If you could take one element from New Horizons and bring it to New Leaf, what would you choose?

[MapleSilver]

Villagers not randomly moving away. I'm so glad they finally got rid of that in NH. It actually led to me playing less because being forced to check my town felt like a chore after a while. If New Leaf had the same moveout system as New Horizons I probably would have played it far more consistently.

Outside furniture is another good one, though I'm not sure the 3DS could handle that many objects at once. The Switch already lags when you have too much outside furniture so imagine a handheld console from 2011 trying to do the same thing. Outside furniture is my favorite part of New Horizons though, so if New Leaf had that feature it would definitely be my favorite Animal Crossing. Yes I know PWPs were a thing but they were so limited in comparison.

 

[CasualWheezer]

That's definitely a hard one but the three that I have in mind are being able to place furniture outside, real paths, and the villagers to be as animated as in New Horizons. The last one would definitely add a lot of life in the game in my opinion.

 

[Xara]

character customization honestly should’ve been available right from the start - if anything, the ability to choose your own skin tone rather than the default being white would’ve been nice,, but that’s a topic for another day . personally, i would add the villagers’ inability to move out without running it by you first - sure, being able to place furniture outside or relocate buildings would’ve been amazing to have in new leaf but i’ll just,, never get over the sting of booting up your game only to find out that one of your dreamies is moving out and it’s irreversible.

 

[Roobi]

Definitely being able to move buildings/houses. I like my town but I hate having to place tiles everywhere to avoid villagers moving in on a terrible spot.

Also furniture outside. Such a welcome feature in NH. Especially with the typical garden/lawn/beach furniture. I have a garden room in my house but it's not the same

 

[Croconaw]

I’d take the ability to place furniture outside. I hope they keep this aspect in future games as well.

 

[Corrie]

Placing items outside. The PWP thing was really bad and looking back on it makes it worse. I'd go with terraforming too but definitely placing things outside in my own free will.

 

[Bilaz]

I’m glad you said aside from the character customisation because I would pick that as well. It was very unfair and too late of nintendo to only have pale characters.

But since we’re only talking gameplay then for me it’s definitely the house customisation. I looooove the way wall and floor decor is now and I love the ability to center things, it makes my room designs so much nicer

 

[JemAC]

After returning to New Leaf following the release of New Horizons, which I've been playing a lot, the two things that I've most struggled with is not been able to place furniture outside and having less control over my villagers.

There is a lot of furniture in game that would be great for decorating the town and allowing more creativity so I find it hard that I can only place it inside the house.

Also I've always struggled with villagers randomly moving away in the older games and as I enjoy island hopping in NH I think it's a shame there isn't a similar mechanic in NL in order to look for potential villagers.

 

[Seastar]

Definitely villagers needing your permission to move. This is what keeps making me take long breaks from the game.
Turning on the game means for me that I must keep talking to my villagers until I figured out if someone is moving away and if so, stop them. I've done it so much that it just feels like a chore and at this point I'd only find it worth doing if I'm going to check out Club Tortimer again.

 

[kiwikenobi]

I would definitely choose villagers not moving away on their own. That was the one major source of stress for me in New Leaf. Everything else, I felt like I could work around. New Leaf is still my favorite Animal Crossing game, and I played it every day for almost six years, and while I never once lost a villager, I was also hyper vigilant about stopping them if I didn't want them to go. I had a few close calls, too. So, that's what I would pick, if I could choose only one thing from New Horizons to add.

 

[Tessie]

definitely placing furniture outside. pwps were cool and all but after experiencing NH gameplay really made you realize how limited the designing was in NL. still though, the amazing NL villages people made despite that just showed the creativity of the fanbase

 

[joey ^_^]

i'd pick getting to move villager houses where i want to bc my town is currently a mess of qr codes on the ground ahaha. i just want it to look neat y'know? whitney moved into a spot where i forgot to place designs and it doesn't look that good huhu i want her to leave but i am holding her for my friend so i gotta wait until she cycles through enough villagers before i can have my neat lil neighborhood of aligned houses back.

i think as a bonus i also want the ability to pole vault over rivers because i'm rearranging the bridges around town and it's a hassle to go the long way but maybe i'm just lazy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[sushicatlikesart]

Placing items outside. 100%.

 

[buny]

since we're talking aside from customization and skin colors, i'll also pick placing furniture outside, as is the one thing from NH that when i go back to play NL i really miss it and definitely makes the change in the game for me. It's just very frustrating when you have items that are clearly for the outdoors and you can't use them outside. >.<

 

[Moonlight.]

1. being able to place furniture outside
2. being able to move a villager's house, in new leaf they always seem to pick the worst possible spots
3. pretty much controlling when a villager moves out, just kinda annoying they can up and leave when you don't play the game for a while

 

[meggiewes]

Ugh. Just one? Probably villager house placement. The closest runner up is the tool ring.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Storage space in your pockets and home. New Horizons did storage so much better than the old games.

 

[Lanstar]

The town designer app. That way, grass deterioration would never be a thing - And it could freshen up the monotony of having to play in the exact same map all the time, as I can control the flow of rivers, ponds, etc.

 

[Mezzanine]

Deleted

 

[Shawna]

Probably moving homes. Everything else.. can stay in new horizons thank you very much.

Ohhhh yeah this is a great one too