New Horizons feels like a discount New Leaf

[daringred_]

Exactly.

Honestly, for me, I saw the flaws in New Leaf compared to previous titles (even though at the time I had never played any of them extensively). Despite all the additions, I wasn't a fan of the hourly music, rolling log view (I love that NH allows me to have a bit of an overhead camera), and other stuff I can't recall at the moment. Despite all of that, I found myself enjoying New Leaf even though some of those flaws bothered me quite a bit.

I don't think I'm glamorizing New Leaf.

At the same thing.. NH isn't a "departure" from New Leaf. I understand why some of you think that way, and I did too when the game first came out. I remember drawing some diagrams and saying that it's either an evolution of City Folk or the original GCN game due to the way it disregarded most developments of New Leaf. However, as the updates came out, it became clear that they were just gonna add in things like bushes and diving as DLC. It wasn't a "new direction". Instead, it made the game feel incomplete.

i personally prefer NL's music, and don't mind the view, but i do have other issues with the game (villagers putting their houses wherever, meh dialogue, grass deterioration, lack of skin tones, etc.) that were all improved in NH. that, however, doesn't automatically make NH better and i would gladly take those issues in stride and replay NL purely because it has more content and keeps me occupied/playing for a lot longer. what flaws NL does have, it makes up for in character and content. NH either outright or removed a lot of those features and, with them, the character and charm, which is why i struggle to care or feel invested. it's got literally nothing to do with "glamorizing" NL, and i don't think the people using that term even completely understand what it means.

 

[marea]

I agree with some of your points and disgree with some others. I personally feel like it is too early to judge new horizons compared to older games because we still dont have the whole game yet. Maybe they will bring some of new leaf's features back, or at least that is what i am wishing. It also has enough new features to make it feel fresh. I enjoy some of them like crafting, it really felt like a big edition that added way more to my personal way of playing than fortune cookies or gyroids, which were two features i had no interest in.

However, the thing that i think should have been there since day one is more and better villager interactions. The social aspect of new horizons is very disappointing for me. They could have done so much more with it but instead it is lacking. Still, i think this entery has potential. It all depends on where they decide to take it, though.

 

[grandpa]

I agree with some of your points and disgree with some others. I personally feel like it is too early to judge new horizons compared to older games because we still dont have the whole game yet. Maybe they will bring some of new leaf's features back, or at least that is what i am wishing. It also has enough new features to make it feel fresh. I enjoy some of them like crafting, it really felt like a big edition that added way more to my personal way of playing than fortune cookies or gyroids, which were two features i had no interest in.

However, the thing that i think should have been there since day one is more and better villager interactions. The social aspect of new horizons is very disappointing for me. They could have done so much more with it but instead it is lacking. Still, i think this entery has potential. It all depends on where they decide to take it, though.

i agree with we need better villager interactions. The social aspect. im soo damn tired of the same 2-3 opening lines they do every day..... (hear your dig fossil or bury money) damn i would be happy if the villager would interact more with each other or play more,,, damn we in 2020-21 im sure they could put small mini game that we able to play with them...

what i would like to see or get back. is the small city life form new leaf. and more of the old personalities. like grumpy villagers. whats that would be gold as well will let villager grow their personalities over time. and lets us see more of them. hell i like Katts, when she come up with some of hers rares one liner of her home or talk about herself. same with Cole

 

[-Lumi-]

Honestly? Yeah. It does.

I know that New Horizon's doesn't need to be nor was it meant to be New Leaf 2. It's a new game in the franchise so it'll have differences, like how Wild World & New Leaf aren't the same game and that's okay. I'm not looking for a second New Leaf, what I'm looking for is an improved Animal Crossing game and while in some ways New Horizons is an improvement, as a whole I can't help but feel disappointed by it. I've posted in tons of threads about my disappointment in New Horizons to the point where I probably sound like a broken record but I paid nearly $100 for the game (Canadian prices, woohoo), I should own the whole damn thing.

A lot of New Horizons flaws are often defended with, "it'll come in an update, that could be changed in an update, it's written in the meta-data (or whatever that's called) so it'll come in the future, etc. etc" and yeah, it very well might, but that's ridiculous. The game should've been released with NPC's, shop updates/more shops, inclusive/more diverse hairstyles, and holidays amongst other things, already included. It's frustrating that so much of the game is hidden behind updates when it's not a free to play game. I paid money for a full game, but I didn't receive a full game at launch, so I'm going to be hypercritical of what I paid for.

