Animal Crossing: New Horizons

[Carrehz]

honestly I was a little baffled by all the.... control?... this one gives you, too I'll admit I ADORE Marshal, I had him in my NL game and he was soooo cute. But I love the squirrels anyway. (Filburt and Sally/Hazel were my other favourites.)

IMO part of the fun is finding unexpected favourites. In my NL town, I had Simon the monkey and... a blue pig, can't think of his name off-hand. Hugh? Maybe? I wouldn't have picked them out, but I really grew to love them! Ditto Anabelle, I've had her twice. I like the cutesy villagers, but variety is nice, too. They don't all have to be pretty!!

Spoiler

I wonder why so many of the NPCs got replaced, though. I miss Nat already :< Daisy Mae is soooo cute, though.

It's all so shiny and pretty :O

Spoiler

Ok, it's time to get cynical about Baby Game. I'm not a fan of them replacing the characters like this. I do like the new designs, but I feel like it's all about marketing. You can't make merchandise of Chip, Joan, and Nat. They're all "ugly". Nobody wants to buy stuff of them. However, CJ, Daisy Mae, and Flick? VERY merchandisable! Everyone on Twitter already loves Flick, drawing tons of fanart of her! When was the last time you saw someone gush about how much they love Nat?

Same with the villagers. I love the horse one at least, and I always love cats. But this batch of villagers they've shown off caters to the crowd who loves those kinds of characters. Think of Marshal, Merengue, Goldie, etc. The "cute" characters. They are even heavily featured in trailers and merchandise. The snow cone-looking bear? The cutesy sheep, the hipster cat? They're all going to be fought over. And if it weren't for amiibo cards, people would probably resort to buying/selling them on eBay like they did with ACNL. People who didn't play ACNL back in 2013 wouldn't understand the Marshall hype, I think. I STILL don't understand the Marshall hype. He's not that cute or unique. He's just a squirrel and one of many smug types you can get.

I guess I'm going to be Old Man Yells At Cloud at this, because ACNH offers a LOT of things I'm excited about, a lot of quality of life improvements, but a big part of Animal Crossing is having villagers you don't like, having ugly villagers. And sometimes you grow to really like them. And if you don't, you can beat them over the head with a net and push them into pitfalls. It's all part of the experience. Being able to call up anyone you want and having all of the new ones be super likeable and not-at-all ugly? Isn't as fun. I guess you don't have to do it if you don't want to but still... These new characters are all "Marshall"-esque... when are we going to get someone who's more like... Prince, for instance? It also feels superficial. Instead of befriending and liking anyone who comes into your town because they're nice or cool or something, it's all about the
~ .: * a e s t h e t i c * :. ~. People are going to get all the cutesy villagers solely because they match their pastel fairytale town theme.

Not only that, but it also goes into the "Animal Crossing now is too nice" thing which I wholeheartedly agree on. I talked about this before earlier in the thread how the animals nowadays are too nice and lack and personality. There's no incentive to go and make friends because their personalities all boil down to "Hey neighbour! Beautiful day, huh! I think I'm going to go eat some fruit!". Compare to the other games where the animals would gossip about each other and insult you...

Okay, rant over. I just never liked this trend of villagers. Which leads into...

Spoiler

Honestly, I feel exactly the same, I just didn't want to walk into the thread and immediately start whining I liked Nat! I mean, he wasn't my favourite or anything, but I liked him. (And huh, I thought Flick was a dude :o Honestly, I didn't even realize she was an NPC at first, I thought she was just a regular villager like Cherry.)
Daisy Mae's cute, but the others... it's really hard to think there's any reason to replace them other than merchandising, like you said. CJ's silly and Flick just looks out of place IMO. I like the design, but it doesn't say "Animal Crossing" to me, if that makes sense? It looks more like someone's furry character if I'm honest. (er, or should that be scalie? :p)

I DEFINITELY agree that the game's become way too "nice" and soft. I dunno how to explain it... you can't really say AC had an "edge" that it's lost, but idk how else to put it. It's definitely lost something and I can't quite put my finger on it.

I never understood people going crazy over villager swapping and stuff. I mean, sure, I'd have loved to have Kid Cat (my #1 fave) in my NL town. But I wouldn't have paid for him or anything o_O

I haven't really seen any of the new villagers, I'll have to look for those. I have noticed them focusing on certain villagers lately. Like Stitches, the bunny twins, Marshal, etc. They're in the new ads, they're in the new ChocoEgg figure set, etc. I mean, I get it, it makes sense to focus on the more memorable/unique designs and popular chars, but still! Haha I miss the GC/WW years when they'd make figures of really random villagers.

Speaking of NPCs, I hope Lyle and Digby show up in this game. And Redd! I love those guys, I'm kinda worried that they're not in any of the ads D: Especially since Lyle's not very popular... or he doesn't seem to be, anyway.. doesn't even have any merch...

(Actually, come to think of it, I'm half-surprised they haven't done anything with Lyle's daughters, while they're going around adding kids for the NPCs and stuff. I wonder if Flick's any relation to Nat... It seems safe to assume CJ and Daisy are Chip/Joan's kids.)

aaa and what about the dog cops! Where are they? I hope they're still around somehow...

