What do you do in the game?

[shmoodle]

I'm currently having a crisis. ACNH was my first animal crossing game and it was okay. My friends all told me omg you have to play new leaf. I spent a good chunk of change on a 3ds and copy of new leaf. I played for about 3 days and I am SO disappointed. I had HUGE hopes for this game! This is boring me to tears. There's nothing to do other than sell stuff and make donations. Am I missing something? I really don't care about the villagers or characters in the game and at the age of 25 this feels like a waste of time. I think maybe I'm missing something but game guides aren't very helpful. Please help. I thought this game was going to be so fun!

 

[Gabby]

What about ACNH was your favorite? Did you enjoy the terraforming and decoration aspects? ACNH does provide a lot of customization outside of the villager's home. I think it's fair that if ACNH is your first game, it's hard to go back to the classics. You can decorate the town though with the public works projects and get creative with customization using the able sisters designs (like for pathing and things). But, if collecting, talking with villagers, and very limited outside decoration is not your jam, I can definitely understand how ACNL is disappointing.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

Animal Crossing New Leaf is a wonderful game and is not for everyone! New Horizons is much more modern and entertaining, you have most likely heard about the whole “AC is not for everyone” before and this is why. If you truly love what makes AC original than it will get better! However, you say you dont care about the characters or villagers which is half of the fun! There are various other non social aspects that make ACNL great! The beginning is much slower, especially coming straight from New Horizons.
Some things that happen and are enjoyable are… (bolded are not in NH)

• Slowly building up your town with PWP’s and changing ordinances after finishing the permit.
• Upgrading all the shops on Main Street (took me 3 years)
• Getting all the golden tools.
• Finishing the Museum.
• Getting all the golden badges.
• Completing the encyclopedia.
• Collecting the many different fruits.
• Visiting the Island and collecting medals to get stuff from the gift shop.
• Making friends with each villager and fulfilling 3-5 requests daily. (Catching fish / bugs, buying them furniture, bringing fruit, visiting homes etc.)
• Saving up MEOW coupons to buy things from the campsite.️
• Getting exercise IRL to obtain playcoins to buy fortune cookies.
• Obtaining an in-game 3DS or Wii U to play Puzzle League and Desert Island escape respectively.
• Check for Plaza visitors when visiting your town tree to see it grow as the months pass!

 

[Halloqueen]

You've barely scratched the surface of New Leaf if you've only played for 3 days. Even New Horizons is slow in the first few days. Timmy and Tommy expand their shop numerous times the more you buy and sell from them, including eventually getting a deluxe Gracie section on the top floor with expensive seasonal furniture sets and clothing. More shops unlock on Main Street as you play.

Mr_Keroppi covered a lot of it. You can also do stuff like catch expensive beetles and sharks on Tortimer Island to take back to town to sell, play minigames on Tortimer Island to acquire things (like exclusive furniture, clothing, and wetsuits), work at The Roost, and get stuff customized by Cyrus at Re-Tail. Cyrus can even make miniatures of dinosaurs if you have their full set of fossils. He'll be asleep until you progress in the game more though.

Also, as Gabby touched on, if you go in expecting to design the town like you do in New Horizons then you're not going to get that. Public Works Projects can be installed around the town but most of the decorating is interior decoration within your home. The rooms of your home can be expanded larger than the ones in New Horizons. The exterior of your home can be customized a bit more than in New Horizons, and you can customize the exteriors of the Train Station and Town Hall as well.

There are a bunch of furniture sets and other items that didn't make the jump to New Horizons and there are a bunch of classic gyroids that weren't included in New Horizons as well.

Even if you don't care about the characters, it still can be a fun game for you since I'm more into the series for interior decorating. While New Horizons has some improvements, some pretty big, New Leaf is still my personal favorite just for the interior decoration aspect. If not having terraforming and lacking the ability to place furniture outside is a dealbreaker though, can't help ya. Like Gabby was saying, it depends on what you liked about New Horizons and what you expect.

 

[Yoshi155]

I think everyone else summarized what needed to be said. There’s a lot that can be worked towards, like all the shops. I think you should continue to play the game because it takes, like, a month to even scratch the surface of the game.

 

[micat]

I would suggest looking at old tumblr blogs, (if you have time) watching playthroughs, or just looking at other peoples’ New Leaf towns online. They give you a good idea with what you can do with this game :> it’s actually what got me into New Leaf!

I also agree with the other replies here,, There’s a lot to unlock over time and side activities to do in this game. I also think compared to NH the events are a lot more engaging, and villagers ask you for more tasks (which gives you more stuff to do). You might have to get further into the game to understand what more it has to offer.

