The Magic of Animal Crossing

[fafninho]

Well, I don't know if anyone has talked about this or if you yourself have ever thought about it, but I want to talk about my experience with this game series that has been marking my life for a few years now. So grab your pigeon milk coffee (), get comfortable, and let's go.

---

My experience
I started playing Animal Crossing recently, if you compare it to many of you there, but I started in 2017, not with New Horizons, not with New Leaf, but with a fan-translated version of Animal Forest, as it was the only one I could play.
I'm 17 years old, so at the time I was around 11 or 12, but I always had contact with classic games, mainly because I didn't have the opportunity to play the latest ones. However, the feeling that that simple game with a simple purpose could change my life.
When I entered the game, the music, the feeling, the design choice, everything moved me, a feeling of nostalgia and peace without even having clicked a button was chilling, I never would have imagined it. As I played, I became more and more involved in the story, but not the one in the game (which doesn't have one, by the way), but the one I was creating there, with my character.
I played that version of the game completely, doing everything I could do, and still wanted more. Luckily, I had the chance to play Wild World, which also brought great feelings, and especially something that I always admired in games, which was character customization.
After that, I played City Folk, Pocket Camp, and finally, last year, I bought a 3DS, and I could play New Leaf, which I continue to play to this day.

---

How AC affects feelings and nostalgia
One thing I noticed when playing New Leaf after playing all the previous ones is how it messes with our heads. What in many games could be something boring, recycling old characters until today and not having a specific objective, in Animal Crossing this is a bonus.
Having contact with things and characters from previous games brings a very good feeling, like they are long-time friends, that you know and bring with you to this day, like going to listen to K.K. play in front of the train station every Saturday, to play in a cafe, to a club (and later in New Horizons, which I never got to play). Or seeing Tortimer again, who was the mayor of the previous games, enjoying his retirement on a private island.
Rebuilding locations from previous games, seeing NPCs and Villagers that you already knew, makes the small journey that one game would give you, expand to other games and other phases of your life.

---

Conclusion
That's what I had to say, it's my experience and feelings that I have while playing this simple and adorable game, which I have been carrying with me for a while.
I hope you enjoyed it and share your experiences and thoughts too! I would be happy to read and understand how you feel too.

Thanks to everyone who read this far, see you soon!

Gifs and images from:

Animal Crossing/Gallery

This is a gallery for any images relating to Animal Crossing. For a gallery of images related to the original Doubutsu no Mori, see Doubutsu no Mori/Gallery. For...

nookipedia.com

 

[RemMomori]

When I was younger (around 10 or 11) I didn't know or even hear much about Animal Crossing, this was before I started watching Nintendo directs and following the latest games. Whatever my parents got me I played. My first encounter with Animal Crossing was on Wii Music because some of the tracks got into that game. I didn't have any idea as to what it was and I didn't have a lot of access to the internet so I couldn't look it up either. The first time I played this series properly was in middle school (7th grade) when I got City Folk on the wii. It was a Gamefly game that my mom randomly put on the line up and I wasn't supposed to keep it for long but I ended up getting sucked into the game and kept it anyways.

I had never played a game like Animal Crossing before, where there was no missions like in the Mario games and where you could play at your own pace. Most of the time I just walked around town talking to any villagers that came my way, fishing at the beach, and just enjoying the atmosphere of the game. This game also came to me at a hard time in my life. I was sent to a middle school away from my neighborhood so I had to wake up at 4am just to get on the bus for the hour long ride to school. My parents were constantly mad at me for not getting good grades, it felt like the teachers were out to get me since they called my parents so much, I was isolated and bullied at school, and I didn't want to be at home or at school, the only 2 places I felt like I was going. The only place I wanted to be was in my Animal Crossing town. Just wandering around, making up my own tasks and goals, and just being able to go at my own pace, was the escape from my life I wanted. I got really close to my villagers, two in particular, Wolfgang and Nan, were two of my starting villagers and became my best friends. Honestly my villagers were the closest things I had to friends in a time of my life when I didn't have any.

My life got better in highschool but even then I found my self going back to Animal Crossing, I got a 3ds so I could play New Leaf and got New Horizons on launch day for my birthday.


Honestly I think the magic of Animal Crossing is the calm atmosphere and being able to do things at your own pace. Even the main goal given to the player at the start of the game (pay back Tom Nook) had no deadline and can be done at any time. You could go months without making any payments on the loan and the game does not even care. The player decides what goals they want to go for and what tasks they want to put on the back burner and come back to later, or never. Animal Crossing is the type of game you could pick up at any time and find at least one thing to do. I think that not having any deadlines or any shame for not completing tasks is what drew me to, and kept me playing Animal Crossing.

