An analysis of New Horizons' furniture

[John Wick]

I remember seeing the yellow watermelon items somewhere. I really hope upon hopes that if we get farming we’ll be able to grow watermelons and craft these furniture items.

In NL, there was an awesome watermelon item.
When you clicked it, the watermelon opened up into a cool looking sliced watermelon!

This is what makes me sad.
Seeing folks having to use beach balls, when we had an actual interactive watermelon in NL.

 

[Your Local Wild Child]

In NL, there was an awesome watermelon item.
When you clicked it, the watermelon opened up into a cool looking sliced watermelon!

This is what makes me sad.
Seeing folks having to use beach balls, when we had an actual interactive watermelon in NL.

Yeah, the watermelon beach ball really worries me. I hope that they don’t just settle for that.

 

[trashpedia]

Interesting report! Yeah the lack of furniture really is a shame, and I'm still waiting for music boxes to come back because I miss being able to craft and collect them for my music room. I'm really hoping that after the anniversary of the release of New Horizons, Nintendo will start adding more furniture or places like Brewsters, not just events. While the furniture isn't horrible and I actually do like the more modern look to them, sometimes it's just not the same.

 

[RollingAntony]

Yeah, it is the standard housing furniture that I think has been worst hit here. But in terms of NL, the "fairytale" towns were prevalent because the exterior of the buildings only had like 4-5 options, and ofc PWP were limited. In NL it's more on the decorations inside houses, and that is what throws NHs furniture loss into such relief. Because most of the interior furiture is now either removed, or as you shown, reimagined into a new exterior series such as the Spooky/Creepy set. And what we do have just doesn't have the versatility to make something like my favourite New Leaf room:
View attachment 344792

By time locked, I don't just mean the Holiday series. I also mean the cherry blossom/maple leaf etc series. In NL I think the snowman series, holiday items and 1 Gracie series per 3 months were time-locked items. Now a significant portion of craftable furniture is not unlockable for most of the year. This has likely dramatically hampered peoples designing for the first year, leading further to the echo chamber of the furniture pool being really small. It's improved now a year has progressed, but previous games didn't have nearly as much furniture that could only be acquired at set times of the year. So the base game may have had over 1000 items, but until you'd played for a whole year, a good portion of that was not available without TTing, and certainly never going to be sold in the shop, which is the first place that springs to mind when it comes to getting new items.

In terms of PC/HHD, I agree there's no way we would get all the furniture added to NH. (We have enough load problems as it is.) But compared to HHD the house feels a lot more basic than it was, and it's saddening to see villagers return to 6x6 rooms. They dangled these progressive features in front of us, and withdrew them. As for PC, I think what hits me hard is that every month for years now, PC players have had at least 50 new bits of furniture added. Every month in PC contains more new furniture than all the furniture from 9 months of NH updates put together. It just feels insulting to be so imbalanced. I'm not asking for the level of weird detail they get in PC, or for them to bring all PC items into the game in one giant update. But I am definitely going to call out that a far smaller third party company is able to churn out new furniture at a faster pace and often higher quality (villagers actually interact with it!) than Nintendo are managing.

As for the PWP from a decorating and content perspective, there are about 80 that act as furniture pieces. With a caveat here, of they have an additional file in the NL data for winter where they collect snow, so they represent about 160 furniture models in the data. Also about 40-50 of these became furniture in NH, hence why I think it be counted because they became part of the NH count despite being the same item. The 30 item restriction is irrelevant as the games code just interprets them as furniture. It's a bit like saying the 1700 items in NL can't be placed outdoors, so they count as 0 when decorating outside in NH. (I say this facetiously, as I am very familiar with the internal coding of AC games, and there is a lot (in fact far more in NH than NL!) of things that are in effect furniture as far as the game code is concerned.)

Again, mostly just my opinions here. But I can't help but feel jaded that my favourite game series has gone from a game that kept me engrossed and playing an hour+ daily for 3 years, to losing me completely within 5 months. Almost entirely because my favourite aspect - decorating, has been expanded spacewise so I can finally get all my ideas out, but half of the things I would want to make are no longer possible.

Oh the watermelon rooms looks cool haha

Thanks for explaining, the time locked furniture. I didn't know how NL handled the furniture. I remember reading about obtaining a mushroom furniture once per day, but I forgot that cherry blossom and maple leaf series don't have an equivalent on NL, right? It all adds to the whole non-orderable furniture, and I see how can make things seem more limited! In the end I think NH took a different approach to furniture altogether, defying many previous conceptions.