[wystearya]

Dumb question for an Animal Crossing newbie:

What if I want my town/island to remain relatively small with a relatively small population?  I just don't want it to get to the point it's like a job to play, like Farmville on Facebook got.  :p

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Dumb question for an Animal Crossing newbie:

What if I want my town/island to remain relatively small with a relatively small population?  I just don't want it to get to the point it's like a job to play, like Farmville on Facebook got.  :p

Hmm I don't think there's much you HAVE to do? Even if you have a fair amount of animals, you aren't obligated to take care of them or talk to them or anything. They wander around anyway, so you sort of stumble across them as you play for fun.
The only things that you might feel obligated to do are to participate in the seasonal events (very rare and holidays only), watering wilted flowers (random and usually not overwhelming, dependant on how many flowers you plant), and plucking weeds. In New Leaf, you always had 2-3 weeds a day, I'm sure there will be a set number of them.

[Sora]

Spoiler

I wonder why so many of the NPCs got replaced, though. I miss Nat already :< Daisy Mae is soooo cute, though.

It's all so shiny and pretty :O

Spoiler

Ok, it's time to get cynical about Baby Game. I'm not a fan of them replacing the characters like this. I do like the new designs, but I feel like it's all about marketing. You can't make merchandise of Chip, Joan, and Nat. They're all "ugly". Nobody wants to buy stuff of them. However, CJ, Daisy Mae, and Flick? VERY merchandisable! Everyone on Twitter already loves Flick, drawing tons of fanart of her! When was the last time you saw someone gush about how much they love Nat?

Same with the villagers. I love the horse one at least, and I always love cats. But this batch of villagers they've shown off caters to the crowd who loves those kinds of characters. Think of Marshal, Merengue, Goldie, etc. The "cute" characters. They are even heavily featured in trailers and merchandise. The snow cone-looking bear? The cutesy sheep, the hipster cat? They're all going to be fought over. And if it weren't for amiibo cards, people would probably resort to buying/selling them on eBay like they did with ACNL. People who didn't play ACNL back in 2013 wouldn't understand the Marshall hype, I think. I STILL don't understand the Marshall hype. He's not that cute or unique. He's just a squirrel and one of many smug types you can get.

I guess I'm going to be Old Man Yells At Cloud at this, because ACNH offers a LOT of things I'm excited about, a lot of quality of life improvements, but a big part of Animal Crossing is having villagers you don't like, having ugly villagers. And sometimes you grow to really like them. And if you don't, you can beat them over the head with a net and push them into pitfalls. It's all part of the experience. Being able to call up anyone you want and having all of the new ones be super likeable and not-at-all ugly? Isn't as fun. I guess you don't have to do it if you don't want to but still... These new characters are all "Marshall"-esque... when are we going to get someone who's more like... Prince, for instance? It also feels superficial. Instead of befriending and liking anyone who comes into your town because they're nice or cool or something, it's all about the
~ .: * a e s t h e t i c * :. ~. People are going to get all the cutesy villagers solely because they match their pastel fairytale town theme.

Not only that, but it also goes into the "Animal Crossing now is too nice" thing which I wholeheartedly agree on. I talked about this before earlier in the thread how the animals nowadays are too nice and lack and personality. There's no incentive to go and make friends because their personalities all boil down to "Hey neighbour! Beautiful day, huh! I think I'm going to go eat some fruit!". Compare to the other games where the animals would gossip about each other and insult you...

Okay, rant over. I just never liked this trend of villagers. Which leads into...

Spoiler

Yeah, I miss the  days when neighbours could be kinda awful to each other. I always enjoyed seeing the different villagers as well, and some of the ones I thought I'd hate I ended up falling in love with and keeping them. Except for Violet. If anyone was around for the ACNL thread here, you'll know how much I HATED her. And she would NOT leave, ugh....
That being said, Marshall! I made a ton of bells selling that guy when he came to my town. 

Anyway, I'm late to this thread. I'm really looking forward to the game, wonder if it will drag me away from my island on Dragon Quest Builders 2....

[wystearya]

Dumb question for an Animal Crossing newbie:

What if I want my town/island to remain relatively small with a relatively small population?  I just don't want it to get to the point it's like a job to play, like Farmville on Facebook got.  :p

Hmm I don't think there's much you HAVE to do? Even if you have a fair amount of animals, you aren't obligated to take care of them or talk to them or anything. They wander around anyway, so you sort of stumble across them as you play for fun.
The only things that you might feel obligated to do are to participate in the seasonal events (very rare and holidays only), watering wilted flowers (random and usually not overwhelming, dependant on how many flowers you plant), and plucking weeds. In New Leaf, you always had 2-3 weeds a day, I'm sure there will be a set number of them.

Thank you!

[Carrehz]

Spoiler

I wonder why so many of the NPCs got replaced, though. I miss Nat already :< Daisy Mae is soooo cute, though.

