Animal Crossing New Horizon review and thought

[Yoshi]

I have never understood why these games are always such big deal releases. They are non-games, basically the AAA verison of those shitty mobile games that have energy systems.

at least they sold us the full game instead of in parts. :3

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I mean it works for mobile games i guess, why not a big AAA release too?

Mobile games are filled with daily rewards that encourage players to come back everyday, even if it's only to collect the daily crap and then leave. It gets you invested, even if you are getting invested in nothing for no reward.

Something has to be clicking because a shitload of people love it, I just don't get it.

Speaking from personal experience... I think why I like this more than any mobile game garbage is that this has a boatload more care put into it. It looks nice, plays pretty good, has plenty of Nintendo quality behind it, and that sort of thing. Most of all... It doesn't kick me in the dick repeatedly with ads, gacha trash, microtransactions, and this overwhelming feeling that I'm supposed to keep giving them access to my wallet to any semblance of fun. I pay for it once, get a nice quality game made by people who actually wanna make a game (And not a cynical cash grab), and I'm good to go.

Mobile games are made where the feeling of satisfaction is getting the item and that's it. It's the high of getting the thing and wanting to get more of the thing cause it's made more rare for no reason other than 'it has to be the rare thing.' I feel like Animal Crossing's feeling of satisfaction comes from the overall picture, where all the things you get come together into a broad spectrum, where you look at the complete creation and go "Yeah... I made all of that." It feels good, and if you like this kind of game, that feeling can be rewarding. Probably cause it's not just some pretty little picture with "WOAH 5 STAR RARITY WAIFU" plastered over it.

It helps that the gameplay appeals to me in ways. Chilling out and making my island come together the way I want... is fun. And when it's not this game and more a previous title in the series, then just having a nice little life sim with animal villagers and a house for me to design to my liking with all sorts of new furniture and items and things to do each day is just... fun. To me, at least

 

[Siyano]

im in a similar boat, there no real reason to go back to AC everyday, you dont get more stuff, maybe the cycling of the object in all the store, but other than that, its take maybe a few minutes, that like playing the Sims but you can only see sofa tuesday and chair on wednesday.
80$ to play a few minutes a day? I'm sorry, but just no.
I dont mind if the game is what it is, its just no where near the value of a triple A.

 

[Siyano]

Speaking from personal experience... I think why I like this more than any mobile game garbage is that this has a boatload more care put into it. It looks nice, plays pretty good, has plenty of Nintendo quality behind it, and that sort of thing. Most of all... It doesn't kick me in the dick repeatedly with ads, gacha trash, microtransactions, and this overwhelming feeling that I'm supposed to keep giving them access to my wallet to any semblance of fun. I pay for it once, get a nice quality game made by people who actually wanna make a game (And not a cynical cash grab), and I'm good to go.

Well, they dont need to push ad or micro, because, well, duh, you just payed 80$.
nice quality game?
1) You can only play a certain amount of time, either to see the cycling of object in store or the do "daily" task
2) You can only buy what is present daily, similar to a "lootbox" you need the luck of the draw.
3) There a lot of the thing relate to "luck", fishing, chopping wood, digging fossil, random event, island you visit, and so on
4) You are quite restricted of "when" you can play, some event happen only during specific time/day. (That like playing the Sims but you can only buy sofa on tuesday)
Also the money worth in the game is so weirdly skewed, if im lucky I can be billionaire with turnip stock, otherwise I have to grind my millions and only getting them with my fruit every 2-3 days or so.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Snip

My point by that comparison is that this game makes me feel better about it over a mobile game because of the things I mentioned to CriticalGaming. Further...

