Still the biggest L for this game was not being able to have multiple saves/islands. I love this game but, ain't no way I'm resetting my first island. She's too precious
yeah this is why I didn't really play it. My gf got it and I was planning on playing it with her. I made a character on the island and then we realized the coop was shit when you were doing it local, so I stopped playing. I would have played my own island if I could progress through it seperately, I didn't want to go back to an island that was massively jumping ahead in progress without me, so I ended up playing other games and watching her play it next to me through the pandemic. We literally did the Doom Eternal/ACNH meme right next to each other. I'm still very nostalgic for the music, even if I only played it for a few hours since it was going on right next to me for months while I played a variety of other games.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I dont think saving islands takes up any noticable space in the storage. It's not using the memory if it's not loaded. It's just coordinates and id's in text format.
Personally the lack of NPCs and the general setup of the island is what killed it for me 😓I still can't believe they replaced Pelly and Phyllis with a card stand at the airport like 😐. What made AC appealing to me is the feeling of being in a town with the characters and some of the buildings included but it feels like they did the bare minimum is some places. I think they did really well with the decorating and customizing features in ACNH but I have never been much of a decorator. I do have hope that they will make a game that can satisfy the life sim players and the decorators.
youre so right! you said this so well! I feel like they left a lot of the charme and spice of being part of a town community behind when they pivoted ACNHs main focus to customization. AC has always been about decorating but that was only ever A PART of the experience
43:10 I'm a software dev, and I can kinda answer this question. Yes, if the ACNH dev group at Nintendo kept focus on ACNH, there would be no progress made on the next title. The dev group that makes AC also makes Splatoon, so they're already focused on 2 games as is. They can either focus on putting updates for ACNH, or the next title, but not both or else they're spread too thin. IMO, it's clear they had to cut support for ACNH in favor of the next title; in anticipation for the Switch successor.
Totally agree and thanks for the insight! I totally forgot the same devs work on splatoon, that would have been great to bring up during our discussion. Thanks for sharing :)
what rubbs me the wrong way with ACNH is that...Nintendo COULD have added a lot of the furnitures and items from pocket camp to ACNH as updates the items exist already I dunno shit about modelization, I'm pretty sure it's tedious but doable and since ACNH had such a successful launch these would have been better than adding old content from previous games as "updates"
The effect that games like Fortnite have had on some people's expectations of how many updates games should receive need to be studied I'll always prefer "you buy the full game and that's the game" over constant updates and microtransactions to support it
Which is why new horizons was so disappointing. I’m not sure what promises were made by Nintendo but they gave the fan base hope of new and exciting updates when in reality most of it was just adding features we already have experienced in previous installments. The game wasn’t finished at release and we sure didn’t receive anything close to fortnite-level updates
I just wish it had *one more* update that made it so villagers could eat the food you cook. I know the meta is to gift them fossils (because they're expensive and too large to be displayed), but that feels so impersonal. Cooking recipes as is are cool, satisfying to collect, have so many options, and make for good decorations, but imagine if it could also be a way to build your friendship level with your neighbors. I want to bake pretzels for Lobo! Bonus points if they'd made it so different personality types like different flavors of food more than other. And as for the issue of "What if I *do* and want them to place the food item as furniture in their house?", I think the villager could go "Oh this looks delicious! Do you mind if I eat it right now?" And you could respond "Dig in!" or "You should save it for later!" Without a feature like this, cooking feels kind of incomplete. For food to serve you aesthetically or alternatively to give you energy to pick up trees and break rocks is nice, but to be able to feed my neighbors would round it out and give it a meaningful use.
