Does anyone else refuse to restart, even if you ‘finish’ your island?

[cosravet]

I’ve been really into watching ACNH Youtubers lately, and it seems as though it’s custom for everyone to erase their game data and completely restart a new island whenever they finish the previous one, saving previous iterations via the dream addresses. I’m nearly halfway done with my island, but I’ve no plans to simply erase and restart when I am...! Not only does it sound absolutely tedious, but does anyone else just get too attached to their villagers to just leave them like that..? Or to their entire island for that matter. I view my creating my island as me creating a nice space for me to actually play the game. I also view my island as a constant WIP. I’m more than ready to tear down a spot and make room for brewsters, maybe I’ll even flatten half my island and redo it all at some point... but starting from scratch all over again seems like too much, although now I worry I may grow bored if I don’t

 

[X10Rinne]

I've been playing on the same island since day 1 and feel pretty much the same way!

If I ever feel bored of doing the same island chores each day, I put the game down for a few weeks and play other stuff until I miss dressing my rep for the day and running around over lunch break. I think just changing your outfit every time you play adds more little selfie opportunities, even on the same old island!

I recently took down some slopes and re-terraformed the area around my secret beach (which isn't very secret anymore sorry redd).

 

[Starfish10]

I don’t understand the concept of “finishing” an island! I redo my island and my house all the time. It will never be finished, because I always change stuff up! It doesn’t seem very fun to me personally to just create something and then keep it like that forever, so, like you, I view my island not as something I can possibly “finish,” but something that will always be a work in progress. I might delete it someday and start over, but for now I have no reason to do that.

 

[Corrie]

Yeah no way. I could never go back to the beginning of the game. It was sooooo slow. If I wanted to "restart", I'd just flatten my entire island.

 

[Blueskyy]

I would never, ever restart. I play with weeks of breaks in between sometimes, so I’m far from finished. It took me a looooong time to acquire all of the things I have, and I would not ever want to have to start over.

 

[Sid]

It sucks losing all the DIYs you've built up and having to go through what I refer to as the "pregame" now (everything you have to do before you get terraforming). Other than that though, I love going through the process of reinventing my island. Finding new combinations of villagers I love. Starting fresh and trying new things design wise. Maybe I'm in the minority but that's how I feel anyway.

 

[LeenaM]

Maybe it's nostalgia for the early stages of the game? Sometimes I see AC youtubers play the first few days on their new island and I miss the music, the wind and the simple look of a barren island. Also, their experience restarting is probably different from most people, some have a second switch with another island, or they have a community of viewers to helps them get items/villagers/nmt/diys. This way they can skip through the slow beginning and just focus on building the island.

But I understand not wanting to give up everything. Every time I restarted it was because I felt like my island was going nowhere and I wasn't attached to my villagers, so I thought "I might as well restart". It felt like there was not much to erase/give up. But because of that I never managed to "finish" an island, or even fill it up halfway. If I ever finish an island I'll probably choose to flatten instead of restarting.

 

[Cloudandshade]

I could never even consider it! Half the fun for me lies in the history my island has built over the last year, and all the ways it's evolved. I get how that could seem limiting to people given that we can only have one island at a time, but I just wouldn't be able to enjoy playing without that attachment I've developed to my save. Everyone plays differently though, and for those that like to have a fresh start every once in a while, I'm sure it feels more like a clean slate to restart than to flatten everything.

 

[Matt0106]

I know for a fact I will never restart, even when I finish. I did this a ton in NL, and that joy that I would usually get at the start would be lost. Of course, I am not saying I would never do it, but I just feel like I am perfectly happy with the one I got, and I really want to see how it will age through time. I want it to be one of those islands I get to look back on when the next Animal Crossing comes out

 

[VanitasFan26]

Truth be told I have thought about starting over but then I think about having to do that long tutorial again and just recollecting everything I had the museum. It won't change anything. Sure I may get a different location for Resident Services and have different fruit but other that I just don't see the point. I put in over 3,000 hours into this game (yes I know thats a lot but I did take breaks in between hours and that was the most time I spent terraforming) and if I were to delete all of that hard work I would never forgive myself. All those villagers I have, all the hard work I put into making my island, and everything I collected it would just be a massive headache just trying to do over everything. I know it has worked some people which is fine more power to them but for me I don't see myself restarting anytime soon.

After playing for a year I am just out of stuff to do in the game. Before you say anything I completed my island, completed the museum, gotten all the villagers I want, completed the nook mile achievements, and of course did a lot of trading with other people to get stuff I want. I am just feeling worn out from this game and I don't feel that accomplished. I told myself "Look dude you finished the island just leave it alone" so thats when I finally decided to stop playing the game because the more I keep pushing myself to do it the more stressed I will be. I am playing different games so thats helping, but no I am NEVER restarting.

 

[N e s s]

Deleting an animal crossing town is a rookie mistake, everyone regrets it after a week or two

 

[JellyBeans]

I wish there was a large enough part of me that refused to reset, but unfortunately I'm too lazy to tear down my island only to rebuild it + for me personally, part of the fun comes from having a totally clean slate and building everything back up from the beginning. although losing DIYs and the catalogue will for sure hurt big time!
but that's just me - I totally understand why people would never want to start all over again. growing with your island is such a nice thought

 

[PugLovex]

i've had the same island since march 20th, and i'm just like you! i've also had my first and only NL town for 6 years and i refuse to restart it too lmao

 

[bam94-]

There’s no way I could restart my island! I’ve invested too much time and effort and love into it. I don’t know the concept of a “finished” island either? I can’t imagine ever getting it to a point where I never want to touch it again. Changing things up is fun.

I reset a couple times on New Leaf and always regretted not keeping the first one I ever made. There’s something about it being my first and only island since the release date that I love and couldn’t give up.

 

[VanitasFan26]

It sucks losing all the DIYs you've built up and having to go through what I refer to as the "pregame" now (everything you have to do before you get terraforming). Other than that though, I love going through the process of reinventing my island. Finding new combinations of villagers I love. Starting fresh and trying new things design wise. Maybe I'm in the minority but that's how I feel anyway.

What really sucks about restarting is that all the DIYS you mentioned is gone and you have to go back and relearn all of it just to get it back. My friend found out this hard way when she restarted and she found out that all her seasonal DIYS were gone and she broke down crying. So this is also another way of not restarting.

 

[cosravet]

Hi everyone, I read all your responses and they made me feel better about it ( : I'm glad others can empathise with me and are on the same path as I

 

[Moritz]

I could never restart

I love my island, flaws and all.
Besides, I've redone fished areas before because I realised they looked bad, or I got new diys or items that could go better there. I've replaced villagers I would never have thought I would want to move so even when I'm not decorating, the place is changing. I'm not scared of ever being done.

I could replace the villagers, I could replace the diys, I could replace items. I could never replace the memories

 

[Imbri]

I don't think an island is ever really "finished", so restarting doesn't make sense to me. My villagers are set, and I don't plan to move buildings, but I constantly evolve my decorating, both inside and out. I can't imagine throwing out all the progress I made since launch and starting over again.

 

[ForbiddenSecrets]

I would have to hate something unchangeable about my island to want to restart. Getting all the DIYs and Catalogue again sounds like a nightmare.

 

[azurill]

I have been playing my first island since it came out so could never restart it. I am currently redoing my entire island one section at a time. I have most of my permanent villages on that island. I do really like the beginning of the game. I thought about restarting once and decided I would make a second island instead. This way I can have more villages and if I ever wanted to restart again I would with my second island. Now that I have had that Island for about 3 months I don’t think I will be restarting that one either.