1. I crank out 4-5 hours daily with this thing, so I must be playing this game completely differently and finding plenty to do with that time
2. I mean... I guess? If that's how you wanna look at it. That's just for new furniture though, you can buy anything you need that isn't a specialty item or DIY item from the machine at the town hall
3. Yeah, sure. But I don't think it'd be nearly as interesting if you could just decide to go to a rare island on a nook mile tour, or just buy rare fish bait, or force events to happen. You never know what each day will throw at you, both in this game and in real life. If you did, that'd be lame and uninteresting.
4. You can play whenever the heck ya want. But like any store or event in real life it's not gonna be running all day. I get why people say that's dumb and those who don't play at those times miss out, and I agree with them. But events tend to go until 8PM or 10PM and start really early, so unless your schedule is that skewed against this game, then... maybe it's just not the right fit at that point. Animal Crossing has always been a game that plays more for people who are awake during the day, not folk with graveyard shifts. Though that is unfortunate and I wish they did more to benefit those that are awake late.
On another note, visitors like Flick, Sahara and C.J. are all day affairs though, 6AM to 5AM the next day.
5?. All the ways I've made money:
- Catch bugs
- Catch fish
- Sell shells, sell fruit (Fruit not from your town sells for 400 bells per fruit), and fossils you already have donated
- Shake trees for wasps/nests/furniture to sell or 100 bells that fall out of it. Wasps are 2.5k each, for example
- Buried 10k bells in one of the daily glowing spots to make a money tree and get 30k bells when it's fully grown
- Go on nookmile tours for more of the aforementioned stuff
- Give villagers stuff and get stuff or money in return
- Sell turnips at your town, a friend's town, or a random person's town for 500-600 turnips and make millions
- Save your rare and valuable bugs or fish for when Flick and C.J. roll by, since they buy it for 1.5x the normal value
- Hit the daily money rock with the right method to get the most out of it for a sweet 16k bells every day
- Make DIY stuff and sell it, and ESPECIALLY sell items on the Hot Items list. Iron items are worth tons due to iron's rarity. For example, some jail bars at double value can sell for I think 8k or 9k each. Stockpile iron and you could have 100k easily in one go.

My point on that list is that you're never short for ways to make money. I've easily put an entire million into bridges, inclines, and moving villagers around my town, and I'm almost ready to upgrade my house for the 5th time at a 758k loan. And that's only cause I'm intentionally holding back on buying hundreds of thousands of turnips so I don't break the economy in half as bad as I already have.

I'm not trying to convince you of anything here, by the way. It sounds to me like you've decided you don't like this game and don't find it satisfying. But I am happy to debate this stuff with you further if you want, to give you my feelings why I think it's just fine (For the most part). Like I said in my first post, people tend to either love this game, or entirely dislike it, and both sides tend to have very specific reasons as to why. It's not at all perfect. But I'd still put it miles ahead of any mobile garbage.

nice quality game?

Oh, and yes, I think this game is one of the best in the series and is a pretty and very, very nice game

 

[Yoshi]

Speaking from personal experience... I think why I like this more than any mobile game garbage is that this has a boatload more care put into it. It looks nice, plays pretty good, has plenty of Nintendo quality behind it, and that sort of thing. Most of all... It doesn't kick me in the dick repeatedly with ads, gacha trash, microtransactions, and this overwhelming feeling that I'm supposed to keep giving them access to my wallet to any semblance of fun. I pay for it once, get a nice quality game made by people who actually wanna make a game (And not a cynical cash grab), and I'm good to go.

Mobile games are made where the feeling of satisfaction is getting the item and that's it. It's the high of getting the thing and wanting to get more of the thing cause it's made more rare for no reason other than 'it has to be the rare thing.' I feel like Animal Crossing's feeling of satisfaction comes from the overall picture, where all the things you get come together into a broad spectrum, where you look at the complete creation and go "Yeah... I made all of that." It feels good, and if you like this kind of game, that feeling can be rewarding. Probably cause it's not just some pretty little picture with "WOAH 5 STAR RARITY WAIFU" plastered over it.

It helps that the gameplay appeals to me in ways. Chilling out and making my island come together the way I want... is fun. And when it's not this game and more a previous title in the series, then just having a nice little life sim with animal villagers and a house for me to design to my liking with all sorts of new furniture and items and things to do each day is just... fun. To me, at least

Careful.

he'll ignore you and say you defend Nintendo all the time no matter what they put out if you're not careful.