Regarding PC, it's important to understand it's a mobile game and therefore needs new shiny things every month to get the money from the whales that play the game. Most players won't have access to the furniture provided, so I find it a bit irrelevant to compare both games as they are vastly different on their approach to the userbase and the objectives they each pursue, but I understand what you say.

Sure, I'm not going by code when counting furniture because well, I don't have access nor any abilities with code, so that's why I counted them out due to the limits (nothing to do with NL items being unable to be placed outdoors). I can make an ammendment to the initial post in order to boost the NL items and provide an additional comparison point, so thanks for your feedback.

I hope you can enjoy the game again or go back to the games you love! Even if NH is the latest game of the series, NL will always be there (I'm guessing NL was your fave from your posts, apologies if it isn't ). If I may ask you a question, would you have preferred a much more rich/advanced interior decorating rather than a certainly limited indoor and outdoor decoration?

Thanks for your insight.

 

[bebebese]

The thing about PC or HHD coming before is that... I don't think that people should have expected NH to include everything from all the past games.

I don't think people were wrong to expect that at all. The PC stuff, sure, but what you have to remember about AC is that up until now, every mainline release has had most or all of the previous games' furniture, plus new features, at launch. NH stripped down a lot of the established sets and series, and so far none of the updates have added anything that the other games had at launch (besides the emote that lets you sit down outside, lol. They've all been holidays or NPCs/features that were in NL).
Given that NH's launch got delayed, it's kind of hard for veteran players to understand what exactly they were doing with the development time. I know game dev is a much more complicated process than people think, and we don't know what goes on behind closed doors or why certain decisions get made, but I hope this adds a little more perspective as to why there's so much unease over NH's content.

 

[Bilaz]

would you have preferred a much more rich/advanced interior decorating rather than a certainly limited indoor and outdoor decoration?

Thanks for your insight.

My apologies if this was directed at a specific person and not just at everyone who prefers new leaf.

I actually have to say I would indeed prefer advanced interior decoration. I’m not very fond of outdoor decorating. I always loved the fact that the town was something you shared with your villagers and had equal footing in. I loved that your house was the thing that reflected your personal progress. I would love to place a happy home designer level personal house in a population growing style world, but I’m probably in the vast minority there. It just feels more like animal crossing, and like the real world. Your home is your space

 

[Mu~]

I really miss a lot of items from NL, I don't like that they changed the design if some of them instead of just introducing the new ones as separated pieces. I also miss a lot if items and customization options present in HHD but they didn't implement here.

 

[imagawayaki]

Very nice and thorough analysis of the numbers in NH vs NL! I think we will see a lot of furniture added with each update.

Some of the furniture I want back the most is "non-seasonal/non-themed", like the doctor's office set. (I decorated my house with the assumption they kept most of the furniture from NL and WW... I was wrong..!) Since most of the update-furniture seems to be linked to specific holidays, I wonder if they will ever add it in? Right now all we can do is speculate, but I am hoping the more "mundane" sets like classic, cabin, rococo, etc. series get added one day.

 

[sleepydreepy]

Hello everyone! One of the most common topics about New Horizons revolve around its furniture and how it compares to previous entries of the franchise. Curious by nature, I decided to try to make a comprehensive analysis of the amount, implementation and overall focus of the furniture on the latest AC game. To do this, I’m making some comparisons with New Leaf, the direct predecessor and if I’m not mistaken, the game with the biggest amount of furniture on the series.

I’m dividing the analysis on different sections in order to get the best overall picture and please note that I’m not taking the latest (1.6) update in account.

Intro
There's also the definition of “furniture” which is anything on the games that is not considered a tool, usable or any other category like art, bushes, fences, clothes, etc. This is important to note because NH made it possible to decorate every single inch of the environment (and with great graphics) which makes some items usable for decorating, like pieces of artwork. However, I’m focusing on the common furniture people are used to… use.

NL had PWP, some of which were retooled into furniture- but since the PWP have stricter limitations, they are not considered for NL totals, but the corresponding NH items are. We’re also not comparing the customisations options of both games, which are vastly on NH’s favor. Wallpaper and flooring (and rugs for NH) are also out, as they would heavily favor NH with 302 more items than NL. So without further ado:

Numbers - The hottest topic
It’s common to see statements such as “NH has a low amount of furniture”, “There are barely any options” or similar. Let’s see the total numbers of both games, with corresponding milestones.

