 
Nothing is harder.

For instance, shooting down balloons take no skill. The things follows you and hovers above you!

Absurd.
 
Nothing is harder.

For instance, shooting down balloons take no skill. The things follows you and hovers above you!

Absurd.

Balloons are slow, but I've never, ever had one follow me. They continue on their preset path no matter what direction I move my character in.
 
They hover ABOVE me! o_O
I have to go inside to get rid of them. It's like they WANT you to shoot them down.

Way to make us work for it, Nintendo. :-/
 
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The events are a lot easier. Like Halloween for instance. On the GCN if you went into an acre and it had a villager in it you had to haul a** or you would get caught. You actually lived in fear and you would have to put all your items away and wear a design to make sure that nobody would take your precious items. You were really scared, walking through that creepy night looking for Jack so you could get a piece of really cool pumpkin furniture, and hoping that when you pulled out your candy some jerk villager wouldn't come and take it from you.

New Leaf? Villagers don't even really try. They might walk fast but that's about it. It's ridiculously easy to find Jack and give him candy since you can tell him from the other villagers by their masks, and I personally think the addition of masks was not only really easy, and really boring, but also kind of stupid. Idk I didn't enjoy Halloween on ACNL.

But Halloween on AC:GCN still (literally) scares the clothes off of me.

- - - Post Merge - - -

On a related note, getting the golden shovel is a lot harder than before. In Wild World and City Folk, it was the easiest golden tool to get (heck, it's not even a challenge). Now it's impossible to get if you can't pass Gracie's fashion checks. And even if you do, you still have to buy 50 bags of fertilizer. And shopping is a bit harder than burying and waiting 24 hours.

Remember the good ol days when you would bury a shovel in a shiny spot, and a few days later shake a gold shovel out of a golden tree? Nothing more satisfying in the AC world than that very moment.
 
In the past Animal Crossing games, reaching more than about 5 millions of bells would take you a much longer while than in New Leaf.

In the latest installment, the island makes it infinitely easier to rack up tonnes of bells for a short while. If you go there during the evening/night of any day and have planted nothing but palm trees, the pricey beetles would spawn pretty often. They're not particularly difficult to catch either, so pretty much anyone could reasonably earn nearly half a million of bells for every 45 minutes or so.
 
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The harvest festival is harder now. It used to be a fun never ending hide and seek of steal the fork and knife and find Franklin. Now they want us to get all these specific things too "cook a meal" and it ruined my favorite holiday.

It's harder to play as relaxed as it used to. I'm sure people had dreamies and cared about landscaping but in PG there wasn't tiles to put down. Back then other than your town fruit or a cool layout I don't think people would have map reset like we do now. I didn't care what my town looked like very much. I actually had fun goofing off not stressing about landscaping. Obviously I don't HAVE to stress out about it but...with pwps and everything... IDK I really think less was more.

On to my next point. Catching bugs is so laughably easy now. Same with fish. I actually get really bored fishing now. In PG there wasn't that little "bloop" sound. You had to stare at that bobber like it was staring at your soul. And good luck catching those bees. Now its so easy.
 
It's much more difficult to breed blue roses and purple pansies than in previous installments.

In Wild World and City Folk, you just needed to crossbreed purple roses with black roses to get blue and red pansies with red pansies to get purple.

Now you need to breed hybrid red flowers and not even those are 100 % guaranteed to breed the flowers you want.
 
Nothing is harder.

For instance, shooting down balloons take no skill. The things follows you and hovers above you!

Absurd.

Is there anything you actually like about the game?
 
Is there anything you actually like about the game?

Yes.

Fishing, and catching bugs.

No need to be like that either.
I've been playing for almost a decade, and it's sad to see Nintendo destroy these once lovable, witty creatures. (The Villagers)

I'm in mourning. :-|
 
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Yes.

Fishing, and catching bugs.

No need to be like that either.
I've been playing for almost a decade, and it's sad to see Nintendo destroy these once lovable, witty creatures. (The Villagers)

I'm in mourning. :-|

I've been playing the game for 11 years now and I still love the game, I've adapted to the changes and it didn't take long.

Do you not like the Public Works Projects, Dream Towns, the adorable graphics, the wide variety of items, clothes and so on? There is so much in the game, I'm shocked that people dislike it especially when it has so much more.

I don't really see much difference in the villagers, there just as lifeless as the Wild World and LGTC/City Folk villagers except they had more dialogue which was still repetitive back then and annoying to listen to all the time.

---

I feel like earning bells is easier, it makes sense though. It's a huge aspect of the game seeing as you need them to build PWPs which are probably the most dominant thing in the games.

Getting the villagers you want is obviously easier and getting rid of the ones you dislike is easier. The same could be said for items.
 
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I think the ability to put fruit in baskets was incredibly helpful -In WW and CF, I would spend hours carting fruit to and from Nook's. Now I can earn, what, 50k in one pocketful of perfect fruit?

If you're a lazy bum like me that doesn't want to spend time on the island, it's a mindless, easy way to make some Bells.
 
I've been playing the game for 11 years now and I still love the game, I've adapted to the changes and it didn't take long.

Do you not like the Public Works Projects, Dream Towns, the adorable graphics, the wide variety of items, clothes and so on? There is so much in the game, I'm shocked that people dislike it especially when it has so much more.

I don't really see much difference in the villagers, there just as lifeless as the Wild World and LGTC/City Folk villagers except they had more dialogue which was still repetitive back then and annoying to listen to all the time.

---

I feel like earning bells is easier, it makes sense though. It's a huge aspect of the game seeing as you need them to build PWPs which are probably the most dominant thing in the games.

Getting the villagers you want is obviously easier and getting rid of the ones you dislike is easier. The same could be said for items.

I don't have a PC anymore. Not for years, just my Galaxy, so the internet stuff annoys me because I buy mobile data, and use my phone as a router.
I never go out, so the HH Showcase, and Streetpass are a huge waste.
I do like the Dream Suite, as it lets me see other towns without worrying about destroying flowers. It was also a big help when deciding what PWP's I wanted. ^_^

I'm just down about being stuck with 7 amiibo's forever.
It's taken the fun out.

I know who will be packing. One of my 3 non amiibo's. It's been that way going on to the 5th month, so excuse my frustration.
It does come out in my posts, but it's an AC forum, and where else can I say these things?

My cat is traumatized from me literally SCREAMING at my DS - GET YOUR OWN DAMN FRUIT.

I don't say damn, though.

*sigh*

Thanks for listening. ^_^
 
I don't have a PC anymore. Not for years, just my Galaxy, so the internet stuff annoys me because I buy mobile data, and use my phone as a router.
I never go out, so the HH Showcase, and Streetpass are a huge waste.
I do like the Dream Suite, as it lets me see other towns without worrying about destroying flowers. It was also a big help when deciding what PWP's I wanted. ^_^

I'm just down about being stuck with 7 amiibo's forever.
It's taken the fun out.

I know who will be packing. One of my 3 non amiibo's. It's been that way going on to the 5th month, so excuse my frustration.
It does come out in my posts, but it's an AC forum, and where else can I say these things?

My cat is traumatized from me literally SCREAMING at my DS - GET YOUR OWN DAMN FRUIT.

I don't say damn, though.

*sigh*

Thanks for listening. ^_^

I see, that sounds annoying.

I understand your frustration with the villagers, it's odd that they aren't moving out at all. Good luck getting them to move. c:
 
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