Remember when villager photos used to be meaningful?

[Bethboj]

This!!! I never understood why people want to be trash-talked by cute pixels. It feels like people look for anything to complain about.

Not to mention this is a game played by a lot of small children. It has to be rated E, so they can't change the dialogue to be aggressive or rude. Parents would be livid and complain.

I’m not complaining, I just wish i felt like I connected abit more with my villagers. I liked working towards being best friends with a villager that seemed so mean at first!

Wild World had an E rating and I got called names by some of the villagers I guess I just liked feeling more accomplished once cranky guys warmed up to me

 

[Feraligator]

You might think it doesn't matter, but to me and I'm sure to many others it's just yet another way they have dumbed down the villagers over the past few games. It's no longer a game about building a friendship with your villagers, at least it doesn't feel that way, because they all feel the same. The situation is better (slightly) than in New Leaf, but it's just not good enough when the poor writing of villagers was one of the top complaints people had about New Leaf.

Yeah I do miss WW's extensive dialogue. GC's too, but being insulted all the time isn't a good idea for a relaxing, wholesome game like AC. I don't think bringing back insults is needed but the building friendships and the random, deep conversations (which very rarely repeated in WW/GC) is what I miss the most in AC now. Obviously, with not having much to do in past AC games compared to NL/NH, villager interaction was my favourite thing about AC games but it seems customisation has taken priority in newer games. I couldn't go back to WW, but GC is fun to play sometimes (as is CF but my Wii doesn't work anymore ).

I think for NH we could've had Shane from Stardew Valley as an example for Cranky villagers (doesn't call you names but shoos people away because he doesn't know them, then warms up to them as you get closer to him). I guess this is harder to implement since the villagers are moving to an island you were already a part of, as opposed to the player moving to an already established town, but then again, cranky/snooty interactions with your other villagers actually show their personality more.
Snooty villagers didn't have to be insanely insulting and could've just been vain (although in NH I think they are pretty well defined compared to NL). I definitely do miss developing friendships with all of my villagers, and turning cranky villagers from grumps into your best friends was so rewarding, as was receiving villager photos.

 

[Aliya]

I’ve debated on picking up Wild World again and starting fresh just to play a little every day and I think this post is what will be pushing me over the edge of doing it. I remember spamming my villagers with presents in WW when I was younger just to get them to like me enough lol but it’ll be a nice change of pace!

 

[Fye]

I have a really honest question. Why do so many people want to be verbally abused by their villagers? I agree that the cranky villagers could be crankier and that the snooty villagers could be more snooty/more mean girl, but to be outright called "being a burden to society", "lonely loser", or "a freak mental case" seems a bit extreme to me.

This!!! I never understood why people want to be trash-talked by cute pixels. It feels like people look for anything to complain about.

I can't speak for others, but when I say I want rude villagers back I don't mean I want to be verbally abused by them. I think the GC game was known for that but I didn't play it, and if WW had any of that I probably didn't care enough as a kid to remember it now. I just want them to be less friendly to a complete stranger who keeps bothering them and interrupting their flower-studying time every 5 minutes and throwing wrapped fruits their way everyday haha.
For example, I wan't crankies to be more aloof and have shorter, more curt dialogue in the beginning. Like they could complain about their aching bones, and then wonder why they're talking to you about their problems and walk off. And the snooties could be sassy without saying anything specifically harsh. Like make comments about the fact that I've been wearing the same clothes for weeks
And then I'd want them to get friendlier, more open, and have longer dialogues as you befriend them.

 

[bam94-]

I speak to my villagers every day and give them gifts etc. but I still haven’t received one picture! I found it so much easier to acquire them in New Leaf and I don’t particularly remember any special dialogue.

In terms of the dialogue in New Horzions, I’m genuinely still finding new dialogue that I haven’t heard the villagers say yet. I don’t find it gets any more stale than in Wild World or New Leaf (I remember them being very repetitive?) But I haven’t played New Horizons to death yet so who knows!