Other flaws are frustrating and I will compare it directly to New Leaf. Why am I not able to get every fruit type unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to look at patterns people design unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to obtain every colour of the already limited furniture available unless I pay for online? That's ridiculous that those features aren't available to players who choose to or are only able to play solo. Those are core features of the Animal Crossing experience and it's unfair they're locked behind a paywall.

In different ways the game feels like a step back because it feels empty. Animal Crossing is such a charming game and I really feel like New Horizons lost some of that charm. The game is gorgeous, sure, and it has some really cute little details! I love that we can see snow from our windows, and that the villagers can sing, and sit, and carry items around, they did a really great job with the way the game looks. No doubt. But it's empty. My island has two stores. Two shops that don't upgrade, or at least they haven't yet, and the game has been out for nearly a year! By the time I put a year into New Leaf I think I had most of mainstreet unlocked, if not all of it, and maybe even had the full store upgrades too. Hiding those things behind updates under the guise of "making the game last longer" is silly. I played New Leaf for years without needing the game to hide holidays and features behind yearly updates.

I dunno. I do love New Horizons, it definitely has some good aspects. I love being able to put furniture outside - I think that adds a lot to the game and I have a lot of fun decorating my island with more than just the handful of PWP's we had in New Leaf. I love that we get to move houses and the campsite around and I love having fences, those are really cute. I love being able to change my eyes, nose, mouth, hair, gender, and skin tone by just looking into a mirror. I love the new villagers, Sherb is so cute, even if I'm not a huge fan of how they altered the lazy personality, but still. I love how the game has pathways now! Ones that are recognized on my map, that's a lot of fun. I love how much bigger the island is, that we get to add in more than three bridges (I think that was the New Leaf limit?) and we get to add inclines, and I do like having the option to terraform even if I find it a little overwhelming and not the easiest thing to do. Also rocks! I love that we can break rocks in New Horizons.

New Horizons does have aspects that I love, it can just feel overshadowed by the parts that are frustrating and by the parts that feel unfair, especially when I look at my time with New Leaf. I think with New Leaf the main things that frustrated me were: the character customization in New Leaf was abysmal and I'm really bummed that wasn't fixed with the Welcome Amiibo update, definitely a huge let down. Villagers randomly moving out if you didn't play the game every single day and then having villagers randomly choose a spot to live. The house plotting was slightly improved with the Welcome Amiibo update but it's still finicky. And that's really it. I'm sure there are little things that also bother me but those three are my main issues that still stick out when I think back to the game. I do visit my New Leaf town from time to time and it's still charming and I love it a lot.

 

[Sheydra]

Funny enough I feel nh is much more relaxing and feels less like work then nl did.

 

[Monokuma73]

Honestly? Yeah. It does.

I know that New Horizon's doesn't need to be nor was it meant to be New Leaf 2. It's a new game in the franchise so it'll have differences, like how Wild World & New Leaf aren't the same game and that's okay. I'm not looking for a second New Leaf, what I'm looking for is an improved Animal Crossing game and while in some ways New Horizons is an improvement, as a whole I can't help but feel disappointed by it. I've posted in tons of threads about my disappointment in New Horizons to the point where I probably sound like a broken record but I paid nearly $100 for the game (Canadian prices, woohoo), I should own the whole damn thing.

I never played and never had NL before updates, I was lucky enough have an access to final version of NL for reasonable price. I can say more, I bought almost all (suitable) AC games in 2020 (excluding City Folk for Wii, as I already had this one, but never played) and all of those games been completed. This gave me some sort of security and reason to believe / trust in new version (NH) when released as a full game... will be literally full one... but it wasn't.
Once more, I was lucky enough to buy NH (two Switches, two copies of NH) late August / first week of September 2020 so I had no feeling disappointment of lacking features added in summer update.
Most disappointing fact is related to three last updates (Halloween, Turkey Day, Toy Day), not only because of the content, but because those updates should be a part of full release and don't pretend a Big Nintendo giving a gift for FREE, because it's not true.

A lot of New Horizons flaws are often defended with, "it'll come in an update, that could be changed in an update, it's written in the meta-data (or whatever that's called) so it'll come in the future, etc. etc" and yeah, it very well might, but that's ridiculous. The game should've been released with NPC's, shop updates/more shops, inclusive/more diverse hairstyles, and holidays amongst other things, already included. It's frustrating that so much of the game is hidden behind updates when it's not a free to play game. I paid money for a full game, but I didn't receive a full game at launch, so I'm going to be hypercritical of what I paid for.

