Nostalgic for New Leaf?

[eeveelovee]

The game has been out for 10 years now... 10 YEARS!! I still remember the summer of 2013, playing New Leaf for the first time, and being so psyched about Main Street, and getting to unlock all the shops! I had never played Animal Crossing by myself before, I only saw other people play it on their GameCubes, so to have my own 3DS, and my own town, was everything to me at the time!

I still remember my first ever town, and the comfort I gained from playing everyday and watching my town grow. I was So proud of myself anytime I was able to obtain a Public Works Project, or when a dreamie moved in, in the perfect spot!

I do love New Horizons, however there is just an era of time in which New Leaf reigned the AC world, and it was such a magical time! Something about the game was quirky and cute and it just kept people coming back for more, even after all these years.

Do you have any nostalgic memories surrounding New Leaf? Share them below!

 

[kiwikenobi]

Oh, yeah, New Leaf was such a huge deal for me when it came out! I was counting the days. I got into a group of people messaging on Swapnote (remember when that was a thing?) and we sent silly messages to each other, asking what fruit you were hoping would be your town's native fruit and things like that. And finally when the game came out, it was mind-blowing compared to the Gamecube one, which was the only other Animal Crossing game that I'd played.

People stopped using Swapnote as much after that, but I kept trying to send messages offering to sell my extra fortune cookie prizes and things like that. I even figured out how to attach screenshots to the messages so that they could see the three pairs of Varia pants that I was trying to unload. XD

I'd never seen Kicks before I played New Leaf, and he's still my favorite Animal Crossing character of all time, he's just adorable.

And I was really into DBZ at the time, and I made custom clothes to look like DBZ stuff, and looking back at all the screenshots I took back then, it seems like there's always a Saiyan running around in my town. XD

 

[Seastar]

I'd like to apologize ahead of time for rambling so hard.
I got New Leaf in 2013, just a few months after graduating highschool. My mental and physical health were actually a wreck at the time, which I hate remembering. But this was my first Animal Crossing game. I had previously only known about Animal Crossing from what content of it existed in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Which caused my favorite K.K. Slider song to be Go K.K. Rider.). Well, also what a GameStop employee told me about Wild World, which I didn't get because I was prioritizing Pokemon games and couldn't get anything else.

I remember spending many days/nights in 2013-2014 playing New Leaf with my friend. I also remember crying when Pate unexpectedly moved out. I wish I knew more about the game before starting it because I always hated my first player character's eyes.
I got attached to a lot of my villagers like Kiki, Lyman, Anchovy, Cyrano, Velma...
I remember for some weird reason I overly hated Limberg. Somewhere there's a screenshot of me celebrating him moving out, lol. I was so weird.
In 2014 I took a long hiatus from the game. At this point I had learned how to prevent unexpected villager move outs and wanted a break because it was getting too stressful. My town was also a disaster. Items scattered everywhere because I ran out of storage space. I remember also being overwhelmed with mail.
The Welcome Amiibo update came out and although that was cool, I couldn't bare to open the game. It had been too stressful for me and I was going to have to clean up the town. So in 2018, I got a second copy of the game. I really didn't want to delete my original town. Incidentally, scanning in Amiibos would eventually lead to me realizing how much I liked Splatoon, but that's not a story this thread is for.
Around 2019-2020 is when I got very active on Club Tortimer and had a lot of different kinds of interactions. Not sure what to say exactly because there was a lot of fun and a lot of... not fun. It varied heavily.
In 2022, I got a third copy of the game. I just wanted more villagers and different player names at this point and once again didn't want to delete anything.
Comparing my 2013 town to my 2022 town is incredibly different. (If we ignore that later I scanned Splatoon clothes into the first town)
In 2013 I was obsessed with some OCs I made and drew custom designs, which I have since then banished to the storage at Able Sisters.. My first player character also has an old name I was going by since 2008 but kinda don't anymore.
My 2018 town has custom designs I made by just copying sprites while the 2013 one had designs I tried to draw without a reference and look awful. I don't think my 2022 town has anything new I made. I may have grabbed some designs from the 2018 town.
Lastly, I just want to say the music is very nostalgic to me. Sometimes I just go and listen to every hourly song.

 

[Kitsuragi]

ACNL was my first animal crossing game. clocked in well over 1k hours by the time i sold it. i played it during school, after school, stayed up late playing, met some friends through the island (tho i dont speak to most of them anymore, it was still so fun) and just overall ADORE the game.

i never EVER got a perfect town because i hated so many of the PWP designs and didn't ever get the cute ones i wanted, so my mayor never reached highest approval. oh well LOL

 

[Corrie]

10 YEARS? I hate that lol. It doesn't feel like 10! More like 6. I remember trying to collect all the seasonal items and buying them from users on here for TBT! I remember paying like 10TBT per item back then. Wild.

 

[eeveelovee]

Just wanted to add that I miss the special stump designs!! my faves were the heart and the triforce!!

 

[Croconaw]

The one thing about New Leaf that brings me the most nostalgia is Club Tortimer. Prior to the island being completely derailed by hackers and trolls, it was an enjoyable place to just hang out. Most of the users I encountered didn't speak English, but we'd communicate using the many reactions. Later, a bunch of immature people used the island to troll and it become not so fun anymore.

