ACNH: Stay or Go

[Shawna]

So, this video game me an idea for another thread. What features that were introduced into this game do you think should STAY, and which ones do you think should GO?
There are features that "made" Animal Crossing (the ones that should STAY)
There were ones that "broke" (or that you would just rather revert from) Animal Crossing (the ones that should GO)

Feel free to also elaborate on why you think certain features should stay, or go. Remember, these are just my humble opinions on how to make an ideal Animal Crossing game. It's okay if we happened to disagree on some of these. ^^

Living on an Island - GO. Don't get me wrong, living on an island for New Horizons was a nice change, but I think it would be nice to go back to living in a town like we did in the pre-New Horizons days. Not to mention, the desert island limits your starting villagers (which I will be getting into more). In previous installments there were more potential starting villagers. However, I do not mind having to start from scratch to some extent like we did in New Horizons, like having to pull weeds and having to unlocked a lot more buildings along the way. I do not mind some buildings being in the actual town, but I think we should have something similar to Main Street in New Leaf, so out town doesn't get so crowded.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY. While there are useful guides out there, I find it silly that your face would be generated based on how you answers questions in the pre-New Horizons games. With each game, things have gotten better. However, New Leaf didn't would handle things correctly. You had to go through the rigmarole of unlocking Shampoodle, THEN a couple weeks later, you could finally change your eye color. New Horizons finally made the decision to allow us to customization how we see fit. I don't see why this should go. I love being able to have my player character reflect myself from the get-go. New Leaf made this time-consuming while its predecessors made it downright limited.

Tool Ring - STAY. I think we can all agree that this made it A LOT easier to select our tools. I would love for Nintendo to take a step forward and make the tool ring separate from our pockets in future games.

Autosaving - STAY. Autosaving can be useful, but it can also be a bit harmful if you screw something up. I decided that it should stay, but we should have an option to switch it on or off.

Buying in Bulk - STAY. I am glad that Nook's has an infinite number of minor stuff now. Buying in bulk is useful. However, we should be able to customize the quantity.

Outdoor Furniture - STAY. I love how we can place furniture outside. This definitely gave us more ways to decorating and make our island unique.

Terraforming - STAY. This is something that helped us to quite literally shape out islands. My only issue with how tedious it was. I would love something similar to HHP where we could decorate, terraform, pave, fence, etc. more efficiently.

Placing Paths - STAY. Pavements were a nice addition. It allowed you to have natural paths as opposed to designed ones

Placing Fences - STAY. Another nice addition to help liven things up. I would love for more fences, more variants, and a more streamlined way to customize them.

Crafting - GO. Don't get me wrong, crafting was useful under some circumstances, but there was way too much focus placed onto it. Not to mention, it was very poorly executed. You would get SO MANY duplicates even when there were hundreds to be unlocked. And you wanna know what I find ABSOLUTELY INANE?! You had the option to decline DIY recipes you didn't have...BUT they would ******* FORCE a recipe on you that YOU ALREADY HAVE!
What kind of backwards non-sense is this?! I do not know if crafting should go altogether, but it should be more minor (like for medicine). Yeah, it's nice to have it for making furniture, but it is tedious. I rather just have other methods of obtaining it like how we had those street pass homes in NewLeaf.

Farming - GO. Obviously, this excludes turnips, as they have always been a thing, but I also think farming should go, since it is mostly just used for cooking (which I will be getting into next) and it takes up too much space.

Cooking - GO. As I hinted above, I think cooking should go. It is useful for stamina to shovel up trees an break rocks, but we can just use fruit for that (which, BTW, we should our native fruit for sale again in future mainline games). Crafting ties into cooking. Cooking ties into farming. I do not necessarily hate these features, but they took away from the AC experience.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY. These are a godsend! It is so much easier to navigate our island with these. It would be ridiculous to get rid of these!

8-Player Online Play - STAY. Personally, I do not care to play with 7 other people at a time. I am an introvert, and this would probably overwhelm me, but this doesn't mean I think it should go. This should stay for the extroverts that do, and to make trades (if you are intending to trade with multiple people at a time) easier and faster.

Singing Villagers - STAY. Nothing much to this, but it is cute and makes villagers seem more life like, so I am in favor if this staying.

Breakable Tools - GO. Okay...this is EASILY my most hated feature in the game. I just wanna fish. I just wanna water my flowers. I just wanna catch bugs! I do NOT want to have to stop when I am in the middle of these, just because my tool breaks. It is even more ridiculous that GOLDEN tools break. I love having to not stress about this in the older games. It's NICEEEE!

(and some ones that weren't mentioned in the video)

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY. This is extremely useful. I freaking hate how villagers can place their houses anywhere they damn-well please in New Leaf.

Villager Hunting - STAY. I highly doubt we are going to get mystery tours again, but I think it would be awesome to have something similar to where we can go hunt for villagers. It would be even better if it gave us a handful of villagers of varying personality to make the chances of finding a specific villager we'd like not be so slim.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order - GO. So, this is version of Animal Crossing made it to where the first 6 villagers were personality-specific. We started with a jock and a sisterly. We set up houses for a normal, a peppy, and a lazy villager. Then our first camper would be a smug. And it would take forever for us to get our freedom of Amiiboing in villagers. Yes, we could do some villager hunting towards the beginning, but it was limited to normal, peppy, and lazy villagers. It takes FOREVER to even have the POSSIBILITY of getting a snooty and cranky villager.

Giving Villagers Gift In-person - STAY. This is actually something I have been wanting in Animal Crossing. I think I can even recall saying I wanted this in New Horizons when we were waiting on it to come out. I am a sucker for anything that has to do with more interactions with villagers.

Cheering Villagers Up - STAY. Similar to my point above, this is definitely something that should stay. I haven't experienced this for myself yet, but I want to. I bet it is pretty heartwarming. :,)

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - STAY. It was always a pain to see whether you donated certain critters or not in the older games. You would have to go to the museum to do so, and even then, it was hard to rule out what you haven't donated yet. New Horizons offers a very straight-forward way of doing so. It would be a shame if they just got rid of this QOL feature.

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY. It is very useful to being able to shovel trees and move them to other places. It's nice removing rocks, but it would be awesome if we could replace them as we see fit like the trees

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - STAY. I know some people do not like this because "It makes the island a prison" and "It is harder to move out non-dreamies" (which I understand the latter point), but we need to look at the other side of the coin: We all have dreamies that we do not want to lose. Some people may like to time travel or go on hiatuses, so it is crucial that we have this in place. It is nice knowing that villagers can no longer possibly move until talking to you first.

BONUS: Features that debuted in New Leaf that reappeared in New Horizons
(even though this thread is mostly for ACNH-debutant features, I want to give my opinion on
ACNL-debutant ones, that made another appearance in New Horizons)

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY. Based on my support for house and building relocating, of course I support this. I am glad New Horizons took a step forward with relocation.

Exterior Customization - STAY. I loved this in New Leaf. It's decent in New Horizons, but I feel like it took a step back. I would like more themes and options to be available again.

