No idea the last time I played, what can I do to prevent someone from moving?

[Tessie]

Usually after a week of not playing I just set the time back to the day I last played and wait for villager to ping me and stop them from moving before time traveling to the current time.


But this time life took it's toll and I have no idea when was the last time I played...I'm guess some time in early 2018 but I have no idea. I'm afraid to load up my game as I like all my villagers.

What could I do in this situation that will prevent anyone from moving when I load the game back up?
Thanks!!

 

[Burumun]

You could TT to a time that's definitely before when you last played. It should count as having moved forward only one day, so it should be fine. Just make sure to change the time via the system settings for the 3DS, not the game, and create a new character before loading up the game with an existing one to make sure no one's moved out.

 

[RedTropicalPeachyFish]

Aw. This actually happened to me too years ago.
There are 2 things you can do at this point, I believe.

1. If you have less than 4 human characters in your town, just make a new character to start up the game so it won't save until you set the house and talk to Isabelle. That way you can check if anyone's gone. If no one is gone, save & delete this alt.
2. This is sorry to tell 'cause it takes quite time (and patience) but, if you unfortunately find out that someone's gone in the process above, you set the system clock to the day in the time frame roughly you think is the last day you played. And you make a new alt character, look around to find the clue that that's the day you played last time. For example, I water my flowers everyday. And they look shiny after watering. This light disappears the next day. If the flowers look shiny with water, it's the day I last played. Clues as in something like that. And if it doesn't look the day with clue, you change the system clock again and repeat this till you find it. I figured the day by this way. It ate all the patience I had tbh.

Wish you a best of luck!

 

[Peg]

If you have only one AC:NL town: try checking your DS Activity Log. Go to Activity Log > Software Library > Animal Crossing: New Leaf and the fifth line has the date last played. However, this date is based on your DS's real-time clock, not the AC:NL game-time clock.

Follow the above recommendations of Burumun and RedTropicalPeachyFish.

 

[RedTropicalPeachyFish]

If you have only one AC:NL town: try checking your DS Activity Log.

Ohh this is great idea. Since it's based on real time clock, it'd help taking a good guess when the last play was.