This is something I have been thinking about, but I have noticed that different major aspects of Animal Crossing did the best in Wild World, New Leaf, and New Horizons.
(I am omitting Game Cube and City Folk from this thread,
since, while they are still good games, I cannot really say
what major aspects of them where executed better than
in the others. However, feel free to share your own thoughts if they differ from mine.)
Wild World: The villagers. While Wild World lacked content compared to NL, NH, and (arguably) GC, the villager's just had so much emotion and complexity to them. Yeah, it was a bummer that so many of them were absent, but damn, the dialogue is SO GOOD in Wild World. While a considerable portion of Animal Crossing fans favor the dialogue from the Game Cube version, I would have to respectfully disagree. Do not get me wrong, villagers were very three dimensional in that game as well. However, I think it shines through even moreso in Wild World. For example, cranky villagers were still very much cranky. However, there were moments were they were very wholesome. One of my favorite pieces of dialogue you can get in Wild World from a cranky villager, is them appreciating you for talking to them (I believe you have to have some friendship built up for them to do so). And then, they leave the conversation happy. It is one of the sweetest things...
I have also noticed that Wild World has dialogue exclusive to certain species and personality combinations. I have mentioned before my experience with having Aurora in a couple of my Wild World towns over the years. There was a piece of dialogue where she would express grief about penguins not being able to fly. Since she is the only normal penguin, this was a piece of dialogue that was unique to her. This is the type of stuff that added so much depth to the villagers in Wild World. Sure, villagers in NL and in NH are self-aware of their species, but they didn't really have unique dialogue to their species. They would just say, "I'm a happy [their species]". Aurora would also leave the conversation sad.
That leads me to my next point: The villagers had so much more emotion in Wild World. Not only was this shown through their stronger personalities, but it was also shown after conversations with the player and other villagers. Like I mentioned, you don't have to provoke villagers to make them mad or sad. They often made THEMSELVES mad. Villagers would even get mad when discussing two other villagers getting to arguments. This was the case for cranky villagers. Hell, even LAZY villagers (who RARELY get mad in general). It really made the villagers feel more...real. In NH and even NL, they hardly (if ever) get mad outside of you actively provoking them and occasionally from conversations with other villagers.
Not to mention the conversations with other villagers in Wild World. One of my favorite examples is this one that is between a Jock and a Cranky villager. They two talk about Lyle. And if you played Wild World, you would know that Lyle is annoying as absolute HELL in that game. The conversation is so funny and relatable. But basically the two rant about him and understandably leave the conversation, both pissed off.
And do not get me started on the villager pictures...They actually feel...special in Wild World. Once you have a high enough friendship and Wild World, the villager would ping you, and you would actually get special dialogue, acknowledging that you two are close friends. I do appreciate villager pictures making a comeback in New Leaf after being absent in City Folk, but man, it's just not the same anymore. They will just say, "Well, um, Here's my picture." and call it a day." -- It made it feel less rewarding. Getting multiple pictures in NL and in NH is nice for trading purposes, but I would like to see special dialogue in AC6 for at least the first time you get a picture from any given villager.
I do appreciate:
- The Game Cube version for having ball-fetch quests and the "give me work" option,
- City Folk for the key quest and because villagers can get you an invitation to Redd's.
- New Leaf for having a new variety of favors you could do for villagers (outside of the ones that required traveling to other towns) and adding incentives for high friendships with the villagers.
- And New Horizons for adding in-person gift-giving and the ability to cheer up villagers when they are sad or mad.
But other that that, I feel like villagers and their personalities shined through the most in Wild World.
New Leaf: Furniture, Exterior Customization, and a Sense of Long-Term Progression.
First. The furniture. The lovely furniture is my favorite furniture set of all time. Then we also got some new sets that I have grown to enjoy: Rococo and Mermaid. I also enjoyed the regal set prior to New Leaf, but I enjoy it even moreso in New Leaf thanks to Cyrus refurbishing it. I always had him change the trim to pink--my favorite color. The same goes for the rococo set. My favorite variant is the white and pink one. Sadly, these aforementioned sets are absent in New Horizons, with the exception of the mermaid set, which was added in New Horizon's Summer Update. We also had Gracie's high-end sets in NL, the princess being my favorite. But yeah, the new sets, the sets from older games, along with refurbishing? It makes New Leaf the highest point in terms of furniture.
