SpiritofAce
The Barista
The next Animal Crossing game should go back to being in a village. The focus should be on the villagers, depth of interaction, and actually having more elements that sets the villagers apart. You could do this by having more hobbies - (New Horizons has less hobbies than Wild World did, lol..) - which can change, like in Wild World. Each villager should also have their own unique 'goal' - can be as simple as wanting to be a writer, wanting to star in a movie, etc. There is no excuse for why each villager shouldn't have their own goal with a team as big as the Animal Crossing group at Nintendo.
Add simple jobs - not too indepth, e.g. including more options such as working in the café from New Leaf, and this is where my other idea comes in - add the facilities from Happy Home Designer but make them unlockable after a certain amount of playtime - so that means that the game does keep the feeling of the expansion and slow-development from New Horizons, but it's more rewarding because you can have facilities such as a Restaurant, a Swimming Pool, School etc - and you, as well as your villagers, can work in these facilities - and over time, they can move on from their job and do something else if they want. This helps with the villagers being more unique because as with their Hobbies, their job can change. You can of course, as with Happy Home Designer, choose the theming of your facilities from a range of options. This is missing from New Horizons with none of the buildings being customisable. For a title - perhaps Animal Crossing: Forest Life would be fitting - named after the K.K. Slider song? It'd be a very nostalgic name.
You are able to customise villager house exteriors if you wish, and you have to be at a very-high friendship level with them. They are able to change their interior at will, so it will change over time. You can of course still influence this, and now you can gift them wallpaper and flooring successfully.
There is a village-mall that you can travel to via bus. You are able to (after a certain point) change the theming of the mall yourself from a variety of options (similar to how you could change the look of Town Hall and Train Station in New Leaf - but for increased variety, you not only choose a theme - e.g. 'Fairy Tale' - but any two colours you wish to go with the theme. The village mall upgrades over time - it has its own salon, restaurant (different to the one on your village), fortune shop, Kicks' Shoe Emporium, another clothing store (which sells items made by Gracie Gracie's High-end Fashion Company), Leif's Garden Store. You are able to change the theming of the stores later on to match with how you themed the mall - or give them their own theme. To start off with, they are given a randomised basic colour. The mall looks really pretty, there is a nice fountain area in the middle with lots of benches - you can see villagers going into shops, actually interacting with the items. There's a food-shack run by Wendell where you can get a quick bite to eat whilst you shop. The stores theme properly for the Seasons with changing displays and also changing stock.
The main idea with the mall is that it's more interesting in my opinion than a City, because it fits more with the village theme, and also everyone's mall can be unique to themselves - by giving them the choice of not only a theme, but any colours they wish. It also helps reduce the pool of which daily special visitors are chosen from - a massive problem currently in New Horizons.
Tom Nook introduces you to the village as with the Gamecube version, Wild World - he is once again running a humble store. He's had enough of drinking cocktails on a Tropical Island - he has left the island in Isabelle's capable hands. The Post Office is back. Phyllis is rude again. I'm bored of the games having no personality anymore. Resetti is back to insulting you if you don't save your game properly, albeit in a light-hearted way. Isabelle is busy on the Island - so she doesn't have a major role in the game - that doesn't mean she can't show up in some way, though, I just haven't thought of how. Perhaps as a special visitor?
A significant amount of time will be spent on the villager dialogue - there's no excuse for bad writing three games in a row. Depth of interaction will be the first priority of the development team. In my view, this is the best way to create the successor to New Horizons - have the series go back to its roots somewhat with the village atmosphere, but include customisation similar to New Horizons with the ability to over-time change the landscaping of your village, choose from theming and unique colours for each building/facility, and also the new option to customise villager's housing exteriors. The game will also be a huge welcome to long-time fans of the series like me and many others who miss the atmosphere and more interesting villager interaction that previous games had, by spending a large portion of development time on improving player-villager interactions, and giving the villager's each their own unique goal.
