Exactly what the title says, pretty much. I grew up in the gamecube/PS2 era of gaming, and Animal Crossing was always one of my favorites. Unfortunately Nintendo's all motion controls and hand-held gaming now - two forms of gaming which I have no interest in - so if I want a dose of Animal Crossing I have to dust off the gamecube and play my old copy from the 2000s.
It got me thinking - I don't really know of any games like Animal Crossing. I guess a case could be made for the Sims and such, but I feel like there's a difference there since AC's not about managing needs but just... exploring shit and finding things and talking to people. I suppose Stardew Valley also has some similarities - although being a farming sim and having set townspeople seems like it also makes it a different thing from AC (It should also be noted that I've never played Stardew Valley, so I might be missing something.)
So I gotta ask - why does it seem like there aren't a lot of games like AC? Further, why don't some try to expand on AC's formula? Like one of my criticisms of the Ac games is that they feel too aimless. An AC game that had a solid plot that required to talk to your neighbors and collect certain items would be cool. But I don't think I've ever seen one.
It got me thinking - I don't really know of any games like Animal Crossing. I guess a case could be made for the Sims and such, but I feel like there's a difference there since AC's not about managing needs but just... exploring shit and finding things and talking to people. I suppose Stardew Valley also has some similarities - although being a farming sim and having set townspeople seems like it also makes it a different thing from AC (It should also be noted that I've never played Stardew Valley, so I might be missing something.)
So I gotta ask - why does it seem like there aren't a lot of games like AC? Further, why don't some try to expand on AC's formula? Like one of my criticisms of the Ac games is that they feel too aimless. An AC game that had a solid plot that required to talk to your neighbors and collect certain items would be cool. But I don't think I've ever seen one.