It's all so shiny and pretty :O

Spoiler

Ok, it's time to get cynical about Baby Game. I'm not a fan of them replacing the characters like this. I do like the new designs, but I feel like it's all about marketing. You can't make merchandise of Chip, Joan, and Nat. They're all "ugly". Nobody wants to buy stuff of them. However, CJ, Daisy Mae, and Flick? VERY merchandisable! Everyone on Twitter already loves Flick, drawing tons of fanart of her! When was the last time you saw someone gush about how much they love Nat?

Same with the villagers. I love the horse one at least, and I always love cats. But this batch of villagers they've shown off caters to the crowd who loves those kinds of characters. Think of Marshal, Merengue, Goldie, etc. The "cute" characters. They are even heavily featured in trailers and merchandise. The snow cone-looking bear? The cutesy sheep, the hipster cat? They're all going to be fought over. And if it weren't for amiibo cards, people would probably resort to buying/selling them on eBay like they did with ACNL. People who didn't play ACNL back in 2013 wouldn't understand the Marshall hype, I think. I STILL don't understand the Marshall hype. He's not that cute or unique. He's just a squirrel and one of many smug types you can get.

I guess I'm going to be Old Man Yells At Cloud at this, because ACNH offers a LOT of things I'm excited about, a lot of quality of life improvements, but a big part of Animal Crossing is having villagers you don't like, having ugly villagers. And sometimes you grow to really like them. And if you don't, you can beat them over the head with a net and push them into pitfalls. It's all part of the experience. Being able to call up anyone you want and having all of the new ones be super likeable and not-at-all ugly? Isn't as fun. I guess you don't have to do it if you don't want to but still... These new characters are all "Marshall"-esque... when are we going to get someone who's more like... Prince, for instance? It also feels superficial. Instead of befriending and liking anyone who comes into your town because they're nice or cool or something, it's all about the
~ .: * a e s t h e t i c * :. ~. People are going to get all the cutesy villagers solely because they match their pastel fairytale town theme.

Not only that, but it also goes into the "Animal Crossing now is too nice" thing which I wholeheartedly agree on. I talked about this before earlier in the thread how the animals nowadays are too nice and lack and personality. There's no incentive to go and make friends because their personalities all boil down to "Hey neighbour! Beautiful day, huh! I think I'm going to go eat some fruit!". Compare to the other games where the animals would gossip about each other and insult you...

Okay, rant over. I just never liked this trend of villagers. Which leads into...

Spoiler

Yeah, I miss the  days when neighbours could be kinda awful to each other. I always enjoyed seeing the different villagers as well, and some of the ones I thought I'd hate I ended up falling in love with and keeping them. Except for Violet. If anyone was around for the ACNL thread here, you'll know how much I HATED her. And she would NOT leave, ugh....
That being said, Marshall! I made a ton of bells selling that guy when he came to my town. 

Anyway, I'm late to this thread. I'm really looking forward to the game, wonder if it will drag me away from my island on Dragon Quest Builders 2....

For me it was Cousteau. Got lumbered with that twerp through a random Streetpass Little jerk built his house right in front of ReTail too, grrr.

I miss Mr. Resetti, I'm still miffed they made him optional in New Leaf just cause he was "too mean, too ugly, kinda scared the kids". I wonder what he'll do in the new game, I was thrilled to hear his theme play in the advert ^^

[Leave a Whisper]

Dumb question for an Animal Crossing newbie:

What if I want my town/island to remain relatively small with a relatively small population?  I just don't want it to get to the point it's like a job to play, like Farmville on Facebook got.  :p

AC characters rotate in and out depending on who is programmed into the roster.  You can chase out the neighbors you don't want by being mean to them to get them to move away, and try to keep the ones you do want by being buddy buddy with them. I don't know if it will incorporate New Leaf/Pocket Camp mechanics by having you be active in construction and amenities.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

If anyone can handle the auditory overload, gameplay from Pax East is appearing on Youtube!
Ragamuffin, there is an in-game keyboard! I didn't catch how to open that up but it appeared.
Not too much new news otherwise but the museum looks amazing.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Just a little over two weeks away!
Lots of details have come out today as people have footage directly uploaded to Youtube from various expos and such.

[Shaiyeh]

less than 10 days left, eeeek! I did go ahead and preorder the console + game. so dang excited ;3;

[tailrustedtealeaf]

So soon! If my campus moves online for classes I will have more time to play, at least.
The urge for Amiibo cards is strong but I will restrain myself.

[wystearya]

I just hope that stores are able to stay open, at least until I can pick up my preorder copy on Friday.

Then I'll have something to do if we all get quarantined.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I am not patient at all waiting for my console. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive though!

[banditpony]

I just hope that stores are able to stay open, at least until I can pick up my preorder copy on Friday.

Then I'll have something to do if we all get quarantined.

*twitch*
I'm hoping target pick up will still be available. ;_; Since they have food, maybe?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I feel like Target is considered an essential store?
I called Gamestop before I left work today, about an hour or so after the announcement from the Governor about the shutdowns, and they said they are still open on Friday...I guess we'll see! I'm not particularly worried as I can get my money back afterwards anyway. I just *Stares at Fedex tracking number* I just....want my console.