Refurbishing - STAY. This was a godsend. I love being able to change the color and whatnot of my furniture. Two of my favorite furniture series (besides lovely) are regal and rococo. I love their styles. However, what is also important to me is color scheme. Thanks to refurbishing I can have these furniture sets to have both white and pink color schemes. Which is one of my favorite ones.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - GO. Now look. I consider myself an advocate for villagers that are more life-like, 3D, in-depth, etc. But this is one of the few things I do not like. It is sometimes a nightmare to track them down. And this also limits dialogue and interaction. If Nintendo wants to continue with this we should, #1 - have a way to track down villagers and #2 - still have the ability to offer favors, retrieve items, deliver packages (this also goes for not being able to do certain things when they are fishing. This needs to change)

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY. I love being able to Amiiboing in my favorite villagers. This is a godsend and one of Nintendo's best creations.

Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - STAY. Despite all the chaos this has put me through, I still think this should stay. However, this should stay limited to villagers we have a significantly high friendship with. AND WE NEED A DND SYSTEM! WHY THE **** DO I HAVE TO GET BARGED IN ON IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?! My cranky villagers do NOT care.

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - STAY. I love this. I love getting random sweet messages from my favorite villagers. I love anything that has to do with more life-like, in-depth, etc. villagers, and rewards for befriending villagers. It may simple to normal people, but I love getting letters like "I hope you're well", "I'm thinking of you", "I'm here for you.", etc.

Unscheduled Visits - STAY. So, as you know, visits were introduced in WildWorld, where villagers could ask to come to your house. However, you would have to choose a certain time for them to do so and you could not set them too soon. This re-appeared in City Folk, and villagers could ask to arrange a visit for you to come to their house as well. The frequency is a lot less in City Folk than it is in Wild World, but I actually scheduled a visit for a villager to come to my house a few days ago.

These scheduled visits reappeared once again in New Leaf and are a lot more frequent than in City Folk. Thankfully, there where also unscheduled visits introduced into New Leaf, where villagers could just be like "Can I visit your house right now?" and "Do you want to come over to my house right now?"

New Horizons did even better by getting rid of timed visits altogether. Unscheduled "right now" visits are the best way. Timed/scheduled visits can be a problem because we could be forgetful and/or something can come up. I can usually cheese the system by just waiting in my house the whole time, but this is only for when villagers are coming over to your house, not the other way around. Since planned visits are rare in City Folk, I mostly worry about this in New Leaf, since it is a lot more frequent, like atrociously frequent. Planned visits are EXTREMELY RARE in New Horizons for some reason. My only issue with the frequency in WildWorld and especially New Leaf (since they can also ask you to their house, which you cannot do from the get go) was that you were forced to wait. City Folk, not so much because of how rare they are in that version. Again, I am glad New Horizons did away with this rigmarole altogether. I am completely okay with my favorite villagers asking to come over to my house and vice-versa, but the game should not force me to wait. ._.

---

Some of you may not like the OP-related features, and that's okay, but they should be available and optional, so people can play as they see fit.

 

[Xara]

We have a lot of the same opinions! I’m only going to talk about the features that made their debut in New Horizons, with maybe some bonus ones?? Idk we’ll see how this goes lol

I’m also going to add a third category: neutral. There are some features that I don’t use and/or would be fine with or without, so I’ll put those under that category.

GO
Deserted island setting - Living on an island was a nice change from the previous games, and I appreciate Nintendo trying to switch things up in New Horizons to keep things fresh, but I definitely prefer living in towns. They just felt much more cozy and community-like than the island does... or maybe that’s just my thoughts on the games themselves. But I missed getting greeted by Kapp’n or Rover when I first started up the game. New Horizons starting in an airport and our character living on an island just felt too… idk, modernized? Idk how else to explain it, but I prefer the aesthetic of towns. I hope the next game has us return to living in a town of some sort.

Breakable tools - Breakable tools are truly the bane of my existence. It still bugs me that even the golden tools break. Like what is the point of them then?? I could just buy 5 regular tools from Nook’s and it’d be the same amount of durability as a singular golden tool, and it wouldn’t waste a gold nugget. I am begging Nintendo to never do this again

STAY
Change your appearance at any time - I really appreciate being able to change my appearance at any time in New Horizons! I know that it kind of rendered Harriet useless beyond her teaching us certain hairstyles since we can just change our hairstyle, hair colour and eye colour at any time on our own now, but I think I’m okay with that. I’d much rather be able to tweak my appearance at any time without Harriet rather than being limited to once per day with Harriet like we used to be. I’m also very grateful that darker skin tones are finally an option without having to tan, though I still think it’s ridiculous that it took so long for that to be a thing. The default skin tone being white and not being able to change that without tanning in the past games was a massive yikes.

Reshaping the land/terraforming - I haven’t done much terraforming myself as it overwhelms me, but I think it’s a great feature, and I’d love for it to be in future games as well! I know people have talked about tweaks that they’d like to make terraforming better/easier, so it’d be cool if terraforming was improved for the next game! I haven’t done enough of it to really have any critiques of it, but I think it’d definitely be less overwhelming if we didn’t have to do it tile by tile. Especially when we’re trying to demolish something.

Outdoor furniture - The PWPs in New Leaf were great, but I love being able to actually place furniture outside now!! An improvement would be letting us place rugs outside as well, and letting us hang stuff on cliffs (if they were to also return)!

Fences - I haven’t used fencing much (mostly because I haven’t decorated much in general xnsjcbhc), but I think fencing was a great addition!! Would love to see a Christmasy one with Christmas lights on it in the next game pls

Autosave - I initially put autosave under “neutral”, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how good of a feature autosave is to have. When the game first came out, I wasn’t super happy about autosave since I was so used to just having to save manually, but I don’t mind it anymore. My game has never crashed, but autosave is good to have in case it ever does. It’s especially good for online play, since disconnecting and crashing is more likely then. It’s a nice little safety net to have, even though I still always make sure to manually save as well.

8-player online play - I’ve played with that many people at the same time only a handful of times, but I think 8 players is a generous limit! Definitely a great upgrade from New Leaf’s 4. It’s made giveaway/catalog towns easier to host, having people over to sell turnips easier, and it comes in handy during certain TBT events!! The 8-player limit is honestly a little too generous imo for New Horizons considering how little multiplayer activities there are, but I’d hate to see the limit decrease!!

Path-making tool - I don’t really use the default paths, but I still like to use the path-making tool for my custom paths!! It’s satisfying, and makes laying the path down neatly easier!

Cooking - I honestly really like the cooking feature, and am happy it was finally introduced to the series!! I haven’t done much of it outside of doing it for Nook Mile Achievements and decorative purposes, but it’s still nice! I like that it added a bunch of food items like people were asking for. I’d be happy with it returning in a future game!

Buying in bulk - I appreciate that we can buy an unlimited amount of stuff at Able’s and certain stuff at Nook’s in bulk, but I wish we could actually buy things in bulk, all at once. Some sort of “add to cart” feature would’ve especially been great at Able’s.

Singing villagers - Very cute!! I would be happy for villagers to keep singing their silly little songs forever

House/building relocation - Getting to leave plot resetting behind me in New Leaf has been a small miracle. I know not everyone loves being able to relocate buildings, but I’m personally grateful that I not only get to relocate them, but I get to choose where most of them go!! I never, ever want to have to plot reset ever again. I just wish I could relocate Resident Services.

