Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Every time I think about my time with New Horizons, I can't help but look back at New Leaf. In New Leaf your town felt comfortable and familiar, it's a place that almost anyone can relate to being in. It was about going into town late at night to make errands just before closing, it was about running into your friends while taking a walk on a quiet, private little beach, there were places and people to see. It felt like everything would be alive without you, your neighbors and the shopkeeps downtown would stay and live on in a world just like yours.

ACNH just misses the mark on all of that. The villagers are flat and kind of annoying, even if they want to talk it's just a way of getting some job done for them. On launch there were so many staples of the game missing too, a lot of these things were added later on through DLC but by the time they arrived it was far too late. Characters I loved to visit regularly like Brewster and Shrunk were nowhere to be seen, it made the game feel desolate and lonely.

Another thing I noticed in NH was that with so much open-endedness to how your island develops it can be really overwhelming. In other Animal Crossing games I was able to make serviceable and cozy scenery because my creativity flourished in the game's limitations and simplicity. I wasn't building a tropical resort and its very mountains from scratch, I was simply adding my own personal touch to what was there, I was making it a home. I wish this game had the endearing neighborhood vibe the others had. With the isolation of the Covid-19 lockdown settling in near its release, it really solidified what experience it was lacking in. A community you can run away to for a while...

i got this game after my cousin said it was fun on my old switch. i love making custom designs and decorating my island!!
i hate how switch online save backup doesn't work on it. my old switch broke(because i used it so much that the battery just stopped working) and when i got my new one i lost all my progress and everything else. but i'm planning on, in the future, making the terrible decision of restarting and making my island better than it was before(easier said than done...)

but when you get tired of it. . . whew, there is no going back. the visuals, music, and design are top tier. i love a good amount of the villagers, like sherb. others of them are butt ugly and realistically nobody would want them on their island. i feel like this game is easy to get tired of, and once you grow tired of it, getting back into it is like walking on nails. but i 100% love the music, design, and characters, and i always find myself coming back to this game every year.

good, enjoyable game that loses its luster very fast compared to acnl, which balanced its freeform, slow-burning relaxed gameplay with consistent new things to do and see. in new horizons you run out of new objectives to work toward MUCH more quickly comparatively.

maybe i'm missing the point a little bit. i can concede that. part of the fun of animal crossing is that you can take it as seriously as you would like – but at least for my brain, this is WAY too slow of an experience compared to a new leaf or a stardew valley.

I remember when this first released. It was just as high school got closed for me and I didn't know the next 2 years I would completely lose all my social life and become really sheltered. Thankfully, this kept me sane for at least half a year. It was wonderful to have a bit of escapism throught this tumoltuous time. But, as time has gone on, this game hasn't sat right with me. The lack of content at launch was atrocious, and while they added a lot more to do afterwards, it was a little too late for me. I fell off this hard. But can I really complain? I mean it gave me like a solid 100 hours so I at least had a great time for a lot longer than I remember. But still, that lack of content did sour my perception of the game.

It's all filler