I totally agree with you. If the game is free / free to play, alpha, beta etc. we may expect to pay something extra. Having a full release of software giving or at least should give sense of buying finished product, or if it's not finished, a proper information should be given for a customers.
I heard and read more than enough about high hopes, about "bright futures", about data-mining, about big free update, full of content just round the corner... but as I wrote so many times, I don't believe it would ever happened. The fact something has been data-mined in the code, doesn't prove anything.
One more thing - island has fixed size and there's not really place for extra buildings... sure, if we want we could destroy as much as we pleased and place more and more buildings... but is this a way?

Other flaws are frustrating and I will compare it directly to New Leaf. Why am I not able to get every fruit type unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to look at patterns people design unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to obtain every colour of the already limited furniture available unless I pay for online? That's ridiculous that those features aren't available to players who choose to or are only able to play solo. Those are core features of the Animal Crossing experience and it's unfair they're locked behind a paywall.

There is more. I do agree with you, when we talking about literally forced to play online and obviously buying online membership. When I bough Switch + NH for my and my GF I was intended to play only with her, using local play. However in the time when we bought, local play was terrible mess and it was unplayable. Probably it was silently fixed (but I'm not 100% sure). I bought two online membership, for one year each, but I has been done against my will. If I would have this knowledge before purchase I may be acting differently.
But, whatever happens in the future, my "New Year Resolution" is not extend online membership after September 2021 when my membership will expire. Enough is enough.
It looks like game couldn't be completed without online membership, but customers are not clearly informed about this.

In different ways the game feels like a step back because it feels empty. Animal Crossing is such a charming game and I really feel like New Horizons lost some of that charm. The game is gorgeous, sure, and it has some really cute little details! I love that we can see snow from our windows, and that the villagers can sing, and sit, and carry items around, they did a really great job with the way the game looks. No doubt. But it's empty. My island has two stores. Two shops that don't upgrade, or at least they haven't yet, and the game has been out for nearly a year! By the time I put a year into New Leaf I think I had most of mainstreet unlocked, if not all of it, and maybe even had the full store upgrades too. Hiding those things behind updates under the guise of "making the game last longer" is silly. I played New Leaf for years without needing the game to hide holidays and features behind yearly updates.

In some aspect, New Horizons is not New Leaf 2, but New Leaf 0.5 and there's no real justification for this. Sometimes I have a sense of different teams with different vision working on same game. NH is visually improved, is charming, sweet, adorable etc. But some aspect of NH has been taken away, stripped, reduced - can we call this improvement, because I can't.
Same, I do not agree with statement "making the game last longer", especially after last three updates. Those updates haven't changed a bit in quality of life, haven't improved a game as a whole.

I dunno. I do love New Horizons, it definitely has some good aspects. I love being able to put furniture outside - I think that adds a lot to the game and I have a lot of fun decorating my island with more than just the handful of PWP's we had in New Leaf. I love that we get to move houses and the campsite around and I love having fences, those are really cute. I love being able to change my eyes, nose, mouth, hair, gender, and skin tone by just looking into a mirror. I love the new villagers, Sherb is so cute, even if I'm not a huge fan of how they altered the lazy personality, but still. I love how the game has pathways now! Ones that are recognized on my map, that's a lot of fun. I love how much bigger the island is, that we get to add in more than three bridges (I think that was the New Leaf limit?) and we get to add inclines, and I do like having the option to terraform even if I find it a little overwhelming and not the easiest thing to do. Also rocks! I love that we can break rocks in New Horizons.

I don't agree only with one thing... size of the island. Is not big enough. If we would like to play with flowers, we need a lot of space, orchard... a big one requires more. If we would like to have a park with shrubs, fences, fountains - still require more and more... and space is limited and we loosing a lot of space behind all buildings.

New Horizons does have aspects that I love, it can just feel overshadowed by the parts that are frustrating and by the parts that feel unfair, especially when I look at my time with New Leaf. I think with New Leaf the main things that frustrated me were: the character customization in New Leaf was abysmal and I'm really bummed that wasn't fixed with the Welcome Amiibo update, definitely a huge let down. Villagers randomly moving out if you didn't play the game every single day and then having villagers randomly choose a spot to live. The house plotting was slightly improved with the Welcome Amiibo update but it's still finicky. And that's really it. I'm sure there are little things that also bother me but those three are my main issues that still stick out when I think back to the game. I do visit my New Leaf town from time to time and it's still charming and I love it a lot.

