What is your opinion of New Horizons 3 years on?

[VanitasFan26]

I pop in once a day to get my daily Nook Miles and to make sure everything is okay. This Island is going much better than the previous three when it comes to the flowers. They are such a nightmare to get rid of once they start taking over.

For me I find myself liking my island but then as the months go on it just gets so stale. I think maybe because I get new fresh ideas in my mind that I want to make the island better than already is which is why I restart so often. Yes I do the same thing too check my daily Nook Miles but for me I always login to see if my blue roses and gold roses are breeding (yes I know you need black roses in order to get gold roses) and sometimes I have to restrict myself from using my 2nd island (yes I have 2 switches and 2 copies of the game) because I don't want to rely on it so much.

This is like the only thing that makes me want to play ACNH longer whenever I feel like restarting but before I do that I have to make sure to transfer everything off of the main island first to the 2nd island so that way I keep my stuff while I can terraform with off the bat, but I have to make sure to unlock that with the 2nd character because the main character who is the Resident Represenative cannot be transfered to the 2nd island, it has to always be the regular Resident which is why restarting takes a lot of time and effort to do. It is repetitive and tedious, but it still gives me that spark of enjoying the game again. Its weird but thats just how it is for me.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

The game has kinda improved, but my opinion towards the game has always been, and always will be, lower than what it is to New Leaf now.

 

[NebulaNights]

I still love this game even to this day. Personally it’s been the best one for me. Kinda can’t stop playing it.

 

[wrenbow]

I think a lot of the complaints are valid, but overall I really love the game. Even before it came out I was super excited about leaning into the decoration aspect, since it really feels like you can make your town whatever you want it to be and every town is more unique than ever before. I also think part of the appeal of Animal Crossing has always been to make your own fun, which is why I think the amount of customisation in NH works in its favour because there's so much you can do with all of the clothing and furniture. The graphics are also really beautiful so even just walking through your town is more interesting than before, and events and the changing seasons feel so much more impressive and exciting. Seeing villagers playing, eating, working out, taking naps etc. is another one of my favourite things since it makes the town feel so much livelier and like your neighbours actually have their own lives when you're not talking to them. I could go on and on about the things I love.


I do really miss things like Tortimer's Island, old characters and so much of the old furniture, among many other things, but there's so much you can do in NH that you can't do in other games that I can live without them, even if I think the game would be much better with them. I would be lying if I said I didn't wish there was a little more of the weirdness from the old games, though. If the next instalment can find a way to mix these approaches then it would really be the best of both worlds.


So yeah, there are a lot of ways NH could have been improved and I definitely understand why some people aren't satisfied, but personally I think the game is good enough on its own that I can't bring myself to complain all that much, even if it comes from a place of love. Each instalment in the series has its own pros and cons and this one definitely shines in its own way.

 

[-Blue-]

The game has kinda improved, but my opinion towards the game has always been, and always will be, lower than what it is to New Leaf now.

I really don't think many people's opinions of the game would've been so divisive if it wasn't for the fact that the game had no real multiplayer. Literally all they needed to do was throw together a few mini-games and it'd be leagues better than what it is currently. I maybe visited all of my friends together a total of 3-4 times in the span since 2020.

There's not much to do in the game via multiplayer besides flexing about what your island looks like. And you can only do that or tour your friends around once maybe twice. You can't get much mileage out of that.

 

[illumie]

I really don't think many people's opinions of the game would've been so divisive if it wasn't for the fact that the game had no real multiplayer. Literally all they needed to do was throw together a few mini-games and it'd be leagues better than what it is currently. I maybe visited all of my friends together a total of 3-4 times in the span since 2020.

There's not much to do in the game via multiplayer besides flexing about what your island looks like. And you can only do that or tour your friends around once maybe twice. You can't get much mileage out of that.

I totally agree. The tours were so much fun both with friends and strangers. You could have fun together and didn’t even have to chat if you didn’t want to.
In NH I haven’t played with anyone in-game, I’m kinda shy and there just isn’t a reason for me to get out of my comfort zone.

