Do you think there will be a 4.0 update?

[UpFalls]

Okay, so people keep saying NH is too design focused compared to the other games. What was it about the other games you miss the most? I know I loved Tortimer's tours and the mini-games in NL but to my mind that was so far above WW it was almost mind-blowing.

I felt like the early games didn't have nearly enough to do. Go through every season trying to catch every fish, bug, and fossil (and in the GameCube version you even had to mail them off to be identified before donating) to donate to the museum, and how about those three-item dressers? Spend your entire life trying to collect enough art pieces to make the museum look like you cared in that department. Map out every square and plant the perfect number of trees and flowers per acre to get the gold watering can. Run around every day in WW, CF, and NL watering your flowers so they didn't die. Grow fruit trees to harvest to sell. In WW and NL befriend your neighbors to get their photos. In NL diving was added but that's better in NH. WW's monthly flea market sale was awesome, as was the bug that let you store turnips indefinitely on tables, and Gulliver in the flying saucer was pretty great.

I did like NL's main street, all the extra fruits and fruit baskets, gems, etc. And those extra rooms in the museum were pretty great too--I used to stash all manner of excess junk in those. In NH all that stuff can just go into my inventory and if I have an urge to make something like a museum exhibit I can create it outside.

My biggest complaints about NH is fishing bait became a thing rather than spawning fish at a reasonable rate, tools break constantly, and the store really could use another upgrade, especially with the hotel there now.

 

[-Blue-]

@UpFalls

The game is design oriented there's no getting around that. That's where the focus is. Even in the updates and extra dlc it's about designing. HHP is about designing vacation homes for villagers. 3.0 added the hotel that is mostly HHP but without having to fly.

They gutted the villager dialogue and interactivity, a lot of the holidays have been toned down to how they used to be. Example ToyDay for NL required you to actually work to give the villager the right present instead of just showing up and giving them a present dressed as Jingle. Your villagers in NH know it's you right away. But in NL they think you're legit Jingle and I remember Tangy telling me she had been a good girl all year and was hoping for a good present. It was adorable, but they just made the villagers so blah.

Multiplayer is where I got the most life out of NL. I would connect to my friends all over the world. We would hang out in our towns and then go to the island to do mini-games. Now those same friends dropped the game so fast and there's really not a lot of mileage as far as multiplayer in NH goes. You can visit someone's island to tour it so much.

If you sat on a bench where a villager was and had highfriendship with you they actually gave a big ol cheery smile. It was so cute. Now in NH if you do it they just stare in the void like you're not there.

Don't get me wrong, I love NH, but all the little things they took away adds up and the charm is lost. I could go on and on, but really the thing is the sequel should do better. Not cut content, leave us high and dry for a year and a half without basic content previous games had, and have a userbase that is so divided on their take on the game.

I also love love loved the sense of progression in NL. It's sorely lacking in this game. Sure you can design more, but none of the villagers will acknowledge it. It made the town feel real and lived in. When we were still waiting on content (and some things we still don't have) it was like we were paying for the beta version and the villagers were playing the complete game.

 

[UpFalls]

I agree completely on NH being an incomplete game on release. For a long time I didn't even know it existed but I can guarantee if I had bought it at first I would have been very unhappy. I know my son was most disappointed about the missing gyroids because since he was young that was his favorite part of AC.

I see what you mean about the other things. My memory malfunctions much these days and I don't remember the old dialogue well. I do know after I had started this last save I did notice quite a bit of situational awareness to what was going on in town. Perhaps it was just during those early days. It was before I got NH I was trying to get NL to play on my computer through an emulator (tiny screens cause me too much eye strain so it's been probably at least ten years since I played it) and the fishing wouldn't work quite right. So then I tried CF in an emulator so I could have it on my computer and that worked fine but I just couldn't get into it.

 

[~Kilza~]

I'm pretty confident in saying outright no. I'm not discounting the possibility of there being more smaller content updates, but I'm certain we aren't getting another DLC for NH, which is the only way I could see the update version being bumped up to 4.0. I think the focus for them is on the next main series Animal Crossing game.

 

[Dim]

Honestly, no. The game is soon to be 6 years old soon and I feel like in a year or two, aside from few small updates and bug fixes, they might decide to make a new game altogether. Most likely a Switch 2 exclusive. I'm glad they gave it one last run though.