New Horizons was a really big step forward, but in some aspects was a couple steps back. If I can't find any explanations and understand why such a thing has happened, always the answer is: "money". Despite the fact Nintendo earned a lot of money selling NH, releasing ultimate version of AC would ruin possibility to release another and another one, to make even more money.

 

[Angelbearpuppy]

I will state I never played NL; in fact, the last animal crossing game I played was on the Game Cube. The others that released just for whatever reason never crossed my plate. But I can't help f this reminds me of Sims 4. It had a lot of the same criticism going on, but to be fair, they stripped it back to the bare basics and made and repurchased it piece by piece. However, there were some free updates.

What I have learned is that you need to take each game at face value. It is unfair to compare games in the same family when each game has a different focus. It would be like comparing two people's islands or playstyles and judging which one is better or the correct way to do things. When you stop focusing on the notes and focus on the aspects you like, it makes playing it more enjoyable. And ultimately, that is what video games' goals are.

On the flip side, be lucky they are not charging you for the updates or treating it like DLC.

 

[wolfie1]

It's kind of difficult to state whether New Horizons is or will be the best/worst installment in the franchise because we still don't have the whole game. That's kind of the problem with video games nowadays: they sell a €60 game which is almost always bare-bones when it's released and then they keep adding updates to keep people hooked. The problem is you never know which way it will go.

In the case of New Horizons, so far regular updates have only brought back stuff that was present in previous games. If it's any consolation, at least they're free, but I don't recall having seen a genuinely original mechanic or feature (other than probably new furniture or DIYs from some sets, such as Franklin's or the ornament DIYs). To be honest, when I started playing I thought it would be a blast, but after nine months it's kind of worn out. They could have had everything from the beginning if they weren't planning on actually adding new stuff. Did they do this to prevent time-travelers from spoiling the fun for others or from burning out/getting bored too soon? Who knows, but the fact remains that the game is missing a lot of stuff after all this time.

Some days ago I watched a video which detailed everything that was missing from previous installments and boy was it long. I didn't even remember most of it because they were little things, but those little things kept the game alive. For example, hide-and-seek, burying time capsules, setting appointments with your villagers to have them come over or go visit them, fetching a villager for another one who's at home only to have them tell the second villager they found their sock... but also events, especially from Wild World: La-Di-Day, Yay Day, the Flea Market... Boy do I miss those little things that entertained me for hours on end when I was a little kid. I'm not even going to mention all the NPC they've removed because somebody else did it before, but it's pretty sad to see that most of them probably won't be brought back or will be brought back after a long time, when it probably won't make sense anymore to add them. We still have only ONE Nook's Cranny upgrade, the dialogs are kind of repetitive, and so on and so forth.

However, I will agree that New Horizons introduced some mechanics from the beginning which account for the 710 hours I've put into this game: terraforming is a groundbreaking idea which lets you create and modify your island however you want, although I ended up getting burned out too soon as it was too overwhelming at times (possibly my own fault for wanting to modify my island in one sitting); I still craft DIY furniture daily, if only to complete the achievement and sell what I craft immediately to Timmy and Tommy.

All in all, I think New Horizons is a pretty divisive game but we won't be able to know for sure whether the wait will have been worth it or not until the last update. Until then we can only speculate and discuss if this or that is good/bad/should not be in the game, and so on.

 

[moonlights]

I 100% agree New Leaf had small features that made the game feel like 'Animal Crossing', such as our favourite NPCs, gyroids and the music, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a discount New Leaf, however I do genuinely think NL has a charm NH didn't capture.
I'm also lost on the replies saying there's much more to do in NL... there really isn't. i guess the welcome amiibo update added something big to NL but unless you had a new nintendo 3ds, or were willing to pay £40-50 for an NFC reader and then the cards on top of that, you only enjoyed RVs from about 5 of the same NPCs.

 

[Sara?]

It's kind of difficult to state whether New Horizons is or will be the best/worst installment in the franchise because we still don't have the whole game. That's kind of the problem with video games nowadays: they sell a €60 game which is almost always bare-bones when it's released and then they keep adding updates to keep people hooked. The problem is you never know which way it will go.