 

[Underneath The Stars]

Which is why I kicked out Fuschia.

i think it’s lazy some of the conversations don’t change when you get to a certain friendship level

 

[nyanicat]

I got Judy’s picture a bit ago which was my first one and I was genuinely shocked and happy! I have it framed up in my bedroom so idk I think it’s still special to me.

 

[raqball]

Sad the OP does not find getting villager photos as meaningful.. I enjoy getting them and have 4 so far... Lily, Lolly, Lucky and Raymond gave me his today..

 

[SpiritofAce]

Sad the OP does not find getting villager photos as meaningful.. I enjoy getting them and have 4 so far... Lily, Lolly, Lucky and Raymond gave me his today..

I explained why in the post. The villagers don't acknowledge the fact that it is supposed to be meaningful, like they used too.

 

[raqball]

I explained why in the post. The villagers don't acknowledge the fact that it is supposed to be meaningful, like they used too.

So you don't find getting them meaningful because the dialog is less? Well okay I guess, but I enjoy getting them and I find them to be meaningful..

 

[SpiritofAce]

I JUST got my first villager pic yesterday, and I was thrilled.
I played Wild World and I was obsessed with collecting villager pics. It was a lot easier in that game than in New Horizons. I just "waved" at my villagers constantly by tapping on them in the distance lol

Obtaining pictures was easiest in New Leaf, where it was almost a joke.
But in New Horizons, I think the photos are still meaningful. I do agree that the cute friendship dialogue would be nice though "here's my picture, you better take good care of it" etc.


Also, there actually is a gradual friendship increase in this game. The dialogue does change slightly, although they don't stop being "mean" and start being nice to you (personally I'm glad, because I don't want any villagers to be rude regardless of if we're friends)
Here's how friendship works in New Horizons:

Friendship Mechanics

Animal Crossing New Horizons Friendship Mechanics Written by ooraloo#0360, credits to Ninji#1624, Alexis#8717, Stoney#9215, astronomyfortwo#4112, Burandii#7476, and FCFCQQQ#0033 FCFCQQQ The friendship points that you have with your villagers can range from 0 to 255. When villagers first move in,...

docs.google.com

There are friendship mechanics. I know how the game works. But that doesn't mean that they're handled very well, and in my view, they're not. There is 'unique dialogue' when you get to higher friendship levels - well, yeah, but only betwee 5-10 lines when you're at the highest level of friendship with the villager. That's not how it was in Wild World.

Oh, and I see people say 'you have to talk to your villagers more than 5 times in a row to get the new interactions' - firstly, that's not true. You can talk to them that amount of times and still get dialogue you've heard over and over and over again. Secondly, why should I have to do that when in previous games the writing was to a good enough standard that you had a pretty good chance of the villagers having something new and interesting to say?

Why should I have to skip through the endless dialogue about what clothes I'm wearing, how many fossils I've dug up, or go through that one personality-test dialogue multiple times by cranky villagers that they designed about what the fish in the tank, or whatever it is. I shouldn't. The writing should just be better.

An interesting comparison that I think is worthwhile here is with Rune Factory 4. I'm sure many of you know, it's a DS role-playing game with similar levels of character interaction and developing friendships with the other characters as with Animal Crossing. I was watching a review for the Switch port, Rune Factory 4S, and the reviewer made an interesting point - they had been playing the DS version for months and months (several years of in-game time, since it doesn't run in real-time), and every day the characters all had something different to say. And that's with a much smaller development team than the people who work on Animal Crossing. What's the excuse?

 

[nekosync]

i think dialogue is better than NL in terms of content & repetitiveness: for instance, i largely wouldn't talk to my NL villagers because they'd always say the same thing and would rarely interact with each other. but NH villagers feel really lively insofar that they talk to each other way more often & it feels like they raise different conversation points when they warm up to you. but i do agree that there should be more varied before you get to that point to incentivise it

Post automatically merged: May 25, 2020

The Snooty villagers just feel like sweet aunts now. It's weird...

they give me blanche dubois vibes! i love it haha - it's like they used to be mean snooty girls in their youth but have matured a bit

 

[Le Ham]

FWIW, the one time I've gotten a picture in NH so far, I did receive special dialogue for it.

