I went back to the GameCube version for a day...

[TheKryptoKnight]

As the topic title says, I went back to ACGCN for a while today... Two things really jumped out at me.

1) I miss furniture sets so much. I'm hopeful these will be incorporated down the line, but it was nice getting stuff that was obviously meant to go together? I don't know how to say this better. We might technically have more options now with color variations, but I miss the distinctive themes. Bunny Day furniture and the Wedding set are the kinds of things I want.

2) While there is a charm to the dialogue... I think nostalgia tinted my view of things. It's amazing how much of the villager dialogue is tutorial stuff in this game, on a save file with 1000+ hours. Telling me the Able sisters will let me design patterns, that I should shop from Tom Nook, that I can shake trees to get stuff, and most annoyingly that I can connect a Gameboy Advance to travel/unlock things. I think everyone immediately thinks of the rude/mean dialogue... And forgets how much the animals were tutorial bots? I'm not saying the dialogue is bad... But I'm now not sure which game has the best dialogue in the series. I already liked New Horizons' dialogue, and I'm kind of reconsidering my automatic assumption that it doesn't compare to the original?

Anyway, I love both games so much, they might be my #1 and #2 favorite games... But it's interesting going back with NH in mind.

 

[Xara]

i feel like going back to any of the older games can feel a bit weird after playing new horizons for over a month - but there’s definitely something nostalgic about it. i never played population growing and i sold my copies of new leaf back in 2017, but even seeing screenshots from the older games; it’s so nice to think about how far the series has come since the beginning.

that being said, i miss furniture sets, too aha

 

[Blood Eclipse]

As the topic title says, I went back to ACGCN for a while today... Two things really jumped out at me.

1) I miss furniture sets so much. I'm hopeful these will be incorporated down the line, but it was nice getting stuff that was obviously meant to go together? I don't know how to say this better. We might technically have more options now with color variations, but I miss the distinctive themes. Bunny Day furniture and the Wedding set are the kinds of things I want.

2) While there is a charm to the dialogue... I think nostalgia tinted my view of things. It's amazing how much of the villager dialogue is tutorial stuff in this game, on a save file with 1000+ hours. Telling me the Able sisters will let me design patterns, that I should shop from Tom Nook, that I can shake trees to get stuff, and most annoyingly that I can connect a Gameboy Advance to travel/unlock things. I think everyone immediately thinks of the rude/mean dialogue... And forgets how much the animals were tutorial bots? I'm not saying the dialogue is bad... But I'm now not sure which game has the best dialogue in the series. I already liked New Horizons' dialogue, and I'm kind of reconsidering my automatic assumption that it doesn't compare to the original?

Anyway, I love both games so much, they might be my #1 and #2 favorite games... But it's interesting going back with NH in mind.

I love ACNH but I think villager interactions were much better in GCN AC or WW.

 

[Eirrinn]

I love population growing! (My NH tune is the theme song for it lol) I like going back every month or so to check on things, events were so fun obv that game too, the villagers seemed like they were actually getting super into it, who remembers the sport events?

 

[starlightsong]

Unpopular opinion but I actually don't like how the gamecube dialogue was SO over the top rude sometimes, sorry but I don't wanna be called fat and stupid and a mental freak case and such by cartoon animals and I think there's such a thing as going too far--it is marketed toward kids after all and WW has a better balance of this imo. Other than that my memory of the GC dialogue is fuzzy. I only played it in more recent years as NL was actually my first game and decided to check out the older ones, but it just didn't hook me as much so I haven't logged nearly as many hours as WW, NL, and NH. I miss furniture sets too though... we have the cute, rattan, and shell sets but it's just not the same when ones that have been in the series since gamecube are missing!

 

[Sharpington]

I love ACNH but I think villager interactions were much better in GCN AC or WW.

I am curious, when was the last time you played either game?

I tried to start a WW town a few months before release and it was the villager interactions specifically that made me stop playing. I got most of the same lines of dialog every day for a week or two. I don't remember it being like that, but I think NL improved the villagers so much that it paled in comparison for me.

I'm sure many people go back to the old games and enjoy them just as much, and that's great. But I also wonder if some have forgotten the more annoying bits, like I did, and would feel differently if they went back. I know nostalgia has clouded my opinions many times before

 

[Raz]

I've lent my modded Wii (compatible with GC) to a friend, so I can't play ACGC right now - although my ACGC disc and memory card are still here with me. But these days I saw that the translation patch for Doubutsu no Mori e+ was almost complete and it was publicly released, so I tried to run it on my PC - which is very weak so it doesn't run properly. The main theme is just too damn good.

