Do you find Animal Crossing stressful?

[Croconaw]

The whole point of Animal Crossing is to relieve stress, however it seems that everyone is so caught up in their town being perfect. Everyone is caught up in having perfect villagers, public works projects, town ratings, etc. My question is, do you find this game to be stressful, or do you have fun in spite of all this? I try to have fun with the game and not stress too much because as a child, this game was my escape. This game made me happy.

 

[Snowesque]

No, I do everything at my own pace.

 

[MapleSilver]

I tried playing the way you described, and I ended up really not enjoying it. Eventually I just started to open New Leaf simply to check for movers, then I stopped caring entirely. After that experience, I remembered why I enjoy Animal Crossing so much in the first place and simply decided to let things happen. I have been doing this in Fireleaf, my current town, and I am enjoying it so much more. I didn't pick my villagers, they simply moved in and I ended up growing attached to them. I didn't meticulously plan every PWP. I placed a fountain to commemorate a Snowboy I built, which I had absolutely no plans to do from the start.

In my opinion, an unpredictable experience is a much more enjoyable one. Whenever I try to meticulously plan in games, not just Animal Crossing, it will become very stale, boring, and something will always go wrong, which will upset and stress you out even further. You will get this grand vision in your head, only for it to turn out to be a pipe dream in the end.

 

[Sweetley]

Depends of how serious you take the game, I guess it can be stressful if you take it too seriously. Like, if you want everything 100% perfect and don't allow any little mistakes at all. I for myself don't care if my town is not perfect, I play it in the way I can enjoy it the best. After all, it's supposed to be a game to relax and not getting even more stress that you may already have in real life. I'm having fun playing Animal Crossing and since I take it easy and not getting upset if something doesn't work right from the start, it's not stressful for me at all.

 

[Sansy]

I can't imagine Animal Crossing ever becoming a source of stress for me personally. But I can see how it could be stressful for people who are building a town to be perfect or within a certain theme. Like, if you move in a villager and you have to plot reset a bunch of times to finally get them in the spot you want. The Welcome Amiibo update made that more bearable, but you still need to take time to throw down patterns/paths carefully so villagers will move into specific spots. Or worse, if you start up your game and forget you need to do plot resetting. Now your villager is stuck where they are or you have to force them out. Can become very time consuming. I'm kind of glad I just let my villagers go wherever!

I restarted my town recently with a very loose sort of plan as to how I want my village to look and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I only really had my heart on setting Brewster's Cafe down in a specific spot near my house and it worked out swimmingly.

 

[~CrystalCarnations~]

Depends really. If I’m just planting some trees, breeding flowers and building PWPs, then no, even if Isabelle won’t let me replace a PWP with another one the exact same size exact same place because there’s no room I SA B ELL E

But if I’m trying to catch a Dorado/Coelecanth or Tarantula/Scorpion...

 

[carackobama]

Sometimes if I'm /really/ into the game and trying to get my town perfect, I can get a bit stressed which definitely takes the joy out of it for me as I'm a huge perfectionist and get really frustrated if things don't go exactly right. But I'm trying to do less of that and focus on just taking things slowly and not trying to let the idea of my town being perfect consume my playing of the game. I've always loved AC for how relaxed and happy and "home-y" it makes me feel and I want it to stay that way <3

 

[dizzy bone]

Nah. Even when I'm really into the game and time traveling every day to get certain items and do up my town, it's not really "stressful". I'm usually multitasking like watching a TV show at the same time and going at my own pace while working on the town. Landscaping is my favourite part of this game. I set up the whole town with patterns and grid it out almost immediately, so playing the normal way would stress me out... if I couldn't get the things I needed to landscape when I wanted them. I like this process a lot. I've been playing this game long enough to know the way I play and set up my town will turn out nicely in the end, so it's just about being patient. I also don't cycle or hunt for my favourite villagers, which is a more "stressful" activity I feel. I obtain them slowly, a lot of the times even keeping my starters because I get attached to them.

I did get annoyed that my main town wasn't getting "perfect town status" at one point because I just didn't know what I was doing wrong. But then I forgot about it and it never occurred to me again because I had finished the landscaping and despite not getting perfect status, I still love the way the town looks (I'm pretty sure it's because of weeds and trash I left for aesthetic reasons anyways lol )

 

[Sinmenon]

I have anxiety issues, so I often get a bit nervous about finding movers. I make a point to talk to everybody with at least two characters just in case. I also get a little annoyed whenever I need bells and go to the island at night, sometimes the bugs are like psychics: I'm 8 spaces away, walking as slowly as possible and then "LOL, BYE!!!!"
Otherwise, I often go 'aw' and feel happy with the general cuteness and soft atmosphere. I don't have plans on getting perfect town status, or completing any of the listings. I've stopped using the run button, except when playing hide-and-seek. One of the things I've learned in real life is to take pleasure on the smaller things, these short moments of respice. I have a very fast mind, and learning how to slow down is being an adventure for me and I picked Animal Crossing because of that: a game without goals or pressure, just to enjoy it at my own pace.