 

[fafninho]

When I was younger (around 10 or 11) I didn't know or even hear much about Animal Crossing, this was before I started watching Nintendo directs and following the latest games. Whatever my parents got me I played. My first encounter with Animal Crossing was on Wii Music because some of the tracks got into that game. I didn't have any idea as to what it was and I didn't have a lot of access to the internet so I couldn't look it up either. The first time I played this series properly was in middle school (7th grade) when I got City Folk on the wii. It was a Gamefly game that my mom randomly put on the line up and I wasn't supposed to keep it for long but I ended up getting sucked into the game and kept it anyways.

I had never played a game like Animal Crossing before, where there was no missions like in the Mario games and where you could play at your own pace. Most of the time I just walked around town talking to any villagers that came my way, fishing at the beach, and just enjoying the atmosphere of the game. This game also came to me at a hard time in my life. I was sent to a middle school away from my neighborhood so I had to wake up at 4am just to get on the bus for the hour long ride to school. My parents were constantly mad at me for not getting good grades, it felt like the teachers were out to get me since they called my parents so much, I was isolated and bullied at school, and I didn't want to be at home or at school, the only 2 places I felt like I was going. The only place I wanted to be was in my Animal Crossing town. Just wandering around, making up my own tasks and goals, and just being able to go at my own pace, was the escape from my life I wanted. I got really close to my villagers, two in particular, Wolfgang and Nan, were two of my starting villagers and became my best friends. Honestly my villagers were the closest things I had to friends in a time of my life when I didn't have any.

My life got better in highschool but even then I found my self going back to Animal Crossing, I got a 3ds so I could play New Leaf and got New Horizons on launch day for my birthday.


Honestly I think the magic of Animal Crossing is the calm atmosphere and being able to do things at your own pace. Even the main goal given to the player at the start of the game (pay back Tom Nook) had no deadline and can be done at any time. You could go months without making any payments on the loan and the game does not even care. The player decides what goals they want to go for and what tasks they want to put on the back burner and come back to later, or never. Animal Crossing is the type of game you could pick up at any time and find at least one thing to do. I think that not having any deadlines or any shame for not completing tasks is what drew me to, and kept me playing Animal Crossing.

Its so good that your life came better now, and i loved read your experience
I also started and passed by bad times while i played animal crossing and it was my getaway place for a long time
and even now that im better, i love to play and just.. turn off my mind and just focus on my little town

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

The part about the special characters and their journeys made me think! Now I know why I love them so much and it seems like they grow and live life just like I do, they change over time gradually! Thats really cool!

 

[Firesquids]

Man I agree, Animal crossing is just such a comforting series. I still get a wave of joy wash over me every time I load up my old town in NL and I just hang out at my house for a little while, taking in the sights and the sounds.My sister bought me new leaf for my 3DS about 2 years after it came out and I was immediately hooked.Initially my favorite part was catching bugs and fish. I loved their designs and the little blurbs about them in the museum. At the time I was just getting into preserving and displaying insects in real life so I was especially intrigued by all of the different beetles in the game. Also, the music in New Leaf is phenomenal and I love how if you play music on a record player it makes little scratchy sounds.
In New Horizons, I really love how when it rains you can see it dripping on the windows and all of the little mist and steam effects some items have.

I totally get what you mean about returning NPC's feeling like old friends too, It's a feature, not a bug. Really glad that they finally added back in some fan favorite NPCs like Pascal to New Horizons, but I still wish that they had added more.

 

[fafninho]

Man I agree, Animal crossing is just such a comforting series. I still get a wave of joy wash over me every time I load up my old town in NL and I just hang out at my house for a little while, taking in the sights and the sounds.My sister bought me new leaf for my 3DS about 2 years after it came out and I was immediately hooked.Initially my favorite part was catching bugs and fish. I loved their designs and the little blurbs about them in the museum. At the time I was just getting into preserving and displaying insects in real life so I was especially intrigued by all of the different beetles in the game. Also, the music in New Leaf is phenomenal and I love how if you play music on a record player it makes little scratchy sounds.
In New Horizons, I really love how when it rains you can see it dripping on the windows and all of the little mist and steam effects some items have.

I totally get what you mean about returning NPC's feeling like old friends too, It's a feature, not a bug. Really glad that they finally added back in some fan favorite NPCs like Pascal to New Horizons, but I still wish that they had added more.

i really want to buy a switch to play new horizons, it seems to be a unique experience, just like all animal crossings, which even with the same style, manage to be unique and stand out