Should I Buy This Game in 2021 If I Own New Horizons?

[Orius]

After seeing the massive popularity in the "Your Favorite AC" poll, with New Leaf coming out on top, I did a little digging and read a few articles that stated New Leaf supposedly has a lot more activities to do than New Horizon, with the player being this mayor who gets to design an entire town full of shops and amenities, not just one island resort with 10 villager homes, a museum and a few shops.

With that in mind, I would love your opinion on this, fellow AC fans: is it worth it to buy New Leaf in 2021 if I've barely even started on New Horizons? Furthermore, since I've already sold my 3DS, it also means that I have to buy a new one (possibly second-hand), and that means a lot more spending after I've already bought the Nintendo Switch just a few days ago. lol But that being said, I would like to know my options and to understand the appeal of New Leaf. Therefore, I have a few questions I hope could be answered:

1. How big is this game compared to New Horizons?
And I'm not just talking about "the number of clothing and decorations." To be honest, the quantity of fashion accessories and decorative items is secondary to me. What I'm more interested in is the number of events, interactions, and villagers you could play with; basically, the variety of things to do beyond just collecting and decorating. I'm assuming that New Leaf has a similar "villager move in" mechanic (but with only eight villagers); however, New Leaf also seems to have this "Main Street" with dozens of shops to unlock and tons of features? You've got a café, a barber shop, a gardening store, a fortune telling shop and even a comedy club (Club LOL)??? Sure, in New Horizons, a lot of those elements were consolidated in Nook's Cranny and the Able Sisters shops, but it seems like a step backward in variety IMO. The comedy club in particular looks so cool. Are there stand-up performances with jokes and stuff?

It just seems to me that, with you being the mayor of an entire town, there's just a lot more NPCs to interact with, a lot more activities to do and a dozen number of shops you could visit, whereas in New Horizons, you get your standard Blathers and Tom Nook plus the 10 villagers and special visitors like Gulliver every now and then. Am I correct in assuming that?

2. How hard is this game compared to New Horizons?
This is quite an important concern for me because I'm definitely no pro-gamer. lol To take an example, is the fishing in New Leaf any different than New Horizon (hitting A when the "fish biting the bait" sound hits)? More importantly, are there those kinds of minigames where you have to practice 100 hours per day to get some gold medal that you can hang in your home and forget about it? lol I really hate those kinds of minigames, so I'm hoping there's none of that.

Upon further digging, there also seems to be a "goal" of getting the "Perfect Town" in New Leaf... how challenging is that? Like, how difficult is it to clean up the town everyday? Do you have to check every nook and cranny for weeds and garbage daily, etc. Can villagers/NPCs help clean up the town or is there a lot of micromanagement? Because I hate micromanagement. Is there a penalty if you fail to get a perfect town rating? How about a time limit to get a perfect town?

3. What's the focus of the game? Interacting with villagers, expanding your town, or decorations?
Now, this question requires a bit of explanation on my part. You see, there was this article that talked about how social media has made Animal Crossing "competitive." Whereas if you're just playing by yourself, not minding the amazing islands other people far more talented than you have designed, then you'll be fine, just idling away at a mediocre-looking campsite with a personal charm. But the fact is, New Horizons seems to be a game where its focus lies on designing as beautiful an island as possible... and that's just not my thing; I lack both the interest and talent for that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to have nice-looking decors and statues and stuff - any average person would find that appealing for sure - but to go out of my way to see if I could build as amazing an island as tons of others that I've seen? I don't know about that...

But New Leaf seems to be more focused on expanding Main Street and working as hard as possible to get all the Public Works Projects going and improving the townspeople's livelihood. It seems to be more of a management game than a decorating one, am I correct?

4. Is trading necessary?
Since it's an old game, it's reasonable to assume that not a lot of players play this game anymore, hence making trading challenging. Therefore, I would like to know if not trading with anyone would affect the enjoyment of the game?

That's all the questions I have for now. Hope you could help me out! If New Leaf is as good as I heard, I might consider having a second console (well, technically a third, including the PS5) just to play this game (and maybe SMT4, easy mode). I think the thing about Animal Crossing that appeals to me the most is the villager/NPC interactions, and New Leaf seems to have plenty more than New Horizons, where you're forced to live with 10 villagers and a small handful of special NPCs (plus random visitors every now and then when you build the Campground). So please help me confirm if my impressions of the game are valid so that I could better make my decision. Thanks!