I like a lot of things about these games. There's a lot of QoL and UX advancements that came with the more recent games, which makes playing the GC ones a little bit problematic (especially the JP version because the text input system is bizarre). But they are also as quirky as AC was known for.

They're also a product of their time. Same thing could be said about CF with it's motion controls and WW with it's clunky touch control movement.

 

[starlightsong]

I am curious, when was the last time you played either game?

I tried to start a WW town a few months before release and it was the villager interactions specifically that made me stop playing. I got most of the same lines of dialog every day for a week or two. I don't remember it being like that, but I think NL improved the villagers so much that it paled in comparison for me.

I'm sure many people go back to the old games and enjoy them just as much, and that's great. But I also wonder if some have forgotten the more annoying bits, like I did, and would feel differently if they went back. I know nostalgia has clouded my opinions many times before

I'm not the OP but I just wanna say, New Leaf was my first game so I have zero nostalgia for Wild World. I went back to it later on to see what it's like and have been playing it more recently as well. I do get repeat dialogue at times, of course, because they're AI and they don't know what they've said before (especially the peppies and normals from what I've noticed lol), but I like crankies and snooties so much more in it. They're not over the top mean saying stuff that would've upset me as a kid (like they sometimes do in GCN), but they actually act cranky and snooty. I restarted WW earlier this month and was lucky enough to start with Static, my favorite villager. His first line to me was "it's nice to meet you, I guess" and he's constantly telling me to pipe down and quit yelling so much, actually gets angry with me for talking to him too often whereas Chief in NH just tells me he needs to think about something, tells me he's getting real sick of my boring face when I talk to him more than a few times in a row, and just in general feels like he's not my friend yet and I have to work to get to that point. The crankies in NL and NH are cool and all but they love me immediately and just seem like occasionally grumpy old men.

My current snooty in WW is Yuka. When I visited her house she got annoyed that I didn't bring anything for her since I'm a guest, and said "so, what do you want to bug me about this time?" which is something I can't imagine my snooties in NL or NH doing, although I have to admit she did give me the same line twice in a row about being shy around new people. She then got angry over something she had told me, and when I tried talking to her again she shouted "do you have any idea how I feel right now? you don't do you!? you're so clueless! hmph, why don't you just get out of my way!" and then the next time I tried, she said my problem is that I'm stuffy like her grandma's basement. I don't feel like I'm her friend yet either. Again, I actually like the snooties in NL and NH, but I wish they didn't love me instantly.

Honestly, though? Even though I very strongly wish the crankies and snooties would actually act cranky and snooty again, I don't necessarily think any game has better dialogue than the other. I've had hilarious conversations with my villagers in every single one that I've played!

 

[Sharpington]

I'm not the OP but I just wanna say, New Leaf was my first game so I have zero nostalgia for Wild World. I went back to it later on to see what it's like and have been playing it more recently as well. I do get repeat dialogue at times, of course, because they're AI and they don't know what they've said before (especially the peppies and normals from what I've noticed lol), but I like crankies and snooties so much more in it. They're not over the top mean saying stuff that would've upset me as a kid (like they sometimes do in GCN), but they actually act cranky and snooty. I restarted WW earlier this month and was lucky enough to start with Static, my favorite villager. His first line to me was "it's nice to meet you, I guess" and he's constantly telling me to pipe down and quit yelling so much, actually gets angry with me for talking to him too often whereas Chief in NH just tells me he needs to think about something, tells me he's getting real sick of my boring face when I talk to him more than a few times in a row, and just in general feels like he's not my friend yet and I have to work to get to that point. The crankies in NL and NH are cool and all but they love me immediately and just seem like occasionally grumpy old men.

My current snooty in WW is Yuka. When I visited her house she got annoyed that I didn't bring anything for her since I'm a guest, and said "so, what do you want to bug me about this time?" which is something I can't imagine my snooties in NL or NH doing, although I have to admit she did give me the same line twice in a row about being shy around new people. She then got angry over something she had told me, and when I tried talking to her again she shouted "do you have any idea how I feel right now? you don't do you!? you're so clueless! hmph, why don't you just get out of my way!" and then the next time I tried, she said my problem is that I'm stuffy like her grandma's basement. I don't feel like I'm her friend yet either. Again, I actually like the snooties in NL and NH, but I wish they didn't love me instantly.

Honestly, though? Even though I very strongly wish the crankies and snooties would actually act cranky and snooty again, I don't necessarily think any game has better dialogue than the other. I've had hilarious conversations with my villagers in every single one that I've played!

