So almost 3 months from release, how do you feel about the game?

[Fridaynightcatlady]

How would you rank it compared to the other entries in the series? Do you feel burnt-out from playing or are you still logging long hours in the game? Have your "priorities" in the game changed (i.e. were you decorating your island more and now you're mostly about collecting things or chilling, etc)? Has anything you thought about the game when it released changed now?

As for me: I'd say this is my favorite AC game in the series (with GCN AC being a very close second). I guess the reason that I've loved it so much is how similar it is to GCN one. I've found myself play even more hours now than before but mostly because I'm constantly doing new things. While before I was obsessed about decorating my island a certain way, now I've found myself decorating my house (which remained mostly empty just until a few weeks ago, lol). I'm currently 325 hours in and I play long hours, still. I will say, after lengthy nookazon trades, I got very burnt out and have decided to reduce the time I dedicate to the game, lol, and might even start playing something else (I'm itching to start a JRPG, so recommendations are always welcome!).

 

[John Wick]

It's my least favorite in the series as the items are very ugly (most of them) and very limited for an AC game, and a switch game at that.

NL had nearly 3000 more items and not just color variations.

It has amazing potential though.

 

[shouyou]

I really miss Tortimer’s island! I play with my friends and I feel like there’s not much to “do” when you visit each other... but with the island, there were fun mini games with friends and you could get items for playing!

 

[TheodoreCottontail]

I couldn't imagine still being interested in the game without time travelling. I still have hope though for further updates, just because I waited so long for the game to be released. Animal crossing is a soft spot for me so I'll stay optimistic.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

I love it sooo much. But it also is frustrating having to wait for updates to add features that I feel should have been in there from the beginning. Especially when I don't know when the updates will be announced or dropped. I hate not knowing.. and I have a LOT of issues with the game but I still enjoy it I just wish there was an announcement for an update schedule so I don't feel like I'm being left hanging.

 

[Phosphy]

My experience with this game has been very mixed. I had a hard time transitioning into it because so many of my favorite things from the old games, and New Leaf in particular, were cut. I was also a little annoyed with how slow things felt in the beginning, as it felt almost impossible to find any good furniture, and I couldn't stand the tools breaking and having to craft them. I have played every mainline entry released in the West so I am used to the waiting and the "taking it slow" style. But something about this game just felt even more extreme, and I found myself missing the older entries almost immediately. The first few days of gameplay left me underwhelmed.

Things have gotten better with time. I am finally starting to have nice furniture, and I am having fun collecting things and hosting catalogue sessions. I have completed the fossils in my museum and I have fun fishing. There are so many things that I love doing, but sometimes I stop and think...Man, I wish the villager dialogue was more interesting, like in the pre-New Leaf games. I wish the villagers would ask to play hide-and-seek. I wish they would ask me to deliver presents or lost items more often, like in the old games. I miss old sets of furniture...

I understand the way that they're using DLC to update the game periodically so that things feel fresh. I think it's cool that they plan on supporting it for so long. Regardless, I constantly catch myself wishing we were given stuff from past games. Things that I, personally, feel shouldn't have been DLC, but should've been put in the game from day one. The Roost? Club Tortimer (or a new equivalent)? Diving? Katrina? I could go on forever.

I see so many people enjoying it. So many newcomers to the series! It makes me happy to see them feeling that way. But no matter how hard I try, I just...feel conflicted. There are so many things I like. But there are also so, so many things that I miss. So many things that get on my nerves. Having to repeatedly enter the changing room at the Able Sisters for multiple items, or having to craft bait one-at-a-time.

Maybe it's the nostalgia goggles fogging up my views on the game, lol. I would spend entire days in New Leaf hanging out on Club Tortimer, meeting new people and making cool friends. I haven't had that sort of experience in this game. Maybe I shouldn't be projecting my expectations from past entires, and maybe I should just focus on New Horizons as its own title.

I feel like the games have shifted from being about living in a weird town with a bunch of animals and hanging out with friends, to customizing everything and building the perfect town. I guess it's just not my style!

 

[Alicia]

I would have to say that this game is probably my favorite currently. I love how my villagers look and talking to them everyday. I'm glad that there are certain things that have been added such as being able to move our villagers houses instead of having to plot reset for them to be where we wanted or putting a bunch of paths down after the amiibo update in new leaf. I'm still playing every day, but I'm not playing as much as I was before because I'm trying to play some other games instead of just animal crossing.