I do agree with every point made in this conversation. I think what really disappointed many players and made them think the game is incomplete or abandoned is that so many features that really made quality of life and gameplay good in new leaf have been left out. What really upset me is that there is no upgrade for Nooks cranny and as a lifelong AC player, upgrading the store was always something I was waiting for. Also the fact a lot of NPCs were taken out was a bummer. But I wouldn't say the game is incomplete, even if I'm missing some features from previous titles. I'm still playing new Horizons for a reason
I’ve been playing since new horizons came out and personally it kinda started getting boring when people weren’t posting all the fish they were catching and all their villagers but instead now it’s just people making these crazy designed islands. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s just when it’s all you see online about the game it becomes hard to catch up with personally
@@mehdigeekTo be honest, I’ve went back to New Leaf in the past months to try and complete my public works projects and my encyclopaedia (was originally trying to get all badges etc and trade turnips but online services shut!) and i’ve found online that the player base has become a lot more calm at this and is more posting snapshots of life on it rather than the crazy hacked towns in 2024!
The only thing they should've added at the end is the option to have more than one island on a switch. Im not very interested in playing my current island that I started in 2020 anymore and would like to start a new one but having to straight up delete the old island is crazy to me.
I think they should have spread the 2.0 update & HHP over a longer period rather than dumping so much in one go and saying "that's your lot!". They could have at least dropped 2.0 minus the decorating aspects in Nov, and then released that with HHP the following spring/summer.
The amount of updates was a good amount to consider the game not "abandoned", but it was the lack of previous features/content still on the table when the updates we're finished that felt wrong. The store only having one upgrade felt like a glaring omission for example. Also, I think it would be reasonable to expect a very small team to continue adding new furniture to the game occasionally at even half the pace that Pocket Camp receives new items.
Pocket Camp funds that new content with gacha and microtransactions, though. Most of their nice stuff is paywalled. ACNH has a ridiculous amount of items with customization at the end of the day, I just don't expect them to keep making content for free.
ACNH was my introduction to the franchise. I was a big GameCube head, so I am not sure how I missed Population Growing. I went back and played New Leaf, and I LOVED the feeling of new leaf, but missed the expanded creativity offered by New Horizons. In a make-believe world that clearly will never happen, I would love New Leaf but with New Horizon's graphics and decorating potential. I love ACNH. I got back to it over and over again, but I also love New Leaf for a whole host of different reasons.
I was heavily addicted to ACNH around 4 years ago but I got so fed up with the Storage Restrictions that I quit! I think Item Management is the top reason I quit most games tbh! The Single Save thing also seriously annoyed me!
for me new horizons has always been kind of a snooze because the villager interactions are so boring and repetitive?? i don't know if it was the fault of the english localization team or what but the villager dialogue is such a step down from previous games. that's the update i had always hoped was coming. It's called animal crossing and they made the animals boring... now all the game is good for is decorating =\
We didn’t talk about this but yes! I wish there was more complex dialogue! It was glaringly obvious how repetitive it was when you had more than one villager of the same type, too. Could have been more variation for sure
I also understand decorators love the control, but not having control over everything was also kinda the point of the game, too. You can’t control life, you are just a piece on the board. I kinda miss that a bit!
I remember people being so butt hurt about the last update cause they said no more free updates...so sooo many people took that as maybe more paid content. After 2.0 i was pretty content that the game was done. They gave a lot of what people wanted
I think a lot more could have been done... But I see it as them stopping New Horizons and moving on to whatever the next game is going to be 😏 I think after the sucess of this game, they probably wanted to start development on the next one right away
The lack of character interactions is what killed the game for me. When it came out, I played it for a couple of months during the covid lockdown, but as soon as I unlocked the island crafting feature...there was literally nothing left for me to do and I fell off right after that. Things like having villagers invite you to their home should have been in the game day one...but even still. I expected more interactions from the villagers that set it apart from the last few previous entries. What kills me the most is when the first trailer dropped for the game. NH hinted at the fact that the villagers would be able to interact with everything you put outside, which sounded awesome! I love the idea of setting up rides or other unique things and maybe having the avatar interact with these items with your villagers! But no, that's not what we got and to me. That trailer felt like false advertising because the only things they can interact with from what I'v seen are beds and chairs ONLY. Probably because the code for this was copy and pasted from the previous title. I do have other issues. Most of them involves creating a unique section of my island (like a dance floor, for example) and never ONCE seeing a villager go over to the section I had created. They usually stay near their houses, shops, or the town hall and never really seem to venture outside of that. There should be a way to either schedule or request a villager (or multiple villagers) to a spot to hang out and the fact this has not been implemented yet is actually pretty jarring to me.
as a lifelong animal crossing fan, i’m really curious to see how people react to the next title. i think the pandemic was really crucial new horizons’ popularity, and i wonder if the HUGE amount of people nh brought in will primarily keep ac on their radars or stop keeping up as much. like will people still feel the appeal of animal crossing without being stuck inside?
