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I'm quitting ACNH (longest post ever)

[..] criticizing a game shouldn't automatically categorize you as hater or negative nancy either. You can be a fan of anything and still criticize it for it's flaws, since nothing is perfect. But that's just my opinion.

I wish I could sticky this.
 
Here is the main problem. ACNH is getting way too modern and it doesn't feel like a wood forest game anymore. Now days everything is about being very rich, living on your own island with animals, having a phone, airplanes, and more too modern stuff. AC was mainly supposed to feel like a wood forest animal game until pocket camp changed everything. Yeah so you have an Island in New Leaf, but it wasn't the main part and it wasn't part of your town. Even I can't share an island with my sister who owns the island, I will still lose interest in NH in few months later. If you ever feel like it, we can play NL togther because I still play that game a lot.
 
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I completely agree with the "the game feels incomplete" aspect. I hate that I have to wait for online updates to be able to experience everything. In MMOs, content updates might add to the endgame but rarely change the basic or low level stuff for most of the time. Animal Crossing doesn't really have an endgame, decorating stuff is something you can do instantly. Adding to basic stuff is frustrating to me, because I feel like I have to adapt when I'm not exactly expecting to. With the addition of hedges and bushes alone I felt like I have to change a lot of areas on my island again. While it's nice to have something to do, this also felt very frustrating to me. If I knew what items and decorations will be available after future updates, I could plan accordingly and put less effort into specific areas, because I'll change them anyways. I would have preferred for the game to be released in a year but with all the stuff in it.

quick edit because I forgot to mention this: What also irks me is that the current physical copy is already outdated and will basically be useless in a year. What's the point of buying a physical copy when you'll have to download a huge content update first to get the Animal Crossing experience that includes Redd and seasonal events? (this a nitpick, I know. I just thought I'd share since I was ranting anyways)
 
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Here is the main problem. ACNH is getting way too modern and it doesn't feel like a wood forest game anymore. Now days everything is about being very rich, living on your own island with animals, having a phone, airplanes, and more too modern stuff. AC was mainly supposed to feel like a wood forest animal game until pocket camp changed everything. Yeah so you have an Island in New Lead, but it wasn't the main part and it wasn't part of your town. Even I can't share an island with my sister who owns the island, I will still lose interest in NH in few months later. If you ever feel like it, we can play NL togther because I still play that game a lot.
I agree with this. This game just doesn’t feel like animal crossing to me, more like a design simulator than actually getting to know your animal neighbors.
 
You’re wrong about some of these things the game has never crashed online for me I’ve been playing every single day with friends for hours on their islands I think it’s just your connection.
 
You’re wrong about some of these things the game has never crashed online for me I’ve been playing every single day with friends for hours on their islands I think it’s just your connection.
The game has crashed for multiple people online and they’ve lost progress. It could be from a strangers internet connection, I have good internet but one of my sessions was cut off because another players internet crashed.
 
Here is the main problem. ACNH is getting way too modern and it doesn't feel like a wood forest game anymore. Now days everything is about being very rich, living on your own island with animals, having a phone, airplanes, and more too modern stuff. AC was mainly supposed to feel like a wood forest animal game until pocket camp changed everything. Yeah so you have an Island in New Lead, but it wasn't the main part and it wasn't part of your town. Even I can't share an island with my sister who owns the island, I will still lose interest in NH in few months later. If you ever feel like it, we can play NL togther because I still play that game a lot.

I don't agree with this entirely. Sure, AC has become more modern and adapted new "technologies", so to speak (even introducing a NookPhone), but like the entire point of NH is that you can 'technically' make your island look however you want it to be. If your deal is for it to look like a forest of sorts, then by all means. Do so. You can even live in a tent for the entirety of the game if you prefer, or even limit the number of villagers in your island if you plan on make it more 'deserted'.
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I agree with this. This game just doesn’t feel like animal crossing to me, more like a design simulator than actually getting to know your animal neighbors.

I think AC needed to evolve at some point. Whenever its remained unchanged it hasn't been received very well by players (take CF for example).
 
The game has crashed for multiple people online and they’ve lost progress. It could be from a strangers internet connection, I have good internet but one of my sessions was cut off because another players internet crashed.
My sister also got some problems too when it comes to internet even though our internet is good.
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I'm thinking it's because ACNH can get very crowed when there is 8 people online on one island.
 