Villager hunting - Villager hunting/island hopping is one of my fave things to do in New Horizons!! I love the excitement of not knowing what villager will be on each island, and the thrill of not knowing what villager you’ll end up inviting back to your island after each island hop session!! I also like the special islands, especially shark island! I’m still bummed that hybrid island was removed, though. I agree that mystery islands probably won’t return in the next game, but I’d love for a similar mechanic to be in the next game!!

Giving villagers daily gifts - This is honestly such a cute feature! I love being able to give my villagers a gift every day, and I appreciate that I can give it to them face-to-face instead of having to mail it to them!

Cheering villagers up - Cute!! I always talk to my villagers after they’ve gotten into a fight until they let me cheer them up. I wish I could cheer both villagers up, though!! By the time I’ve cheered one of them up, the other is always already over whatever happened. Begging Nintendo to let me cheer both villagers up next time, and let me hug them!!

Being able to check what you’ve donated to the Museum from your Critterpedia - I didn’t utilize this feature myself since I always donated the first of anything I caught to Blathers, but this is definitely a useful feature!

Being able to dig up trees and break rocks with your shovel - Another feature that I haven’t utilized much, but still very helpful!

Villagers not being able to move out without permission - I don’t think I could handle villagers going back to being able to move out randomly. It was needlessly stressful not being able to not play New Leaf for a week or longer without having to worry about coming back to a villager being gone. The game would literally punish you for not playing, and I hated it. My #1 favourite villager moving out after I didn’t play for 2 weeks because of a depressive episode was not a memory I needed!!

NEUTRAL
Tool ring - I’ve never used it and still just select my tools manually from my pockets xnsjcnch, so I wouldn’t mind if this didn’t make it to the next game. I also wouldn’t mind if it did.

Crafting - I haven’t minded having to craft in New Horizons, and I wouldn’t mind if crafting returned in a future game. Though, if it does return, it’d be cool if we could craft things in bulk next time. It’d also be nice if we could “recycle” crafted items back into the raw materials, in case we change our mind about something we crafted, didn’t end up needing it anymore etc. It also makes no sense to me that when a villager is crafting, we can deny a recipe that we don’t have, but we’re forced to take the ones we do have. I’d love for that to change as well.

Vaulting pole and ladder - They were a lot of fun to use in New Horizons, especially the vaulting pole! The ladder is a tiny bit more annoying, but there being ladders that I can place on cliffs so that I don’t have to keep pulling my wooden one out helps a lot. Depending on the layout of the next game, they may or may not be necessary, but I wouldn’t mind them coming back! I have fun swinging across rivers with my vaulting pole, so I’d be content with getting to do it in the next game as well hehe

Warp pipes - I haven’t really used them, so I’d be fine with or without them. I wish there was a way to connect certain ones to certain others if you have more than two, instead of what pipe you come out of being random. I’d use them more if they were like that, instead of only really being able to use 2.

Farming - The crops are cute, but I’d be fine with or without farming! Unless they add fruits like strawberries next time, then I’d be a little happier about farming hehe

Villagers moving in in order of personality - I don’t really understand why villagers moved in in order of personality, but it’s never been a big deal to me. I think it’d be more fun if Nintendo changed that in the next game, so that there’d be a little bit more of a “surprise” element to who your first lineup of villagers will be and what personality will move in next, but I’m fine either way.

 

[ShawnFuzz]

I say Stay

 

[Acies]

Living on an Island - Neutral. I think having this theme a sesond time would be repetitive, but I don't mind the open sea and the towns always felt a bit isolated already, anyway. I think having both would be nice.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY, for facial features, although it would be nice if there was some quiz-like option you could refuse, like in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. As for hair, I like having to unlock things, and I like the simulation aspect of going to the salon (just more features in general).

Tool Ring - STAY, especially with having more tools overall.

Autosaving - Neutral, although it always makes me a bit paranoid that I might to something harmful while it's saving.

Buying in Bulk - STAY, and more quality of life bulk features, please.

Outdoor Furniture - STAY, people were trying to create scenes like this in New Leaf already, anyway, and there are so many creative options.

Terraforming - STAY. You're free to use it if you want to, or keep it natural.

Placing Paths - STAY. Although an option with even less clicking would be preferrable.

Placing Fences - STAY.

Crafting - STAY. Just, please, give me reason to do it, and don't make it as tedious? I'm all for more item interaction.

Farming and Cooking - STAY, but same as above.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY.

8-Player Online Play - STAY, I guess. I don't have an Online Membership, but I guess it's fun to have.

Singing Villagers - STAY. The more they can do, the more personality, the better.

Breakable Tools - GO GO GO. Axes, okay, annoying, but understandable. If you want to craft, then basic tools, okay, that's all right, too. But gold tools? Absolutely not.

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY. Again, as with terraforming, you can keep the random factor.

Villager Hunting - STAY (reluctantly). It's one more option, and it's less costly than having to buy Amiibos.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order - Neutral, although I dislike how uniform it makes every single game file creation.

Giving Villagers Gift In-person and Cheering Villagers Up - STAY. More interaction!

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - STAY. Keep the quality of life improvements. Plus: a sense of accomplishment.

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY.

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - STAY. It takes away some of the randomness and liveliness, but I prefer this to crippling anxiety, heartache, and not playing out of fear.

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY.

Exterior Customization - STAY. We already had it before, and I'd like even more options, some more out-there ones.

Refurbishing - STAY. I always liked the options, whatever the way to get them.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - STAY. I live for their interactions, I want them to feel like individuals, and they don't talk to each other often enough.

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY. I mean, people already own the cards, and it's useful if you want to use it.

Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - STAY. It's annoying, but I play the game for the villagers, mainly. Why wouldn't they visit me?

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - STAY. Same as above, the aspect of interaction. I want real letters to return, though.

Unscheduled Visits - STAY, please. I usually don't play long enough to schedule visits.

 

[azurill]

Living on an Island - Neutral. It doesn’t matter to me if we are on an island or in a town.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY, I like being able to change my hair whenever I want and not have to pay for it.

Tool Ring - STAY, especially with having more tools overall. I love how easy it makes changing tools.

Autosaving - I’m not sure about this. Sometimes I don’t mind it but sometimes it saves at the worst time. So maybe have an option to turn it off/on.

Buying in Bulk - STAY, with the option to choose how many you want. Some things I do want more then 5 of.

Outdoor Furniture - STAY, I love the amount of items we can place outside. That we don’t have restrictions on where we can place them. Maybe add that we can place small and medium rugs outside. As well as wall hanging items on cliffs. There are so many wall items that would look better outside.

Terraforming - STAY. Maybe make it easier to see where you are terraforming by being able to change the view .

Placing Paths - STAY. With making it so you can only get rid of custom patterns in construction mode.

Placing Fences - STAY.

Crafting - STAY. I am probably one of the few that like to craft. I just wish we could customize all the DIY items instead of just some of them. Maybe have a color wheel so it makes themed islands/towns easier to decorate.

Farming and Cooking - STAY, I really like both and wish we had more fruit and veggies. I love being able to make a farm.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY.

8-Player Online Play - STAY, I don’t play with that many people but it’s nice for those that do.

Singing Villagers - STAY. I love when my villagers sing.

Breakable Tools - It can go. I don’t mind if flimsy tools break but good and definitely gold tools should not break.

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY. I like being able to move them. Especially in the beginning when you can’t terraform.