New leaf was my favorite for years and I had so many hours in that game, but new horizons to me is a really pretty game. I've played pretty much every animal crossing game, not including amiibo festival, and I've enjoyed each one. I think that I love new leaf and new horizons as much as I do is because I was able to enjoy them as an adult instead of as a kid. I have more memories with new leaf and new horizons than I do with the gamecube game, ds game or wii game. I absolutely loved them, but I never really go back to play them. So, as much as I've loved each game, I would say that new horizons is my favorite.

 

[jumpluff]

I think it's an exciting direction for the series to take (ability to terraform, etc.), but the games-as-a-service model might be incompatible with Animal Crossing. It's an incredibly meta intrusion into the game that detracts from its peacefulness and escape. Waiting for the next thing, having a pace forced on us, being forced to consider Nintendo and the devs whenever we think about the game, the uncertainty involved in waiting for features to come back, and the simple fact that most players won't play as long as it takes to complete the game, but AC is always best at release. I personally believe the Wii U and Switch lifecycles are why we got an unfinished ACNH, but I worry it'll be repeated as it's an increasing norm in the industry. I dislike the MMO-style events, etc. Basically, I feel like the features and playtime in NH are allocated to activities that are less enjoyable for me as a long-time fan and less unique to AC, and waiting for them to come back causes me stress and sadness. It's frustrating to see the incredible potential of NH and realise a lot of the promised patches will simply be restoring NH to the same level as NL (if terraforming isn't all you like). The events are also unimmersive in the same way.

At the same time, the graphics are beautiful. I never felt like previous games' graphics affected how I felt about them, but now I feel like I can't go back to them. NH's quality of life changes are for the most part irreplaceable, too. I think it has one of the best changes made to the series in that villagers can't spontaneously move. While it does make it more painful to have a rotating cast, since you have to pull the plug yourself rather than allow it to happen by inaction, it makes picking up and playing the game after a hiatus a lot better. Previously, I (and other players) would not be able to resume playing the game after long periods of activity, because we'd worry so much about villagers leaving. I like the premise of the game (the getaway plan) and building up, exploring the island etc. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in it that could have been executed better, and I feel that the devs tried to address problems that both fans and new player have had with the series historically. They just messed up in some places and didn't have enough time, seemingly.

I'd like future entries to re-emphasise living in a village with your villagers rather than the customisation, town management, etc. aspects. To me, that's the unique charm of AC - living in realtime. It's what makes it different and more enjoyable (to me) for games than farm games. NH has some problems like poor dialogue logic that also make the game get repetitive more easily, I think. But the writing is fine, no worse than NL's - I do think it's gotten blander in general over the series lifecycle, but that's not an NH thing specifically (I'm not complaining about no mean villagers, it's more of a lack of a unique voice in the writing).

I think New Leaf is the best in the series. Previously, I considered AC:GC and New Leaf to be tied as best. It's weird that playing New Horizons would change that, but it made me appreciate the perfection of New Leaf a lot more. AC is at its best when it's feature rich, when you can spend your time intentionally, when you have a choice of what to do and don't feel constrained, when you are immersed. Absence of good multiplayer is also a hassle. Basically AC should be something I can just chill mindlessly in, but I can't do that as easily, and I've never had a problem with it in previous entries, all of them had sufficient variety and I loved just talking to my villagers. The way the dialogue works now, it's more interesting when you haven't been playing. X_X

ACNH could've been the best AC and maybe in three years it will be, but I doubt in three years I will be playing it daily etc. so I won't be able to fully appreciate those changes, which makes me sad. And I don't want my interest in AC to ride on patches. But that's just kind of how it is now =/

 

[Rosch]

I have over 445 hours spent on this game. While I am happy with the game overall, it still feels incomplete. I am constantly wanting more from the game. I guess as long as I know that New Leaf still had more content than New Horizons, I will never be satisfied.

 

[Aleigh]

I don't really wanna play anymore. I barely have the motivation for it. Never in my life have I ever dropped so fast from an AC game. GC, played for years straight. WW, played for less but still awhile. CF, played for years straight. NL, played up until I near broke my game (I would still be playing now if it worked). NH, played for about two and a half months before my interest left. Now, that may be for more reasons outside of the game itself, but man I'm a bit disappointed. I still love it, and I have over 310 hours of playtime on it, don't get me wrong, but idk my energy is nowhere to be found

 

[Marridia]

while I love this game, it's still missing a lot features and it could use some quality of life changes. I'd this game is my favorite so far though.