I used both MoriDB and Nook Plaza as references for the numbers.

Furniture​	New Horizons​	New Leaf​	Difference​
Launch​	1026​	1271​	-245​
Updates​	51​	493​	-442​
Total​	1077​	1764​	-687​

Right off the bat, we can see that NL has an advantage at launch of 245 extra furniture items, which is kind of a considerable amount. However, NH still had more than one thousand furniture items to choose from, which is a very good amount. We’ll go into a bit of detail about the missing items later.

The next thing to note is that NH is slowly adding furniture, and within the first months of the game has already added 51 new pieces. On the other hand, NL had a massive update with almost 500 extra items but it came until its fourth year. It’s kind of unfair to compare base NH with amiibo’d NL, at least until four years have passed for the former. We don’t know for sure the plans for the newest game, especially considering that the sales expectations have already been blasted to oblivion, but we know that are many things coming (at least 3 “big” events- Turkey/Toy/Festivale and Mario crossover items).

Overall, yeah. The number don’t lie and NL has many more items than NH, but the relevant comparisons show that the difference may not be as big as some of the opinions floating around seem to paint. However, there is another thing that may contribute to the feeling of “NH has no items” and is the following table:

Furniture​	New Horizons​	New Leaf​	Difference​
Orderable​	423​	922​	-499​
Craftable​	384​	0​	384​

Due to the crafting mechanic introduced, the number of furniture found within Nook’s Cranny (which fits the criteria of “orderable”) is drastically reduced- by 500! So while people could find many different items for a long time on the shop, they now have to do it themselves. The crafting offers many advantages, because you can make it anytime, anywhere but it paints another light on why people may find the furniture number of NH appalling.

And now we go into another topic that is key:

Focus - Exterior decorating > Interior design sets
Although it’s not explicitly told by the developers, the focus of many furniture items has been shifted to decorating outdoors. While NL offered tons of options for decorating your house, NH has to offer options to decorate your whole island. That means that the furniture on the game must be able to function both inside and outside of your house, even if some items (like a kitchen scale) is better suited for your home and some items are fit to be placed outside (like a lighthouse). We know their philosophy is that users feel comfortable using furniture wherever they like, so they took the time to ensure that any item is able to fit on your home.

Previous Animal Crossing games had tons of furniture items allocated within “sets” which commonly featured common household items- a chair, table, lamp, bed, TV, dresser, clock, etc. However, it’s clear that most of these items won’t be suited for outdoor decorating and that’s the focus of NH. So what happens? Well, a great example is this:

The Spooky Series is present on both games, but they are night and day. NL had the standard items with a color scheme and motif related to the event. There is nothing really out there; it’s the standard “set” furniture with a purple/orange coat of paint and Jack’s face slapped on. On the other side, NH has a jack o’lantern, a weird lamp, an arch, a scarecrow, a carriage, etc. (And although not part of this comparison, Turkey Day series confirms this approach.)

Even the Bunny Day series, which is very similar to its predecessor, goes on a whole different direction. Both games have an “egg themed” bed, but while New Leaf has the same <very similar to others> bed, NH has a giant basket of eggs as the rest spot. It’s clear the focus on giving everyone options to making their island unique let them be more creative and explore even more choices to do something else; with much more imagination behind.

This difference is also seen with the aformentioned Spooky series, which features wildy different chairs- one is a standard chair while the other is a pumpkin cut in half. Which one would be better suited to fulfill the focus on being able to be used both inside and outside? It seems that the developers may have left behind many of the standard sets in order to focus their time on developing items that fit the big feature of the newest game. Maybe they still plan to add some of the sets, as we have seen with the Mermaid series being brought back almost identically or maybe they're reinventing them before adding them back.

After all this, it’s fine if people don’t find this focus appealing and liked the way things were before; tons of people miss the “sets” and seem to don’t care about the new items. In my humble opinion, it’s ok to want the old “sets” back, but it’s not ok to outright dismiss the creativity present. It’s fine if you personally want 5 slightly different sofas and 5 slightly different dressers but it’s also fine to understand that some people may prefer a sofa, a dresser, a giant moth model, a pumpkin arch, a monster statue, a bamboo slide, a shark model, a tall mushroom parasol, a garden stand and an acorn toy instead.