Villager Hunting - STAY . I don’t always use it and usually just let villagers move in randomly. I do like that it is an option.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order:
I don’t mind this .


Giving Villagers Gift In-person and Cheering Villagers Up - STAY. I love being able to give gifts in person. I wish we had more ways to interact with villagers.

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia- STAY. Keep the quality of life improvements. I sometimes forget to donate something the first time so it’s nice to know what it is.

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY. I think I would like the option to pick the rock up with the shovel instead of breaking it . This way I can place it where I want instead of hopping it goes there on its own.

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - STAY. I like that I can take a break and not have to worry about villagers leaving.

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY.

Exterior Customization - STAY. With more color options and themes.

Refurbishing - STAY. I would love to be able to change the colors of wallpaper and flooring. When I refurbish items I sometimes have a hard time finding wallpaper and items to match.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - STAY. I would love for them to interact more with each other. It’s nice to see them visiting each other.

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY. Especially since I have been collecting more of them.

Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - STAY. With the option of a do not disturb sign so they know you are working on your house and they can come back later.

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - STAY. I love getting random letters from villagers.

Unscheduled Visits - STAY. Because I sometimes get distracted and forget about them.

 

[himekirako]

neutral
living on an island: i don't mind an island or a town to be quite honest
autosaving: i don't mind it! sometimes i do worry it'll save when i make a mistake (if i accidently let a villager move out for example)
8-player online play: i would need that many friends haha, on a serious note i've never had more than maybe 3 friends over at once
villager hunting: i didn't do it a lot and did let a few move in themselves but it was fun when i did it!
villagers moving in personality-order: i didn't really mind it, but it would be fun if it was more random?
cheering villagers up: i don't actually have to cheer them up that often? they're never angry or sad :[

stay:
changing our appearance anytime: i absolutely love changing up how my character looks whenever i feel like it
tool ring: i love this feature! it really makes things easier
buying in bulk: love it! i do wish buying at the able sisters was a little more seamless because it does take quite some time to buy all the clothing that i want
outdoor furniture: i love designing spaces outdoors, although i wish sometimes i could plop certain smaller items at a specific spot on surfaces, or being able to really control where items place would be nice
terraforming: just being able to change the layout is daunting but i do love the freedom of it!
placing paths: i like the option between the in-game ones and custom designs, but i really do wish the custom designs wouldn't be kicked off so easily ):
placing fences: i like the look of fences!
crafting: i like it, incentivizes me to actually collect resources when running around my island
farming & cooking: same as above, it makes me want to collect my crops because i will sometimes decorate spaces with food items!
vaulting poles & ladders: i like the convenience of them, same with the ones we can place outdoors
singing villagers: please it's soooo cute, especially when i hear faint singing and go looking for who's singing
relocating houses & buildings/placing your house wherever: i love being able to move things around, mostly because i'm really indecisive and do change my mind a lot
giving villagers gift in-person: i need to do it more often but love gifting them things :3
seeing what you donated from your crittipedia: i'm a completionist when possible so being able to see what i'm missing is just what i need haha
shovelling trees & breaking rocks: as much as getting my rock garden in the right spot pained me, i do like the fact that i was able to move my rocks
villagers always talk to you before moving: yes!!! because it gives me the chance to change their minds!!!
exterior customization: it's fun seeing different combinations! plus it can change when i change the aesthetic of my island heh
refurbishing: i like seeing the different options available, plus it sometimes gives me an opportunity to trade with my friends~
villagers visiting buildings & other villagers' houses: yes, it helps with my story when i see certain villagers hanging out together!
amiibo-ing in villagers: haha i like being able to force them into coming, because if you have really bad hunts then you know you can always turn to your amiibos :>
villagers randomly visiting your house: i love hosting them! sometimes i am in the middle of sometimes, but it's okay
villagers randomly sending letters: i keep a lot of their letters! they're fun to look back at, especially when the villagers aren't on my island anymore
unscheduled visits: i mostly play later in the day so i like their spontaneous visits

go:
breakable tools: i don't mind the regular tools breakings but maybe not the golden ones </3

 

[Alolan_Apples]

• Living on an Island - go. It’s back to moving to the town along the coast.
• Changing Our Appearance Anytime - stay. This should be done anywhere.
• Tool Ring - neutral. I hardly use it.
• Autosaving - stay. I can’t lose all that work I spent hours in.
• Buying in Bulk - stay. It’s better than going back and forth for one item.
• Outdoor Furniture - stay. That’s part of exterior customization.
• Terraforming - stay. That’s part of exterior customization. If only we can change terrain texture too.
• Placing Paths - stay. That’s part of exterior customization.
• Placing Fences - stay. That’s part of exterior customization. If only we had gates too.
• Crafting - stay. But bring back old items and traditional furniture series, please.
• Farming - stay. If anything, we need more crops and fruits.
• Cooking - stay. This is fun, and we can make real food.
• Vaulting Poles and Ladders - stay. We’ll need that when building a town, but not when the town is finished.
• 8-Player Online Play - stay. The more, the merrier.
• Singing Villagers - neutral. I don’t care much.
• Breakable Tools - go. That’s become a worse nuisance than sea basses.
• Relocating Houses and Buildings - stay. Town design needs more of that.
• Villager Hunting - stay. But that’s not how I get my villagers.
• Villagers Moving In Personality-order - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Giving Villagers Gift In-person - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Cheering Villagers Up - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - stay. This can help us know what to donate.
• Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - stay. Town design needs this too.
• Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - stay. The villagers I choose are the villagers I want to keep.
• Placing Your House Wherever - stay. This gives me more creative freedom.
• Exterior Customization - stay. This also needs to be expanded too.
• Refurbishing - stay. There should be clothing dyes too.
• Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Amiibo-ing In Villagers - stay. That’s how I choose my villagers.
• Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.
• Unscheduled Visits - neutral. I don’t care too much about villagers.

 

[Lancelot]

I’d have to think about other options as I only just woke up, but HEAVY agree on the island setting going. I didn’t like it from the moment they announced it. It alongside with the island themed music just art cozy, they give more summer holiday vibes which isn’t what animal crossing is to me

 

[moondog385]

Occasional lurker here. Made an account purely for this great thread.

• Living on an island: Go - the coastal town is the heart and soul of the series
• Changing appearance anytime: Stay
• Tool ring: Stay - agree that it should be separate from pockets, perhaps as a toolbox
• Autosaving: Stay - though agree that it should have a toggle
• Buying in bulk: Stay - again, agree with your suggestion
• Outdoor furniture: Stay
• Terraforming: Go - I would greatly prefer the next entry shift away from NH's level of player control
• Placing paths and fences: Stay
• Crafting: Go - the whole system was a mistake
• Farming: Stay with changes - work it into the stalk market; you can sell crops to Joan
• Cooking: Go - would be pointless without crafting
• Vaulting poles and ladders: Definitely stay
• Breakable tools: Stay with changes - initial tools can break on unlucky days; golden tools don't break
• Relocating houses and buildings: Stay with changes - this should really only return if the player is the mayor or some equivalent again; allowing you to set plots prior to the arrival of villagers and buildings (no relocating in the future) would be a good replacement
• Villager hunting: Don't care one way or the other
• Villagers moving in personality order: Go - would prefer it be random
• Giving villagers gifts: Stay - never utilized the feature much myself though
• Seeing what you donated from your Crittipedia: Stay - one of NH's best new features easily (for my playstyle at least)
• Shoveling trees and breaking rocks: Stay
• Villagers always talk to you before moving: Go - bring back the RNG; I don't like the "player is god" feel of NH
• Placing your house wherever: Stay
• Exterior customization: Stay - would love this to be greatly expanded
• Refurbishing: Stay
• Villagers visiting buildings and other villagers' houses: Stay - and get rid of Nook Miles or equivalent rewards for talking to villagers; makes it feel like a chore (which it was in NH)
• Amiibo-ing villagers: Stay - though I won't use it
• Villagers randomly visiting your house: Stay with changes - once you reach a certain friendship level with a villager, you can give them the key to your house, allowing them to visit at any time (when you're there, of course)
• Villagers sending letters: Stay - probably the only instance in NH I actually felt like the villagers had personality

There are a ton of features that I would like to return that were missing from NH, but that seems outside the scope of this thread.