Then there's exterior customization. House customization was so much better in this game compared to New Horizons. For example, we actually had themes such as mermaid and fairytale, which I really miss. The mermaid house exterior items would have been especially fitting for me. On top of that, I loved the architectural variants--my favorite was the castle. I would love this for New Horizons. ;-;
And you could also customize the town hall and train station. This is something you cannot do in New Leaf's predecessors, or even in New Horizons. My favorite of these variants is fairytale. Speaking of, I miss the fairytale bridges from New Leaf.
Then there's the progression. This game has new shops, and five different levels of Nook stores. We could spent months watching main street evolve from something casual to something variant and bustling. Each shop had different ways of unlocking them. It helped players to discover new stuff for months on end.
New Horizons: A Sense of Starting from Scratch and Outdoor Customization. New Leaf did the best in giving us a sense of long-term progression. However New Horizons did the best at giving us a sense of starting from scratch. In precious titles, you would just move to a pre-established town with villagers, houses, and shops already there. But in New Horizons, you actually have to build from the ground up. I actually love how we have do things to unlock Nooklings, the Museum, the Able Sisters, etc. It gives us so much to work towards at the beginning of the game. I would much prefer to go back to living in a town, but man, I love the idea of establishing our own town from the get-go.
Then New Horizons added a lot of features that really help our islands feel personalized: House relocation, terraforming, and being able to put furniture outside are the most notable. This definitely helped each island feel unique to one another. Plus, being able to relocate houses is a godsend. The same goes for the buildings. I want all my houses lined up at the top of my island, and my museum in the middle of them. I hated how the houses could just pop up in random places in the other games. I like being able to have my villager's houses and buildings wherever I damn-well please.
I know a lot of people are not a big fan of having the control we do in New Horizons. I am going to have to disagree. Lack of control means lack of creative freedom. However, I do agree with the people who complain about the lack of focus on other aspects (e.g. villager personalities and friendships). The lack of focus on other aspects is the complaint I have, not the designing and creativity themselves.
Conclusion. I really hope Nintendo takes the best from each game and combines it into the next Animal Crossing game, along with expanding on these said aspects even further, and add some new features.
(I am omitting Game Cube and City Folk from this thread,
since, while they are still good games, I cannot really say
what major aspects of them where executed better than
in the others. However, feel free to share your own thoughts if they differ from mine.)
Wild World: The villagers. While Wild World lacked content compared to NL, NH, and (arguably) GC, the villager's just had so much emotion and complexity to them. Yeah, it was a bummer that so many of them were absent, but damn, the dialogue is SO GOOD in Wild World. While a considerable portion of Animal Crossing fans favor the dialogue from the Game Cube version, I would have to respectfully disagree. Do not get me wrong, villagers were very three dimensional in that game as well. However, I think it shines through even moreso in Wild World. For example, cranky villagers were still very much cranky. However, there were moments were they were very wholesome. One of my favorite pieces of dialogue you can get in Wild World from a cranky villager, is them appreciating you for talking to them (I believe you have to have some friendship built up for them to do so). And then, they leave the conversation happy. It is one of the sweetest things...
I have also noticed that Wild World has dialogue exclusive to certain species and personality combinations. I have mentioned before my experience with having Aurora in a couple of my Wild World towns over the years. There was a piece of dialogue where she would express grief about penguins not being able to fly. Since she is the only normal penguin, this was a piece of dialogue that was unique to her. This is the type of stuff that added so much depth to the villagers in Wild World. Sure, villagers in NL and in NH are self-aware of their species, but they didn't really have unique dialogue to their species. They would just say, "I'm a happy [their species]". Aurora would also leave the conversation sad.
That leads me to my next point: The villagers had so much more emotion in Wild World. Not only was this shown through their stronger personalities, but it was also shown after conversations with the player and other villagers. Like I mentioned, you don't have to provoke villagers to make them mad or sad. They often made THEMSELVES mad. Villagers would even get mad when discussing two other villagers getting to arguments. This was the case for cranky villagers. Hell, even LAZY villagers (who RARELY get mad in general). It really made the villagers feel more...real. In NH and even NL, they hardly (if ever) get mad outside of you actively provoking them and occasionally from conversations with other villagers.
