why does this game feel so incomplete?

[EuIetta]

new horizons feels so incomplete to me. i don't know if it is the lack of previous npcs, the lack of items, or what. : /
it just feels so empty ???

i feel like they really need to add more items into the game. especially some of the things from pocket camp & new leaf. how can they add so many things to a mobile game, and decide to not put it into their actual $60 game that people were waiting so eagerly for. add more buildings. just. something.

new leaf had lots of little things that just makes that game better in general. perfect fruit. special tree stumps. diving. actual informative descriptions in the museum. special furniture sets from amiibo cards. mini games with friends.

do you think they'll add more to this game or do they just not care?​

 

[Chris]

I believe that it only feels "empty" because people are comparing it to its predecessors. While it would be nice if they added content from old titles (and they very likely will), New Horizons isn't New Leaf 2 or Pocket Camp 2. There is plenty of content in the game, it is just different content.

 

[EuIetta]

not asking it to be "new leaf 2" or "pocket camp 2."
there is a H U G E lack of content.​

 

[Seroja]

new leaf had the amiibo update way late into the game, and yeah new horizons is very lacking in furniture, but I'm hopeful they will add more stuff as we go along. apparently they have planned for new updates for the next 3 years to keep things fun!

 

[Fisher]

It’s certainly missing features that past games had, but I wouldn’t say it feels ‘incomplete’ as it has many completely new features as well.

Nintendo has said they plan on updating the game for 2-3 years, so they’re obviously holding back content for updates.

Obviously this is frustrating for the time being, but I believe most features from old games will eventually be added in like diving and such. Just have to be patient.

 

[buny]

I believe that it only feels "empty" because people are comparing it to its predecessors. While it would be nice if they added content from old titles (and they very likely will), New Horizons isn't New Leaf 2 or Pocket Camp 2. There is plenty of content in the game, it is just different content.

i don't really agree with that, personally. I absolutely love the game and I don't see it as a New Leaf 2, there's plenty of good changes they made and they added crafting which is fantastic. But it does feel like there are some empty holes throughout, with the smallish collection of items, lack of activities to do in multiplayer, now they removed the interesting Mystery Islands, etc. And let's not even mention the glitches. My game has glitched twice and still isn't fixed. I love the conveniences they added in NH, but I miss the content they removed. Still love the game and I'm looking forward to whatever they add in the future<3

 

[Manah]

We really, REALLY need furniture updates that aren't events.

 

[mirukushake]

Pocket Camp is a mobile game designed to cause people to spend way more than $60 to get items from gacha. I don't know why that is a standard a fixed price game should aspire to.

New Horizons is also not a "one and done" model like previous games, but rather a game as a service, so you are not paying for just the initial content, but the content that comes at a later date.

 

[Meowria]

Because technically it is. We’re supposed to be getting updates within the next 2-3 years. I kinda like and dislike it at the same time. Yeah updates will give us more things to do and make the game fresh every once in a while but I would like to have had everything at once.

I have hope that once the game starts getting more updates it will feel les empty and start being a better overall game than New Leaf.

 

[MaxM]

Because they're going to update it once a month for the next 2 - 3 years. I'm glad they didn't give us everything at once as we'd get bored quickly. RIP all my other games though.

 

[moon_child]

Pocket Camp is an errand game where animals have nothing better to do than boss you around. It’s a glorified bring me game. It has a lot of items but you have to spend leaf tickets for a chance to win some of the items and there’s a high risk of getting duplicates. It’s a trap so you’d pay more and more for a mobile game where you can do nothing but gather and gather and gather.

New Leaf, although has more shops and buildings and NPCs suffer so much in terms of experience and game play. The shops and items they have don’t add more than a few minutes into my gameplay and I don’t care for fortune tellers or shops that sell me two kinds of bushes per day, both of which will die if I plant them someplace wrong. I also don’t miss seeing my town looking like a desert because I like to play a lot and run around a lot. I hate dead flowers and flowers that die when I run. I also don’t care for tacky themed furnitures made of balloons and covered all over in dots or crazy colors. I don’t like only being able to change my appearance once a day and having to pay for it every single time. I also don’t like Isabelle telling me I have to put the lamp post two freaking spaces away from the bench because they have to have buffer spaces all around each other. It looks weird. I also hate not having control over where villagers plop their houses. I hate save scumming and plot resetting is a chore. I also don’t like being anxious every three days trying to rumor monger who’s planning to move out. I hate that I can’t invite campers when I have a full town. I could go on and on.

I don’t care if there are less furnitures. They look way more decent and classier than all of the sets in NL combined. No amount of furniture, NPCs, or buildings can compare to the control, comfort and smooth gameplay NH has offered and to me, playing without the kind of stress and anxiety NL had, NH is definitely more than enough.

 

[buny]

New Leaf, although has more shops and buildings and NPCs suffer so much in terms of experience and game play. The shops and items they have don’t add more than a few minutes into my gameplay and I don’t care for fortune tellers or shops that sell me two kinds of bushes per day, both of which will die if I plant them someplace wrong. I also don’t miss seeing my town looking like a desert because I like to play a lot and run around a lot. I hate dead flowers and flowers that die when I run. I also don’t care for tacky themed furnitures made of balloons and covered all over in dots or crazy colors. I don’t like only being able to change my appearance once a day and having to pay for it every single time. I also don’t like Isabelle telling me I have to put the lamp post two freaking spaces away from the bench because they have to have buffer spaces all around each other. It looks weird. I also hate not having control over where villagers plop their houses. I hate save scumming and plot resetting is a chore. I also don’t like being anxious every three days trying to rumor monger who’s planning to move out. I hate that I can’t invite campers when I have a full town. I could go on and on.

oof, i really don't miss these things either, just thinking about plot resetting makes me sick ;;;

 

[moon_child]

And I forgot to say, I’ll give up the entire Rococo series just to see Marshal angrily chewing away at his sandwich any day. Lol. Given that he sings so much and blushes when I clap, I’ll throw in an entire Gracie furniture set.