 

[JemAC]

I play both New Leaf and New Horizons and have had both since their releases but I took a very long break from New Leaf and only really got back into it in March this year when I restarted my town and have been playing daily since. Currently I play NL more then NH but I really enjoy both games so will try and help as best I can with your questions

1. New Leaf does have a similar move in mechanic where by if you have an empty villager spot then a random villager can move into your town. One big difference between the games is that in NL you can’t choose where to place a villagers home (you can decide where to place your own home though), when a villager moves into town their home will be placed randomly in the town by the game and you’re unable to move it. Once a villager moves out their home will disappear from the town and when the next villager moves in their home will again be automatically put somewhere random around town - hope that makes some sense! In NL you start with 5 random villagers (rather then the 2 in NH), I think the starter villagers can be any personality except smug or uchi/sisterly and every few days after you start a new villager will move into town until you reach 9 villagers. Your town can have a maximum of 10 villagers at any one time but I think in order to get the final villager you need to either invite one that is visiting your campsite (this is available to build as soon as you have access to the public works projects, pretty soon into the game, and you choose where it is built but you can’t move it afterwards), invite one from another town or scan in an amiibo card. In order to invite a villager from your campsite you usually have to speak to them numerous times when they’re visiting and often play some mini games (things like buy a random item from them or a higher/lower game where you guess if the next card they pull from a pack will be higher or lower then the last) before they’ll agree to move into your town. If you’ve reached the maximum 10 villagers in town then other villagers can still visit your campsite and play games with you but you won’t be able to invite them to your town. Villagers in both NL and NH can move out either by you agreeing to their request when they ask to leave or by scanning in an amiibo card and replacing them. It should be noted that if you take a long break from the game, over a couple of weeks or so, then your villagers in NH will all still be there when you return but villagers in NL can move out on their own accord while you’re not playing and be replaced by other villagers while you’re away. Also in NH you can visit mystery islands while looking for villagers using NMTs but this mechanic does not exist in NL so most move ins in NL are completely random. You can interact with your villagers around your town or in their homes and they can make requests, such as asking to buy something off you, requesting a bug or fish or asking for something to be delivered to another villager (these things can be done in NH too) but in NL villagers can also either ask to visit your home or request that you come and visit theirs (often this will involve setting a time later in the day to do this) or if you’re in your home then villagers can randomly drop in and visit you, something that doesn’t currently happen in NH.

I think I’m general the events in both games are pretty similar, throughout the year you can celebrate Valentines Day, Festivale, Bunny Day, Halloween and Toy Day while numerous Bug Offs and Fishing Tourneys are held on some Saturdays throughout the year and Fireworks are shown every Sunday in August so there are plenty of events to enjoy in NL but mostly they’re very similar to the ones in NH.
https://www.thonky.com/animal-crossing-new-leaf/list-of-holidays-events - this page should list all the events in NL with the region they occur in and the dates in which they happen.

There is a Main Street in NL, it doesn’t actually look very big when you play the game but there are a number of shops on it (not all available straight away, they’ll open up as you advance in the game), these include;

Nooks Homes - run by Tom Nook, this is where you go to request to expand your home or to make changes such as to your door, your house exterior or roof. There will be different doors, exteriors, roofs and mailboxes on display each day and if you see something you like then you can request it for your own home - you can only make one request a day though!

Post Office - this is where you can go to send letter to friends or villagers and also has the machine to deposit excess bells in or pay off your house loans.

Shop run by the Nooklings - run by Timmy and Tommy, sells some furniture, wall and flooring, tools, etc. and expands as you progress in the game (I think it expands 5 times until it becomes T&T Emporium - a large shop that covers 3 floors). Leif will run a small garden shop next door until T&T Emporium opens and then he’ll have a ‘gardening corner’ inside the large shop.

Able Sisters - run by Sable, Mabel and Label - sells clothes and accessories

Shampoodle - a beauty salon situated above Able Sisters, you unlock this by spending 10,000 bells between Able Sisters and Kicks

Kicks - the shoe shop, unlocked after spending 8,000 bells in Able Sisters and playing in your town for at least 10 days

Club L.O.L - run by Dr Shrunk and unlocked once T&T Mart has opened (this is the 2nd of the Nookling store expansions) and when your town has public works projects unlocked. Dr Shrunk will visit your home and ask for permission to open a new business on Main Street. Once it has opens you can visit Shrunk in Club L.O.L and give him a piece of fruit - he’ll then tell you a joke (don’t expect to be laughing at them!) and teach you a new reaction that you can the use. During the evenings DJ K.K. will play music at the club while on Saturday evenings he’ll just be K.K. Slider and play a song with his guitar - like he does outside the Town Hall in NH.

