Animal Crossing New Horizons is a very weird case. It came out exactly when the pandemic took over the world, which greatly changed how I experienced it.

I was so happy to finally have another Animal Crossing game to sink my teeth into. I loved the comfy, cozy vibe this game emits. There are so many new options to customise your island, it's insane. And thanks to the patches that this game received in its first year, there are a lot of fun activities to do.

But do you know what they didn't patch? The villagers (or islanders, I suppose). There are few things that make me feel as dead inside as talking to the islanders of New Horizons. Seriously, they feel like a hollow shell of their previous glory, which is such a shame, because interacting with the villagers was my favourite part of New Leaf and Wild World. This aspect is way more important to me than, say, customisation. You'd think that the devs had more options to make these islanders feel alive and real with loads of interesting dialogues, but it seems like the islanders have less things to say here than in any other Animal Crossing game. The whole experience feels very superficial to me because of it. Like the islanders are just there to look nice and nothing more.