Animal Crossing NH boring?

[Khaelis]

It's not that the game is boring, it's actually very far the opposite. It's the fact that we're all stuck inside each day so we're playing this game more than we'd probably normally would.

We're not experiencing boredom -- we're getting burnt out.

 

[Mr. Q]

I picked ACNH up yesterday with a Switch Lite. Honestly, I played a lot of NL; however, I'm in love with NH.

 

[LittleMissPanda]

How are people already bored, its not even been out for a month yet

When you're in quarantine, a month feels like 4 months.

 

[starlightsong]

I have mixed thoughts on NH so far. It's good, overall, but bogged down by a few things such as a lack of certain QOL improvements, the apparent exclusion of a ton of NL's content, and the (IMO) overly long trainwreck of a tutorial.

• Inability to craft in multiples and no indication of durability (breaking tools is frustrating with how expensive gold tools are and annoying with iron)
• Tons of NPCs, furniture and PWPs from NL don't return, which is strange to me. I'm sure NPCs will return via updates but furniture and features like exotic fruits, furniture sets (I need my Gorgeous and Gothic series, mmkay?), and diving I'm not so sure about.

The tutorial was way too long and restrictive for my liking, even locking hourly music behind a building upgrade that takes a week or longer to unlock, which I find absurd. Not to mention how it forces you to develop your town somewhat heavily before giving you access to terraforming, which can then be frustrating as you have to move things around just to change up the landscape (I refuse to stick with the default layout when they've finally given us the ability to change it). I know plenty enjoyed it just fine but I hated it and wish it would have been streamlined or just been less restrictive.

• The max house size is smaller than in NL. I really would have liked to have some room size/shape customization ala HHD but it seems like the focus was more on outdoor decor rather than indoor. The outdoor is great but I would've liked more attention to indoor, it seems like the indoor decor variety has also taken a backseat to outdoor decor. All the more strange with how much more expensive a fully upgraded house seems to be than NL.
• There are some MP hiccups, namely having to wait upwards of a minute watching people come in. After how much NL cut this down from CF/LGTC, I'm surprised this issue got worse rather than better.
• Dialogue menus are clunkier than ever and dialogue variety still seems like it needs work (I wish they'd at least make existing lines less likely to repeat on a given day).
• Lack of MP mini-games, the inability to decorate or terraform during MP and a lack of native voice chat leave MP feeling pretty sparse
• Tools breaking, while a novel idea, becomes more annoying the deeper into the game you get. There are a few things that need some rebalancing (like tool durability, water egg spawn rate, balloon spawn rate, etc)

On the other hand

• It looks better than ever, there's so much detail to color and animation. It's mostly small details but it's wonderful to look at.
• MP seems the most stable it's ever been
• The music is pretty good this time around, better than NL. Not that AC has ever had bad music, but NL's hourly music was a bit too subtle for me. I still hold PG's more bombastic OST as the best in the series.
• The number of new tools like instruments and ladders is great and fun to play with.
• The extra things for villagers to do like singing and running is great to see
• The ability to choose where everything goes is a godsend and I hope it stays as a permanent feature, same goes for terraforming
• A lot of the new features are a great addition to the series be it the new path laying system, terraforming, the house decoration system from HHD that was brought in, expansion of indoor storage, QOL improvements such as the tool wheel (though it could be improved by having a separate inventory space for said tools), the outfit swap wands, the expansive outdoor decoration, etc. I really do think they listened to a lot of feedback from CF/LGTC and NL.

I love NH, just not as much as NL (so far). I hope future updates address the various gripes I have, both major and minor but only time will tell. I can understand someone being bored though, at least until you finish out the tutorial and are set free for real. Personally, I don't think NH is boring or even more so than previous entries but it has advantages/disadvantages I didn't expect and takes some getting used to after the (IMO) near-perfection that was NL (it was only missing the higher graphic/animation fidelity, outdoor decor and terraforming of NH). It's good though- 8.5/10





I did not intend this to turn into a review or whatever this is. Oops.