Not to mention the conversations with other villagers in Wild World. One of my favorite examples is this one that is between a Jock and a Cranky villager. They two talk about Lyle. And if you played Wild World, you would know that Lyle is annoying as absolute HELL in that game. The conversation is so funny and relatable. But basically the two rant about him and understandably leave the conversation, both pissed off.
And do not get me started on the villager pictures...They actually feel...special in Wild World. Once you have a high enough friendship and Wild World, the villager would ping you, and you would actually get special dialogue, acknowledging that you two are close friends. I do appreciate villager pictures making a comeback in New Leaf after being absent in City Folk, but man, it's just not the same anymore. They will just say, "Well, um, Here's my picture." and call it a day." -- It made it feel less rewarding. Getting multiple pictures in NL and in NH is nice for trading purposes, but I would like to see special dialogue in AC6 for at least the first time you get a picture from any given villager.
I do appreciate:
- The Game Cube version for having ball-fetch quests and the "give me work" option,
- City Folk for the key quest and because villagers can get you an invitation to Redd's.
- New Leaf for having a new variety of favors you could do for villagers (outside of the ones that required traveling to other towns) and adding incentives for high friendships with the villagers.
- And New Horizons for adding in-person gift-giving and the ability to cheer up villagers when they are sad or mad.
But other that that, I feel like villagers and their personalities shined through the most in Wild World.
New Leaf: Furniture, Exterior Customization, and a Sense of Long-Term Progression.
First. The furniture. The lovely furniture is my favorite furniture set of all time. Then we also got some new sets that I have grown to enjoy: Rococo and Mermaid. I also enjoyed the regal set prior to New Leaf, but I enjoy it even moreso in New Leaf thanks to Cyrus refurbishing it. I always had him change the trim to pink--my favorite color. The same goes for the rococo set. My favorite variant is the white and pink one. Sadly, these aforementioned sets are absent in New Horizons, with the exception of the mermaid set, which was added in New Horizon's Summer Update. We also had Gracie's high-end sets in NL, the princess being my favorite. But yeah, the new sets, the sets from older games, along with refurbishing? It makes New Leaf the highest point in terms of furniture.
Then there's exterior customization. House customization was so much better in this game compared to New Horizons. For example, we actually had themes such as mermaid and fairytale, which I really miss. The mermaid house exterior items would have been especially fitting for me. On top of that, I loved the architectural variants--my favorite was the castle. I would love this for New Horizons. ;-;
And you could also customize the town hall and train station. This is something you cannot do in New Leaf's predecessors, or even in New Horizons. My favorite of these variants is fairytale. Speaking of, I miss the fairytale bridges from New Leaf.
Then there's the progression. This game has new shops, and five different levels of Nook stores. We could spent months watching main street evolve from something casual to something variant and bustling. Each shop had different ways of unlocking them. It helped players to discover new stuff for months on end.
New Horizons: A Sense of Starting from Scratch and Outdoor Customization. New Leaf did the best in giving us a sense of long-term progression. However New Horizons did the best at giving us a sense of starting from scratch. In precious titles, you would just move to a pre-established town with villagers, houses, and shops already there. But in New Horizons, you actually have to build from the ground up. I actually love how we have do things to unlock Nooklings, the Museum, the Able Sisters, etc. It gives us so much to work towards at the beginning of the game. I would much prefer to go back to living in a town, but man, I love the idea of establishing our own town from the get-go.
Then New Horizons added a lot of features that really help our islands feel personalized: House relocation, terraforming, and being able to put furniture outside are the most notable. This definitely helped each island feel unique to one another. Plus, being able to relocate houses is a godsend. The same goes for the buildings. I want all my houses lined up at the top of my island, and my museum in the middle of them. I hated how the houses could just pop up in random places in the other games. I like being able to have my villager's houses and buildings wherever I damn-well please.
I know a lot of people are not a big fan of having the control we do in New Horizons. I am going to have to disagree. Lack of control means lack of creative freedom. However, I do agree with the people who complain about the lack of focus on other aspects (e.g. villager personalities and friendships). The lack of focus on other aspects is the complaint I have, not the designing and creativity themselves.
Conclusion. I really hope Nintendo takes the best from each game and combines it into the next Animal Crossing game, along with expanding on these said aspects even further, and add some new features.
