A message to the Original Game fans, and why you'll never get another "perfect" AC game like the original.

Trust me things have changed since the whole Sword and Shield Controversary back in 2019 maybe you didn't hear but the newer Pokemon game decided not to have past Pokemon in the game so that caused a huge wave of backlash. I am not sure if people are still holding a grudge but no matter how you look at it its still bad. Also its hard for me to believe how that term is used in a friendly way when I've been called one of that so many times in the Pokemon Community. I'm sorry I am just not used to stuff like this.
Wait, Sword and Shield totally has pokemon from past generations, what do you mean they didn't? Pretty sure they had at least one pokemon for each generation (in the original Galar dex), if not more. Granted they didn't have every single Pokemon ever created, but they had a lot of "gen one" mons, and even more were added in the new DLCs. I've seen a lot of people bash the SW/SH gen (and rightfully so imo), but that was because of the quality of the game (how it was too linear and "easy") not so much which pokemon were in it or not, just saying.

But ok, I get what you were saying about the other AC terms. Maybe we can then create new neutral terms without a history to describe those who started playing in whatever generation of AC, because it is more convenient to type one word instead of a phrase.
 
The original game and this one share so many similarities and at their heart, I believe are both Animal Crossing games, but you're right, these games do go in very different directions. It wasn't a sudden shift though, it was definitely gradual with each game. After all, the first game's whole selling point was in the American tagline "Animal Crossing the life game that's happening every minute of every day, whether you're playing or not". This was a life sim that let you live how you wanted as a regular person in a town of animals with Tortimer, your mayor. It wasn't meant to be a "customization" game, that wasn't the point, it was supposed to be a game where you could live another life and part of living another life, is the ability to buy stuff for you house. However, my guess is that Nintendo saw as the each game was released, the customization aspect was people's favorite, and finally with New Horizons, really leaned into it.

ACPG's focus was your relationships with others, you could see this in all the early ads if you look it up. ACNH's focus is customization, and likewise, you can see this shown in all the ads.
 
I love rant threads. I choose to believe that Nintendo listens, and how will they know what is wrong, if we don’t rant.
I love new horizons. I loved new leaf, and I loved wild world. Though I am having lots of fun in new horizons, I do feel like I enjoyed new leaf slightly more. All are great games. Still, I definitely wouldn’t go back to new leaf or wild world. That’s just me though, I barely touch older games once newer ones come out.
However, I did expect the old features to stay. I know it’s a completely different game, but so was new leaf ( and they didn’t remove too much from wild world). I would have liked for them to keep old features but just add more. The terraforming is great, removing furniture is not. Especially when there is so much customizing.

There’s so many things that could have been deleted instead (ex: socks).
 
The original game and this one share so many similarities and at their heart, I believe are both Animal Crossing games, but you're right, these games do go in very different directions. It wasn't a sudden shift though, it was definitely gradual with each game. After all, the first game's whole selling point was in the American tagline "Animal Crossing the life game that's happening every minute of every day, whether you're playing or not". This was a life sim that let you live how you wanted as a regular person in a town of animals with Tortimer, your mayor. It wasn't meant to be a "customization" game, that wasn't the point, it was supposed to be a game where you could live another life and part of living another life, is the ability to buy stuff for you house. However, my guess is that Nintendo saw as the each game was released, the customization aspect was people's favorite, and finally with New Horizons, really leaned into it.

ACPG's focus was your relationships with others, you could see this in all the early ads if you look it up. ACNH's focus is customization, and likewise, you can see this shown in all the ads.
It's only really been a MAJOR thing since NL, tho... and that was just the objects system from DnMe+ (and to a lesser extent the town donation thing from LGTTC) spun off into "you're the mayor", I'd hardly call that "gradual".
 
Trust me things have changed since the whole Sword and Shield Controversary back in 2019 maybe you didn't hear but the newer Pokemon game decided not to have past Pokemon in the game so that caused a huge wave of backlash. I am not sure if people are still holding a grudge but no matter how you look at it its still bad. Also its hard for me to believe how that term is used in a friendly way when I've been called one of that so many times in the Pokemon Community. I'm sorry I am just not used to stuff like this.
Um those games catered to Gen 1 like there was no tomorrow. Charizard was in the Pokédex, the Kant starters got Gigantamax forms, and there’s probably more I’m missing. The reason for the backlash was because every Pokémon lover can agree that those games were not up to par in terms of what Gamefreak had promised. Graphics are terrible and they lied about the models being brand new.
 
@McRibbie wait, did I understand it wrong or you really did say that there's a hidden viagem visiting system in NH?

I'm asking it because I found it VERY strange that for the last two days, my villagers have been talking about hanging out with me. I'm completely sure these are new lines of dialog that could only be time-locked and were introduced in the latest update.
 