This brings us to a small topic:

Replacement - It’s not the same, but it’s equivalent
Some items may have been deemed irrelevant with others items having a similar function and got removed as a result. An example may be the apparent dismissal of the Creepy Series. I say “apparent” because almost all the series is indeed on NH, but with a different face.

For example, you won’t find the “Creepy stone” or the “Creepy bat stone” on NH but you will find the “Western style stone” and the “Zen style stone”. These four items are functionally the same- they depict gravestone/tombs and will help you in order to create a cemetery. They are also visually similar, so NH team probably found no use for the older items.

vs

Similarly, the “Creepy skeleton” is replaced by either the Australopithecus fossil or the generic fossil sprite and the “Creepy Statue” can be substituted by any haunted artwork.

vs

Even the “Creepy cauldron” and “Creepy crystal” have some kind of equivalent item with the “Kettle bathtub” and “Fortune-telling set” (even if they have bigger differences). With all those replaced, the leftover items were cut.

Speaking of cut, there are some important categories of “cut” furniture…

Cut! - They’re not here
There is indeed some items that have been cut and don’t have replacements and haven’t been reinvented. These can be grouped into two big categories, both of which are sorely missed: food items and crossover furniture. Although there are some food items already (with more coming within the latest update), it seems weird how they seem to lack any equivalency and it’s weirder (or maybe that’s the reason) when you consider that a cooking feature is/was on development.

Crossover furniture also represents a big chunk of the difference between the totals of NH vs NL, and it seems it was planned that way with the confirmation of Mario items coming to celebrate Mario’s 35th birthday. Maybe the developers intend to add this furniture little by little when major milestones for other Nintendo franchises come to make them more special, but they indeed add up. Furniture from franchises like Sanrio or 7-11 are another whole can of worms as they can’t simply be added to a new game without some copyright, contracts and negotiations nightmare. I don't have the exact number, but just from this group, there are about 50+ items cut. The decision for Nintendo items to wait may have been a marketing one or developers may have run into legal issues as well.

These two categories, alongside others like “houseplants” greatly reduce the number of items present on NH but they can be easily grouped. These little things begin to represent a considerable amount of the missing items…

One by one, the count goes on
Finally, it’s worth noting that there are things that little by little give NL lots of more furniture over NH. For example, NL has three different cones counted as separate furniture and four Lucky cats that do the same, whereas NH has only one cone which comes on 8 different variations which include the two that were “cut” and one Lucky Cat that comes on 3 different variations including two of the “cut” items. Please note that many items of NL were also exclusive to some countries and you needed to trade with specific people to get them, while NH has them available worldwide.

These kind of things make the 245 number difference at the beginning appear bigger than it really is.

Final words
New Leaf has an amazing amount of furniture and undoubtedly, set a high bar. New Horizons so far has less furniture and the change of focus may have not been well received by some fans. I agree that NH would greatly benefit from many more furniture options and I’m almost sure we’re going to see more options on the future. I personally think the divide between both is a little overrated and the games are unfairly compared and some people do say vastly incorrect things or greatly diminish NH just because.

I hope this thread can open up some discussions or help people notice the differences between both games and maybe see a different perspective on this recurring topic. Thanks for any feedback and hope everyone keeps enjoying Animal Crossing.


*all images were taken from Nookipedia and Gamespot for the NH Spooky Series

This is a great post, and sums the issue up well. One thing I'd like to add is that in NH we get an entire island to decorate vs being limited to house interiors in NL. It would be interesting to note that an entire house (fully expanded) in ACNL is 96 tiles (one tile = 1x1 space) if you add up six 8x8 rooms, and if the average player has 2 characters on their island with fully expanded houses, we were given 1271 furniture items to decorate 192 tiles. I'm not a math expert, but I wonder if it would be relevant calculate that if we were given 1271 items to decorate 192 tiles, then they gave us about 6 furniture items to chose per 1x1 tile. In NH, an island is about 64x80 tiles, which equals 5120 tiles (not including beaches or house interiors). Since there are only 1026 furniture items, according to my logic we ~theoretically~ would be forced to reuse one item at least 5 times. Now in reality, we are not going to be filling up every single tile of our island (plus we have buildings, etc) so that's not 100% accurate, but I think it illustrates my point well which is-

The island in ACNH gives us about 50x as much decorating space than in ACNL (not including ACNH house interiors or beaches), and with a decreased furniture selection, players are likely to repeat items more than once, which is upsetting to many.