Fortune Shop - run by Katrina, you can visit here to have your fortune read. Before this is unlocked Katrina will set up a tent in your town plaza on a random day during the week and you can have your fortune read for 500 bells. After doing this 20 times she’ll suggest a permanent shop and then the Fortune Shop will become a public works project which you can build, making it a permanent fixture on Main Street.

Dream Suite - run by Luna, this is where you can upload a dream address of your town for others to visit or you can visit other players dreams (need wi-if/internet connection to do this). Building this is a public works project which is unlocked after finding Isabelle asleep at her desk in the Town Hall.

In your town (not in Main Street) you can build The Roost (cafe) and the Police Station, available as public works projects, you can decide where to place them around the town but they can’t be moved once built. The Roost is unlocked by making 50 donations to the museum (with at least one donation in each section - big, fish, fossil and art - you can get art from Redd who sets up a tent with 4 different art pieces in your town plaza usually once a week, though like in NH he can often bring fake pieces) and by having the second floor of the museum built. The police station is unlocked by any of your villagers requesting it as a public works project and then you requesting to build it in your town.

There are more NPCs to interact with around NL as most of them are permanent - unlike in NH where NPCs like Leif and Kicks cycle through your island and only visit on usually one day during the week. Gulliver is similar in both games in that he can appear randomly on the beach on any day throughout the week but in NL he gives you clues to somewhere he’s visiting and you have to pick his destination from a list of 4, unlike in NH where you dig up his communicator parts, and if you get it right (the clues are usually quite obvious so most are quite easy to get right) he’ll send you a souvenir in the mail from the place he’s visiting and if you get it wrong he’ll send you a chocolate coin instead.

2. I wouldn’t say NL is hard game, it’s more like a game you can take at your own pace that doesn’t really have set goals for you to work towards - you can build things around town, catch bugs/fish or decorate as you please and at your own leisure. The fishing is very similar in both games in that you listen out for a the sound that signals a bite but in NL there won’t be any vibration likes there is for NH.

There are mini games (things such as bug catching, fishing, balloon popping, scavenger hunts, fossil hunting, etc.) that you can play if you visit Tortimer Island (pay 1000 bells to take a boat ride over to the island), they’re split into 3 difficulty levels and each mini game only lasts a couple of minutes. You’re then given a number of medals dependent on how well you did in the Minigame which can be used to purchase items on the island such as furniture (either from the Mermaid or Cabana Series - though only one piece will be available each day) or clothing, including wet suits so you can go diving for sea creatures. If you want to buy any items on Tortimer Island then you will need to complete some mini games to get the medals but the mini games are quite fun and not stressful, especially if you stick to the beginner levels.
https://www.ign.com/wikis/animal-crossing-new-leaf/Tropical_Island#How_to_Unlock_the_Tropical_Island - this provides a bit more info on Tortimer Island

Getting a ‘perfect’ town can take a while but there’s no rush to achieving it, you can improve your town at your own pace until it gets to the ‘perfect’ status. My town has not reached that yet so I’m not sure on average how long it usually takes to achieve it but someone else might have more info on it. As for weeds, you can start an ordinance in your town (there are 4 options to choose from but only 1 can be in action at any one time, once you start one then it stays in your town until you request to end it or start a different one) and one of these is the Beautiful Town Ordinance, where villagers will water and plant flowers, hybrid flowers will be more likely to grow and weeds are a lot less likely to appear. This seems to be the most popular ordinance, and is the one I currently have in my town, and can really help you with working towards a perfect town.
https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Town_Ordinance - some info on all 4 available ordinances

3. I think I’m general everyone will have different opinions on what the ‘focus’ of the game is as everyone has different things they want to achieve in it but I’d say the general idea is trying to get a ‘perfect’ town, completing the museum and Main Street, plus unlocking all the public works projects.

https://www.belltreeforums.com/thre...ider-your-town-finished.595423/#post-10091360 - this thread might be useful for getting an idea on what other people focus on in NL and what they work towards while playing the game.