I guess I've never really felt like my level of friendship changed before NH, animals always seemed as friendly on day 1 as day 100. I found almost all of the rude dialog hilarious and Resetti was my favorite but I've never enjoyed the talk limit. Characters have gotten less cranky/snooty but to me they feel more well rounded instead of watered down. In the end I think I'm just interpreting the dialog and behavior differently. But I get what you mean, there's a big difference there and I do miss a lot of old dialog elements

 

[starlightsong]

I guess I've never really felt like my level of friendship changed before NH, animals always seemed as friendly on day 1 as day 100. I found almost all of the rude dialog hilarious and Resetti was my favorite but I've never enjoyed the talk limit. Characters have gotten less cranky/snooty but to me they feel more well rounded instead of watered down. In the end I think I'm just interpreting the dialog and behavior differently. But I get what you mean, there's a big difference there and I do miss a lot of old dialog elements

I don't like the talk limit either tbh but I guess it's just that if it has to be thing, I find it preferable for crankies and snooties to get mad/annoyed instead of just going "oh sorry I've got a lot on my mind right now but let's talk more later!"
I actually really enjoy the snooties in later games but the problem I have is that if I were to pick one word to describe their personality that word wouldn't be snooty, but elegant--they're honestly really sweet but just act more high class than others with interests in things like fashion and makeup and high-society glamour, and also talk in a sophisticated manner and constantly call the player "darling", which makes them like a lot Rarity from My Little Pony (which is why I like them, so not inherently a bad thing), but not really snooty, a word that means arrogant and disdainful. So while I like their dialogue a lot I still just wish it took more time for them and the crankies to warm up to me, if that makes sense?
One thing I also miss: villagers keep asking for my opinion of their outfit. I have no option to tell them what I think. All past games that I've played had this (or at least WW did, again my memory of GCN dialogue is fuzzy) and it feels really weird to me that they ask my opinion without actually letting me give it
I get it though, we may just be interpreting things differently and that's okay! Like I said, I think all of the games I've played have great dialogue and I've enjoyed talking to and befriending my villagers in each of them!

 

[LambdaDelta]

I miss furniture sets so much

rattan, antique, cute, cardboard, imperial, fruit, flower, log, wooden, wooden-block, shell, throwback, astrological, space explorer, outer space, mush, tree's bounty, sakura, (spring-)bamboo, gulliver's landmarks, fishing tourney, bug off, ironwood, frozen, arcade, diner....

you were saying?

 

[Cancoon]

rattan, antique, cute, cardboard, imperial, fruit, flower, log, wooden, wooden-block, shell, throwback, astrological, space explorer, outer space, mush, tree's bounty, sakura, (spring-)bamboo, gulliver's landmarks, fishing tourney, bug off, ironwood, frozen, arcade, diner....

you were saying?

The sets from the old games had wallpaper and flooring as well.
As someone who isn't very creative or good at interior design, I liked having a fall back plan of choosing a 100% completed room by finding the sets I liked

 

[LambdaDelta]

The sets from the old games had wallpaper and flooring as well.
As someone who isn't very creative or good at interior design, I liked having a fall back plan of choosing a 100% completed room by finding the sets I liked

actually, series are the ones with wallpapers+floors. sets are just a collection of related items

to that end, my post was a mixture of both sets and series, but my point still stands

 

[Llunavale]

it is marketed toward kids after all

Hmm, I don't know if I agree with this particular quote - though I do agree with the sentiments overall. WW struck a perfect balance in terms of character dialogue and interaction.

I do also think the dialogue in NH gets a lot of flack, granted the Lazy villagers do go on about bugs a lot but...I think overall, it's at least doing a much better job than NL in terms of dialogue.

Spoiler

Also to note, it's not that I think it isn't supposed to be a child-friendly game, I just think it's wrong to assume it's marketed to kids - all the marketing shows young adults enjoying the game, and the rating on the box is only indicitive of the content in the game, not the target audience - I'm sure nintendo is well aware that their biggest demographic for the game is YA, likely based on data gathered from Pocket Camp.

 

[starlightsong]

Hmm, I don't know if I agree with this particular quote - though I do agree with the sentiments overall. WW struck a perfect balance in terms of character dialogue and interaction.

I do also think the dialogue in NH gets a lot of flack, granted the Lazy villagers do go on about bugs a lot but...I think overall, it's at least doing a much better job than NL in terms of dialogue.

Spoiler

Also to note, it's not that I think it isn't supposed to be a child-friendly game, I just think it's wrong to assume it's marketed to kids - all the marketing shows young adults enjoying the game, and the rating on the box is only indicitive of the content in the game, not the target audience - I'm sure nintendo is well aware that their biggest demographic for the game is YA, likely based on data gathered from Pocket Camp.