I think it will. I think ACNH brought in a LOT of new gamers. I've heard a lot of people say it was the first game they ever played (or first non mobile game) since they were stuck at home and they saw everyone playing it on social media and they figured they'd get it since all their friends were playing it, and now they are gamers playing a bunch of different games.
I can see the points people have when they say it wasnt abandoned, but I truly think it was... It just had so much potential to be more than what it was, if you see the constant effort put into the silly acpc app in comparison to the mediocre updates the main game got its just disheartening. (Yes I understand they're two different platforms and blah blah but still the main game falls flat big time.) The game was already disappointing in terms of charm, character interaction, multiplayer activities, the only thing they really focused on was the decorations. So if thats really all they wanted to focus on then I think they should've done a lot more to continuously release new item sets in game for holidays, events, etc. similar to acpc.
I don't think it was abandoned but it definitely lacks a lot of content compared to New Leaf, and I also think part of the original charm has gone too. I think it's similar to the Sims series. Sims 4 is the best game in the series in terms of creativity and decoration, but lacks the charm and gameplay depth of the previous games. I also feel like people's enjoyment of New Horizons vs other AC games will depend on your preferred play style. For myself, I don't really enjoy the decorating/terraforming aspect so New Horizons gets pretty stale after a while. However if you are someone who loves decorating and terraforming your island, you are going to get so much enjoyment from New Horizons and the older games will feel much more restrictive and boring in comparison.
i absolutely adore this kind of content liss!!! i don’t have gamer friends irl so i love listening to these longer conversation-type videos about niche gaming topics like this (and they are perfect for my long trip to work heheh)
My main problem with animal crossing is nintendo switch. Its a decorating game you cant experience to its fullest without dropping to 10FPS. I remember decorating my whole island entrance perfectly mimicking a small japanese village, i was so excited about it, but once i started decorating the villagers houses’ exterior, all my excitement was gone. Any loading screens took FOREVER, my game wouldn’t stop stuttering, the fps drops were chronic, non stop, i couldnt even walk a straight line properly. It became an annoying experience. And I swear the decoration was not even that intense, i couldn’t bring myself to decorate any further then the entrance area + city lobby. I just wish we could play New Horizons somewhere else. I would def pick up the game again if it released somewhere else, and we know that aint happening
Idk man i feel like im the only one who doesnt feel "abandoned". I have over 1500 hours which is a phenomenal pay off for $60 plus $30 DLC. I feel like YT creators are upset because 4 years after release, their channels are getting less traction because they were focused on a single game. And i mean no disrespect, i love both of your channels and many other ACNH focused creators! Just feels like people get so riled up about it and i dont feel the same
Totally agree, like most the time I see the sentiment on Twitter and I have to remind myself that people will just say whatever for likes on there lol. I feel like a ton of people forget how much playtime they got in NH (for those like you and I who were obsessed with the game) and want more more more when it takes time for stuff to be made!
Pocket Camp integrated with a new AC that features a futuristic, contemporary mansion, penthouse suite, Victorian house, cabin in the woods, yacht, cute n fast cars?
Growing up is hard. But as someone who started in wild world. I will always have an appreciation for the little things. I do not get sick of the villagers. I always find a way to relate to it. It always brings me back to tue good days. For some of us the franchise is ingrained into who we are just as they hoped we would be.
my biggest issue was that my internet at home was the type that my switch didn't work with, so I basically couldn't go online and connect with others players. and my boyfriend who is very good at pc's and programming, even game up on trying to make it work. we couldn't easily just change our internet provider, as it's a shared one in the entire apartment building.... so yeah, that was actually my biggest issue with the game tbh.