In the case of New Horizons, so far regular updates have only brought back stuff that was present in previous games. If it's any consolation, at least they're free, but I don't recall having seen a genuinely original mechanic or feature (other than probably new furniture or DIYs from some sets, such as Franklin's or the ornament DIYs). To be honest, when I started playing I thought it would be a blast, but after nine months it's kind of worn out. They could have had everything from the beginning if they weren't planning on actually adding new stuff. Did they do this to prevent time-travelers from spoiling the fun for others or from burning out/getting bored too soon? Who knows, but the fact remains that the game is missing a lot of stuff after all this time.

Some days ago I watched a video which detailed everything that was missing from previous installments and boy was it long. I didn't even remember most of it because they were little things, but those little things kept the game alive. For example, hide-and-seek, burying time capsules, setting appointments with your villagers to have them come over or go visit them, fetching a villager for another one who's at home only to have them tell the second villager they found their sock... but also events, especially from Wild World: La-Di-Day, Yay Day, the Flea Market... Boy do I miss those little things that entertained me for hours on end when I was a little kid. I'm not even going to mention all the NPC they've removed because somebody else did it before, but it's pretty sad to see that most of them probably won't be brought back or will be brought back after a long time, when it probably won't make sense anymore to add them. We still have only ONE Nook's Cranny upgrade, the dialogs are kind of repetitive, and so on and so forth.

However, I will agree that New Horizons introduced some mechanics from the beginning which account for the 710 hours I've put into this game: terraforming is a groundbreaking idea which lets you create and modify your island however you want, although I ended up getting burned out too soon as it was too overwhelming at times (possibly my own fault for wanting to modify my island in one sitting); I still craft DIY furniture daily, if only to complete the achievement and sell what I craft immediately to Timmy and Tommy.

All in all, I think New Horizons is a pretty divisive game but we won't be able to know for sure whether the wait will have been worth it or not until the last update. Until then we can only speculate and discuss if this or that is good/bad/should not be in the game, and so on.

While I strongly agree and support your opinion, which is very well written, I only have a little tinny something to add to it, I have only played NL so my experience with the franchise is not that vast, however i think harvesting is a new feature for and AC game so technically speaking they did add a new gaming dynamic or feature so to say with an update. Hopefully the future of ACNH will be bright

 

[wolfie1]

While I strongly agree and support your opinion, which is very well written, I only have a little tinny something to add to it, I have only played NL so my experience with the franchise is not that vast, however i think harvesting is a new feature for and AC game so technically speaking they did add a new gaming dynamic or feature so to say with an update. Hopefully the future of ACNH will be bright

Yeah, most of what I mentioned was actually present in New Leaf (burying a time capsule, fetching other villagers, setting apointments to have villagers come over, etc), but I meant new features introduced with regular updates. I think you mean harvesting tree branches and so on to craft DIYs, right? That's been in the game from the beginning, which is why I said I don't remember updates introducing actual new features or mechanics.

I wish these updates weren't so spaced out in time and didn't only bring back one or two NPCs that are only useful for a day and then you go back to your daily chores. I didn't use to feel like I'm a robot doing the same thing over and over again until at least more than a year after I started playing New Leaf. I'm also hoping the rest of updated they've planned will bring back most of what isn't in the game right now and more!

 

[JKDOS]

In my personal opinion, "making money" and all economy had higher difficulty level and was really unpleasant, however in ACNH we may have too much money and absolutely no way to spend them.

You may have that backwards. Making money in New Leaf was super easy (Beatle Farming made around 450,000 bells every 30 minutes), and there was no way to spend it outside of PWPs.
In New Horizons, making bells is a lot slower, and you have to pay Tom Nook 50,000 bells every time you want to move a building or 100,000 bells just to move a building a few spaces over. There are 10 villagers. It will take 500,000 bells to move each of their homes once.

 

[Sara?]

Yeah, most of what I mentioned was actually present in New Leaf (burying a time capsule, fetching other villagers, setting apointments to have villagers come over, etc), but I meant new features introduced with regular updates. I think you mean harvesting tree branches and so on to craft DIYs, right? That's been in the game from the beginning, which is why I said I don't remember updates introducing actual new features or mechanics.

I wish these updates weren't so spaced out in time and didn't only bring back one or two NPCs that are only useful for a day and then you go back to your daily chores. I didn't use to feel like I'm a robot doing the same thing over and over again until at least more than a year after I started playing New Leaf. I'm also hoping the rest of updated they've planned will bring back most of what isn't in the game right now and more!

No, no i meant harvesting pumpkin which we got through the halloween update ( harvesting vegetables is new to the franchise, or is it not ? ) which was also one of my favorite updates thus far i would say.