4. I wouldn’t say trading is necessary to the game but it can be very helpful - it can take a very long time to complete furniture sets without trading as the Nookling shops only stock a limited number of items each day or to get every available fruit, your town has a starter fruit and you can receive others from villagers or in the mail but this is quite rare. There are shops in the Re-Tail section of the forum where you can trade with people to get most items in the game if there is anything you’re looking for in your town - people on here are very friendly and welcoming and will generally be happy to help you out with trades! - but it isn’t necessary to the game.

NL is a lot less focused on decorating (you can’t place furniture outside in NL) so if you’re not really into the decorating then you’ll likely enjoy the more relaxed approach of NL. You are still able to decorate inside your home in NL and there are more furniture sets available to use to do so - but as previously mentioned these can take a long time to collect without trading. Also I always notice the difference in graphics between the two games, with NH been the newer one it does have sharper, clearer graphics but NL is still a fine game to look at and play and I know the graphics differences don’t worry everyone.

This ended up a lot longer then I was expecting but hopefully it’s helped to answer some of your questions

 

[Chungus]

I'm going to be honest—I've "rediscovered" my abandoned projects in my two New Leaf files, and I've been addicted ever since. There's simply been so much for me to accomplish in that game, from upgrades to unlocking PWPs, to even stepping foot inside the Reset Surveillance Center for the first time in my eight years of owning the game.

Building up friendships is another thing that sets New Leaf apart from New Horizons: the villagers actively want to be your friend and do activities with you, from visiting each other's houses to asking for favors. The villagers in New Leaf "ping" you (want to start a conversation) after a while of not seeing you. New Horizons villagers rarely do this.

But do you have to pick up New Leaf RIGHT NOW and drop New Horizons? Not necessarily. I'd wait until you've exhausted the game and its terraforming before starting fresh. That's what I did; it took me realizing I have nothing left in New Horizons for me to rediscover New Leaf.

Spoiler: To answer your questions...

1. You've answered your own question! Yes, there are many shops and upgrades to unlock, including but not limited to the ones you've listed. There's certainly more variety in buildings you can have both on Main Street and in the town. So yes—you are absolutely correct in your assumptions, including loads of more NPCs to interact with. There's even a campground where NPCs can visit in trailers!

2. The game isn't too hard. Like in all Animal Crossing games, it will feel like a grind if you choose to time travel due to being impatient (I'm in that boat right now). The main way to reap bells is also a little bit of a grind (catching rare bugs and fish on the island). The mini games with the gold medals have various levels of easy, medium, etc. I haven't played the hard ones recently, but the easy ones are a breeze.

As far as a "perfect" town goes, it isn't hard if you know what ordinances to pull and you build enough PWPs. With the Beautiful Town ordinance, flowers never wilt, so there's that! As far as "micromanaging" goes, villagers sometimes plant flowers but other than that, it's all you.

3. New Leaf is definitely a combination of town management, unlocking things, and building up villager friendships. I go into detail about my feelings on that earlier in this post. I just love the engagement New Leaf has to offer with its players! There's always a villager favor/quest to do or a new thing to unlock.

4. Trading would certainly make it easier, especially if you don't want to refresh shops via time-traveling. Just ask and I'm sure there will be someone here willing to trade if you do end up getting the game!

 

[Orius]

Snip

Very helpful with lots of info. Thanks! I appreciate the effort.

But honestly, now I'm on the fence even more than before. I know you said that the minigames are fun, but I've played my share of minigames before, and those that force you to earn medals to unlock stuff (instead of the traditional Animal Crossing way where you unlock simply by playing and relaxing everyday) is not winning any points with me.

Main Street does sound like exactly what I expected though - a central hub of unlockables with a lot more interactable NPCs, and that's a big appeal. Dr. Shrunk's jokes might be lame, but it's still exactly the kind of charming, cutesy and nonsensical interaction that drew me to Animal Crossing in the first place, the kind of interaction that's silly and fun. I've played NH for a couple of days now, and so far, my villagers and the NPCs' only form of interactions come in the form of gift-giving and island-expanding, not exactly the most unique of interactions if you ask me. Being a mayor and setting rules/ordinances and managing their way of life sounds far more interesting for me.