Also in the Town Hall, Isabelle gives a lot of advice for what to do in the early days, which helps if you’re not sure what to do!

 

[Zinnia.]

Right! The game has a lot to offer if you're patient and dedicated enough. And in the event that you do become bored or like the game's not moving fast enough for you, you could always time travel or trade with others to help develop your town faster.
If you're interested in the items/collectibles, new leaf has a lot of unique furniture, clothes, flowers and fruit that weren't carried over to new horizons. You can check them out on moridb.com if you'd like.

 

[shmoodle]

Thank you for the responses everyone! After reading I think I'm going to stick it out and play more to see where the wind takes me. I'm quite a competitive gamer (league, high-end mythic raiding in wow, chess) so this type of game is not something I'm used to. But I will keep playing and maybe warm up to it!

Post automatically merged: Mar 6, 2024

What about ACNH was your favorite? Did you enjoy the terraforming and decoration aspects? ACNH does provide a lot of customization outside of the villager's home. I think it's fair that if ACNH is your first game, it's hard to go back to the classics. You can decorate the town though with the public works projects and get creative with customization using the able sisters designs (like for pathing and things). But, if collecting, talking with villagers, and very limited outside decoration is not your jam, I can definitely understand how ACNL is disappointing.

Yes the customization of the island is what made ACNH fun, and the nook miles.

 

[Rubygame]

I'm very happy to read all the good points said by other users, each of them said things that I would have said too. But I want to add that the old Animal Crossing formula, that is, the one before New Horizons, focused on life simulation, interior design and completing the museum. Only with New Leaf were introduced public works for outdoor decorations. Just think that in the old Animal Crossing games the patterns were used almost exclusively for practical and non-aesthetic use, i.e. to avoid the deterioration of the grass. New Leaf was the game that made the creators of AC understand which direction to take to be successful, it is no coincidence that in New Horizons the patterns created by the community are paid, while in New Leaf you only need a wireless connection to read the QR codes. What I mean is that New Leaf is the pioneer game, together with its spin-off Happy Home Designer, for New Horizons, but the intrinsic formula remains that of the old games, so it's first and foremost a life simulator. And the philosophy of Animal Crossing has always been to "stop" from the frenzy of real life and enjoy the tranquility of this small village surrounded by nature. This doesn't mean you shouldn't set goals, it means that whatever goal you set yourself will take patience and perseverance to achieve it, but you can always time travel like many players do. The programmers put consequences on time travelers but never banned it because it has always been an accepted playstyle since the early days of the series. Everyone enjoys the game as they prefer, but traveling through time to achieve your goals also requires patience and perseverance. New Horizons keeps you busy with Nook miles goals, but at the end it's one big pool where you do the same activities over and over again. In previous Animal Crossing games, you decide your objectives. It's not a game that wants to keep you glued to the screen but wants to make you "stop" for a moment and relax. The whole soundtrack of New Leaf screams "now no more chaos, relax with Tortimer Island, do favors for your animal friends, fish or catch bugs to pay the home loan, decore your house or the town".
With the Welcome amiibo update, external objectives were introduced, which then led to the famous Nook miles. I'm talking about the badges and objectives of the MEOW coupons (but again, they don't want to keep you glued to the screen because once they're done you have to wait until the next day). While badges are really tough objectives, to win a badge you usually have to do that particular activity MANY times. Furthermore, two additional minigames have been added in addition to those on Tortimer Island, which are always there to keep you relaxed and entertained.
Honestly, I'm not a player suited to the New Horizon formula... I want to do favors for my villagers every day because I love interacting with them, having grown up with Wild World, I only want to do what I feel like doing, and I don't want to feel forced to rack up Nook miles for otherwise I can't take a damn boat to get new materials. I want to decorate the town but without feeling stressed by the thousand creative possibilities, because in New Leaf there are many limitations.
Any game that will come after New Horizon... I honestly don't care about the limitations there may be, I just hope that they will return to life simulation as the main aspect, and aim to relax you and not make you burn out.

 

[KittenNoir]

I loved trying to unlock all the projects from the villagers. I also loved visiting the island and trying to win tickets to unlock furniture and clothing items.

 

[moonz]

At first there is not many things to do, but after some time of gameplay you will unlock new shops, tortimer island where there is minigames, you can also buy fortune cookies til you get the Wii u console and 3ds furniture where you will unlock other 2 special minigames, etc. New Leaf is all about growth. Is about getting to know your villagers, doing the classic basics of Animal Crossing like fishing and catching bugs, and enjoy the simple things, while New Horizons is pretty much a decoration game. If you only like Animal Crossing because of the decorating aspect, then that's the reason why you're not enjoying the game.