 

[Madrox6]

I'm still enjoying it and playing for hours daily, even with a full-time job. This is the first time I've played since the Gamecube version, though, so I don't have the same comparisons with New Leaf and Pocket Camp that maybe bring it down a notch for many other players

My goals have shifted over time. First I paid off the loans, then I got my top ten villagers, then I got all of the regular DIYs. Right now I'm redesigning my entire island and slowly filling in the catalogue. I'm a completionist in any game, so the Nook Mile goals and catalogue will keep me busy and interested for quite a while, and hopefully they add lots of new updates that give us more interactive things to do - diving, mini games with villagers, etc. Not just holiday stuff but things you can do anytime throughout the year to add some variety and personality to the game

Overall - still loving it, but I can see how you might lose interest pretty quickly depending on the type of gamer you are. Definitely not a game I would recommend for everyone

 

[Dreamcloud]

It feels a bit unfinished at the moment. I guess that's sort of by design so I can be patient. I just want some more furniture right now. I'm worried that all the decent sets will be released like the wedding set with no opportunity to re-order items once the event is done.

 

[Lotusblossom]

5 out of 10

 

[Pyoopi]

I think it's pretty fun. I think I'm like 460 ish hours.

I'm really slow in building up my island like it's still in it's original state. I've only developed small sections of my island.

I gave myself a task to complete which is designing all of my custom designs. All paths, fabrics and misc designs. That's why my progress is very slow.

To keep this game more invigorating, I let friendly strangers play on my island and plan on creating more events. ☺
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I do like ACNL a lot but I like ACNH graphics a lot more. Pocket Camp was fun but it lacked multiplayer aspects and the whole pay to play is poop. Granted they gave the players a lot of ways to earn their premium currency for free.

I did find their items more creative and fun. I'd love to create 3D models for Pocket Camp, ngl.

 

[Le Ham]

I feel like my thoughts have already been spoken here by a few people, and I've made comments in a long list of other threads on this topic, so I'll just say I have no clue how at 550+ hours in I'm still playing hours on end every day without TTing and with a largely messy, unfinished island. Something about having not touched NL since 2015, something about not setting high expectations for things in general because setting yourself up to be disappointed by things that will inevitably disappoint you at some point is just not an appealing lifestyle to me, something about watering the flowers and fishing being calming and mindless and I still enjoy it just as much, something about not feeling the need to grind making it last longer possibly, something about maybe just getting blessed with the island and villagers I've gotten and also having a small group of irl friends who play it (though that is getting increasingly smaller).

 

[mayortiffany]

New Leaf is still my favourite. I find myself losing interest in this game much faster than I did in New Leaf - and I don't think it's because of quarantine. As I was in school for much of New Horizon's first months, I really didn't have the time to be playing religiously. I think that the shift towards prioritizing island customization and design is just not for me. There are so many missing features that I loved from New Leaf and also classic games, and their absence is notable. It just feels like New Horizons is empty.

 

[FireNinja1]

I think I liked New Leaf better. That being said, I haven't really given the customization features a fair shake -- my island is largely not terraformed, there's weeds everywhere, and I really haven't bothered to move anything, aside from my representative's house a few times.

Outside of that though, the events definitely don't really feel that great. Since I time travel now, I haven't had the time to look at the wedding event. But the Rover event felt artificial at best, and the Earth Day / Bunny Day events didn't feel that substantial either. In fact, the Bunny Day event felt overly slow; I had more eggs than I needed before the event was half over, which interfered with me trying to complete Nook Miles' tasks for the week. Nintendo needs to put out better events IMO; whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.

 

[Marshmallows]

I enjoy it. Still logging in daily and playing as much as real life allows. I have gripes and annoyances, but for the most part I like the game.

I think a lot of things can and will be fixed, but I do agree that I wish more of the item sets and npc characters were available from the beginning. At the same time, seeing how players rush through everything, I can understand them wanting to lock certain things until everyone can experience it.

I really hope that eventually everything in NL makes it to NH... from house customization to items to the shops/buildings. NL was such a good game, that it's hard not to compare. If they had just done NL 2.0 with the ability to break rocks, move buildings, and the updated graphics, I would have been completely happy. I could live without crafting, terraforming, and trading for color variations. I feel a lot of what I do now is just work instead of relaxing doing something fun. I barely ever fish or catch bugs anymore. Maybe Stardew Valley-like farming would have been nice, too.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I love it

I started to play a little bit less but then winter happened