One turn-off though is the cockroaches... I hate cockroaches, ugh. I heard that if you don't play for a while, your house will be infested with them. Nasty little things with their creepy little legs and twitchy antennae. Blathers' hatred for bugs might be irrational at times, but he's right on the money about roaches... The lack of roaches is probably one of the biggest things I'm in favor of in NH. lol

Getting all the furniture sets does seem to be far more challenging here, and it doesn't help that I'm a completionist at heart. But much like the minigames medals, it's a trivial annoyance that I can put up with.

Snip

Wow, that does sound really fun. Yeah, I had a feeling that NL's NPCs and villagers are more interactive than those in NH. Those on my island right now... not really the most engaging of neighbors. I like how building friendship is such a major element in NL. They should've really focused more on that again in NH imho.

But yeah, definitely tempted to play it now, but I think you're right about not rushing into the decision immediately. It took me more than a few years just to finally buy the Switch after all. lol And besides, getting a 3DS XL nowadays isn't easy in Singapore, with its limited stock.

Thanks again, you guys. Appreciate all you've done. Will definitely try and get this game in the future.

 

[LadyDestani]

The others have said most of what I could tell you and more, but I wanted to add:

One turn-off though is the cockroaches... I hate cockroaches, ugh. I heard that if you don't play for a while, your house will be infested with them. Nasty little things with their creepy little legs and twitchy antennae. Blathers' hatred for bugs might be irrational at times, but he's right on the money about roaches... The lack of roaches is probably one of the biggest things I'm in favor of in NH. lol

If you set the Beautiful Town Ordinance, one of the benefits is never having to deal with cockroaches. They won't show up regardless of how long you are away from the game.

Also, regarding trading, if you are patient then you will get an opportunity to get most things without trading. However, there are region exclusive items and items that are part of the Welcome Amiibo RV set that you can only get by trading or if you own the Amiibo cards. As far as the base game, though, there are items that are more likely to show up and items that are less likely to show up in your shops, but nothing is color locked like what I've heard about new Horizons. You also have the chance to obtain items from shaking trees, receiving gifts from your villagers, or purchasing the furniture they display in their homes when you visit them. So that opens up a lot of different ways to get the items that are harder to find in your shop.

My opinion on the minigames on Tortimer's Island:
As a completionist myself, I found it a grind when I was trying to earn the badge for this. You do have to play a LOT of minigames for the gold badge. But when it just came to earning medals for whatever furniture and clothing items I wanted to buy on the island, it was fun. There really are soooo many different types of minigames available and they rotate daily so there's always something new to discover. They cover fishing, bug catching, diving, flower planting, ore farming, memorization games, balloon popping, hide-and-seek, and more. So it was easy to find ones that I liked and I just ignored the ones that I didn't like. There's pretty much something for everyone.

I think it might be a wise decision to wait a bit, though, since you've just started New Horizons. Managing two Animal Crossing games at the same time can be a bit of a balancing act and you may find it too stressful.

 

[JemAC]

I agree that some of the mini games can be pretty tedious and not very interesting but with the choice your likely to find one that you enjoy, I generally go for the bug catching ones as I find it easier to get a higher amount of medals from them and avoid the fishing ones, despite the fact I enjoy fishing while in my town I find it stressful when part of the mini game. Other favourites of mine are balloon popping and hammer tour (a little robot object travels randomly around an area and you just constantly hit it with a hammer - I find it quite nice for stress relief ) so think it's likely you could find one you enjoyed but it can be a pain trying them all out to find the perfect one.

I think it might be a wise decision to wait a bit, though, since you've just started New Horizons. Managing two Animal Crossing games at the same time can be a bit of a balancing act and you may find it too stressful.

I think this is really good advice in particular, I either just NH or no AC game for a year from March last year and from March this year have mostly solely played NL so haven't really had to juggle multiple games. Recently I've started to pick NH pack up, along with continuing to play NL daily, and it can be hard work trying to find time to play both games (as well as Pocket Camp which I've been playing daily since July). Usually I only manage to really find enough time to play and enjoy both games when I'm not at work but I think it does help me that I'm quite far along with my island in NH so no longer spend many hours on the game but as you're newer to the game then I agree it's a good decision to wait a bit longer and spend more time getting to enjoy NH, it may have its flaws but I still think it's a really good game

 

[Bilaz]

If you don’t mind spoilers which I guess you don’t based off of the questions I’d really recommend Chuggaaconroy’s let’s play of new leaf? He plays it in a relaxed way and is very knowledgeable about the animal crossing series so I think it might really help you figure out if it’s the vibe you like?