Just to be clear, I didn't mean that the game isn't marketed toward adults as well, but the fact is that it's very clearly something that children would enjoy, something a lot of us played as children, and something I'm certain nintendo would like for children to be interested in. That doesn't mean it's not also marketed to other groups--Pokemon is marketed to kids, Harry Potter is marketed to kids, Disney movies are marketed to kids, but they can also be marketed toward and enjoyed by teens and adults and often are. But my main point is that I was a bullied kid who, if I had played the gamecube game at the time, would've been called fat and stupid and freaky at school and then gone home to be called the same by my villagers. Some of the mean dialogue is fine to me but some of it crosses a line and I feel like Wild World doesn't really do that even when the villagers do act mean.

I like the NH dialogue, though! All I really have a problem with of the top of my head is the lazies talking about bugs constantly, especially since a) in New Leaf they claimed their houses were messy but cockroach free, and b) from what I've heard, they don't do it in Japanese so it's a weird localization choice. And also that my villagers keep repeatedly asking for my opinion of their outfit, but don't actually give me any type of slider or dialogue selection or any way to tell them what I think as they did in the past.

 

[Llunavale]

Just to be clear, I didn't mean that the game isn't marketed toward adults as well, but the fact is that it is marketed to children and Nintendo wants children to be interested in the game.

Sorry if it sounded like I was disagreeing with you or something - I don't, I do agree it's a child-friendly game and Nintendo are setting out to make it such (and that it was a good call toning down the villagers for WW especially), I just think there's a distinction to be made between wanting it to be appropriate for children and actually marketing it toward children (the latter I just don't think Nintendo do, unless I missed some specific marketing campaign for it).

 

[starlightsong]

Sorry if it sounded like I was disagreeing with you or something - I don't, I do agree it's a child-friendly game and Nintendo are setting out to make it such (and that it was a good call toning down the villagers for WW especially), I just think there's a distinction to be made between wanting it to be appropriate for children and actually marketing it toward children (the latter I just don't think Nintendo do, unless I missed some specific marketing campaign for it).

I rephrased some stuff before you responded to this that I'm guessing you didn't see, but I was basically meaning more along the lines that the game is clearly something children enjoy and something that a lot of us enjoyed as children, and I'm sure nintendo knows that and wants kids to keep being able to play it and enjoy it, which is why it shouldn't involve the villagers saying stuff that's upsetting to children. That's all I really meant when I said it's marketed to kids, I suppose I should've phrased it better to begin with since to be honest I don't... really pay attention to the specific marketing campaigns and ads they do anyway lol.

 

[Seastar]

It's amazing how much of the villager dialogue is tutorial stuff in this game, on a save file with 1000+ hours.

I haven't played the Gamecube version yet, but I'd like to point out that the dialogue in New Leaf feels like this to me as well. Yes, I know I can look up at the sky. Yes, I have talked to Sable. Yes, I know how to stack fruit. Yes, I know about wet suits. When visiting another town, they will even bug me about using the lockers in the train station.

 

[thatveryawkwardmayor]

i never played the GC version, but i can already see the complaints on this forum of villagers being too rude and ruining the immersion of the happy cute animal game if dialogue and personalities reverted back to GC style i dont care either way. being bullied might be fun.

 

[DarthGohan1]

As the topic title says, I went back to ACGCN for a while today... Two things really jumped out at me.

1) I miss furniture sets so much. I'm hopeful these will be incorporated down the line, but it was nice getting stuff that was obviously meant to go together? I don't know how to say this better. We might technically have more options now with color variations, but I miss the distinctive themes. Bunny Day furniture and the Wedding set are the kinds of things I want.

2) While there is a charm to the dialogue... I think nostalgia tinted my view of things. It's amazing how much of the villager dialogue is tutorial stuff in this game, on a save file with 1000+ hours. Telling me the Able sisters will let me design patterns, that I should shop from Tom Nook, that I can shake trees to get stuff, and most annoyingly that I can connect a Gameboy Advance to travel/unlock things. I think everyone immediately thinks of the rude/mean dialogue... And forgets how much the animals were tutorial bots? I'm not saying the dialogue is bad... But I'm now not sure which game has the best dialogue in the series. I already liked New Horizons' dialogue, and I'm kind of reconsidering my automatic assumption that it doesn't compare to the original?

Anyway, I love both games so much, they might be my #1 and #2 favorite games... But it's interesting going back with NH in mind.

The furniture sets were amazing in this game!