I feel you there! I also wish that we got more frequent updates even though if that meant we would have less content so to say in each update since they would be distributed in many small updates through the year, but i guess this is my personal taste there are probably pp out there who like updates to be more spaced but have a big load of content. I will agree with you that the game needs really needs the missing content plus, which is personally what im looking for, real new content or old content but with a different and improved twist to refreshen things and adapt to the new technologies and fans needs.

 

[wolfie1]

No, no i meant harvesting pumpkin which we got through the halloween update ( harvesting vegetables is new to the franchise, or is it not ? ) which was also one of my favorite updates thus far i would say.

I feel you there! I also wish that we got more frequent updates even though if that meant we would have less content so to say in each update since they would be distributed in many small updates through the year, but i guess this is my personal taste there are probably pp out there who like updates to be more spaced but have a big load of content. I will agree with you that the game needs really needs the missing content plus, which is personally what im looking for, real new content or old content but with a different and improved twist to refreshen things and adapt to the new technologies and fans needs.

Yes, I realized my mistake as soon as I clicked "post reply" lol. I left it there for confirmation, though. Although I'm not so sure it could be treated as "new", as they're basically treated like flowers... Anyway, it's a nice addition nonetheless, and I hope we can have other vegetables and fruits (looking at you, bananas, durians, persimmons, lemons) in future updates!

 

[Monokuma73]

You may have that backwards. Making money in New Leaf was super easy (Beatle Farming made around 450,000 bells every 30 minutes), and there was no way to spend it outside of PWPs.
In New Horizons, making bells is a lot slower, and you have to pay Tom Nook 50,000 bells every time you want to move a building or 100,000 bells just to move a building a few spaces over. There are 10 villagers. It will take 500,000 bells to move each of their homes once.

I do believe and personally I never reached the level you've mentioned.

 

[-Blue-]

As things are right now, the divisiveness of this game is very telling. You can love/defend or hate/bash the game as much as you want, but I never saw such a divide in any of the AC mainline games. I'm not finger pointing, because there is a fine line of criticizing the game for its flaws and pointing out its successes. Which a lot of us have done.

I also always see the go back to NewLeaf (older title) thrown around quite a lot. There are a few that absolutely detest NH, I won't deny it, but the majority just wish NH hadn't stripped away so much of its old content. I also don't think it is not fair and rather scummy of Nintendo to force people to pay for online or be locked away from its core content. And if you want another island you need to buy an entire system. When I was young, my family couldn't afford internet. There are so many families that still can't. Because you need internet to download patches and to get the holidays. If they don't have internet the game will be like WW 2.0 because there are no holidays.

Spoiler

This was an issue with NL as well, but if they want us to pay for online they should be giving us some kind of dedicated server. Or at the very least, not have everyone lose connection if someone drops accidentally or on purpose. I also see comments about how we should be glad the drip-feed isn't paid content. We already paid for the game, regular internet to get updates, online NSO for the actual game, and then paid content? Nintendo and AC would be getting so much heat. A good portion of the playerbase would abandon ship.

As things are now, we are almost a year in. I never played an Animal Crossing game for a straight year. I usually come back after a break. But before those breaks, I would often unlock stuff that was already in the game. In NL's case it was the mainstreet and upgraded shops. In this game, I'm almost a year in and just waiting to see what might be added.

I like the game, but as time goes by I feel the drip-feed is more because they were very behind and felt they needed to push the game out sooner than it was ready. I would had personally waited until March 2021 or even longer if it meant it would give them more time to flesh the game out.

On the topic of games being pushed out sooner than they were ready, I'm thinking of CyberPunk2077. NH is in no way the dumpster fire that this game is turning out to be because of how flawed it was during launch. The game will be getting patches to fix the glitched game throughout next year. Bethesda is infamous for this as well. Patches come out to fix stuff that previously made progression impossible. I'm just not a fan of this new 'game comes out and then patches will follow later to fix and or add content we didn't have time to put in the game before launch'

 

[AssassinVicz]

Again adding onto my post because i've recently played New Leaf again. (On my Yoshi plated New 3DS, The beauty...)

I feel like for the time the game came out (and I bought it after the welcome amiibo update), it was a solid animal crossing game which added more to the formula. It wasn't as empty as city folk could be, it had portibility like wild world had and brought some features from the game cube version over. It offered the ultimate experience from the time period. I remember fondly throwing my 3DS in my bag and walking around with it, to grind up some nintendo coins for my fortune cookie needs. (I then found out you could just shake it so, saved walking...)

