Is it just me or is it way too hard to get villager requests in New Horizons?

[VanitasFan26]

I seriously don’t understand how we went from older Animal Crossing games, where villagers would constantly ask you to do things, to New Horizons, where I can talk to them five times a day and still not receive a single request. Not even a “Hey, can you catch me a bug?” or a “Can you return this item to someone for me?”

Most of the time, they either repeat dialogue I’ve heard a million times or they get annoyed that I’m even trying to talk to them more than once. I wait, I try again later, and I speak to them during different parts of the day—and nothing. And the one time I do get a request? It’s once in a blue moon and never comes back for the rest of the day.

I don’t want to decorate my island all the time. I want to bond with my villagers. I want to do favors for them, like in Wild World or New Leaf. It made me feel like I was part of a little community. Now it feels like I’m just walking past NPCs who occasionally compliment a flower I placed six months ago.

It’s wild to me that in a game all about “slowing down and connecting with your neighbors,” the neighbors barely give you anything to do unless they’re thinking about moving out. And even then, the thought bubble roulette is exhausting.

I get that NH was trying to focus more on the creative aspect, and that’s fine. But for players who enjoy the social sim side of Animal Crossing, it just feels like something important got lost. The villagers look cuter than ever, but they’ve never felt more hollow.

Anyone else feel this way? Or am I just being too nostalgic?

 

[-Blue-]

Oh dang you're right. I forgot that was a feature in this game. I just assumed they took it out lmao. They really did put the villagers and almost everything else on the backburner for a decorator sim. And that's such a shame.

I just made a post earlier about how annoying they made it to get reactions in this game. With NewLeaf Shrunk gave them if you gifted him fruit or a bamboo shoot. And they could be done daily. In NH you can go days without getting a ping for a reaction or even longer.

I used to also see the villagers have duo conversations all the time. Now I never see them. It's almost like they reduced the possibility in some patch so it has less of a chance. Then when I finally see one happening it's the short duo conversations where one villager asks to take the others catchphrase.

But you're right. I never see them ask for any tasks at all. They actually did it so much in NewLeaf that I got annoyed and wish there was an option like in PG where you could ask 'Give me work!' because it was so annoying to want to talk to them and each time they just turned you into their personal butler. Why can't there be a middle ground Nintendo lol?

 

[VanitasFan26]

Oh dang you're right. I forgot that was a feature in this game. I just assumed they took it out lmao. They really did put the villagers and almost everything else on the backburner for a decorator sim. And that's such a shame.

I just made a post earlier about how annoying they made it to get reactions in this game. With NewLeaf Shrunk gave them if you gifted him fruit or a bamboo shoot. And they could be done daily. In NH you can go days without getting a ping for a reaction or even longer.

I used to also see the villagers have duo conversations all the time. Now I never see them. It's almost like they reduced the possibility in some patch so it has less of a chance. Then when I finally see one happening it's the short duo conversations where one villager asks to take the others catchphrase.

But you're right. I never see them ask for any tasks at all. They actually did it so much in NewLeaf that I got annoyed and wish there was an option like in PG where you could ask 'Give me work!' because it was so annoying to want to talk to them and each time they just turned you into their personal butler. Why can't there be a middle ground Nintendo lol?

Yeah, that middle ground is precisely what’s missing. In New Leaf, it could get a bit much, sure, but at least the villagers felt involved in your day-to-day. Now it’s the opposite: barely any tasks, barely any reactions, and the duo convos feel super rare or watered down. It’s like they pulled too far in the other direction. There’s room for more meaningful interactions without turning it into a chore.

 

[GooseyGuos]

When I do work on landscape or making of a path, the villagers always come this area and make a thought bubble and it is giving me great annoyance! I was not going to believe it when Pashmina told me this to deliver this gift to Goose. But she stand on his house the outside front door!!!!

 

[azurill]

I agree with you. I very rarely get asked to do anything for them. I miss when you could ask them what they needed. I want to interact more with them. I was excited about being able to invite them to have coffee but was disappointed that you don’t even get a coffee for yourself. It feels more like your the annoying waiter then having an actual sit down conversation with them.

There are so many ways you could have interacted with them. I want more back and forth conversations instead of them saying something random and walking away. They ask questions about what they should do for the day or what they should have for dinner but never let you answer. I wish we could play hide and seek with them or a game of volleyball like Buck keeps asking about. I love the decorating but really would love to have the next game be more about villager interaction.

 

[-Blue-]

Yeah, that middle ground is precisely what’s missing. In New Leaf, it could get a bit much, sure, but at least the villagers felt involved in your day-to-day. Now it’s the opposite: barely any tasks, barely any reactions, and the duo convos feel super rare or watered down. It’s like they pulled too far in the other direction. There’s room for more meaningful interactions without turning it into a chore.

I rarely ever got duo conversations in NL. Maybe everyone else had better luck and my rng was just trash, but it always felt like the holy grail when I saw one happening. There would be so many times that my villagers would just keep walking into each other with soulless eyes. So it was really awesome that during launch NH had them happen so much...but now I can never see them happening. I noticed this happening sometime when we were still waiting on updates. It was like they nerfed it or something. But I never saw anyone mention it and even though I brought it up no one seemed to have the same problem.

New Leaf turned talking to them into a chore literally since they always recruited me wheras New Horizon gave them some of the most watered down boring dialogue ever.