One thing I find interesting about NH is that, as the OP said, it's changed so very drastically from the original 'intent' of Animal Crossing that, even though the two games share some of the same base elements, it almost doesn't feel like an 'Animal Crossing' game anymore in a way. The original Animal Crossing design philosophy was very much based on the concept of there being things that are just outside your control. As the series has progressed, more and more control was steadily given to the player. IMO, and I'm clearly biased, but I think New Leaf hit the best 'compromise' between the original's "take things as they come" style of gameplay and the ability to customize, to an extent. You didn't have to be a little gnome in a viking hat (sorry ACGC); you could actually make a character that looked like you/an OC/whatever and feel like you could properly roleplay. You could put certain things outside with PWP. You could customize your furniture with Cyrus. But you couldn't change EVERYTHING. You're still stuck with a specific town layout. Villagers had the potential to move out, or move in randomly in spots that you had no control over; things that are generally considered a hassle to those who must absolutely handcraft the 'perfect town'.

When people talk about New Horizons, one thing I hear sometimes is people saying (and I think OP said it too) that the game was focused on a more casual group of players. Again, I find this interesting, because IMO the target group that Nintendo seemed to laser focus on when choosing the design philosophy for this game was NOT the casuals, but instead the hardcore design playerbase. The people who refused to give their villagers any items at all, lest their OG houses be "ruined". The people who ranted and raved about villagers moving in and ruining their perfect paths and flowers. The people who TT'd or used exploits to make sure villagers either moved out or didn't move out. The people who had a taste of control and said, that's not good enough: I want my town to be a perfect picture post card to show off and share with the world. This was made even easier with dream addresses. The people more in line with the OG playstyle probably just quietly played their games, but the ones who cared about painstakingly crafting the perfect town were vocal about the things that made it hard, and also posted pictures and dream addresses... and they were the ones who were heard. Hence why NH is, as I've said in another thread, an architectural design game with some life-sim aspects. The casual appeal comes in with the drip-feed of updates - players who don't care that much and would have put the game down not too long after buying it, never to play again, are probably more likely to pop back in again if they notice that new 'stuff' has happened.

So, here's where we are now. A lot of people who loved the customization and design aspects of New Leaf and wanted more control are the ones who probably love New Horizons, warts and all, because it gave them more of the aspects of the game that they loved. Villager dialogue being toned down made sense, as these players were already used to their villagers being 'picture postcard setpieces' to be admired and not necessarily talked to, at the risk of 'messing up' their houses. A lot of people who were expecting more of an easygoing life-sim with some design elements were blindsided by the gameplay being totally changed to appeal to the former players, with aspects of the life-sim design that were considered cornerstones of the franchise either gone completely or minimized. For a long time, expecting that a new sequel in the series would have all the old features plus new features was just something that long-time players had come to expect... so now, on a system like the Switch, to see so many features cut to make room for things that older players had never really asked for (crafting, in particular), absolutely ruffled feathers. And there's only so much one can hear that maybe such-and-such feature will return in an update before one starts to feel a little jaded... why is it okay to expect that updates with basic AC game features are necessary when older games on less complex systems were able to somehow sell entire games on release date?

At the end of the day, though, I would like to ask the OP this: Why is it so annoying to hear other people complain? I am genuinely confused by this. If I happened to love NH, I wouldn't care that other people didn't like it, and I wouldn't feel compelled to try and convince them to look at it differently or to stop complaining about it. I'd just play the game and participate in the conversations that were germane to my interests. I don't care if people don't like NL. I mean, my favorite Final Fantasy game is FF8, and I've heard it all: The game isn't as good as 6 or 7. People hate Triple Triad and the Junction system. People hate the story and characters. But I don't care if people love it or hate it; that will never affect my own love of the game.

At any rate, OP, you should be happy with NH if you like it, and try not to let the dissenting opinions of others get you down. It's easy to ignore certain complaint topics, I would think. For us Leafers/Poppers/whatevers, we're not trying to ruin anybody's fun, and honestly, I feel pretty confident saying that we aren't happy to have things to complain about. The realization that what made Animal Crossing special to us is in the past now can be genuinely frustrating, and sometimes it really helps to not only vent, but to also find a little company in misery. We do have our old games at least, but we may not have a future in the franchise... and that hurts a bit.
 
Honestly after all this stuff I've been seeing around lately here, just don't read into someone/group opinions if its gonna bother you. I don't agree with lot of the negative stuff towards NH either but I'm not gonna argue with them and take it to heart. They have the rights to express their opinions as anyone else even if don't agree with that person. Just have a positive debate.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've played all the main games except for the Gamecube one, but I value the experiences that each of them has offered me in different ways. Like you, I'm tired of hearing the "older game was better" bit too, not just for GC but also for WW and NL. (It feels similar to Pokemon as well, where you have stans of every generation, not just gen 1, and it seems almost all of them hate gen 8.) I'm personally of the mind that, if the older game was so much better, then going back to the graphics of that game should be worth the transition to be playing a superior and more complete game, right? And that doesn't begin to describe how annoyed I get over the stuff people say. But months of getting my frustrations out on the rant thread over the summer, only to keep seeing the same tired language in discourse about the game months later, has led me to just not check the forum much anymore (except the screenshot thread, lol).

