It's still Animal Crossing, so the gameplay loop remains rewarding and relaxing by design. If you want visible evidence of how much effort you've put into a game, this franchise will always give you that. You also have more control over the look of your island than any town you did in previous entries. The freedom of personalization is arguably too much, at least by the time you obtain a landscaping permit.

With that being said, Nintendo has missed a good opportunity to craft the ultimate Animal Crossing experience. They relied too much on the ability to update the game through online connection with DLC (albeit free). I was already bored of the game by the time even the first of those began rolling out. The multiplayer experience felt severely limited based on what I had anticipated the game having (we can cut down friends' trees but not exchange items through yard sales in person?), and to top it all off, the neighbor characters take a very upsetting backseat to the adventure. The dialogue is far more redundant than it was in 2002 and 2005, and I almost never want to talk to anyone. It's harder to think of them as sentient, they're very much NPCs now. I recall playing games with characters in Wild World, and I've not had one such experience with anyone in New Horizons. There's plenty to do, but it's a lonely game.