 

[Orius]

If you don’t mind spoilers which I guess you don’t based off of the questions I’d really recommend Chuggaaconroy’s let’s play of new leaf? He plays it in a relaxed way and is very knowledgeable about the animal crossing series so I think it might really help you figure out if it’s the vibe you like?

Thanks, but I've already bought it, along with a second-hand Animal Crossing edition 3DS. lol

 

[Bilaz]

OH CONGRATS! I hope you love it

 

[Orius]

OH CONGRATS! I hope you love it

Yeah, I'm a bit busy stressing out over New Horizons right now to bother with NL, unfortunately. There's a bit of frustration I'm trying to fix in NH regarding my island layout.

Plus, I also bought Pokemon Sword and Shield, so that's taking up my time too (also bought Pokemon Snap).

 

[CL4P-L3K]

I believe NL is a better game than NH, but the mechanical improvements of NH make going back to NL very difficult. There are two huge stresses with NL. The first is the risk of randomly losing a villager you like. It's possible to miss the clues that someone is moving and once they're in boxes...it's too late. You have to cycle...I think it was 15 or so...villagers out just to get that one back. Far, far, far too stressful for me. You can't take a break from the game. Second, making sure a villager home popped up in the right spot was...well it was quite a job. I'll leave that one there. It was a ton of work. NL ended up just stressing me the heck out, which is the opposite of it's purpose.

If you don't care about those things, or simply want to experience NL, I say go for it. There's more to do. There's more...I don't know...soul to the game. There's also more of a reason to keep playing it. More NPCs to interact with as well.

If they remade NL with the mechanics of NH they'd own the world, I think. I'd buy two copies day one.

 

[StarlitGlitch]

I saw your post on another thread too about it being too early to start NL. I'd definitely come back once you feel more comfortable in NH. There's a lot more things to work up towards in NL (things to unlock and worthwhile achievements) so things will most likely take longer to go through than in NH

 

[Etown20]

New Horizons kept me entertained for over a year, but I put a lot of hours into it and started to run out of things to do a few months ago. I had never played New Leaf but became interested in it after reading about it on here, so I decided to try it.

I started playing NL in May, and while I've trailed off recently, I was playing it every day for a few months, so I definitely got my money's worth. Personally I still prefer NH, and maintaining towns in both games can be time-consuming, but I've still really enjoyed my time with NL.

 

[Totally_RandomYT]

personally, I love both. I play new horizons with my sister, and new leaf on my own. I recommend both completely. But if you want a comparison, here you go.

Shops -
NL - a lot more options, takes way longer to unlock, but gives you stuff to do. Also a lot less to buy, it takes time to unlock axes and watering cans, and you will only be able to buy 2 flower bags a day for quite some time.

NH - a lot easier, gives you most tools first day, only 2 shops to unlock. Also has crafting.

Decorating -
NL - a lot harder, you can’t place furniture outside of your house, but you have access to PWP’s (public works projects) which are things like signs and such. No paths unless you use custom designs.

NH - WAY TOO EASY.

And the rest follows the same pattern. New leaf is a challenge, but you don’t have to pay to play with other people!

 

[VanitasFan26]

If you're someone who used to New Horizons where you expecting to move buildings and design your layout however you want, New Leaf is not going to have what you want. New Leaf all you're basically doing is building a community as the Mayor, meaning that you have to make a lot of "Public Works Projects" and they are a lot harder to make because they have a lot of bells. New Horizons got rid of that and now you can place items anywhere you want, but sadly New Leaf doesn't let you place items outside.

The good things you can expect from New Leaf is a lot of different Furniture sets and the fact that the shops have a lot more variety to them when they are fully upgraded.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

Not sure if the OP already has the game or not, since it's a relatively old thread at this point, but this could still be for those who are in a similar situation:

To put it shortly, yes. New Leaf is the magnum opus of Animal Crossing. It improved on the formula from the older games immensely, doesn't compromise much of it, and at some points, has more detail than even New Horizons. I'll try to answer these four questions as best I can:

1. I can't say how big NL is compared to NH.
A town in NL is smaller than an island in NH, but said town can be pretty dense. Of course, you won't be able to customize it as much as New Horizons, which might be a turn-off if you're in to that sort of play style. The villagers moving is somewhat similar to New Horizons, but the similarity only exist once you have nine villagers. You start off with six (as you do in previous games sans Wild World) already in the town you're starting in; three more enter, and you have to build a campsite — have a guest stay in it, then convinced that animal to move in. New Leaf's Main Street is a more realized version of the City in City Folk. The café, however, is something you can only have in town, and not in the shopping district. Club LOL was one of the cleverest additions ever added to the series. Dr. Shrunk — a therapist by trade to a retired standup comedian, will perform comedy for you if you give him something to eat. When he does, you'll learn a new expression. K.K. Slider shows up on Saturdays in which he plays the role he's always had in the series, but more importantly, he even appears under a DJ persona for the rest of the week as well, meaning he'll always be at the club at 8 to 12.