i can tell you right now i will NEVER abandon my girl Kiki I usually play for a bit most days, occasionally will miss a few days or a week but that's mostly because my island never feels done so I feel like i always have stuff to do or change
I was OBSESSED until the last big update! I thought I was so excited for it but when it came it was so overwhelming and wished I had this stuff the whole time, so I didn’t put all this work into something I wanted to change immediately. That’s what turned me off and every time I get back on I still get overwhelmed.
it was really nice to hear you guys list all the updates! it really put into perspective just HOW MUCH we actually got! yet as someone who grew up with wildworld and played New Leaf for many years, i still feel like there are things lacking... especially the Villager AI or personalities are so so different from the earlier games... also after returning to ACNL i realized how much i prefer to not be in controll of every little aspect of the island all the time. i liked being a part of a town, not some kind of god that is liked by everyone. all that doesnt make ACNH worse or anything, its just that sadly it doesnt have what made me fall in love with the series in the first place. Anyways im glad the island designer crowd has a great game! while the other people hopefully have ACNL to fall back to!
They definitely abandoned the game. I was extremely dissatisfied. They haven’t left an AC game so early before. I think it’s because they put all hands on deck for the new game+ possible console.
Love this style of video! I have not played ACNH in a good while though I was super into it for a long time (1,000+ hours). But after decorating my forever island and doing everything else, I got bored with it.
New Horizons is my first title I've played. I absolutely love it. My current island is the opposite hemisphere of my irl one, but I find it so funny to be doing summer things in winter and vice versa. Thanks for talking it through and helping me realize I also joined about the time of the first summer update
@lisspilled Definitely!!! So sad I didn't connect 1 or 2 of my resets to anything meaning I lost them. But I still have a good amount of them, 5 I think
I think, what i thought of "no more free updates" that we would get paid dlc. I was still hoping for minigames or pocket camp pack haha but i love the game either way. Excited to see the next AC game on a "supposedly" stronger system. Im hoping in the next AC, they fix the need to pause everyones game when a friend is coming. 😅 that was so annoying when i held a handful of high turnip sale at my island.
I still love the game but am so bummed that there aren’t any more updates to look forward too. It was my fifth animal crossing game (I played wild world, the one on Wii can’t remember the name, new leaf and happy home designer) and it was by far my favourite since I enjoyed the decoration and terraforming so much. Loved that they included so many design features and I love the aesthetic. Still haven’t finished my first island though 😂
i was so upset when they added kappn to ACNH but there were no mini games 😫 that and the coffee mini game were always my favorite parts of new leaf! also wish character dialogue had more soul.
New Horizons was really good. Most people played for a very long time… it was not abandoned, there just wasn’t nothing more to add. I loved terraforming, it was so fun and so new (for this game), I just regret not having enough shops in our island.
I've been itchting to go back and play Animal Crossing again, it was so much fun, and i didn't get to play the Vacation home dlc much before i got burnt out, but everytime i open the game i just see fields of flowers and weeds covering every inch of free space on my island i get overwhelmed and close it, lol. i'm attached to all my villagers so i don't want to start over, but spending an hour or two ripping up flowers before i can start again is too daunting, ughhh. D: they should of added a push lawnmower item to quickly clear your plot imo
I don't necessarily think acnh was abandoned- I believe they gave everything they had to give for that game and it's not feasible to even expect constant updates. Hard agree on the events being locked the way they were since it was always fun to see the community start buzzing again every few months the first year. However that being said, I do wish they did add more new items for at least another year especially for the seasonal events. (even as a kind of Pocket Camp player the items make me jealous I will not lie. The new items for the monthly updates gives you a lot to do in that game in comparison even if its the same events every month) But even then my stance is that no I don't think acnh was abandoned
I feel like they saw the popularity, wrapped up NH, and have had them working on the next AC for the next console… for a launch title, or one of the first handful of games.
My only thing here really is that for preservation, they release a definitive edition of new horizons that has all the content on the cart, so it can be accessed. The paid DLC could be kept separate if its a 'base version' of the game, otherwise should all be on the cart.