People in general, including you and me, are prone to putting so much stock, such high expectations, all their hopes and dreams, into things they have no control over (like a video game franchise) to "complete" them in some way, all the while remaining (in some cases willfully) blind to the effects of nostalgia and reconstructive memory on their perception of the world. I can't convince anyone not to complain, or not to invest so much energy in things that have no guarantee to satisfy you, but I can offer that if you take a deep breath, make a cup of your preferred caffeinated beverage and look out the window for a little while, you might find something in life that's more worth complaining about.

Yes, I did just get philosophical on a video game forum. Yes, I know no one asked.
 
'Poppers'... my main frustration with this name is that the game is not called Population Growing. It was never called Population Growing. The GameCube game is called Animal Crossing, AC for short, or ACGCN for slightly more clarification. For the love of all that is peaceful on this planet, can we please stop calling the first game Population Growing? No official sources outside of fandom sites that have decided to give the game this name use this classification. You will notice that the Wikipedia page does not use the term Population Growing anywhere on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing#Animal_Crossing_(2001)

I challenge anyone to find any official Nintendo documentation that refers to this game as such. Population: Growing was just a small sign below the Animal Crossing logo and was never an official title. We must be consistent; it's not ACPG, it's not PG, it's AC, or Animal Crossing.

I've voiced my opinions on New Horizons many times already and don't believe any of my opinions bear repeating. All of the games are different in their own right and play differently. The main issue people generally take with New Horizons is that it was released incomplete, with many serious bugs, which is unusual for Nintendo. Nintendo is usually the prime demonstration of excellence in software quality at launch. While New Horizons is getting there, it did not arrive that way, and it is important to have the perspective of many people here who started playing on day one, where very serious bugs impacted gameplay (balloon spawning issues, plot issues, frozen villagers and duplication glitches). It is simply unreasonable to not expect frustration from the fan base on these issues, but I firmly believe NIntendo is making it right as best as present circumstances allow.

Do my complaints about this mean I hate the game? Absolutely not. It's harder to go back and play even New Leaf with the QoL updates New Horizons provides. But I do long for a future where New Horizons has full feature parity with New Leaf's Welcome Amiibo version. I have faith we will come closer to that vision as time goes on.
 
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'Poppers'... my main frustration with this name is that the game is not called Population Growing. It was never called Population Growing. The GameCube game is called Animal Crossing, AC for short, or ACGCN for slightly more clarification. For the love of all that is peaceful on this planet, can we please stop calling the first game Population Growing? No official sources outside of fandom sites that have decided to give the game this name use this classification. You will notice that the Wikipedia page does not use the term Population Growing anywhere on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing#Animal_Crossing_(2001)
It is on the Box Art of the game. Just look here: Amazon Link to the Box Cover. Under the normal logo it is clearly saying Population Growing.

For my cents to this topic. As I played every game besides the Gamecube title. I just think every entry has his flaws and also his good sides. And every game is worth playing still to this day because there all feel different enough. I would not want a game that is like the GC game because well it would just be the same game don't you think? So yeah, if there are people who really don't like NH and rant about it the whole time just don't play it? For others who just talking about the flaws it is there opionion and perfectly fine.
 
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ACGCN was my first video game I ever played and I never once in the years since assumed it was called Population Growing 🤔 I never really took it as a tagline/slogan either, but more of a... this is the population sign and you are now a member of the population, as well as anyone else who moves in, so the population is... growing. I mean, the box also says Welcome to Animal Crossing but we don't call it that, either. I just always took 'population growing' as part of the welcome message tone on the box. You know, "Welcome to Animal Crossing! Population: growing!"

Either way, I loved ACGCN. Me and my dad put so many hours into it. I put so many hours into WW, NL, and PC. I love NH. I share an island with my dad again. It's brought me back to playing the original. Are there limitations? God yeah. Do I think the GCN version was superior? Absolutely not. Do I think NH is superior? Nope. Don't think that about any of them. But I love them for what they are.

I respect other people's opinions on what games they prefer, what they enjoy or don't, and agree everyone has a right to post about that! I've definitely had some thoughts myself. But at the end of the day, if I see a thread saying 'this game is superior! this was the best! how can you like this! etc etc,' I don't read it. I'm not going to read something I know could potentially 'get me fired up,' because it's just not worth it.
 