*disclaimer- my math could be wrong lol

 

[niko@kamogawa]

Thanks for putting up a great report! I enjoyed reading your analysis.

I am optimistic that Nintendo will bridge that gap one day. I also like the fact that some furniture sets are evolving to accommodate decoration outside of your house!

My only wish is for them not to deviate away too much with it. I am fond of interior design since New Leaf. It's one of things I enjoyed doing. My suggestion to them is to retain those indoor furniture and expand them. Having more options is what makes any game great.

 

[RollingAntony]

After the New Year items go live on the game, I'll update the initial post.

The recent Turkey Day and Toy Day are also examples of the focus they're aiming for with the new furniture, as the Harvest and Jingle sets were almost entirely scrapped in favor of the Turkey series and the Toys/Illuminated sets, which are definitely not the standard sets people were used to. Bunny Day will be probably the only holiday series closest to the old furniture sets.

This is a great post, and sums the issue up well. One thing I'd like to add is that in NH we get an entire island to decorate vs being limited to house interiors in NL. It would be interesting to note that an entire house (fully expanded) in ACNL is 96 tiles (one tile = 1x1 space) if you add up six 8x8 rooms, and if the average player has 2 characters on their island with fully expanded houses, we were given 1271 furniture items to decorate 192 tiles. I'm not a math expert, but I wonder if it would be relevant calculate that if we were given 1271 items to decorate 192 tiles, then they gave us about 6 furniture items to chose per 1x1 tile. In NH, an island is about 64x80 tiles, which equals 5120 tiles (not including beaches or house interiors). Since there are only 1026 furniture items, according to my logic we ~theoretically~ would be forced to reuse one item at least 5 times. Now in reality, we are not going to be filling up every single tile of our island (plus we have buildings, etc) so that's not 100% accurate, but I think it illustrates my point well which is-

The island in ACNH gives us about 50x as much decorating space than in ACNL (not including ACNH house interiors or beaches), and with a decreased furniture selection, players are likely to repeat items more than once, which is upsetting to many.

*disclaimer- my math could be wrong lol

Wanted to quote your post to thank you for the analysis of the space between both games.

The thing about decorating outdoors is that NH provides options outside the standard furniture that helps spice up the islands, like the placement of some creatures, art and others. Of course, more furniture would help even more, but I have seen very creative islands that make great use these "unconventional" items!

 

[Dracule]

I’m so glad you broke this down! I’m one of those who actually complains a bit at the fact Nintendo hasn’t added past items into NH that should’ve been in there already, and also hasn’t incorporated ACPC items either (lol... I need to be more patient.)

I’m already loving the little readditions of food items coming with the New Year, so I think Nintendo wants to reintegrate items slowly and give players something to look forward to.

What I wish for most is for the incorporation of ACPC items, because those have been absolutely amazing and covetable. (Not gonna lie, I’d pay extra to buy specialized sets cus I’m addicted to gacha and cute furniture. TwT)

 

[RedPanda]

This is a very helpful analysis. As others have said, there are other ways in which the game feels like it's missing things - like how you can't make miniature fossils to display in your home, or music boxes out of giant clams. Little details like that, MANY of them, have been shaved away, presumptively because they didn't have the time to include them. I only hope they somehow make their way back into the game with future updates.

 

[Rika092]

Wow I didn’t notice this thread until now but thanks so much for this comprehensive analysis. I’m not surprised that NL surpasses NH in terms of furniture counts, but it was a bit surprising to see that as much as we complain about the lack of furnitures in NH, it still has 1000+ In terms of counts. Perhaps a more precise way to describe the difference vs NL is the lack of furniture variety then? Also come to think about it, the 1000+ furnitures in NH does include the bug and fish models, no? Those are a new category of “furnitures” being introduced in NH which was not present in NL, so if we were to discount those, perhaps the difference in numbers would be a bit more substantial? On the other hand. as you said NL didn’t get a massive furniture update until 4 years later, and NH is currently just about to complete the 1 year cycle. So I’m sure there will be more and more furnitures upcoming, especially since after this first year Nintendo won’t have to focus so much of the content update specifically on the holidays. I’m fairly certain some of the plants furnitures and the 7-11/Sanrio items will return in a future update because they were quite a big hit back in NL.