When I reloaded up my save file, I honestly forgot the neighbours I have. Nate, Cube and i'm currently fostering pietro for a Friend. I also forgot what I did in my town and the fact that I ended up flooding most areas with flowers. I played alot of hide and seek with my neighbours, especially hunting for a flamingo neighbours who blends into trees... plus playing it on the island was a nice bonus too.

However after playing the game for around an hour, probably 2. I did start to see some obvious flaws and some features that I think could also benefit New Horizons aswell.

Firstly the main street area was kinda... a pain. I barely ever went up in that area, unless I was donating things to the museum or browsing the clothing, shoes or furniture shops. But then again that was rare. It honestly felt like a waste to have Timmy and Tommy in the game to sell things to, when you have re-tail which offered a better deal. Which i'm sure was intentional feature but it felt like a waste to have them both.
The happy home designer area felt worthless unless you had friends/people you were close to that your 3DS could connect to. I think I only ever had 3 plots filled... so it just felt like a waste?

The public work project grind was one of the worst features that New leaf had. Certain villagers could suggest these projects and I had a miserable time trying to get them. I know you could easily compare this to the DIY feature in new horizons, but the public works project only had one way of obtaining these. Which made me spent alot of my time throwing my character in a diving suit, letting her get stung for 5 minutes and hoping the character would ping and give me the works I wanted.

New Horizons does add alot of improvements to the issues i've had before, even minor ones which I havent listed. Being able to sculpt your own island, place things where you wanted or having another use for fruit and trees.
But I do agree to an extent that some content is missing, especially fan favourites like brewster. I usually never used the coffee feature much but in wild world where you had to come at a certain time to hear kk sing and then could grab a coffee aswell. It was a wholesome feeling and one that I wished New Leaf kept, even if the shop was a nice addition.
I also think that since the focal point on New Horizon is designing your island, there should have been more outdoor furnishing added. Using some examples like the public works' flower beds and park related items. Alot of items can go towards a woods/city theme, but for anything else you'd have to be really creative with it.

However when comparing both games together, I honestly find that New Horizon is the better game. Even if its missing some content, it implements new features which are incredbily fun to use and with a new setting being an island, allows for a unique expereince. Even when going back to New Leaf, the updates that New Horzions did to the mechanics, made things alot more easier. Plus with the switch being portable and being shared on a tv screen, it uses both 'software' that main line animal crossing games uses. (If that made sense).

I think both games are fine and I feel like if New Leaf is your favoured game then that's fine. Not everyone is going to like the same things or find the newest game in the series better then the last. But just personally, I find New Horizons to have a better experience (Plus with new updates coming out which people can like or dislike, it keeps me interested in coming back. Especially as someone who plays daily for about 30 minutes to an hour.)

 

[Michelangelo]

It's fair to critique a game one has paid for, but I've seen SOME people completely dump on this game and articulate their opinions in very nasty ways. These haters say the game looks ugly, the music is so terrible, etc. That's disrespectful to the designers, developers, artists, etc. who put time into this game. We all know NH isn't perfect, what with the breakable tools and inconsistent QoL features, of course, but it isn't horrific either.

And let's address the whole premise of the deserted island. I like and appreciate the slow build up in the tutorial. The music fits the tone well, and it changes as you progress towards the end of the tutorial. You feel like you are actually making progress. I think the update model reflects this well, too. As the island builds up, more features are revealed through updates, which I feel seems natural.

Let's also not forget that not all the features in NL were available from the start. Sure they were in the base game, but it's not like they all could be accessed. For example, you had to wait for T.I.Y to be built before you could even plant bushes, and to reach that stage in the game without TTing could take months. And it would take many more just to plant lots of bushes. There are people who complain that bushes should have been in the base game for NH, and yet we waited less time to get them, AND we could buy them in bulk immediately.

This is not a discounted New Leaf. New Horizons isn't New Leaf 2 with improved graphics. If that happened, people would complain that it's a port or too similar to NL, just like WW to CF. Both NL and NH have their own unique problems, but they are wonderful in their own unique ways.