Thank you so much for being the one person not stuck in an echo chamber of “the game is incredible and amazing, you’re not bored you’re just burned out because you have to stay inside all day!!” Yeah, no, I’m bored. I’ve been having fun with the game but I’ve also been anxiously waiting for the fishing tourney and bunny day because, with the removal of countless features and NPCs from NL (and yes I know NH is a new game but many of these features I’m talking about have been in the game since the beginning, they didn’t even have April Fool’s Day for the first time ever) I’ve been absolutely desperate for anything at all to do besides decorating and crafting (and while I do TT, the one thing I don’t like is doing events before I’m supposed to). I feel like they focused almost entirely on those 2 features, and the first one is one I’m kinda bad at and the second one gets old and annoying fast due to the issues of tools breaking with no durability indicator and the lack of ability to craft in multiples.

The world feels so empty to me with the lack of shops and very few NPCs, most of the ones who ARE in the game just being occasional visitors. It feels almost like a decorating simulator except, as you said, the house customization is worse than NL and so many furniture sets are gone! They even took out things that I actually would’ve loved to use as outdoor decor—the thing it seems they want us really focused on—like the volleyball net item and of course, bushes and exotic fruit trees. I’m also tired of people (not you, you’re fine lol) saying just be patient, they just KNOW (insert feature) will come back, because outside of a few datamined things, you don’t as all nintendo has specifically mentioned is holidays and I guess Leif. I’m of course hoping the things I miss most will come back, but right now I can’t possibly know that they will.

I agree with most of your positives, though!! I dislike the hourly music myself but that’s subjective, and I think you’re mostly right on the rest, though personally I’d give it a 7.5/10 until updates improve it. For now, and probably for a long long time tbh, I’m just playing both NL and NH together so that whenever NH starts to bore me and make me wish for more to do I can go back to my NL towns!

 

[elce]

the game is obviously not finished, which I personally don't like (I would have preferred to wait for a complete product), but it is what is and I still enjoy the game

 

[cIementine]

Supposedly there’s only going to be two - one for spring and one for winter. So you’ll probably end up finishing the set a couple of years from now.

i finished the fishing tourney and i'm pretty sure cj said the next tourney will be in

Spoiler: i put it in a spoiler in case people want to find out themselves??

july

 

[EvilTheCat6600]

Ummmm...I could be wrong but based off the way the article is written doesn't it seem more like a joke article? The kind of thing someone would to do to be funny? I was cracking up at some of the entries, honestly. Poor castaway. Stuck with cherries as their native fruit and they hate it. xD

But I could be wrong and it could be a cleverly disguised way of saying "This game sucks!" and I'm just seeing it.

 

[Keepitcosmic]

Yeah I have no idea how you can make the claim that the game is empty after just 3 weeks of it being out. Nintendo has stated SEVERAL times that they will add new content continuously, which I think is genius. So people complaining about missing content, give it a few weeks before your final verdict! It's ridiculous.

Animal Crossing has never been about instant gratification, if that's not your jam then it's not the game for you. Easy as that.

I bought a “”complete”” game for $60, and instead received a game that is missing an absurd amount of NPCs, activities/mini-games, interactions, buildings, etc. I time travel, but I also did so in New Leaf and — even before the Welcome Amiibo update — had a BLAST in that game for ages. All the content was there, and you could unlock it at your own pace. Villagers invited you to their house or came to yours, you could play games on Tortimer’s island. They included all of that content at release and still managed to include the Welcome Amiibo update which added a bunch of more fun stuff that added to the game. This just feels like they released an unfinished game and they’re releasing updates that should’ve definitely been included with the stock game. It’s bland, and lacks personality compared to New Leaf.

 

[Braixen]

I don't know, I think it depends on where you're coming from, and perhaps how much you time travel?