In terms of furnitures that got a revamp in NH - I think I definitely preferred the NH versions vs the NL counterparts. Personally I didn’t bother to gather the spooky set and turkey day sets in NL because they don’t really fit into my aesthetics and the furnitures are so bright and jarring that I cannot find a cohesive way to incorporate them into my interior decor unless I’m going for a room of the full set. But I really love the new sets in NH and had a ton of fun using them to decorate the exteriors! Same thing for the “not the same but equivalent” category, even though I don’t have a graveyard in my current island, I find the zen and western stones to be quite aesthetically pleasing to look at vs the creepy gravestones in NL. As you said, many of the changes maybe because now the NH furnitures are configured to be more compatible for exterior decors, but regardless of the reason I’m a big fan of these changes

 

[RollingAntony]

I have updated the initial post with the info from the 1.6 update. Although it was expected because it was covering 2 major holidays, this is the biggest furniture update with 33 items added. We're only missing a big holiday (Festivale) and 1 update before the game's first anniversary, so we're likely to see another 13 or so items before the madness begins.

I’m so glad you broke this down! I’m one of those who actually complains a bit at the fact Nintendo hasn’t added past items into NH that should’ve been in there already, and also hasn’t incorporated ACPC items either (lol... I need to be more patient.)

I’m already loving the little readditions of food items coming with the New Year, so I think Nintendo wants to reintegrate items slowly and give players something to look forward to.

What I wish for most is for the incorporation of ACPC items, because those have been absolutely amazing and covetable. (Not gonna lie, I’d pay extra to buy specialized sets cus I’m addicted to gacha and cute furniture. TwT)

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll se ACPC items added to the game. Pocket Camp needs people (mostly whales) to spend money on the game, and letting people acquire the coveted objects on NH won't be good for that. It will keep getting some tiny crossover promotional things, but I don't think we'll ever see the true bulk of PC items. Fingers crossed tho, hope we can get at least some of the better items from that game!

Wow I didn’t notice this thread until now but thanks so much for this comprehensive analysis. I’m not surprised that NL surpasses NH in terms of furniture counts, but it was a bit surprising to see that as much as we complain about the lack of furnitures in NH, it still has 1000+ In terms of counts. Perhaps a more precise way to describe the difference vs NL is the lack of furniture variety then? Also come to think about it, the 1000+ furnitures in NH does include the bug and fish models, no? Those are a new category of “furnitures” being introduced in NH which was not present in NL, so if we were to discount those, perhaps the difference in numbers would be a bit more substantial? On the other hand. as you said NL didn’t get a massive furniture update until 4 years later, and NH is currently just about to complete the 1 year cycle. So I’m sure there will be more and more furnitures upcoming, especially since after this first year Nintendo won’t have to focus so much of the content update specifically on the holidays. I’m fairly certain some of the plants furnitures and the 7-11/Sanrio items will return in a future update because they were quite a big hit back in NL.

In terms of furnitures that got a revamp in NH - I think I definitely preferred the NH versions vs the NL counterparts. Personally I didn’t bother to gather the spooky set and turkey day sets in NL because they don’t really fit into my aesthetics and the furnitures are so bright and jarring that I cannot find a cohesive way to incorporate them into my interior decor unless I’m going for a room of the full set. But I really love the new sets in NH and had a ton of fun using them to decorate the exteriors! Same thing for the “not the same but equivalent” category, even though I don’t have a graveyard in my current island, I find the zen and western stones to be quite aesthetically pleasing to look at vs the creepy gravestones in NL. As you said, many of the changes maybe because now the NH furnitures are configured to be more compatible for exterior decors, but regardless of the reason I’m a big fan of these changes

Thanks for your response. IMO, 7-11/Sanrio items are probably the latest items they'll ever add to the game, if they do- these kind of things are a legal mess, no matter how popular they were. Especially because some companies can already customise pre-existing items with their logos and we've already seen that.

Yes, the furniture variety is key, but it's kind of a weird variety trouble. As you mentioned, around 160+ items correspond to the bugs/fish models and although like 100 of them are really different some may feel too similar. On the other hand, the common sets of NL featured the same kind of items, so you have 63 clocks, 95 chairs and 56 beds whereas NH has 19, 35 and 24 respectively*.