2. Don't understand this question.
Animal Crossing, as a series, was designed specifically for those who just want to play a game with little stress or skill input. Don't know why anyone would considered one Animal Crossing game harder than the other, since they were all developed under the principle of being simple, pick-up-'n'-play games. To answer the question, though: no. Actually, I think people would have an easier time getting into New Leaf because it doesn't have ungodly two-week long tutorial, and Tom Nook doesn't force you to work with him as he did in the older games. It's actually the most accessible mainline game because of that. Isabelle even gives you tools which will never break because the only tools that could break were non-Golden Axes. She even gives you non-native fruit that sales for five times more than the fruit you already have in your town. It was much easier to earn bells in the game than it ever had been up to that point.

Getting a Perfect Town in NL is definitely a lot easier than say, WW or CF, because the game tracks for trash, weeds, and how many PWPs are on the map, rather than specific quotas of how many trees and flowers should be planted in a particular "Acre", even when the Acre system hasn't been present since the GCN-era. Since flowers still wilt in this game if you don't have an ordinance that stops the decay process, you still have to tend to them to keep your plants alive, but I don't think it's required. Thankfully, there's no rating system involved.

3. All of the above.
You don't have to worry about all of that "competitive" nonsense. I'm not sure if people were that vain when it came to their towns, but considering how more people are latched on to NH at the moment, I don't think anyone cares about having a "beautiful" town, aside from getting the Golden Watering Can. I sure didn't, and I still don't. At least not to the point that I publicly want to display it.

But New Leaf seems to be more focused on expanding Main Street and working as hard as possible to get all the Public Works Projects going and improving the townspeople's livelihood. It seems to be more of a management game than a decorating one, am I correct?

Yep, you're just about right on the money.

4. Nope, it isn't. Unless there's a villager or two you really want to have in your town.

I hope my answers have been satisfactory.

 

[Valeris]

If New Leaf had the same move out system Horizons had I'd probably play it more. It's one of the few things missing that sets Horizons apart from it. In New Leaf villagers will move out on their own if you don't talk to them. If you set the game down for a good period of time, it's plausible you'll come back and one of your favorite villagers upped and left because you didn't make the concerted effort to find them; tell them no before they did. In Horizons, villagers won't move out without your approval. You can put the game down for a while, come back and they'll still be there.

 

[Croconaw]

If New Leaf had the same move out system Horizons had I'd probably play it more. It's one of the few things missing that sets Horizons apart from it. In New Leaf villagers will move out on their own if you don't talk to them. If you set the game down for a good period of time, it's plausible you'll come back and one of your favorite villagers upped and left because you didn't make the concerted effort to find them; tell them no before they did. In Horizons, villagers won't move out without your approval. You can put the game down for a while, come back and they'll still be there.

You basically described the one thing that New Leaf was missing. That would make it a near perfect game. I’m really hoping they keep this feature in future releases. I love not having to worry about my villagers moving out.

 

[Red Cat]

After the 2.0 update for NH, I'd say no. NL has a few things that NH doesn't have, but NH has a lot of things that NL doesn't have. The 2.0 update tipped the furniture variety scales in NH's favor. Harv's island has basically taken the place of Main Street, and NH's shops have much greater variety than NL's shops with the exception of furniture. If you want to play one of the older games, the Gamecube game is the one most worth playing as its villager dialogue is a lot better and it has a lot of charm that never returned in any of the future games.

 

[Sunny1234]

Content wise- Animal crossing new leaf is farrr more superior. Just like you- I'm not really a fan of the decorating aspect I really don't mind the visuals of my town so I had a lot more fun with acnl (even now!). The game feels like it just has so much more soul than nh though it might be hard getting used to the obviously far worse menuing mechanics and customization options.