 

[Drawdler]

I might be getting a bit off topic talking more about NL so I’ll try to keep this brief but for me the problem with tours is that they’re too simple. If you look into competitive gaming there’s this idea of “solving” the game and I just feel like even for casual minigames the tours are too easy to reach that point with the exception of like the maze one and the supreme hammer minigame. Some of them can still be fun despite that (passing the knowledge check on the scavenger hunt always feels good tbh) but for me those don’t have a lot of lasting appeal. I think that could have been solved and they still could have had the same casual appeal by just having a lot more tours available, as well as some sort of scoreboard and more permanent score goals

Regardless the solution was not to remove them but to expand on them. Gc having nes games was peak but even NL had the wii u and 3ds consoles ingame you could play, and we need more stuff like that for the entire series, details like that are entirely missing in the other games. I long to see the day we can have more multiplayer minigames with more lasting appeal. If not that they should at least allow you to decorate live together in the next game but I have the feeling that’s never going to happen for bugtesting reasons, it would be a nightmare for them.

 

[ali.di.magix]

Overall, the game is fine. Just fine.

It added so many aspects that have been wanted for years. Terraforming was a great addition and allowed for creativity. Placing basically anything outside and creating cool spaces with it was great. Other quality of life changes were good too.

But it's missing so much content from previous games (mostly New Leaf) and they didn't add much content for such a long time. The game was so bare-bones for such a long time that I lost interest very fast. Got back into for a little while after 2.0, but it was still missing a lot. It lacks the character and quirks of previous games.

After the release of Pocket Camp I had such high hopes for awesome new items in NH...but that just never happened. Cooking was great, but the amenities and clothing options in PC are just god tier (aside from the pay to win and microtransactions). I was really hoping for PC level of content.

I do like NH and I have got a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I can't help but feel that it could've been so much more.

 

[Midoriya]

I believe the direction they were going for with the game was fine, but it still falls short of New Leaf in terms of replayability.

 

[KittenNoir]

I was so keen for this game when it was coming out and I really enjoy the game but I wish extremely that they added heaps more and kept updating the game instead of just leaving it how it was.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I believe the direction they were going for with the game was fine, but it still falls short of New Leaf in terms of replayability.

It focused too much on the design aspect and neglected building a community.

 

[Corrie]

I want to add that the dialogue and letters you get in this game just feel very safe. I'm not sure if it was a localization problem or if it was like that in the original Japanese version but the game talks to you like you're made of glass. Nobody can get mad at you, you can't do anything wrong, it's a peaceful haven that bows down to you. It's really weird. Nobody has a personality besides "omg _____ you're so great! You look great in that shirt! Wow I love this bench you built!" The writers were afraid to offend anyone.

I know that's how a lot of the world is since everyone complains about everything but it just sucks. That imo is a big reason as to why this game lacks character.

 

[Bui]

It focused too much on the design aspect and neglected building a community.

Exactly how I feel. To me, the game felt more like "Happy Island Designer" than a full-fledged Animal Crossing game. It's a major part of why the game didn't hold my interest anywhere near as long as the previous main series Animal Crossing games.

 

[corlee1289]

I really wish they had the little games like when you visit Tortimer's Island and when you booted up the Wii and 3DS games.

The replay aspect kinda fades away once you've finished collecting all the stuff for the museum. I haven't played my game since our last event we had. But I could put it back down without any issues since it kinds leaves your town "frozen".

But I agree, they focused a lot on the design aspect and less on building a community.

 

[Cheremtasy]

I still play every now and then, despite going on month hiatuses at times, but I do it more so for my AC character and the lore I've written for her. I do still want to finish my island too, but at this point I really only go on my terraforming sprees once a year. If you're not decorating or terraforming, the game is super empty and there's nothing to do. I think it's a shame that they stopped the updates so soon. It feels like an unfinished game, especially when comparing to New Leaf which has so much more content and has so much more life.

 

[Bluelady]

My level of enjoyment of this game is a bit better than WW, because we actually have stuff to do.

However, it lost its charm at the cost of implementing a vast decorating system. Idk if it’s because of this or the Corona that some of the characters and shop upgrades were left out. The game felt incomplete without them.

 

[Mokuren]

I still like it. It's an AC after all and for me one of the bests just because you have so many options to design.

 

[Hatori]

It's still fun for me, I like to take my time working on my island (forever a work in progress lol) but I constantly play it every now and then. It's definitely a great installment to the series, I just wish they would bring back villager dialogue where they get so rude and mean to you! It's hilarious to me. And also the island mini games from New Leaf, I really enjoyed the hide and seek one! Either way, it's still quite enjoyable and I like the various things you can do now!

 

[faerie]

It's still fun, but I feel like it could have been so much more. Don't get me wrong, it made great advancements, but it also took a few steps back from new leaf

 

[Khaoticnoize187]

It certainly feels alot more complete then it was ages ago thats how i look at it.