 

[arturia]

Yes. Sometime after I first got New Leaf I learned about the communities on tumblr and felt driven to make my town look as pretty as theirs. I played intensely every day over summer vacation but became so worn out from the daily grind and feelings of inadequacy that after about a month of grinding I put the game down for a very long time. 7 months later I was bored enough and had rekindled some of my interest in ACNL so I started playing again and made a new town, but told myself I'd take it slower than before. Still I sometimes just can't help but try to rush villagers moving in and out and landscape, but I stop as soon as I get tired. Now I play for maybe a few minutes every other day. I have to remind myself to take it easy when I play, but I can say now that I'm comfortable and happy with my town as it is, even if it isn't fully developed.

 

[Jakerz]

I’d say there’s the small amount of stress in the sense there is always a fear my favorite villager will move out, but otherwise I try not to really worry about things. I like trying out new villagers and seeing what they’re like. I’m experimenting with my town now and don’t really have a set design, but it is fun just looking around trying to see what I wanna do and go with the flow. I’m excited to see where my town will go. :3

 

[Millefeui]

It can get stressful if I start worrying too much about the placement of villager's houses, finding dreamies, etc. Thankfully with Animal Crossing Switch coming, I won't have to worry about this stuff for a long time, at least not in my first playthrough.

 

[LadyDestani]

Animal Crossing is my stress relief, so no, I don't find it stressful. I do plan out my town meticulously, mapping it out and everything, but those sort of tasks help me focus and I find them enjoyable. I never push myself to do something in the game if I don't feel like it. I take it slow and do things at my own pace. Even if something gets messed up, like if I forget to plot reset, it rolls right off me, which would never happen in real life. I guess I know that whatever happens in the game, it isn't that bad and it can always be fixed.

 

[Bluebellie]

Sometimes
When I really need an item to finish something and I can?t find anyone to trade with to get it.
Also when plot setting and the villager doesn?t want to set where you want them to.

 

[AvalonRitz]

I do oddly, I get home, I get those bells to pay that mortgage....and that's when I take a break because it's starting to feel too much like real life! XD

 

[CodyMKW]

nope not stressful for me

 

[thepinkppg]

honestly, at times. what frustrates me the most is having a lot of ideas that i want to show and have in my town but i only have so much space and i try to stick with themes/aesthetics for rooms. its also hard to find the exact items im looking for to complete my vision. usually within a few weeks or so ill get a different idea and have to start over. but other than that i play when im really depressed or feeling super lonely cause i know my villagers will always miss me and do all of my weeding, gardening, selling, talking and playing during that time because any other time ill play for about 10 minutes just to dig the fossils and sell them.

 

[Roobi]

I think AC is one of the most relaxing games I've ever played. It's nice how you can just unwind and take everything at your own pace. It also never pressures you into making your town perfect, its all ?bout what you want to do with it. I'm not that far on my NL town and it can be a little annoying that I don't have access to certain items yet, but it's nice to think about what I'm going to with them when the time comes. I compare it to Stardew Vally a lot in that it's also one of those non-competitive, soothing games. Only downside there is that time flies by so fast in that game, that it was sometimes frustrating I couldn't get everything I wanted done in time, especially in the beginning X) I's a blessing AC is in real-time.

I think it really depends on how you like to play. I know there's people who want to get everything perfect asap and reset countless times to get the preferred layout/fruit/starter villagers etc., but I like to leave at least some things up to chance. Great stress relief game.

 

[Officer Berri]

Whenever I dropped off from playing when I got New Leaf it was mainly because of a few things that would cause issues with my anxiety and depression:

Anxiety over grass deterioration. I hate this feature so much and my paranoia always made me see the grass deteriorating really fast. It makes me feel like I can't walk anywhere but on a set path to keep my town from looking like a barren wasteland of no grass and it kills my enjoyment and stresses me out. I can only hope they remove it completely for the switch version.

I would always stress over new villagers coming in because good gods I don't want to lose my good flowers when I do finally manage to get the flowers I wanted to crossbreed instead of the random flowers I have strewn about to thwart the grass deterioration.

Getting the rarer seasonal bugs/fish is always a stressful thing for me. Especially if they only come out for a short time at a certain time of day. And then when I finally spot that bug I'm looking for I move in just the wrong way and it flies off and leaves me wanting to cry from frustration. And don't get me started on the Coelacanth. I have not seen one of those since Population Growing; their spawn rate is that impossible. I would pace the beach from end to end for an hour and find nothing and then the hourly gong goes off and the rain stops and who knows when the game will decide to have it rain again?

A lot of the holidays are stressful for me too. Especially when I have only one piece of furniture to go for the set and I keep getting a duplicate. My heart ends up pounding the whole time until I finally get everything and then I can relax.

Everything in new leaf is so. dang. expensive. Once I unlock the ability to visit the island the game turns into 'make sure to spend one to three hours catching sharks and the bugs that are worth the most and that completely kills it for me. Especially if I take too long to get a full trip's worth and wind up just missing closing time for Re-Tail. They really need to have a 24 hour open store or a store open at night. I don't care if I earn fewer bells if I sell there but dang at least give me a reason to be able to play after nightfall especially since my sleep schedule and insomnia keeps me up at night.

Lastly... I hate Tortimer's dialog when I fail to earn enough points in a game. I'd be in near tears because I can't find that one villager in hide and seek that has ceased to exist and then the game ends and he'd make me feel even worse. And I already disliked the old man before this game.

 

[ILikeFroakies]

Certainly not. Otherwise I wouldn't play the game