This post was way too long, my apologies. That doesn't mean you should comment just to tell me you didn't read it - I genuinely want to know your thoughts on this. Do you agree with me?
Add simple jobs - not too indepth, e.g. including more options such as working in the café from New Leaf, and this is where my other idea comes in - add the facilities from Happy Home Designer but make them unlockable after a certain amount of playtime - so that means that the game does keep the feeling of the expansion and slow-development from New Horizons, but it's more rewarding because you can have facilities such as a Restaurant, a Swimming Pool, School etc - and you, as well as your villagers, can work in these facilities - and over time, they can move on from their job and do something else if they want. This helps with the villagers being more unique because as with their Hobbies, their job can change. You can of course, as with Happy Home Designer, choose the theming of your facilities from a range of options. This is missing from New Horizons with none of the buildings being customisable. For a title - perhaps Animal Crossing: Forest Life would be fitting - named after the K.K. Slider song? It'd be a very nostalgic name.
You are able to customise villager house exteriors if you wish, and you have to be at a very-high friendship level with them. They are able to change their interior at will, so it will change over time. You can of course still influence this, and now you can gift them wallpaper and flooring successfully.
There is a village-mall that you can travel to via bus. You are able to (after a certain point) change the theming of the mall yourself from a variety of options (similar to how you could change the look of Town Hall and Train Station in New Leaf - but for increased variety, you not only choose a theme - e.g. 'Fairy Tale' - but any two colours you wish to go with the theme. The village mall upgrades over time - it has its own salon, restaurant (different to the one on your village), fortune shop, Kicks' Shoe Emporium, another clothing store (which sells items made by Gracie Gracie's High-end Fashion Company), Leif's Garden Store. You are able to change the theming of the stores later on to match with how you themed the mall - or give them their own theme. To start off with, they are given a randomised basic colour. The mall looks really pretty, there is a nice fountain area in the middle with lots of benches - you can see villagers going into shops, actually interacting with the items. There's a food-shack run by Wendell where you can get a quick bite to eat whilst you shop. The stores theme properly for the Seasons with changing displays and also changing stock.
The main idea with the mall is that it's more interesting in my opinion than a City, because it fits more with the village theme, and also everyone's mall can be unique to themselves - by giving them the choice of not only a theme, but any colours they wish. It also helps reduce the pool of which daily special visitors are chosen from - a massive problem currently in New Horizons.
Tom Nook introduces you to the village as with the Gamecube version, Wild World - he is once again running a humble store. He's had enough of drinking cocktails on a Tropical Island - he has left the island in Isabelle's capable hands. The Post Office is back. Phyllis is rude again. I'm bored of the games having no personality anymore. Resetti is back to insulting you if you don't save your game properly, albeit in a light-hearted way. Isabelle is busy on the Island - so she doesn't have a major role in the game - that doesn't mean she can't show up in some way, though, I just haven't thought of how. Perhaps as a special visitor?
A significant amount of time will be spent on the villager dialogue - there's no excuse for bad writing three games in a row. Depth of interaction will be the first priority of the development team. In my view, this is the best way to create the successor to New Horizons - have the series go back to its roots somewhat with the village atmosphere, but include customisation similar to New Horizons with the ability to over-time change the landscaping of your village, choose from theming and unique colours for each building/facility, and also the new option to customise villager's housing exteriors. The game will also be a huge welcome to long-time fans of the series like me and many others who miss the atmosphere and more interesting villager interaction that previous games had, by spending a large portion of development time on improving player-villager interactions, and giving the villager's each their own unique goal.
This post was way too long, my apologies. That doesn't mean you should comment just to tell me you didn't read it - I genuinely want to know your thoughts on this. Do you agree with me?
I think they added the terra-forming part because of how people were designing their towns in New Leaf. I remember people hacked their games to give it a vastly different appearance. I think Nintendo saw this and decided to allow people to make their own island designs. As for the crafting, I'm not saying bring back breakable tools, but I do like being able to craft furniture if I can't find it in the stores first.