 

[Pyoopi]

Go:
Unscheduled visits: I really, really don't like these. I think there should be at least an option to deny them to come in. The fact that the front room is now the most unsafe room to be in since they just come barging in. Why even have a door? lol
Breakable Tools: This wasn't a bad thing but I'd like it better when we reached the gold tools that they wouldn't break at all. It just made gold tools utterly useless and not worth wasting a gold nugget on.
Crafting: It's not like I hated this feature. It was cute and fun to gather materials. The thing I disliked was the repeat DIYs from villagers. I think villagers should have given you an option to take DIY dupe or not. Also I feel like the bottle DIYs should have always been a new DIY no matter what.

Neutral:
Farming: I didn't find this too bad. It wasn't anything like traditional farming games which I am happy about. I don't like farming games. The sugarcane was very useful though to plant around my island.
Cooking: I didn't mind this as well. I sorta wish it was more like a mini game, kind of like Fantasy Life, but I feel like that might be asking too much. It makes sense they would just make it like crafting.
Island Living: I actually liked it and I like when the AC brand explores new environments than the same old town thing. I hope the next installation is something unique, maybe something similar to the HHP biomes would be cool.

Then Stay for everything else. I don't have an issue with the other things.

 

[MrBox]

I like this thread! Thanks for making it!
It's fun to read other opinions and to write about your own.

Living on an Island

This has to go. I do not care about it at all. I love/loved living in towns, villages and near cities! The island life is interesting but..... hmm. Nah.​

Changing Our Appearance Anytime

Eh.... I don't see a point to this feature unless you're like.. going to cosplay somebody. I say it has to go.​

Terraforming

Nah. I honestly don't like it. I have terraformed my island but I would prefer if I didn't have the option to do it. I'd want it to go.​

Crafting

Nah. Maybe like the things made out of weeds? But like. God.​

Vaulting Poles and Ladders

Go. Sorry, but I like walking in games LOL​

Tool Ring

For sure keep, I mean. For certain consoles, this.... will not be possible. But if they can, I'd say keep it! It's useful- but I also wouldn't miss it too much if it was gone.​

Autosaving

Honestly, I feel nothing towards this. I think it's funny though, since most games these days offers autosaving! I introduced my friend to Undertale and she didn't know how to manually save games since the games she plays auto saves lol​

Buying in Bulk

Oh this is a nice feature. I say keep. I don't use it much in New Horizons but it's really nice when I want to buy in bulk.​

Outdoor Furniture

Sure. I don't feel much towards the outside decorating thing... I do have my island decorated but.. eh... it's just a shrug for me!​

Placing Paths

Keep for sure! This is a nice feature and people make paths for their towns anyways so, it was a nice addition.​

Placing Fences

I say keep, since it feels like placing paths.​

Farming

Eh......... I say keep but... ehhhhhh. EEeeeh. It's hard for me to say stay or go to this..​

Cooking

I say keep! But.. there's... no real point in this. But I guess you can argue that eating in the games don't really do anything either.​

Singing Villagers

Keep! So cute! I love watching them sing!​

Relocating Houses and Buildings

Stay! It saves so much time and headache.​

Villager Hunting

I feel pretty much nothing to this but it's fun! So stay!​

Giving Villagers Gift In-person

It's nice for villager photo hunting and giving clothes to villagers.​

Cheering Villagers Up

??? What is this? You can cheer them up?>​

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving

I like it! I would like an option for villager to move randomly though. Stay is my overall decision cause the pain you feel when villagers leave is just... gahgh.​

Exterior Customization

This has been around since New Leaf, correct? I say stay!​

Breakable Tools
Villagers Moving In Personality-order
Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks
8-Player Online Play
Refurbishing
Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses
Amiibo-ing In Villagers
Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House
Villagers Randomly Sending Letters
Unscheduled Visits
Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia
Placing Your House Wherever

 

[dizzy bone]

Living on an Island - STAY. I'm probably in the minority here, but I love island living. It seems more empty/sparse because we can only upgrade and expand with public buildings to a certain extent, then there's nothing else to inform the structure of the island other than your villager buildings/resident houses. I don't mind if the location changes in the next installment but I honestly also don't mind if the game we have right now was transformed to relate more to past games. What if there was a designated part of the island that once you unlocked, basically became main street? What if you could customize the look of that main street with different colors and styles? What if you can take a boat and there's tortimer's island or even another small town with npcs? Something like that.
I've been playing the new Stardew 1.6 update a lot lately which is why I'm totally in love with the idea of an update on the base game that would be interesting enough for me to reset my own island to start anew with the possibilities lol.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY. No big opinions on this other than I like this feature, especially character creation at the beginning. I didn't change my face for years afterwards and only because I wanted to take a specific pic in Harvey's studio... so changing it mid-game is not a big deal to me.

Tool Ring - STAY. Useful and convenient.

Autosaving - STAY. I thought I would hate this but I worked pretty seamlessly in my gameplay. Self-saving in ACNL only helped when it came to plot resetting, so since they did away with that in the new installment, it hasn't been an issue for me. I'm not taking huge risks in ACNH so I don't really care for self-saving... however an option to turn it on or off would be ideal.

Buying in Bulk - STAY. But like others said, customize quantity.

Outdoor Furniture - STAY. Definitely stay. Decorating outdoors might be overwhelming for some, but it's a good feature for both casual players and people who love designing.

Terraforming - STAY. I liked terraforming. Did it a bunch in the early game and got kind of burned out, but thankfully by that time I terraformed the layout that I wanted to stick with so I don't really have a desire to do it again. It also gives some players the option of flattening their island instead of flat out resetting.

Placing Paths - STAY. I love the in-game paths. I hate using custom ones because the graphic quality difference is too obvious to me when drawn completely and they don't make a sound when walking over. In the new game I'd say make more in-game path designs and also make custom paths have a footstep sound.

Placing Fences - STAY. I'm probably going to say stay to any customizing question. This one is no different.

Crafting - STAY. But change it a little. The crafting animation takes too long and sometimes it feels too tedious to grind all the recipes, especially duplicates. The funny thing is, I like crafting mechanics in many other games I've played just not this one. More than crafting though... I LOVE COOKING and all the items that came out of it which is why I don't mind material collecting.