I never played the original game (started with WW), but this is the fastest any AC game has bored me. They added two, big new mechanics (DIYs and terraforming) and completely stripped the game in pretty much every other aspect. The game desperately needs a new update, and if the next one really is just Pavé I'm going to be massively bummed out. I want to love this game. Everything is so pretty. But there's no point in checking in everyday if it's all just about island building.
 
1. Nostalgia - we can't forget there are many players actively playing old games, not only AC, but many more. It's nothing wrong, nothing offensive if someone's saying "I wish I could have "....................." in recent AC game". Personally, I have GC version of AC but not sure if I will have enough time to come back for it. Mainly, because my "New Year resolution" is play NH and NL on daily basis... and another reason behind is waiting for fan-made-hd-textures for GC version.

1a. I (personally) would prefer to have NES games in NH as well as playable pinball machines, but I know it's unrealistic and I'm not expecting this.

2. I'm not surprised, why some players call ACNH "New Leaf 2.0" - the reason behind this may be related to many things just literally copied from NL and this makes some sort of confusion... if it's still the same game, but slightly updated or not.

3. Time flow - I think I understand why some things have changed. For example: Tortimer has been retired already in NL and now... he's gone (passed away?) - but Isabelle is still young... maybe she found fountain of youth 🙃 ?
Label has been disconnected from her sisters and started her carrier, lots of shopping can be done online or from cash machine, it makes a common sense... but it's just sad.
 
2. I'm not surprised, why some players call ACNH "New Leaf 2.0" - the reason behind this may be related to many things just literally copied from NL and this makes some sort of confusion... if it's still the same game, but slightly updated or not.

What? People say this? I've never seen that before :') NH has taken out so many features from NL? From the top of my head: Café, Police Station, Perfect Fruits + tropical fruits, Club KK, all the different shops and their upgrades, Tortimer's Island, multiplayer mini games...
 
What? People say this? I've never seen that before :') NH has taken out so many features from NL? From the top of my head: Café, Police Station, Perfect Fruits + tropical fruits, Club KK, all the different shops and their upgrades, Tortimer's Island, multiplayer mini games...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not agree with this statement, I'm just trying to understand why this is happening.

I do fully realise when NH has been released was stripped from diving and Redd's presence... and then suddenly those came back as "free update".

As many features, like those mentioned by you has been taken out and I do not believe in "happy return" decided not to abandon NL and play alongside with NH.

Almost two weeks I'm playing both NH and NL in daily basis and have feeling they are a bit complimentary and this is giving me better experience.
 
Yeah,here in the States,Animal Crossing for the Gamecube was just simply called "Animal Crossing" but it was the only game in the series without an official subtitle so I think a lot of people added "Population Growing" to differentiate that game from the others in the series.It's not part of the official title but if people want to call it that it doesn't bother me.

As for comparing New Horizons to the other games in the series I think the OP makes some valid points.Personally,I like New Horizons and enjoy playing it but there's something missing.......I don't have that emotional connection with NH that I had with New Leaf or Population Growing.Original Animal Crossing creator Katsuya Eguchi said this in an interview:

"Animal Crossing features three themes: family, friendship and community."

In New Horizons the three main themes seem to be crafting,landscaping and decorating.There's nothing wrong with that but those themes don't provide an emotional hook that really pulls me in.Nintendo really needs to address that for the next AC installment.
 
I think you're missing the point of the complaints though. Features were cut between all games in the series. For instance from CF to NL we lost things like the city, characters like Serena and Frillard, the auction house where you could sell things over wifi without town visiting, and being able to resize you nook store at will. Almost no one complained about these features missing in NL because NL added defining features of its own, so that these features werent missed and are exclusive to CF. Its a given for most players that the games wont be exactly alike and that some features will be removed.

The problem most people have with NH is not that the features and npcs of the previous games are missing, but that they were mostly gutted and replaced with...nothing. We have terraforming, and placing items outside, as defining NH features, but thats about it. There have been some QoL improvements over NL like expanded player customizations, not having villagers move out randomly, and being able to place their homes so that they're not a nuisance, but thus far defining features in NH either come from NL or is a watered down version of what we got in NL(Tortimer island vs Nook island for instance). So yeah, people will be vocal. That doesn't mean thah NH is a bad game, I mean speaking personally I wouldn't have willingly put over 1.3k hours into this game if I thought was crappy.😅 But from my point of view the complaints are legit.
I completely agree, and I feel like that’s why people complain so much. We of course know that each game isn’t going to be a carbon copy of the previous. But when so much is missing it’s hard to not take note. Especially when in the beginning we all paid 60$ for an incomplete game. I understand the idea behind updates, that it gives you things to look forward to. But if Nintendo is going to make us pay 60$ for game then we want it to be worth it. The game has to be worth the price that we’re paying.
 
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