IMO for the game I blame twitter and the sims players they ruined animal crossing, granted the original creator stopped working on animal crossing before new leaf i Hate that the game is just a sims 3 or sims 4 game my fav animal crossing games will forever be N64, gamecube , wii, but i feel the people ruined it due to their complain about every little thing and forced nintendo to just cut and stop
This slayed, absolutely love talking again about all the updates it helps me remembering all the awesome days I would watch the new updates almost monthly on live with everyone and getting super excited~ love you guys!
I really enjoyed this!! it’s great because there is stuff to watch if you want to watch the video directly, but you’re not missing anything just listening to it in the background. it’s a good length too!! I also really like you having a guest on because it gives you someone to bounce off. and I love how you don’t completely criticise the game, but balance your thoughts with stuff you like and stuff you don’t like
I recently saw one of your videos on your main channel where you did a decorating challenge w your community and it prompted me to open animal crossing on my switch for the first time in a couple years!! I realized I never played the happy home paradise dlc even tho I already had it so I’ve been enjoying that :’) but I wish there were more minigames too, I hadn’t realized it before you said it but I think that’s part of why I got so bored of NH so fast back when it came out! ALSO I miss villagers being mean!!! They used to be so sassy and snarky and then they just made them… old? Crotchety? I thought that was so lame imho!
Loved this video. Thank you for the trip down memory lane! I was one of those swept up in the ACNH lockdown fever eagerly anticipating each update as it was rolled out. Back then was when I stumbled accross both of your channels and how I discovered the incredible online community that I’m pleased to see still exists. I’m with both of you. It’s time to look ahead. I would rather the time and effort being spent on the next AC being done right.
I still have a feeling that Nintendo had a very specific plan of what they're going to do with the game, that's why we didn't get some features from prev games. Maybe some of the QoL updates were an extra additions beyond their "to do list". But I think they will try to make next game more balanced for design enjoyers and mini games fans. Or I'm on copium and the next AC game will be even more experimental lol.
I was one of those who said it doesn’t feel finished because New Leaf was such a huge part of my childhood. Having heard what your thoughts were helped me accept the game as is. I’m currently hyper focused on New Horizons again. I flattened the island and am building it up slowly. My island lagged so much I couldn’t bear it anymore. I hope with a simpler island I’ll enjoy the game again 🙈🥺💜
I personally think most of the player base abandoned the game before Nintendo did. *edit: Meaning the casual people who stopped a month or two later, I feel like the percentage of people of who stopped made them reconsider REALLY supporting it.
I love this commentary and overview so so much! I missed out on all of this as I didn’t get my Switch and ACNH until November 2021. I can’t imagine how exciting each update was and what a unique and bonding moment it was for experience all of this together. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!
Honestly, i don't think animal crossing new horizons has been abandoned but its in limbo, there's a big difference there. Nintendo can still see engagement with new horizons and the game is still selling very well. Its the highest selling game in Japan, the second highest selling game on the switch and i think the 8th best selling Nintendo game of all time overall. So Nintendo definitely sees the success and engagement still going strong. Nintendo also released the Lego set for ACNH and the aquarium tours throughout the wotld to spread the notoriety of the franchise. Nintendo said that this will be the last major FREE update, they never said the last update in general. Meaning we could still get paid DLC like we did with Happy home paradise. Maybe theyll be more major islands through Nintendo switch online. I think the reason ACNH is in limbo is so that the OTHER cozy games released on the switch doesn't get overshadowed by big animal crossing new horizons updates. Let them get their shine first, then Nintendo will come back to ACNH when most of the other cozy games are done. I know Nintendo is not done with new horizons because we still dont have a post office yet, what mainline animal crossing game do we know that went on without a post office? They've ALL had one.
I really loved the forced participating in holidays at the actual time, i feel like i dont usually care about spoilers too much but it is nice to sometimes not have a choice to see new items before you can get them. I eventually went back to new leaf for reasons im not sure of but i did enjoy horizons too!
I really enjoyed ACNH, but it came out in 2020 when I was a student, and there was literally nothing else to do. I'd love to start a new island, but I've graduated, got a job, and ACNH feels so time consuming. Like, I don't have enough time for ACNH AND BG3! But BG3 had so much to explore whereas ACNH is what it is.