Farming - STAY. I consider this part of customization (a design feature) and crafting/cooking (which I also said STAY for) so I'm going to keep this here.

Cooking - STAY. Like I said above, I love the food items and having farming so I'm going to say stay.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY. Yes because it helps to get around even though I never use them late game. They are fun to explore with on other people's islands.

8-Player Online Play - STAY. Yes but I miss the mini-game aspect from tortimer island. I feel like WiFi in this game is limited to island tours, photoshoots, and very simple interactions or trades.

Singing Villagers - STAY. Adorable, love it. Even came to love the weird Cranky voice over time.

Breakable Tools - GO. Or if it stays, make golden tools truly unbreakable.

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY. Amazing feature which fixed plot resetting.

Villager Hunting - STAY.? Because can we avoid it? Probably not. I don't really do it for hours on end though so it doesn't affect me.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order - STAY. I would rather cycle through the different personalities than have multiples of the same personality move in consecutively.

Giving Villagers Gift In-person - STAY. Stay because I like giving them clothes that would suit them.

Cheering Villagers Up - STAY.

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - STAY. Criterpedia is so beautiful!

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY.

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - STAY.

BONUS: Features that debuted in New Leaf that reappeared in New Horizons

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY.

Exterior Customization - STAY. AND TAKE IT FURTHER PLEASE for the love of god. Why are we allowed to customize town hall in New Leaf and not in ACNH? Makes no sense.

Refurbishing - STAY. Tbh I don't like how we have to go all the way to Harvey's island to refurbish, but I'm glad we can do it.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - STAY. I love seeing my villagers just living life so yes, I'd like it to stay. However, I loved the megaphone feature in New Leaf and I'd like something similar to find out a villager's whereabouts if we can't find them.

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY. Yes they need to continue to allow us to take full advantage of those cards we spent so much money on lol.

Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - STAY. But make it more interesting. I hate playing the same game and receiving the same gift every time.

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - STAY. Love sending and receiving letters!!!

 

[pawpatrolbab]

Living on an Island - STAY / I think it's a really fun and inique turn for the series, all of the other entries have been towns / villages. And to me it makes a lot of sense especially with a name like "New Horizons" where it is implied you are starting completely from scratch unlike ever before. I find it can take me out of the moment when it comes to seasons like fall and winter but I really like it otherwise.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY & GO / On one hand I really appreciate being able to change your appearence whenever you want ( although I never have ) but also I really dislike how it took away a lot of the NPC's and fun features. I think that they should have kept shops like Shampoodle but also given you the option to use the mirror if you really wanted to.

Tool Ring - STAY / It's very helpful and convenient, I love the tool ring because it can make things like catching buts that fall from trees easier.

Autosaving - GO / I have always found it to be pretty annoying, I'm a very impulsive person and many a time have I cleaned up a decorated area on impulse only to exit the game and forget that it autosaved it. At the very least it should be an optional feature.

Buying in Bulk - STAY / Great when you need to buy things like custimization kits

Outdoor Furniture - STAY / BUT there needs to be some limitations imposed on it like in New Leaf. So you can place furniture outside but maybe you have to pay every time or something like that. Decorating felt much more rewarding when it was something that you earned.

Terraforming - GO / I really dislike terraforming and for me it really is one of those big things that makes New Horizons feel so out of place in the series. If I wanted to play a game where I had full control over everything I would play a game like the Sims, but I don't because I don't like those types of games. You should be able to choose what map you like best but I think to go as far as transforming the land is too much.

Placing Paths - STAY / I love that there are "official" paths now and you don't have to just use custom designs. Hearing the clack of your feet on them is very satisfying.

Placing Fences - STAY / A great way to customise your island

Crafting - GO / I hate games that include crafting and it's one of the reasons I don't play things like Minecraft. I can say that I have NEVER crafted an item in New Horizons aside from what was mandatory at the start of the game. I really dislike crafting features being included in all modern games. Not to mention that getting duplicate DIY recipes is a pain and annoying. Get rid of crafting and bring back expanding shops again.

Farming - GO / Just like crafting I also really dislike farming features being included in all modern games. However in New Horizons it just feels even more pointless, what is the purpose to it? Crafting? Cooking? Crafting is a useless feature and cooking is even more so. It really feels like the developers added this in so that they could win over on the "cozy gaming" trend.

Cooking - GO / Cooking serves literally no use other than filling up your stamina ( which is what fruit are for ). Pointless and needs to go. I could make an acception if they included a Cooking Mama style mini-game every time you make a recipe but as it is now it needs to go.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY / Perfect additions

8-Player Online Play - STAY / I have never played with that many people but I don't see a reason why it should be removed. The more the merrier!

Singing Villagers - STAY / I would like to see more variation in what they sing though. Maybe each villager has a favorite song that they sing instead of it being the same one.

Breakable Tools - GO / Animal Crossing is not Minecraft...I don't know why they continue to make it to be. I would not mind breaking tools as much if it meant that Gold tools never broke ( because if they break what is the point of them being golden lol ) but this is not the case! Definately needs re-worked.

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY / I like this feature but I would like to have the choice to allow villagers to randomly move in wherever they'd like again. Or at the very least if a villager moves out the one who takes their place should not be forced to live in the same plot as the previous one.

Villager Hunting - STAY / It's a really fun feature, I don't see how they would incorporate it again but I like it.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order - GO / Personalities of villagers should be completely random, if anything there should be some sort of feature implimented where you are not given a villager of a type you already have when your first ones are moving in. Especially because the text is so repetetive for each personality this would mean you get a variety of villagers on your island / town.

Giving Villagers Gift In-person - STAY

Cheering Villagers Up - STAY / I didn't even know this was a thing in the game, I have never encountered it.

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - STAY / This makes it so you don't have to go to the museum every time you're doing some bug / fish / sea-creature catching to see if you've got it already. Great feature.

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - STAY / However I would like this to happen more frequently so that I can get rid of the ones I no longer want quicker.

BONUS: Features that debuted in New Leaf that reappeared in New Horizons

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY / I am indecisive and always changing so I really appreciate the choice of moving whenever I'd like to.

Exterior Customization - STAY / I would like it to be more similar to New Leaf though where the exteriers are fun, on New Horizons it is mainly house colors, roofs, doors. You won't find anyones house looking like this.

Refurbishing - STAY / But impliment Reese and Cyrus as a full shop and have furniture color custimization through unlocking the feature. Not just on Harvs Island and being purchased through bells.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - STAY / I like knowing my villagers have their own autonimy and are free to go where they please. It makes them feel alive.

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY

Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - STAY / It can be annoying but ultimately I like it. I do think that only villagers that are considered your "best friends" should be allowed to visit you without it being planned previously.

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - STAY / I'm not big on letter sending so I like this a lot.

Unscheduled Visits - STAY

 

[Bulbadragon]

Honestly, the only things I think should go are:
- Breaking tools, with the caveat that other versions could break if the gold ones were unbreakable. It felt like
- Living on an island, which is something I think should be kept unique to New Horizons. I think it was a great change of pace for this version, but I'd like to go back to a connected town with a train station again in future games.

The other thing I'm neutral-ish about is bulk buying. It would have been so much better to allow us to select the number rather than in fives. That's what I'm hoping for in the next game.

 

[Dinosaur]

Living on an Island - NEUTRAL - The setting doesn't really matter to me to be completely honest.

