So the one I spent the most time with was New Leaf, and the one I played most recently before this was New Horizons, and as someone who argued that part of the reasons New Horizons was boring was because it was too easy/gentle/kind to the player, I can now much more confidently say that I was right.
I've only had my town for a few days now, but I think I'd say my perfect Animal Crossing game would be somewhere between this one and New Leaf. This one is missing a lot of quality of life upgrades that I was very used to with New Leaf (like donating more than one thing to the museum at a time for example) that I feel like don't really apply friction/an edge to the player in a way that's satisfying. Similarly, the pause in input between playing using stylus input and switching to buttons (or vice versa) is really annoying. I like playing my DS games using both stylus AND buttons, especially in a game like this, where overworld movement feels better with the D-pad but I despise using it as a cursor in full-screen menus. But there are other things about this game that give it a certain toughness to it that I feel like is lost in the more modern games.
The biggest example I can think of is the villagers, which I know is something people bring up a lot. In this game, the villager's personalities feel a lot more real. And because the player is just another person living there, there's this balance that you feel like you have to strike with the environment. It's not your community because you own it, it's your community because you live there.
I definitely see the appeal of the future games, especially NH with how much freedom you get. But I don't know, at a certain point, it just lost so much character and personality in exchange for giving the player more power over the map. Here though, I feel like I'm part of a living, breathing world that exists even when I'm not there. And I really need that.
I've only had my town for a few days now, but I think I'd say my perfect Animal Crossing game would be somewhere between this one and New Leaf. This one is missing a lot of quality of life upgrades that I was very used to with New Leaf (like donating more than one thing to the museum at a time for example) that I feel like don't really apply friction/an edge to the player in a way that's satisfying. Similarly, the pause in input between playing using stylus input and switching to buttons (or vice versa) is really annoying. I like playing my DS games using both stylus AND buttons, especially in a game like this, where overworld movement feels better with the D-pad but I despise using it as a cursor in full-screen menus. But there are other things about this game that give it a certain toughness to it that I feel like is lost in the more modern games.
The biggest example I can think of is the villagers, which I know is something people bring up a lot. In this game, the villager's personalities feel a lot more real. And because the player is just another person living there, there's this balance that you feel like you have to strike with the environment. It's not your community because you own it, it's your community because you live there.
I definitely see the appeal of the future games, especially NH with how much freedom you get. But I don't know, at a certain point, it just lost so much character and personality in exchange for giving the player more power over the map. Here though, I feel like I'm part of a living, breathing world that exists even when I'm not there. And I really need that.
Arus
3 months ago