I can see where you're coming from with a lot of what you're saying but I do disagree with some points. That is, of course, the result of opinions

With that said, I do second the notion that it probably is just fatigue. While you didn't get exhausted from New Leaf in the same length of time, that was years ago, and ultimately, in a different world. From the sounds of it you enjoyed New Leaf more, but there are no doubt external factors which is affecting enjoyment for a lot of us.

I, for one, appreciate the slow addition of NPCs. Ultimately a part of me is glad if we never got any extra buildings (less adapting my island, but then again, it could be a fun challenge) but I can see why this would be a bother! With that said, I am hoping for the cafe's return. But even with the cafe in mind, I was only intrigued in New Leaf because of the part-time job and the ability to get Brewster Gyroids, which weren't even things I used; just did for completion's sake.

On a contradictory note, I do miss the function of the Dream Suite (and arguably Katrina's tent). But I just couldn't imagine myself liking the idea of having a dream suite on my deserted island?! (It's also why I'm kinda scared that we'll get a Nookington's-esque upgrade. I really appreciate the idea that this island is being developed to the best it can be by us, but I just feel as if an emporium is gonna be super jarring!)

Club Tortimer? I sorta agree with. I remember at the start of the lifespan I loved playing the minigames with online friends and competing to get some bonus medals, but I stopped doing that after a while and I forgot I ever did it. With that said, it would be nice if there was something you and your friends could do minigame wise besides fishing/bug competitions! Although with terraforming, there are options available (and I've seen people get creative). The pier does look lonely, I can only wonder if Kapp'n could (hopefully) dock there. It'd be a very apt summer update!
 
You can even live in a tent for the entirety of the game if you prefer, or even limit the number of villagers in your island if you plan on make it more 'deserted'.
I agree with most of what you said, but living in a tent for the entire game limits your gameplay options very heavily (e.g. not unlocking Nook Miles+), making it not worth it imo. Although this feature was advertised in one of the trailers, it is clearly not recommended to never upgrade from a tent.

(That said, tents weren't a thing in the more "foresty" games AC and AC:WW, so one could probably go for a deserted theme even without a tent)

edit: ARGH typo
 
I agree with most of what you said, but living in a tent for the entire game limits your gameplay options very heavily (e.g. not unlocking Nook Miles+), making it not worth it imo. Although this feature was advertised in one of the trailers, it is clearly not recommended to never upgrade from a tent.

(That said, tents weren't a thing in the more "foresty" games AC and AC:WW, so one could probably go for a deserted theme even without a theme)

Oh, yeah. You might make another character with a tent, grind the miles with the other and so forth and then delete the original haha
 
I did read all of this and while I find this game to be amazing and a huge improvement in the series I agree with a lot of the things you criticized I think the multiplayer is shallow and the loss of the island mini games is saddening. My biggest complaint is the terraforming, why on earth can you not choose to terraform multiple tiles at once. To address your post I honestly think you need a break from the game you're burning yourself out. I did the same I'm at a slump on working my island and taking a couple days off has been helping.
 
I completely agree with everything you're saying and I'm so glad you put it into words. They took out a lot of stuff they won't be able to put back in as well, like Dr. Shrunk (now the villagers give us reactions), Copper / Booker (the lost and found is in the town hall building) and Harriet (we can do our own hair now). And don't even get me started on how upset I am about Resetti. Yeah, okay, they still gave him a job, but it's close to useless and we don't even get to see his face, and he is my favorite NPC. People are saying Tortimer's dead, and as much as I love Flick and CJ, I'm going to miss Nat and Chip. Daisy-Mae, a bit of an unpopular opinion, is annoying and kinda gross. Joan will be missed as well. And what was the point of adding things in NL, such as the dream suite, Re-Tail, and the new cool special fruits if they were just going to take them back out in the next game? There have been some rumors going around that the dream suite is coming back, and I know Reese and Cyrus are making a return, but for what? One small event? And Rover? Is this all we get to see of him? Porter? Kapp'n? Blanca was missing on April Fools day too. I just hope with future updates some of these characters will make a permanent return. I have such a deep emotional connection to a lot of these characters from playing since the gamecube, and I know I mention that a lot, but it's true. The happiness and nostalgia that animal crossing brings me is such a huge part in why I still love and play the games. New Leaf was amazing, and I feel like they downgraded with NH, especially with how much Nintendo hyped this up. Idk, these are just my opinions. They took a lot of things out that I am going to miss significantly. I am still going to play it, just because of the upcoming updates, and we'll see what happens when the one year mark rolls around. I do get the feeling of extra added anxiety and stress this game brings compared to all of the past versions, as well as the feeling like your island's already complete. I too am finding myself running around my island unsure of what to do because I feel like I've done everything lmao

but don't get me wrong, I will always love animal crossing and everything that's a part of it.