Changing Our Appearance Anytime - STAY - I love this feature! I hated having to run all the way to shampoodle every time I forgot to play for a few weeks

Tool Ring - STAY - I forgot this was new in New Horizons, super helpful, love it.

Autosaving - STAY - I can't tell you how many times I forget to plug in my switch and it dies. Resetti was a regular visitor in my New Leaf and Wild World towns.

Buying in Bulk - STAY - This is so nice I wish we could also craft in bulk as well

Outdoor Furniture - STAY - I have been waiting for this feature since I was a child! I love it!

Terraforming - STAY - I like terraforming, but I wish there was a sort of overhead non-character terraforming mode sort of like we have for decorating houses. Sometimes having to do square by square with your character can be a little chaotic.

Placing Paths - STAY - There have been massive improvements to paths between New Leaf and New Horizons but I would also like to see a non-character overhead version of this too.

Placing Fences - STAY - I love making little yards/gardens for my villagers with fencing. Great addition to the game.

Crafting - GO - I really dislike the whole crafting thing. It was ok and maybe fun at first but slowly became a pain the farther along I got, especially when you need to individually craft multiple of the same item. Need 50 barrels? Well that's gonna take a while.....

Farming - STAY - I actually really like farming. I love giving my villagers little vegetable gardens.

Cooking - NEUTRAL - I rarely use cooking unless I'm making a food decoration for something.

Vaulting Poles and Ladders - STAY - No more needing to run all the way to the single bridge in town to cross the river? I'm in!

8-Player Online Play - STAY - I got to play online with some friends during covid and having 8 people in your town can be so chaotic and so fun at the same time. I do wish there were a few more things to do in online play though.

Singing Villagers - STAY - This was something I was hoping would come to the main series as soon as I saw it in the first Happy Home game. Its so cute and I love it!

Breakable Tools - GO - Having to carry around 3-4 shovels because you don't know the one you just pulled out of storage wont immediately break on you is not my favourite part of New Horizons.

Relocating Houses and Buildings - STAY - This is a really nice feature and I wish it extended to resident services or maybe even the airport.

Villager Hunting - STAY - It's fun to be able to have some way to look for villagers and choose who might move in rather that leaving it to whoever may be the void.

Villagers Moving In Personality-order - GO - I guess it wasn't the worst thing but I do feel like it made the first few random villager move ins kind of boring

Giving Villagers Gift In-person - STAY - Its fun giving them clothing and seeing them immediately try it on

Cheering Villagers Up - STAY - I haven't really had the opportunity to do this too many times but it's cute when it happens. It gives the villagers some much needed personality.

Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia - STAY - I love this! In previous games I would always take all of the bugs/fish to the museum to double check with Blathers but now I can just look to see if there is anything new or hasn't been donated yet.

Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - STAY - Super convenient being able to move whole trees or remove rocks that are in the wrong area

Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - NEUTRAL - I thought I would really like this feature but I actually found it to be a bit boring once I finally got all my dreamies. Its nice to have when time traveling but at the same time I would also be totally fine with a random move out here and there.

Placing Your House Wherever - STAY - I love that this was taken to a whole new level in new horizons being able to place houses on the beach ect.

Exterior Customization - STAY - I love being able to customize the outside of our and other villagers houses

Refurbishing - STAY - Being able to change the colour of items is super helpful when using a colour scheme or theme.

Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - STAY - I enjoy seeing my villagers in different buildings around town or hanging out together even if it can make them a tad bit hard to find sometimes.

Amiibo-ing In Villagers - STAY - I loved being able to amiibo one of my favourites into the game and not having to cycle or hunt. So definitely keep.

Unscheduled Visits/Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - NEUTRAL - Its nice and cute but I would like if there was some sort of feature where you could put a sign out for your villagers telling them if its ok to randomly enter or not. They always decide to come visit when I'm in the middle of rearranging furniture/storage items.

Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - NEUTRAL - I liked this feature at first but overtime my mailbox just became filled with more and more of the same exact letters. It just became repetitive and a chore to clear out.

 

[Suguri]

I'm discussing the features mentioned in jvgsjeff's video.

Green is STAY
Red is GO

Deserted Island Setting - I like the setting for its uniqueness and how it's like a canvas for me but I think the next game should go back to the classic town format because it's been like that for the longest time and beyond decorating and stuff I felt like there weren't a lot of things to do in an island.

Change Your Appearance at Any Time - Back in New Leaf and prior games you had to take a questionnaire to get your wanted appearance. Also, skin color could not be changed, and while New Leaf let your character tan it still wasn't enough. I'm glad this feature got added to New Horizons, because now I can easily give my Residentative a new look and even change it up a little now and then...

Spoiler

Tool Ring - A major convenience. Need I say more?

Reshaping the Land - I never did a lot of that on my island but when I did I enjoyed the control I had over making sure it looked right. Also, those other islands where they went all-out are BEAUTIFUL and I want to be able to see more of that on the next game!

Crafting - Crafting is a great alternative to saving up Bells for goods, which is why I think it should stay. There's got to be a balance between craftables and buyables, though, because when it feels like the majority of stuff in the game must be crafted, it can feel pointless to some after a while.

Outdoor Furniture - No longer do I have to donate money to a public works project when I can just get the same thing as a furniture and plop it on the ground. Please stay!!

Fences - A new and useful decorating tool! I can't think of any more reasons beyond this.

Vaulting Poles - I'm mixed on them, actually. You can easily get through rivers with them if you don't have a lot of bridges but then they become almost pointless (except for when you're visiting mystery islands) after you get more. It took me a while, but then I figured it should be kept. Maybe there are some uses for it out there that I'm forgetting about.

Autosave - Most games have that feature nowadays. Also, I don't like losing my data...

8-Player Online Play - I hope this is kept with more things to do being added to the next game! More than 8 playing together would be nice but that's too much for me TBH.

Path-Making Tool - Same opinion as the fences!

Warp Pipes - I wasn't aware of what they could do until I visited a dream island and I was pleasantly surprised for its usefulness. This is an Easter egg (at least, I think it is) that deserves the stay!

Cooking - It seems pointless but I like this feature. The next game should probably make it more useful beyond progressing on an achievement.

Farming - It feels nice. I like watering my crops and harvesting them.

Buying in Bulk - A major convenience, like the Tool Ring. However, I want to be able to pick exactly how many things I'm buying instead of getting them 5 at a time while keeping the discount thing for bulk items. I'm not how possible that is but I know it might be able to be implemented.

Singing Villagers - Like with cooking, it may seem unnecessary but it's cute! Plus it gives the villagers more personality, even though there were moments when I got annoyed by it. So this should stay!

Breakable Tools - I agree with most people that they should go! Especially for breakable golf tools!

Look, I got a red and green sandwich. I must've enjoyed this game a lot!

 

[Doo]

I’ve had this thread bookmarked for months, I think it’s finally time to respond lol.