 

[skarmoury]

I just wanna say that there really isn't any right or wrong opinion, because we all have different tastes ahah. But I'm like waaaay at the opposite spectrum of OP.
I played ACNL and poured hours into it mainly because I wanted to pretty my town. Resetting for 2+ hours just for a villager to plop at the right area, trapping my villagers in pit-lined squares just to have them suggest me PWP, being unable to run around my town for fear of dying grass............ yeah no I'm not going through that again. I never finished a town, I kept on resetting and resetting because I was so unhappy with my town layout or villager houses. Grinding to unlock everything burned me out so much.
I love ACNH for how easy it is to unlock things and to move things around. Yes, I miss the PWPs of ACNL, but I'd take putting stuff outside my house any day for it. I LOVE how you can move the villager houses so you don't have to worry at all where to place their houses. I love how there are more custom slots, and how you can get dreamies by visiting islands and not have to worry about random move-ins.
As someone who plays Animal Crossing mainly to design my town/island, I feel ACNH made a HUGE turn for the quality of life. I have not reset since launch, while in ACNL I probably would've reset 3 times by now. I am enjoying terraforming and shaping my island the way I want it to be; this has been a huge freedom ACNL was never able to give me. Overall I'm very much happy with the game and don't feel like it's some sort of "discounted" ACNL at all.
I'm not saying ACNH is perfect, I still prefer some aspects of ACNL like the hourly music, but I feel your preference of ACNL vs ACNH is just based on what you like doing in Animal Crossing. Like a more natural feeling? Play the old games. Want to heavily decorate your town? Play the new game. They each have their own charm and it's really not anyone's business but yours to play as you feel. Just don't expect one game to have it all, I suppose.

edit: I've also been reading some comments and just wanna say that yall shouldn't downplay the terraforming aspect of the game. So many players have spent hundreds to thousands of hours into the game because of terraforming, so I don't think it's that small of a deal at all? Just because you don't value that aspect of the game doesn't mean no one does. Terraforming may be a chore to some who don't like it but for plenty of people like me, it's super enjoyable. I don't get why the terraforming aspect and the way you can decorate outside is being downplayed like it's nothing.

I can't argue ACNH is missing some old furniture from ACNL, but where is the love for the new furniture?? We have FENCES. We can have TENTS outside. We have PANELS that let you decorate and imagine so many more buildings and walls you couldn't do in previous games. We can have STUFF OUTSIDE. How is this not something to be excited about? The sky is the limit to decorating your outside world at this point. We aren't restricted to the 30 PWPs of ACNL. I think this aspect of ACNH should be celebrated just as much, despite lacking furniture series.

 

[RollingAntony]

For the ones saying they haven't added any "new content", I'll repost: Does the Wedding Season event appeared on previous games? What about Gullivarrr? Pumpkin harvest? The mini-event for May Day and International Museum Day? They may have not been "groundbreaking" things, but they are new and unexpected. I could also include all the others things they have added, like hairstyles, body paint and reactions; but people mostly consider them minor additions. I mean, if you can say that pumpkin harvest is just "treated like flowers" and it's therefore not a "new" feature, I'm pretty sure we could also say that about a lot of the "new" features in all games. :/


Regarding NSO involvement, it's unfortunately on Nintendo's side, not on AC- all games on Switch have this new suscription service so it's unfair to use it as a comparison point with previous entries. Even then, you don't need NSO to "fully" access the game or whatever people are saying; it's just easier. To further examine, there are only 2 things that you won't ever get on your own: 3/4 fruits (and I think there were reports they were a probable reward from villagers, but so low it's not worth) and the other colors of the NM items. Everything else is achievable through the game itself: Wisp, Redd, tree drops. There's also the fact local play is an option and you can get a free trial of NSO (you can get almost anything on that 7-day span and not spend a single cent on a subscription). Ultimately I agree that a paid subscription is never good, but it's an industry reality that Nintendo didn't use until now and I'm glad the developers mostly found a way around it so you don't have to pay anything. I guess they shouldn't have bothered, since people go around saying the opposite.


People are willing to compare a game and its 4 year later update against a game and its 9 month later updates. Sure, we also can't go around expecting that future updates will magicallly fix all the complains about the game because it won't happen. I think many of the highly requested QoL features are the kind of thing that the development won't agree with and therefore, won't come even if people spam each twitter post of the official account. And there's also the fact that nothing the team adds will fully satisfy people, especially the ones already biased against the game; I'm totally expecting people to say Brewster/café was "handled better" on previous games when/if arrives on NH. I'm also anticipating a paid DLC, which will make many people go crazy lol (and will give crazy money to Nintendo!)


I shouldn't end every post with a disclaimer, but yes, NH is not perfect, I don't think preferring NL makes you a blind hater or w/e, you're allowed to voice your opinion and all that.