 

[Luciaaaa]

Totally appreciate where you are coming from.

I have a different outlook, personally I'm kind of glad that things are coming through updates and stuff, means the game will continue to stay fresh.

The game IS incomplete, but to me that kind of makes it more exciting?!

 

[Bk1234]

I understand your opinion. However, you can't deny how much of an improvement/innovation this game is to New Leaf. The villagers are so much more expressive, there is a whole new crafting system, you can place villager plots, you can invite a camper when you have 10 villagers (a huge step-up from New Leaf), villagers can't move out randomly when you haven't played for awhile, the list goes on and on... Additionally, 3 years of updates are promised, so how could you be mad?

 

[stiney]

To me the game doesn't feel incomplete. There's a ton to do and I'm getting a lot of satisfaction. And the updates will keep it fresh so I don't think I'll get tired of the grind the way I did in NL.

I will say I didn't get much enjoyment out of some of the beloved NPCs like Katrina (who was useless once you got her hats), the Dream Suite wasn't interesting to me, Kapp'n is a creep and I didn't find the island mini-games fun, especially in multi-player (and beetle-farming became a grind), and I found diving somewhere between "tedious" and "throw my 3DS across the room in frustration only not really because no auto-save plus Resetti" depending on the day and the diving creature in question and how many jellyfish there were.

 

[sfelix]

I'm desperate for more furniture, I miss the modern furniture, the lovely furniture (I don't actually like the lovely furniture for my own house but I felt like it suited some of the villagers) and the polka dot set from NL was my absolute fav. The regal series which I totally forgot about until I googled it just now... and sooo.... much more... and I miss having Cyrus customise furniture with fabrics too. It feels like every villager in this game uses either the cabana sets or the wooden block or log stuff.

 

[coderp]

It is incomplete, by virtue of them adding new/reintroduced items via updates. That is the definition of releasing an incomplete game, and it's not like any previous title they've released. Some like it, some despise it. I personally think it was a bad idea to lock things like shop upgrades or furniture series behind DLC updates. It reeks of them forcing us into long-term Online subscriptions. My $0.02.

 

[Sloom]

Pocket Camp is an errand game where animals have nothing better to do than boss you around. It’s a glorified bring me game. It has a lot of items but you have to spend leaf tickets for a chance to win some of the items and there’s a high risk of getting duplicates. It’s a trap so you’d pay more and more for a mobile game where you can do nothing but gather and gather and gather.

New Leaf, although has more shops and buildings and NPCs suffer so much in terms of experience and game play. The shops and items they have don’t add more than a few minutes into my gameplay and I don’t care for fortune tellers or shops that sell me two kinds of bushes per day, both of which will die if I plant them someplace wrong. I also don’t miss seeing my town looking like a desert because I like to play a lot and run around a lot. I hate dead flowers and flowers that die when I run. I also don’t care for tacky themed furnitures made of balloons and covered all over in dots or crazy colors. I don’t like only being able to change my appearance once a day and having to pay for it every single time. I also don’t like Isabelle telling me I have to put the lamp post two freaking spaces away from the bench because they have to have buffer spaces all around each other. It looks weird. I also hate not having control over where villagers plop their houses. I hate save scumming and plot resetting is a chore. I also don’t like being anxious every three days trying to rumor monger who’s planning to move out. I hate that I can’t invite campers when I have a full town. I could go on and on.

I don’t care if there are less furnitures. They look way more decent and classier than all of the sets in NL combined. No amount of furniture, NPCs, or buildings can compare to the control, comfort and smooth gameplay NH has offered and to me, playing without the kind of stress and anxiety NL had, NH is definitely more than enough.

yeah, I think the big problem is people viewing the older games through rose coloured glasses. I have just started trying to simultaneously play all of the animal crossing games as frequently as I can, and honestly it can be hard to appreciate something until it's taken away from you.

the customisation in new horizons is astronomical, the amount of customisation a regular casual player can achieve in this game is in my opinion 100x more exciting and pretty than anything even a save-file hacker could achieve in new leaf.

I understand the empty feeling, because sometimes I feel it too. but to me this game comparatively feels like it has more content (or at least the same amount of content) than the other games so far, without even considering future updates that will be added. and I know it's a generic response, but most of the things OP mentioned are very likely or have even been proven/evidenced to be returning via datamining. I do kinda like receiving new features via updates because it keeps the game from getting stale even if you pile up hundreds of hours on the game but I can understand why some don't really like it as much

 

[Believe]

While I think New Horizons is a great game, I think the lack of furniture is what kills me. I recently revisited my New Leaf town and the number of furniture I could use that aren't available in this iteration is insane... between food items, basic furniture sets, and greenery items it really astounds me how much we don't have in comparison. I agree these are different games, but the drop in variety sticks out like a sore thumb