 

[Siyano]

1. I crank out 4-5 hours daily with this thing, so I must be playing this game completely differently and finding plenty to do with that time
2. I mean... I guess? If that's how you wanna look at it. That's just for new furniture though, you can buy anything you need that isn't a specialty item or DIY item from the machine at the town hall
3. Yeah, sure. But I don't think it'd be nearly as interesting if you could just decide to go to a rare island on a nook mile tour, or just buy rare fish bait, or force events to happen. You never know what each day will throw at you, both in this game and in real life. If you did, that'd be lame and uninteresting.
4. You can play whenever the heck ya want. But like any store or event in real life it's not gonna be running all day. I get why people say that's dumb and those who don't play at those times miss out, and I agree with them. But events tend to go until 8PM or 10PM and start really early, so unless your schedule is that skewed against this game, then... maybe it's just not the right fit at that point. Animal Crossing has always been a game that plays more for people who are awake during the day, not folk with graveyard shifts. Though that is unfortunate and I wish they did more to benefit those that are awake late.
On another note, visitors like Flick, Sahara and C.J. are all day affairs though, 6AM to 5AM the next day.
5?. All the ways I've made money:
- Catch bugs
- Catch fish
- Sell shells, sell fruit (Fruit not from your town sells for 400 bells per fruit), and fossils you already have donated
- Shake trees for wasps/nests/furniture to sell or 100 bells that fall out of it. Wasps are 2.5k each, for example
- Go on nookmile tours for more of the aforementioned stuff
- Give villagers stuff and get stuff or money in return
- Sell turnips at your town, a friend's town, or a random person's town for 500-600 turnips and make millions
- Save your rare and valuable bugs or fish for when Flick and C.J. roll by, since they buy it for 1.5x the normal value
- Hit the daily money rock with the right method to get the most out of it for a sweet 16k bells every day
- Make DIY stuff and sell it, and ESPECIALLY sell items on the Hot Items list. Iron items are worth tons due to iron's rarity. For example, some jail bars at double value can sell for I think 8k or 9k each. Stockpile iron and you could have 100k easily in one go.

Thank for your reply and good sense of debate.
I guess I have to agree somewhat with you.
It just sad that for me I spent 80$ on this game and I havent got really what I though from it.
Oh well ^_^

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Careful.

he'll ignore you and say you defend Nintendo all the time no matter what they put out if you're not careful.

Is there a reason for this kind of post? It doesn't add anything of value to the discussion. Keep it to yourself.

Thank for your reply and good sense of debate.
I guess I have to agree somewhat with you.
It just sad that for me I spent 80$ on this game and I havent got really what I though from it.
Oh well ^_^

Well, armed with the knowledge you gained from here in this thread, perhaps it'd be worth diving in and giving it a second shot! And if you don't want to, or if you do and it doesn't work out, then hey, you can always sell it locally and get a decent price for it. Even $10 off a Nintendo game can make people flock since they take ages to price drop or go on sale

 

[Drathnoxis]

So how much more complexity is there in the new one compared to the gamecube original? Is it basically the same game with newer graphics, or is there a lot more mechanical depth to it than before?

 

[Elvis Starburst]

So how much more complexity is there in the new one compared to the gamecube original? Is it basically the same game with newer graphics, or is there a lot more mechanical depth to it than before?

Let's see, hmm...

- Terraforming
- Making bridges and inclines and placing them yourself
- DIY and material gathering
- New furnishing modes
- Furniture and item customization
- Better custom pattern and clothe design tools and sharing methods
- Outdoor furnishings (Sounds small, but this is pretty damn big)
- Half-size items and tile spaces (Again, small thing, but big utility)
- Path making
- Eating fruit to be able to break rocks and move trees without chopping them down

I'm probably missing several others, but these are the big ones I could think of