Charcolor
icon: mayor maker by kyoosh
The last time I'd played New Leaf was March 18, 2020 (not coincidentially, the day before New Horizons released). I was so excited to find and explore the features and content of New Horizons (as well as all the updates), and by the time my excitement for it fizzled out, it had been a pretty long time since I'd played New Leaf. The more time passed, the more nervous I was to return to it, not just for how my town may have changed or how my villagers would react, but New Leaf holds a lot of memories of my teen years, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for such a big dose of nostalgia. (For context, I started playing this game when I was 13, and I am 22 now.)
Recently, I hacked my 2DS (which I bought last year to replace my 3DS after the latter's top screen display stopped working), which has rejuvenated my interest in 3DS software/games. (Just to clear it up now, I haven't done any hacking in my New Leaf game. It's too sentimental for me to want to do anything to change it.) A few days ago, after thinking it over, I decided I was ready to return to my New Leaf town, Aoki.
If a villager asks you if they should move out and you say no, no one will move out until the next day you play, no matter how much time passes. This happened the last day I played, so all my villagers were still there. They were upset that I had left them for three years, though, which is understandable. There was a lot to look around at, and a lot of things to be reminded of, such as:
In my own little Animal Crossing universe, Aoki and Merli (my new Horizons island) are mostly in the same universe (ignoring characters like Isabelle and Tom Nook being in two places at once), and that my character now mainly helps govern Merli. My Aoki villagers can visit whenever they please. I'd be more at peace with them moving now since I can reunite with them in Merli, but I'll still prevent it whenever they bring up the idea of moving out. If they really wanted to leave, they would've just done so regardless of my opinion, right?
I've been playing a little every day, checking on my friends and enjoying the game. I even ordered some amiibo cards off eBay (one unopened booster pack, and one card of a new bear cub I want to move in--I actually only have nine, with one "guest" villager, which is a cute idea in theory until you realize the most recently moved-in villager is never moving out on their own). There are some things that I'm grateful to New Horizons for that make that game easier but still fun to play (adding a lot of quality of life changes and customizations, and little activities to do), but there are some things that didn't return from New Leaf that I missed. Island tours are a big one--I've just been doing them by myself, but back in the day I would constantly go to the online island to play the tours with other people. I also missed hide and seek, and Re-Tail--of course you can still sell and customize items in NH, but I personally prefer the way Re-Tail buys special items--specific bugs, fish, or fruit in addition to things like furniture, clothes and ore, while the Nooklings are limited to craftable items. Plus, I like putting furniture up for sale in the flea market and having my villagers come in to buy it. It's like having my own mini marketplace, and I get to see the furniture in their homes.
I don't know if I'd say New Leaf is a better game than New Horizons. A lot of people understandably have that opinion. I think there are definitely a lot of improvements in New Horizons, but New Leaf will always be very special to me, and I think I will always value it more. Theoretically I could see myself resetting my New Horizons save in the future, but I don't think I could ever ever reset my New Leaf town. That game was an essential part of my teen years, and honestly, so were these forums. I joined these forums less than a year after I started playing this game, and I remember in my high school classes I would always be checking the forums once all my work was done. These forums were also essential to getting my town to be the way it is now--Bell Tree users helped me get all my bear cub friends in this town, the flowers I decorated everywhere, and even smaller things like owning some of the Sanrio amiibo items (mainly, most if not all of the clothes and all the Pompompurin furniture). Even besides that, it's just so fun to talk about Animal Crossing, whether it's opinions about the game or just telling everyone about your town.
I don't know how long this recent New Leaf kick will last, but I'm very glad I'm able to enjoy this game just as much as I did when I was in high school. Somehow, I think the next time I play New Horizons will be even more special now that I've revisited my first Animal Crossing game.
Thanks for reading this long post. I hope it was interesting. If you have any other experiences like this, or different feelings about your own New Leaf town, feel free to share. I always like reading about other people's Animal Crossing experiences.
Recently, I hacked my 2DS (which I bought last year to replace my 3DS after the latter's top screen display stopped working), which has rejuvenated my interest in 3DS software/games. (Just to clear it up now, I haven't done any hacking in my New Leaf game. It's too sentimental for me to want to do anything to change it.) A few days ago, after thinking it over, I decided I was ready to return to my New Leaf town, Aoki.
If a villager asks you if they should move out and you say no, no one will move out until the next day you play, no matter how much time passes. This happened the last day I played, so all my villagers were still there. They were upset that I had left them for three years, though, which is understandable. There was a lot to look around at, and a lot of things to be reminded of, such as:
- I had begun progress of turning the back room of my house into a complete display of the golden furniture set. I only have a few pieces so far. Previously, this room was used for displaying gifts from my villagers, which I moved to:
- the second floor of the museum! This way I have more room to show off my gifts. It's kind of fun to take all these random items and try to arrange them into four separate consistent themes. I've thought of their themes as "natural," "cute," "cool" and "quirky," but these are just loose descriptions I came up with the other day. I think this was a good idea, because now I don't have to feel bad when a villager gifts me something I don't need for my house (which, after having played the game for over 5 years prior to New Horizons, is extremely common).
