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.

 

[Muna]

I'm pretty sure there won't be any more big updates. Some fixes sure, but I doubt any extra content will be added. Not that I would mind if it happened. But I see the last update mostly as a way to boost interest in Switch 2 among AC fans, and also to spark interest in New Horizons for people who bought a Switch 2 but never played NH before.

 

[azurill]

I don’t really seeing them doing another big update. It would be nice to have a small update for some QOL. Maybe finally be able to have fossil and sea creature models. It’s too bad they didn’t add some games for multiplayer and some games to play with villagers.

 

[Dunquixote]

I don’t think there will be any more updates, then again, they had this update when I thought they were done. I think it is very unlikely, but not entirely out of the question. I’d like it if they did since there is still so much to be desired from acnh for me. Then again, I’d rather them focus on the next ac and hopefully make it better than acnh was.

 

[Shawna]

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 personally like the creative freedom that New Horizons gives us. However, there are other aspects of the game that I feel are lackluster compared to previous titles. THAT is the problem I personally have, not the strong focus on design in itself.

For example, I believe we had better furniture sets prior to New Horizons. I've lamented over the loss of the lovely furniture many times, for example--It's my favorite furniture set of all time. I also miss the princess, regal, and rococo sets. The cute furniture resemble the lovely set (and I DO like them), but it feels pale in comparison. I am just happy that the mermaid set was at least brought back after a few months.

Exterior customization also takes a step down in New Horizons. We had way better options for our houses, including the mermaid and fairytale items. Being able to have a castle was also pretty cool! We could also customize the town hall and train station, which cannot be said for the resident services building or airport in New Horizons.

While New Horizons gave us a sense of starting from scratch that wasn't in any of the previous games, I believe New Leaf did the best at giving us a long term sense of progression. Having main street evolve over time, for example. New Horizons just doesn't have that same feel. It is also missing a lot of characters that were in previous titles, like Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete.

Then, there's the villagers. I love how we can give gifts in-person and cheer them up when they are sad in NH--these are actually hopes I had for the game prior to its release, but they just feel so...flat?

When I was younger and during the New Leaf era, I didn't understand why so many people preferred the villagers in GC and WW. As I've gotten older, however, I have started to understand. It isn't necessarily the "rudeness" that I miss (though I wouldn't mind it for low friendship levels in future releases) , but the fact that villagers had so much more depth, emotion, etc. It's honestly amusing seeing villagers get mad for the most random stuff in GC and WW. They are not necessarily getting mad at you, the player -- It was just a conversation that caused them to think about something that made them mad.

Then Wild World handled villager pictures the best. You actually get some special dialogue about you being their best friend. In NL and in NH, it is just treated as an ordinary item.

I actually created a thread dedicated to taking about how certain games handled certain aspects best. While New Horizons excels in giving us a strong sense of actually starting from scratch and giving us power we didn't have before (e.g. relocating villager houses, placing furniture outside), there are just other titles that handled certain aspects more.

 

[Mutti]

I just hope 3.0 was an excuse to get people to switch over to the switch 2 system with the switch 2 game added to the library, then while doing that there working on a successor title at the same time as its been 6 years which is a normal gap in between AC titles, but the amount of people who played and enjoyed the NH title youd think it would be a major priority to keep the profits coming in (which is what shareholders care about)

 

[UpFalls]

@Shawna

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I much liked the main street in NL but seeing as how NH is an island I think sadly that doesn't work out too well. I do like, though, how they did the flea market island and how the player gets to prioritize who comes in.

I have an idea being able to play all games at the same time really pushes home all the differences between them. I have a bad memory anyway, and so much of the earlier game versions is stuck behind the cloud that's permanently in my head, so some things of past games make their way to the front while a lot of details don't. Like for some reason the island and mini-games in NL stick out better in my mind than what went on with the villagers.

 

[-Apples-]

This time, I don’t think there will be another large update. I think this is the last one, especially with the possibility of the Switch getting discontinued within the next couple years.

 

[Darcy94x]

I really hope so!

 

[Mokuren]

Tbh I don't think there will be another update. I also don't want one because it would only mean that a new game is even further away. I just hope we get within the next couple of years a new entry to the franchise. In hopes it will be the best of NL and NH.

 

[JKDOS]

This update is probably similar to getting the Welcome Amiibo update for New Leaf. It comes out of nowhere, and then all of a sudden you're getting an announcement for New Horizons.

The game is now about 6 years past release day. It's likely the team is working on the next game as we speak.

 

[-Blue-]

This update is probably similar to getting the Welcome Amiibo update for New Leaf. It comes out of nowhere, and then all of a sudden you're getting an announcement for New Horizons.

The game is now about 6 years past release day. It's likely the team is working on the next game as we speak.

I just hope this time we get a team that's actually on board and not stretched between this and Splatoon. I feel like the pandemic and the fact that corporate Nintendo made them focus on their better selling franchise at the time is why this game was content starved and left in the state it was and currently is (look how many games and dlc Splatoon has gotten in just 10 years and they're getting another game soon)

 

[BunburyBrianna]

I think we would see a Switch 2 Animal Crossing game before we would ever see a 4.0 update. I'd love to be wrong, because I love New Horizons so much -- but in my mind, they only released the 3.0 update because they were nowhere near having a Switch 2 game ready.

 

[KittenNoir]

Normally I always say no we won't but then we got 3.0 So my fingers are crossed and I am hopeful that we do get an update

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think there will be one more update but it won’t be 4.0. What I’m thinking is it will be a smaller update that adds a few more items, the return of Ganon, Epona, and Inkwell as Islanders via Amiibo, and a few more retro games for us to play on a GBA player like Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland or Mario vs Donkey Kong.

 

[Shawna]

If we did get a 4.0 update (or some other significant update), here is what I would want it to have. These are probably not going to happen, but we also thought the same thing about bulk crafting and crafting from our storage, yet here we are.

- If you try to sell a counterfeit painting to the Nooklings, they should either take it off your hands for free, or have YOU pay a disposal fee for it. Years ago, I tried to sell a counterfeit painting along with my other items, and they wouldn't even take my OTHER ITEMS. I had to reselect my other items. Like, at the very least, just take my other items while leaving the painting in my pockets. -_-
Like even NH's predecessors better handled fake paintings. We took a step back with this one.
Note: I haven't tried this since 2020, so I don't know if this has been revised. Probably not.

- Allowing you to decline duplicate recipes. I never, for the life of me, understood why they were forced on to us, but we could decline new ones. I always found this to be very backwards. If anything, I feel like it should either be the other way around, or we should get a choice whether it is new or one we already know.

- I feel like the HRA lettering should be reworked a bit. Personally, I am looking forward to getting a letter in the mail this Sunday, since I have been working on my left and right rooms since last Sunday, but they usually just feel spammy. In CF, you could opt out. And in NL, you would only get letters after reaching certain milestones. I feel like New Leaf executed them the best. They were pretty messy in GC and in WW too (especially the former), but I give them more leeway since those are older games.

- Furniture sets from older games. I cannot tell you how much I miss the regal, rococo, princess, and ESPECIALLY the lovely series.
I am actually surprised the mermaid series at least made its way back to us.

- Being able to still gift or deliver packages to villagers even when they are fishing, sitting down, crafting (without getting through the dialogue), looking at something, etc. It frustrates me that you cannot do so certain these moments, which sometimes goes on for a while.

- Being able to easily track down villagers when they are not in their house or actually outside on the island. The museum, hence my nickname for it--The MAZEum, is the WORST place to look for villagers. TOO MANY ROOMS!