I've played city folk, new leaf, and new horizons now and I have to say that new leaf is still my favorite. Tons more things to unlock and do, though that doesn't mean I don't like NH! I've loved it so far and terraforming is one of the BEST features they've added alongside things like fences and paths. NH is truly the best for decorating and designing your own unique island/town (which I love! I've decked out my NL town from head to toe and it's one of my favorite features) but to me it feels like there's not much else to do when I'm tired of that. I suppose I can go on a mystery island tour or grind for nook miles but... eh

on the other hand, for several of my friends this is their first AC game and they think it's one of the best games ever lol! they don't have anything to compare it to, though, unlike me where I can say "oh I miss collecting art and getting coffee at the cafe " they can't really say the same because they've never played previous games. which is good for them! I'm glad they're enjoying the game esp with all the corona fuss.

time traveling also plays a factor, as you can burn through the bulk of the game in only a couple of days if you do it frequently. I'm not against TT by any means but it is disappointing with NH, as while TT was available in NL, you couldn't unlock every single thing in just a matter of a couple of days even if you TT your heart out.

 

[buny]

i think its better than previous games. i prefer this pace, the freedom, the dialogues (lookin at u New Leaf...), the look of everything, the fact that shops arent isolated in a stupid shopping district. this is literally the best game to me and im looking forward to whatever they add

 

[drchoo]

I enjoy the game very much but I also haven't played one since the original for GameCube so some mechanics and characters are new to me. Games nowadays moved towards the games as a service model with constant updates and new content drops as time goes on, especially when it's not a paid season pass/DLC which I am cool with. ACNH received so many patches in the first two weeks alone which means they are acting quickly. Some players also like to speed run through games and use to the instant gratification culture so they do not like to wait and time travel.

What I am less of a fan of is the incomplete nature of games riddled with bugs that the developers clearly didn't test, and use the consumer/community to play test their game and come up with ideas for them. We're all essentially unpaid interns for these companies, except instead of getting a stipend, we instead pay them for an incomplete product. Games like Division 2, Anthem, Destiny 2 and Borderlands 3 are all guilty of this.

 

[RedPanda]

Because of the quarantine I have been playing ridiculous amounts of NH and I love it. I have played AC since 2002 Game Cube and I was in love back then, with its innovative real-time game play. It was magical to me then and it’s just gotten better with each new version. Sure there are some grindy aspects I could do without, like the endless crafting, and the fact that you can’t batch craft. But no game is perfect and I am overall so grateful to have this peaceful, gorgeous world to lose myself in while the real world outside is going through so much bad stuff. This game helps me feel at peace and happy in a time where there is so much to feel worried about. So happy this game came to us when it did.

 

[PJ5]

I’m worried about how much content will be tied to paid expansions.

 

[tybalt_cake]

the issue here is that : if you are used to other kind of games and expect animal crossing to have an energetic and fast game style , you are wrong!

people don't want to understand it's meant to be a slow and relaxing game , and when they don't play with this expectation , they end up saying it's boring and disappointing.

 

[happiehappie]

This may be an unpopular opinion but this is really my comment. Yes I find New Horizons pretty boring(due to the grind). For the record I LOVE New Leaf.
So.. firstly I would like to point out that this game has been designed through loads of grinding, the fishing competition pointed out by Hsn97 being a good example.
Also, take the Cherry Blossom event + Easter event. Why would they design it to coincide? (At the same time making the cherry blossom start later and end earlier than the Easter event).
So we need to farm recipes for both event, and holy it could just be luck, but me and my wife and my colleague (around 90 hours into the game on the 10th of April) only manage to get 2-4 recipes (I had 4). And this is even with 1 full day of grinding balloons, which.. again is AC supposed to be played this way?

Again, this is just my opinion, I know a LOT of people loving the game and naming this the best AC ever and I respect that, but personally I feel that if such level of grinding is meant to be then I am really getting tired of the game(still play daily though lol, but really don't know how long I can last), and really if I want to grind I would've been playing MMORPG or JRPGs. I have been playing Final Fantasy 14 for a year+ now and I felt that I grind more in NH than FF14.

 

[Galbador]

I can imagine that some people, who only tt or unlock everything at once, getting bored. For me, the game isn't bored. Things take their time and I have no need to rush. Right now, I try to get some Amiibo villagers without tt and pay off my bill of 1 million+ for my house. Every day I make 100k and pay it off. I'll be soon done with it, but this keeps me going on in this game. I have my own pace and nothing rushes me. Plus, I find many DIY cards, which I miss at the moment and work on my island to get more stars.