Everything, what you said, is my thoughts. I'd love the dream suite! Because it's better that way, looking for inspiration without having to island hop! Blanca will be missed, but I was glad not to do the minigames, as it was hard to understand what she was saying (back then I had no internet since broadband wasn't even in the place I was at the time), and maybe if Blanca did come, they'd have something different.

I'm glad we have to dig out parts of gulliver's phone because in new leaf, it was hard to answer the questions as i flunked geography and i only managed to find 7 places.

Maybe they'll find something else for Dr. Shrunk, as I've lost a few friends trying to share all his dad jokes. lame af, they said.

I don't think Tortimer's dead. Did you know turtles and tortoises live til they're 300? And hey, who knows, Chip and Nat might come for National Bug Day and National Fish day or something.

i've also realised they don't have white wooden fences. AND IT WAS SHOWN IN THE TRAILER!

Harriet should do a different job than hair. Her silly questions gave me ridiculous hair. It was ridiculous on me, but cute on other people. She calls me sugar. I hate my grandma calling that.

I wished cyrus could craft and customise for us. I'd pay bells for him to do something as it's easier to get softwood and hardwood rather than the normal wood.

I want rover and katie back, and not just for one thing. Anyway, does anyone know if they're siblings or father and daughter?

Joan definitely looks better than daisy mae because at least Joan actually wipes the snot off her nose. Maybe Daisy is allergic to turnips but doesn't want to let her grandma know. oh wait, i did hear a reference from isabelle joan might be returning. "when gram gram's knee gets better, i'll bring her on sunday walks with me" but that could also refer to Leila and her grandma (tortimer's wife), not to be confused with Leilani.

Resetti - look, i don't like how he got kicked out of his job, i don't think that's fair on him. I liked him in new leaf, he was very funny. so when i played wild world, i almost had a heart attack when he came. his words were worse back then. and i was very annoyed the fact i paid $10 for a game that FREEZES, it wasn't my fault that it did, so when i went back to the game, i had a fifteen minute lecture on "resetting" the game.

i'd like him to be on groundhog day, or a job that doesn't give me heart attacks. i don't pity him, but i just think it's unfair about his job getting cut. however, it's great it autosaves, because my battery died and when i returned to the game, everything was saved and i still had the three sturgeons i caught.

kapp'n is a creep, but it would be great if he was in there. just not on a boat where he'll sing about his wife, daughter or me.

i think new leaf is better than new horizons, but new horizons is better than new leaf.

Also, there is a bunch of items that have changed or put out. There are NO retro tvs anymore. i can't have the tvs i used to have as a kid, now there's wall mounted ones

o_O

and the paperboy cap looks different. it has chequered pattern on it, and now it looks nothing like luke triton's cap. i can't cosplay. but like, nintendo DID create professor layton, so...

we've got high loans for pissy small rooms, except the basement and attic, but it does not excuse anything. new leaf wouldn't have mattered if we had 50 million, at least in new leaf we wouldn't need to craft a fishing rod every ten catches, or two coelacanths, if we're so lucky to catch two in a row.
 
I read OP's post, and skimmed through the replies. Sorry, this will be long!

First of all I want to say that I'm glad that there was places like TBT where I feel a bit more free to share my opinions, I'm scared of getting attacked on Reddit/Twitter if I say anything remotely different from what those players are saying. 😓

Also I think it's important to point out that Corona has been affecting different people and places, well, differently. Some people have a lot of free time now, but others don't. I live in Japan where some people are still going to restaurants and getting haircuts (against the government's orders) and a month after the game came out I was still going into work everyday,even now I still go into the office at least once a week. On the flip side, when NL came out it was the beginning of summer vacation for me, and I basically had three months free. Right now my Switch says that I've been playing for 95 hours which means 2 hours/day. Meanwhile in NL I put in 93 hours in the first three weeks, with an average of 3.5 hours/day in the first two months. I think one of the reasons is that I had more friends on my 3DS before I started playing so I did more WiFi-ing. This isn't completely related to the rest of my post, but whenever I see people online posting that people feel a certain about AC "because Corona" that that isn't necessarily the case. Everyone's lives are different, especially now.