So while NL has more variety within some categories, NH may have more variety overall. It's like a limbo because the sheer number of amiibo'd NL means that it also has many quirky items not present on NH, like the IV drip or the thermohygrometer but NH ditched many repeats to focus on creating unique items. They are different kinds of variety? I apologize if I didn't make myself clear haha

Personally, I'd prefer if they gave priority to the aforementioned quirky and out of there items; but most people seem to prefer getting the 60 cut chairs back in order to better decorate their homes. I don't think they'll be able to satisfy both sides, unless they have an extremely good and well-thought update plan that mixes and matches both categories- and even then, time and manpower may not be on their side. It all depends on how they handle a second year of updates.

*Just using a quick search of the words mentioned, there may be more not named like that but the point is the same.

 

[Bilaz]

Yes, the furniture variety is key, but it's kind of a weird variety trouble. As you mentioned, around 160+ items correspond to the bugs/fish models and although like 100 of them are really different some may feel too similar. On the other hand, the common sets of NL featured the same kind of items, so you have 63 clocks, 95 chairs and 56 beds whereas NH has 19, 35 and 24 respectively*.

So while NL has more variety within some categories, NH may have more variety overall. It's like a limbo because the sheer number of amiibo'd NL means that it also has many quirky items not present on NH, like the IV drip or the thermohygrometer but NH ditched many repeats to focus on creating unique items. They are different kinds of variety? I apologize if I didn't make myself clear haha

(img heavy) I compared my new leaf and new horizons houses to showcase the pros and cons!

Title says all, I completed my New Leaf house only a year or two before this game was released, so I had pretty much the same exact taste designing both houses, the themes in the houses are similar as well, so I thought a side by side comparison would actually showcase the good and bad of each...

www.belltreeforums.com

This made perfect sense to me, and I thought I'd share my thread to help illustrate (you may quote any of my images that's fine)

I feel like the pros of furniture sets are that it's very easy to create a unique vibe. You can see it in my New Horizons Mermaid room, and in some of my New Leaf rooms. But I feel like with a lot of effort I was able to create even more unique looks? I feel like everyone's houses look more creative and nicer in New Horizons but that might just be me.

 

[kefkiroth]

Very nice and thorough analysis of the numbers in NH vs NL! I think we will see a lot of furniture added with each update.

Some of the furniture I want back the most is "non-seasonal/non-themed", like the doctor's office set. (I decorated my house with the assumption they kept most of the furniture from NL and WW... I was wrong..!) Since most of the update-furniture seems to be linked to specific holidays, I wonder if they will ever add it in? Right now all we can do is speculate, but I am hoping the more "mundane" sets like classic, cabin, rococo, etc. series get added one day.

Your comment made me think (and gave me hope) that perhaps once we reach one year since the release date we'll get furniture updates that are non-seasonal.

Thank you @RollingAntony for such a thorough analysis! Now I can clap back at deniers with actual figures.

 

[John Wick]

Every NH house and island looks the same to me.

It's why I never bother visiting any.

Very hard to be unique with so little variety, apart from colors that don't seem to match.

 

[kefkiroth]

I’m so glad you broke this down! I’m one of those who actually complains a bit at the fact Nintendo hasn’t added past items into NH that should’ve been in there already, and also hasn’t incorporated ACPC items either (lol... I need to be more patient.)

I’m already loving the little readditions of food items coming with the New Year, so I think Nintendo wants to reintegrate items slowly and give players something to look forward to.

What I wish for most is for the incorporation of ACPC items, because those have been absolutely amazing and covetable. (Not gonna lie, I’d pay extra to buy specialized sets cus I’m addicted to gacha and cute furniture. TwT)

I invested so much time on Pocket Camp but I eventually stopped when I realized how hard it was to obtain items. This must have been 2 years ago. Was there a way in which one could recover their progress? Perhaps by linking a Nintendo account? I've seen the PC camping items and I'm willing to go back to PC just to get those mini campers!

 

[oranje]

Thank you for this comprehensive report! It really illustrates some of the frustration that players that have played NL have about the lack of furniture sets. I love the upgrades for holiday sets like the Turkey Day/Harvest festival and Halloween but I don't think it's enough to compensate for the loss of the other furniture sets.

This is a very helpful analysis. As others have said, there are other ways in which the game feels like it's missing things - like how you can't make miniature fossils to display in your home, or music boxes out of giant clams. Little details like that, MANY of them, have been shaved away, presumptively because they didn't have the time to include them. I only hope they somehow make their way back into the game with future updates.

I miss the mini fossil sets and music box clams too. I'm starting to think they didn't have enough time to create new assets to the game? I can't think of another reason on why so many items are missing.