This is the weakest PMD game.

BUT, the soundtrack...holy shit the SOUNDTRACK

MASTERPIECE

This is not a bad videogame by any means, but it is a very, very lackluster Animal Crossing game.

The series has finally concluded its transformation from a simulation game, to a build the town of your dreams type game.

The immersion that the older games had is now ruined by giving the player unlimited creative power over the island.

This is how i feel about it: In the older games, you had little control over your town, all you could do is plant some flowers or trees, you don't choose who comes and leaves the town, you are just another guy in Town, which makes those moments where you interact with the NPC's more meaningful, they didn't feel like just another piece of decoration to make your Town look cute, it's the little conversations that you have with them, it's the letters and the presents you get from them, the memories you make with them that makes it all so special, it's the feeling of making new favorites that made it special.

Sure in New Horizons you can make the island however you want, with any villager that you want, but does that hold any value to anyone? The unlimited creativity actually divides the playerbase a little bit.
If you're not the creative kind, you will be stuck with a very boring world, there's no City Plaza, there's no Tortimer Island, there's no Main Street.
The game is asking YOU to make your own world, make your own magic moments.

The older games didn't need any of that because it's the feeling of playing each day, where something different happens, that made the game special. The world defined your experience, not the other way around.

But frankly, I can put that behind me, I mean at the end of the day, having tons of customization in a game like this is never a bad thing.
What REALLY disappoints me, is the soundtrack.
This shit is an ATROCITY for Animal Crossing, specially so when comparing to the older games soundtracks, this game is just sad, where as the original game had funky and catchy music, the DS and Wii games with the whimsical and magical tunes, and New Leaf with that beautiful, fucking MASTERFUL soundtrack, this game just has...absolutely NOTHING.

Insane that there were updates for this game but none of them really made the game more enjoyable or re-playable.

As it stands, New Leaf is still the pinnacle of Animal Crossing experience, and it's sad that i see more effort put into the fucking mobile gacha game than the Switch game.