Okay, now for my real post. I think that while I do like NH there are things that take away from the experience from me. Overall right now I feel more positively about NL. I started with WW (played GC after) so I have been around for a while which shapes my perspective. The problem is, though, that I'm not 100% sure what it is that feels off to be about NH. Like I said, I'm not playing it nearly as much as NL so that's not the issue.

Some of my thoughts:

-When I saw videos/pictures of the game before release I really liked the graphics. But now they feel a bit too bright and shiny for me, it's the same issue I have with the Sims 4 in comparison to 3. It's not a major issue, but I think that this affects the charm of the game's world for me. I wonder though if this is partly due to it being made to work on a TV screen

-I'm not loving the music, it's definitely my least favorite out of the series. I'd love it if we could choose to play hourly music from one of the earlier games

-It's going to take me a while to get used to digging up flowers...

-I'm disappointed in the options for clothing and furniture. I think in NH they tried to push the game towards being a bit more palatable for a broader audience and so they went with realistic pieces and ditched the more stylized look of the past to an extent. I wish that they would've kept in more older options though because I liked the look of them. When I look at people's islands and houses online, so many of them look the same to me because of the lack of options but also the lack of diversity. I'm hoping that more is added in updates because I think that this is going to start to become an issue with more people

-There's a lot of talk about QoL updates. TBH there's lots of things that bother some people that don't bother me. IE not having a marker for where your flowers are going to be planted or having to wait a day for certain things. What I like is when the game feels immersive so I can overlook some inconveniences. As well, there's things about AC that I like because I've never found a game quite like this experience. I don't want it to feel too much like all the other games out there. But I get that this depends a lot on what kind of player you are, and the game is trying to go for a wider appeal.

-I haven't WiFi-ed too much so I can't really comment on it

-I was excited about having events being added by update. I still like it, but I do wish that we had to work for things a bit more in addition to the updates. In NL it took me months in order to unlock everything, and I liked the feeling that I had earned it. We're getting things spaced out now but I don't get as much satisfaction since it feels like it's being handed to me. However, having things be more of a surprise is fun. I wish that it was a combination of the two systems.

-Speaking of which, I wish that there was a bit more difficulty in bugs/fish. I don't visit the islands very much but even then I had no problem catching a coelacanth and three oarfish. Also was anyone else annoyed by how common tarantulas were in March!? So many times I was just trying to get somewhere on an island and one ran up from off screen and got me... I know the spawn rate was lower in April to begin with but I'm glad that they nerfed some of the rarer finds. The new interest rate makes it almost meaningless though haha.

-I wish that there was more variety in dialogue. I don't mind the number of personality types but I wish each one had more/better dialogue. I was playing WW a bit in order to record something and I was shocked at how they talked! It's such a big difference. I used to spend so much time just spamming my villagers when I was younger making them talked because 1) what they said was interesting 2) there was such a variety. I couldn't do that in NH (or CF for that matter since they'd just repeat the same line once you talked to them), could this get added to in an update? Probably not but I can dream!

-I love being able to put furniture outside! It's my favorite things about NH. I know that one day I'll fill up my island but for now I'm having fun with different ideas. Terraforming is fine, but it is unfortunate that we had to sacrifice some of the polish and smoothness of our towns in order to get it since things are more blocky now.


It's hard to say exactly how I feel about the game since we'll have to wait and see exactly what comes out of the updates (minigames please!). Overall I do like the game but it does lean in a different play-style direction from mine. I'm not in quarantine so my experience has been different from some of you, and also I've started to feel a different energy from players on Reddit/Twitter since it's come out, probably due to how many new people to the series there are. I'm looking forward to seeing how the game develops from here, and in the end I didn't like CF (too similar to WW which I played a ton) but then afterwards we got NL which is now possibly my favorite. I know it's not too comforting, but hey maybe the next AC game will be more your style.
 
I disagree with people suggesting if you spent 200+ hours playing this game you’ve got your money worth. It’s very easy to spend that time doing meaningless activities over and over.

Mini games on the island in New Leaf or taking orders in the Cafe were little ways to break up the repetition.

I would have been happy with being able to ask villagers if they need help or invite them over to my house.