• Living on an Island - Go. I want to be back in the forest, I think the island thing was nice as a one-off but I don’t want that forever. I won’t be upset if they keep it though
• Changing Our Appearance Anytime - Stay. An important new feature.
• Tool Ring - Stay. A good quality of life improvement I’ll definitely miss if it goes.
• Autosaving - I’m not sure with this one. I think it should be optional. I want to be able to undo things. With terraforming especially, it’s stressful because I know I can’t revert things to how they were before. I want Resetti back too. But sometimes it might be useful. My DS is damaged to the point that it turns off if I knock it. That was frustrating when i kept losing an hour or so’s progress in Wild World. So in situations like that where your system is damaged or i dont know you’re ill or something, auto saving would be good to be able to switch on.
• Buying in Bulk - Stay. Too tedious otherwise.
• Outdoor Furniture - I’m not sure. I think it will stay. Part of me wants it to, part of me doesn’t. It allows us to be creative and I do like that but i dont know if it’s just the way they executed it in NH that really overwhelms me. I’m not a creative person and NH kind of feels like a decorating game once you hit a certain point. I don’t like that.
• Terraforming - Go. It’s too overwhelming, and it takes away from having special maps. We can all make our dream maps in NH and then get fed up of them and go back to normal
• Placing Paths - Stay. We’ve been doing it with designs forever so it has to stay.
• Placing Fences - Stay. I don’t see a problem with it, it’s nice, it can stay
• Crafting - Go, go, go!! The crafting system in NH is just weird to me. It doesn’t feel right. What determines whether an item is craftable or something you buy with bells? It doesn’t seem to make any sense, and crafting and collecting resources really doesn’t feel like animal crossing to me. It works at the beginning of NH but it gets tedious and I hope this is the end of it
• Farming - Stay. I’m fine with farming being a part of animal crossing, as long as it doesn’t take over. I see it kind of like the fruit trees and I like those. I like it as an additional way to make money.
• Cooking - Stay. I know it kind of comes under crafting but I’d be alright with cooking staying. I want it to have more of a purpose than it does in NH though, because I never really see the point in cooking anything. Perhaps we could make meals for our villagers or for special characters?!
• Vaulting Poles and Ladders - Stay. They’re convenient. I don’t think they’re necessary though.
• 8-Player Online Play - Stay. Why not? I don’t have that many people to play with but that would make any minigames more fun.
• Singing Villagers - Stay. It’s the cutest thing ever.
• Breakable Tools - Go. What was the point of this? Why do GOLD tools break?? I was alright with just axes breaking previously but I don’t want all tools to break. I want it to return to the way it was in New Leaf, and I want the silver tools back, partly because some gold tools (like the net and fishing rod) can take forever to obtain.
• Relocating Houses and Buildings - Stay. I don’t like it when my decisions are permanent, it stresses me out, so it’s good to have the option to change things around.
• Villager Hunting - Stay. It’s nice to get some choice in who moves in, but I wouldn’t be too upset if it left (partly because I have Drift’s amiibo card now )
• Villagers Moving In Personality-order - I’m not bothered. If the villager dialogue was improved I don’t think it would be that big of a deal.
• Giving Villagers Gift In-person - Stay. It’s easier than having to write them letters.
• Cheering Villagers Up - Stay. Not really sure exactly what it means but anything that gives the villagers more personality and makes them feel more real is a good thing.
• Seeing What You Donated from Your Critterpedia - Stay. This feature is very important to me I made way too many pointless trips to the museum in previous games, just in case there was something I hadn’t donated yet.
• Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - Trees, I’m not bothered. Rocks, stay. It was so annoying in previous games when you had a rock right in the middle of something, so let’s keep being able to move them. Moving trees is kind of weird to me. I know it’s more convenient than replanting the tree but the whole eating thing is so slowwww and it feels unnatural.
• Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - I’m not sure on this one. It’s sad when villagers leave but I feel like that’s an integral part of animal crossing. I don’t feel as bothered about playing NH regularly because I know all the same people will be there forever. I dont know, it gets boring. But of course I don’t want Drift to suddenly leave
• Placing Your House Wherever - Stay. Very important.
• Exterior Customization - Stay.
• Refurbishing - Stay. It allows for more customisation so you can make really weirdly specific things.
• Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - Stay. It makes them feel more real and it’s cute. I want the megaphone back from New Leaf though to make it slightly easier to find villagers.
• Amiibo-ing In Villagers - Stay. I have Drift’s amiibo card now, please let me use it
• Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - Stay. Yeah it’s annoying but it’s cute. Just please let the villagers have varied dialogue so they feel real.
• Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - Stay. An integral part of animal crossing.

 

[Asarena]

Living on an Island - Neutral. I don't really mind if we live in a town, an island, or a different environment.
Changing Our Appearance Anytime - Stay. Being able to just change my character's appearance whenever I want is so much more convenient.
Tool Ring - Stay. It's an easy way to swap tools.
Autosaving - Stay. But maybe with some changes. Like maybe have an option to turn it off or to make backup saves of your own that you can choose to load up instead of the last autosave.
Buying in Bulk - Stay. It's a good feature, but an option to select the exact quantity you'd like to buy would make it even better.
Outdoor Furniture - Stay. Being able to place furniture outdoors is really helpful when decorating.
Terraforming - Stay. I don't use this feature that much, but it's good to have the option.
Placing Paths - Stay. However, I feel like it could use some quality of life updates to make placing paths easier and quicker. Also make it harder to accidentally kick them away
Placing Fences - Stay. These were a great addition to the game.
Crafting - Neutral. I don't mind crafting, but the system could definitely use some updates. Being able to craft in bulk and cutting down the animation might help.
Farming - Stay. I love farming games, so I find this to be a cute addition. I don't actually farm in ACNH very often, but I enjoy having my little farm area on my island.
Cooking - Neutral. I don't mind it, but I also wouldn't mind if it was gone.
Vaulting Poles and Ladders - Stay. They can speed up travel time and help players reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
8-Player Online Play - Stay. The more people who can play together, the better!
Singing Villagers - Stay. It's cute when they sing.
Breakable Tools - Stay. But golden tools should be unbreakable. Other tools breaking kind of makes sense to me, but golden tools shouldn't break.
Relocating Houses and Buildings - Stay. Being able to move them around is super convenient.
Villager Hunting - Stay. It's nice to have the chance to find a villager you want to move in.
Villagers Moving In Personality-order - Go. I'd prefer it to be random.
Giving Villagers Gift In-person - Stay. I like giving things to my villagers.
Cheering Villagers Up - Stay. It gives the villagers more personality.
Seeing What You Donated from Your Crittipedia- Stay. It's much more convenient to be able to check this whenever you want.
Shoveling Trees and Breaking Rocks - Stay. Being able to easily get rid of and move these is convenient.
Villagers Always Talk to You Before Moving - Stay. I like being able to keep my favorite villagers on my island. I don't like having villagers move away randomly.
Placing Your House Wherever - Stay. It's nice to be able to look around and pick out the spot I like best for my house.
Exterior Customization - Stay. I love customizing my exterior, and I wouldn't mind more customization options.
Refurbishing - Stay. Being able to change an item's color scheme helps a lot.
Villagers Visiting Buildings and Other Villager's Houses - Stay. It's fun to run into villagers when I'm visiting various buildings
Amiibo-ing In Villagers - Stay. I haven't used this feature, but it seems convenient.
Villagers Randomly Visiting Your House - Stay. But as others have mentioned, the addition of a do not disturb sign would make this feature much better.
Villagers Randomly Sending Letters - Stay. I enjoy receiving letters from my villagers.
Unscheduled Visits - Stay.