- Speaking of my museum, it's fully complete, even the art exhibit! I knew I'd filled out the bug, fish and fossil exhibits, but I had to double check the art exhibit to make sure. I'm sure I had some help trading for or buying some art pieces from the users at these very forums.
- One of my extra save files, Illusion (which I think I'd made to store extra pro designs--they're displayed in an inaccessible room at the back of her house so that they're "dream town exclusive" designs), had a shrine to K.K. Slider in her attic. I'd made this as a joke about obsessing over K.K. Slider (he's probably my favorite NPC, I've tended to play up my affection for laughs), it had his photo, 2 guitars (acoustic and country, I think) and flaming torches. It was funny at the time, but I don't really want that vibe to stay if/when I update my dream town, so I changed it to display all my bear cub photos (my town is full of bear cubs) that I'd previously had in my own house. Which gives me more room for tabletop items in my house, so it'll be fun to find out what to fill the space with.
- My other extra save file, Secret, was made for storing my town's paths. I'd decided to give him a little more character by writing letters to him from my main save file whenever I needed to express my feelings, positive or negative, kind of using him as a mini journal. Logging back in to his file and reading those letters I'd written was a melancholic trip down memory lane.
- I have a LOT of money. Not quite 100 million bells (which I had achieved at one point) but very close. I think it's a little over 99 million. I know exactly why I have so much--several years ago, Marshal moved into my town while I was cycling villagers. He was still there when I finished cycling, and I didn't want him, and at the time Marshal was the most coveted villager on the Bell Tree Forums...I don't actually remember who took him, but I hope they got their money's worth out of the little guy.
In my own little Animal Crossing universe, Aoki and Merli (my new Horizons island) are mostly in the same universe (ignoring characters like Isabelle and Tom Nook being in two places at once), and that my character now mainly helps govern Merli. My Aoki villagers can visit whenever they please. I'd be more at peace with them moving now since I can reunite with them in Merli, but I'll still prevent it whenever they bring up the idea of moving out. If they really wanted to leave, they would've just done so regardless of my opinion, right?
I've been playing a little every day, checking on my friends and enjoying the game. I even ordered some amiibo cards off eBay (one unopened booster pack, and one card of a new bear cub I want to move in--I actually only have nine, with one "guest" villager, which is a cute idea in theory until you realize the most recently moved-in villager is never moving out on their own). There are some things that I'm grateful to New Horizons for that make that game easier but still fun to play (adding a lot of quality of life changes and customizations, and little activities to do), but there are some things that didn't return from New Leaf that I missed. Island tours are a big one--I've just been doing them by myself, but back in the day I would constantly go to the online island to play the tours with other people. I also missed hide and seek, and Re-Tail--of course you can still sell and customize items in NH, but I personally prefer the way Re-Tail buys special items--specific bugs, fish, or fruit in addition to things like furniture, clothes and ore, while the Nooklings are limited to craftable items. Plus, I like putting furniture up for sale in the flea market and having my villagers come in to buy it. It's like having my own mini marketplace, and I get to see the furniture in their homes.
I don't know if I'd say New Leaf is a better game than New Horizons. A lot of people understandably have that opinion. I think there are definitely a lot of improvements in New Horizons, but New Leaf will always be very special to me, and I think I will always value it more. Theoretically I could see myself resetting my New Horizons save in the future, but I don't think I could ever ever reset my New Leaf town. That game was an essential part of my teen years, and honestly, so were these forums. I joined these forums less than a year after I started playing this game, and I remember in my high school classes I would always be checking the forums once all my work was done. These forums were also essential to getting my town to be the way it is now--Bell Tree users helped me get all my bear cub friends in this town, the flowers I decorated everywhere, and even smaller things like owning some of the Sanrio amiibo items (mainly, most if not all of the clothes and all the Pompompurin furniture). Even besides that, it's just so fun to talk about Animal Crossing, whether it's opinions about the game or just telling everyone about your town.
I don't know how long this recent New Leaf kick will last, but I'm very glad I'm able to enjoy this game just as much as I did when I was in high school. Somehow, I think the next time I play New Horizons will be even more special now that I've revisited my first Animal Crossing game.
Thanks for reading this long post. I hope it was interesting. If you have any other experiences like this, or different feelings about your own New Leaf town, feel free to share. I always like reading about other people's Animal Crossing experiences.