I then proceeded to see the images others post where the villager just says "I think you'll like [Name]'s pic!" and was a bit saddened. Why did I get this dialogue while so often people don't? Is it because I got this by doing a delivery/service for another villager rather than giving him a gift directly?

I do agree with you that it felt a lot more rewarding in WW and the friendship incline was more obvious. Then again, I don't particularly recall spam gifting them foreign fruit a bunch of times. Billy does have dialogue I've unlocked through my friendship with him and it does feel like we're tight. Just not quite WW tight.

edit to add: I hope the "Here's my [Name]'s pic" thing is just something they looked over in development and it's not meant to be that way lol. It should show the type of dialogue I got above for anytime you get their picture.

 

[Shyria]

So you don't find getting them meaningful because the dialog is less? Well okay I guess, but I enjoy getting them and I find them to be meaningful..

You can both have different opinions on that you know? Could we please keep this place nice and safe for everybody to express their opinion respectfully?

I think they're meaningful in itself but I agree that it's out of the blue. Also it feels impersonal that it features their name when they give it to you? Couldn't they say I'm giving you a picture of me? Instead of "here, have a Raymond's photo" like it's another silly furniture piece...

 

[stiney]

i think the uchi’s will end up saying this forever, which is quite frankly rude

I don’t think it’s rude or cold. To me it reads as mildly teasing.

Post automatically merged: May 25, 2020

If one said that snarky ass line to me after I had poured so many hours and bells into building bridges and stairs, terraforming, laying down paths, and putting up decor, I'd be livid

I mean...that’s the joke, right? The villagers don’t know about money spots based on their dialogue so they don’t understand why you’re burying bells which is a useless way of giving back.

 

[raqball]

You can both have different opinions on that you know? Could we please keep this place nice and safe for everybody to express their opinion respectfully?

What the what? You are seriously going to have to help me understand this post as it makes no sense whatsoever based on my responses in this thread....

Nice and safe? Because I said I find getting photos meaningful? LMAO

 

[SpiritofAce]

Here we go...

 

[raqball]

Here we go...

I'll back out of the thread so I don't offend anyone by saying I find getting their photos meaningful and asking why you don;t all because there is less dialog.. LOLOLOLOL

Stay nice and safe

 

[monsieurberry]

In this thread we have people complaining about villagers not wanting to talk to them and being mean and people who want them to be mean. Just wanted to point that out. I wonder how many of you would actually keep Fang, for instance, if he told you to stop bothering him...

I've said it before but the dialogue in NH is better than in NL, but I've been watching some Wild World playthroughs and while I don't think the writing in itself is stronger I do agree that they have really put the dialog on a back burner. We need extensive dialogue. It's 2020. The game can handle it. The lines aren't even really voiced...

 

[moonbox]

An interesting comparison that I think is worthwhile here is with Rune Factory 4. I'm sure many of you know, it's a DS role-playing game with similar levels of character interaction and developing friendships with the other characters as with Animal Crossing. I was watching a review for the Switch port, Rune Factory 4S, and the reviewer made an interesting point - they had been playing the DS version for months and months (several years of in-game time, since it doesn't run in real-time), and every day the characters all had something different to say. And that's with a much smaller development team than the people who work on Animal Crossing. What's the excuse?

I'm glad you mentioned this as I've played both RF4 on the DS and the Switch and I really appreciated how they kept the dialogue interesting! I played the heck out of that game months ago...

And also to OP's point, I think this was an added feature, if you spam a villager with dialogue a certain amount of times, they'll get the cloud over their heads and not want to talk to you anymore. So it's like... you get a cap on interacting with them and mining for new dialogue? I don't like this feature :\