It also blows my mind swimming was not included in the base game when we are on an island surrounded by water.

Nonetheless, I am happy to have the game.
 
when I first started playing it I wasn't in love with it at first because at the beginning getting 30 iron is kind of long

but after the first week seeing my town slowly coming together I'm really in love with it. If you've played 8 hours everyday I'm afraid that's not healthy and you need to space out your play time more.

Going back and playing new leaf would just feel really limiting, rather than talking just the good things about new leaf can we talk about some bad things?

1) less flower types (I love hyacinth, and I'm personally biased because flowers are one of my fav features of ac in general)

2) a villager can randomly leave with out asking you

3) no terraforming.

4) no placing furniture outside

5) no diys, I think this extends play time of the game. once you catalogued everything in new leaf that was it. Also in nl everyone used the duping glitch.. less common in nh because it's been patched or harder to do

6) nintendo having the ability to patch any new dupe glitches that are discovered, this will make the economy online trade more stable

7) no such thing as dodo code, you used to have to add every single fc for a trade

8) the general graphics from NH are so impressive, when it rains the trees are shiny and my peaches and villagers with hair have a fuzzy texture, so cute.

9) you couldn't customise the outside of your house, you were just limited to the roof colour. also ur post box is fixed

10) No hunting for villagers on mystery islands. Before in NL you had to rely on trading online with people who often charged insane prices for dreamies, Now in some sense its in your own hands if you grind enough for nmt.
 
I'm a bit worried if the game will continue to rely on customization as being its main appeal even after the updates come out. We don't know what the updates will bring so this could very well get fixed, but right now I'm uncertain about the longevity of NH compared to NL.

The main appeal to NH over past games is how much control you have. More house customization than NL, placing furniture outside, terraforming, placing villagers' houses, and having more control over who stays and who goes. This does add a lot to the game, and is one of the reasons why I think it's reaching new audiences, but I'm not sure if it's going to hold out for as long as the previous title.

The main reason for that is that in any of the games oftentimes once a player is satisfied with their town/house they don't try to tear things down in order to make room for new ideas. If someone finally feels happy with their island, how each of the parts look and their house, if they get a new idea they're going to need to sacrifice and get rid of something they already designed in order to make room for it. Some people don't mind doing this, sure, but I think that the type of people who care a lot about design tend to not do this as much. In NL you could always buy a second game cartridge, and many players did, but with NH you have to have a second system. In that case, if you pick up the game again later and still feel like you want to preserve how things are there's less to do.

Meanwhile in NL I'll grab it every once-in-a-while to do more island tours, deserted island escape, or even the club or cafe. Having the mini-games gave me something more to do when I felt like I didn't want to disturb my town's layout. That's why I think relying too heavily on customization isn't good (okay and I'd really appreciate a tool to smooth out terraforming so it's less blocky).

The other issue is that furniture is fairly limited in NH. This is one of the things that has kept me from designing too much of my island, I don't have the exact right pieces for some of my ideas.

There are definitely improvements for customization though, real paths and having patterns be transparent are huge. But I think that in the end when you have a finite amount of space without buying more systems that causes issues for players in the long-run who don't want to get rid of one of their ideas to make room for another (although having more character houses available is a big help!).


Of course, this is for the current state of the game. I have high hopes that mini-games could be added (even Welcome Amiibo did) and we'll have to see about furniture.
 
I was gonna get a switch to play this game but after watching my sisters I must agree with you that it seems incomplete. It lacks the animal crossing charm. So instead I'm going to enjoy more 3ds games (I mostly play new leaf but it's a wonderful little device so I want to get the most out of it) and eventually a laptop to enjoy steam to scratch the relaxing sim itch! (and also the billion other things laptops are good for) We're getting a new wii so I'll be able to play city folk for much longer without losing the save hopefully, and maybe ac gamecube sometime too.

Even without actually playing, I feel you! Just looking at the game you can tell something big is missing, something isn't right. I suspected the focus on kid friendly dialogue and customisation would overtake the dialogue and diverse characters from June e3 last year!

But I'm not gonna stress myself out over video games, no matter if the franchise is a beloved favourite! In the meantime I can play other wonderful games and go retro for a bit! I'll check back with new horizons in a year or so and see what's changed, but maybe I'll never really want the game. After all, Nintendo aren't who they used to be, but maybe updates will complete the game!
 
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