 

[Xara]

I’m honestly nostalgic for the New Leaf days a lot. I still can’t believe that it’s been 10, closer to 11 now, years since it released in NA. New Leaf wasn’t my first Animal Crossing game, but it’s the game that really got me into the franchise, and is by far my favourite. Almost all of my memories from it are wonderful and special to me, but there are a few in particular that stand out to me.

Firstly, the day that I got New Leaf! I happened to have the day off of school on June 9th 2013, so I was able to be at EB Games (now Gamestop) right when they opened! I still remember just bouncing excitedly in the car in the parking lot, waiting impatiently for my mom to get her stuff together so that we could go in. I remember how surreal it felt holding my copy in my hands; I spent months obsessively watching trailers, Japanese version gameplay, and playing other games just to pass the time, and finally I had my game. I was over the moon!

New Leaf was my first game playing online with others. I started off over at GameFAQS, and I had a lot of fun trading with others, giving villagers and items away for free, and even made a couple friends! I did a giveaway there on the night of a massive ice storm that hit my province back in 2013, and it ended up cutting our power for close to 24 hours. It wasn’t fun explaining to everyone why I had disappeared so abruptly in the middle of my giveaway, but the giveaway itself was a blast! I had so much fun giving things away for free in New Leaf.

Eventually, I got tired of how inactive GameFAQS was starting to become, which is when I joined here and ACC! I still remember how in awe I was at how active TBT was compared to GameFAQS at the time. I still had a lot of fun giving stuff away, from rare items to villagers. I even acquired two more copies of New Leaf and a 2DS, and used my 3rd copy as a cycling town!

One of my favourite memories from New Leaf is one of the few times that I went to Club Tortimer. It took me forever to buy the membership, and even longer to actually use it, because of how anxious it made me. Not knowing who would be on the island, how the interaction would go, what to expect etc was nerve-wracking, so it took me a while to build up the courage to go. I went a couple of times just to test the waters, but I usually chickened out and ended up leaving after 5 minutes or so. But one night, I was bored and tired of being anxious, so I went for longer than 5 minutes, which is when I met Hannah.

I don’t remember what her character looked like, but I remember that her name was Hannah and that English wasn’t her native language. We didn’t talk much because of it, but we decided to go on island tours together. We played together for around an hour or so until she had to leave, but before she left, she generously bought a ukulele from the island’s gift shop and gifted it to me. There was just something so pure and beautiful about not being able to fluently speak the other’s language, but still playing and having fun together, and then receiving a gift as if the fun wasn’t gift enough. I don’t have my copies of New Leaf anymore, but I never got rid of the ukulele, nor did I ever forget about Hannah. Wherever she is, I hope she’s doing okay

I have a bunch of other nostalgic memories from New Leaf, but I’d be here all night if I tried to talk about them all. Sitting under my blanket and playing when I was supposed to be asleep, and having to quickly hide my 3DS and lay down at the slightest noise, out of fear of it being my parents. Beau, my #1 favourite villager at the time, randomly moving into my second town. Farming for rare beetles and fish on Tortimer’s Island. Etc etc etc. The New Leaf era was truly unmatched, I honestly miss it a lot.

 

[sebsundrop]

I remember my dad showing me the trailer and I was a hater because I was into "cool" games like Pokemon and Mario at the time (still lovee them). My sister got a copy the year it came out, and since we were kids we shared until we got our own copies. One day the next year I was really sad because we had a Valentines party at school and I didn't get that much candy compared to my classmates. So, I played New Leaf after my sister tormented me for 10 minutes about it.
I had a blast! I actually bought my own copy with my birthday money that summer along with Tomodachi Life (back when 3DS games were still 20 bucks, lol). I have so many good memories with this game, like having my two favorite villagers Cheri and Bluebear in my first town Kiwi, playing with my best friend, and Tortimers Island. The fish section in the Museum actually made me love sea creatures more because I thought it was so pretty looking at all of them when I first finished my encyclopedia
I just got back into playing it on my new town, and I don't regret it. New Horizons was great the first year it was out, but it's not really "Animal Crossing" as much as the first four games are to me. I love New leaf so much. I have well over 1k hours on that game, maybe even 2k, if you count the hours on both of my 3DS handhelds. I miss the 3DS era sooo much.

 

[hoodathotit]

I haven't missed a day of playing New Leaf since 2017, or maybe even before, nostalgia doesn't really apply.

 

[wuppytime]

oooh my gosh, i logged so much time into new leaf......
i remember i had marshal at one point! back when that site you could take an image and maybe a design with it, i used a picture of marshal. put it up as a custom shirt. the day after, he was wearing the shirt with his own face on it. LOL.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

At the time I started playing New Leaf, I had more nostalgia for the GC and WW versions, while New Leaf is modern. Now I have nostalgia towards ACNL and all these times I worked on my towns. Especially when I was preparing for the town of StarFall and making the town of StarFall (but that’s also because of some other events going on at the time I was preparing for StarFall).

Some things do ring the nostalgia bell today. Like the hourly music.