It’s fun to hear about your experience with the game ! I’m newer to the game so learning about all the updates is so informative! Like Roswell is one of my villagers and I didn’t know he was added on the 2.0 I think 😊 28:28
I dont think its unreasonable to think a full animal crossing installment will be close to the switch 2s release or within the year. Part of the reason new leaf to acnh took so long was because it was an entirely new system they were developing for and a new engine they had to create. Theyll likely be using the same engine for the next installment the same way tears of the kingdom did with breath of the wild, especially since rumors say the switch 2 will be backwards compatible. They know acnh sold a lot of copies but probably more importantly, it sold a tonnn of consoles. Theyre gonna want it early for the switch 2, potentially spring 2026 after the holidays to boost console sales again
I'm also from the Phoenix area! Mesa bookmans! I grew up in Mesa. Yeah for those that don't know, it hits high 80s-low 90s in march/april. Its 100 by may and regularly 117 in July/August. Sometimes 120. The low at night can be mid 90s and hotter than the high in most northern states. I really need to move north.
its good for them the end the lifetime of the game at some point. They aren't going for a live service model, if they kept giving updates it would either push back the next AC game, or people would have played ACNH so much they would be burnt out by the time the next one comes out. You want to leave some room between releases so that theres some longing and people will wont to come back. They want the next game to do well and not everyone just plays one game forever.
this made me so nostalgic, i just got caught up in real life and my acnh obsession fell off but it was a big (maybe sometimes too big) part of my life for a couple years. but i always feel like it will come back for me when it's time, even if that's the next game release. i hope to see you guys for that rennaissance.
10:39 that's not an exploit. That's literally the interest rate in every other animal crossing game once you hit a certain amount it caps at 99k bells. in new horizions it's 9,999. If you played New Leaf you got the 99k. This is the first animal crossing game since they added the bell interest that they nerfed it like that. It's literally part of the franchise, not a exploit. It was just Nintendo going "You're not allowed to have fun anymore".
I was so sad when they made Peacock butterflies sell for less bells and also spawn way less often. As for the interest nerf, it's like. sure. if you time travelled years into the future to build massive interest, maybe its busted? But that's the player's decision. If you want to discourage that behavior, have the game recognize when you do massive time jumps, or punish them with weeds, or some sort of Resetti-type "yell at the player for exploiting" feature. But to just outright nerf the bell interest rate is so cruel for daily players just playing the game as intended.
Nah, the game wasn’t abandoned, it was finished. I recently hit the 2000 hour mark. For what it cost plus DLC that is insane value. Also, completely agree that I’d like them to focus on the next game instead of making a live service game. The fact that there is still more that the community would like to see in Animal Crossing encouraging to me as they have room to build on the next game.
AC:NH wasn't abandoned. It was given most basic elements the previous games had, with a few new things that don't reallly add a whole lot to engagement. I found it hilariously silly people got excited over updates as if they were new features (they weren't new features at all, just missing content added post release). Here's a few things that killed the game for me, and future games for the series. Residents have little in the way of personality, and lack any meaningful interaction. I expected them to be more engaging in conversation, and be able to play with them several games (hide and seek, go karting, tag, volleyball, golfing, scavanger hunting etc). Would have also loved to have seen them post things on the message board (like if they were throwing parties), and send letters you could respond to creating a chain of back and forth letters, similar to how the (dot)hack// games had. They've been adding many new characters, and with that increase in numbers comes ever more generic AI scripting, so most characters will end up the same. More doesn't mean better in this regard. I also feel that aspect of making dream homes for residents could have just been applied to the island in the first place. You're designing an island, why not just have that be the dream island with homes built on high ground, or near rivers, or any desired themed objects. It's just silly to have it all be a seperate thing to travel to. The residents don't do anything in the way of decorating the island anyway. It's wasted update on something that could have just been a main part of the game. By the time this was implemented I already was sick of decorating for the sake of decorating so I barely touched this "feature". They still didn't learn real time mechanics isn't a great idea. It's a video game, and one shouldn't be revolving their life around a game, but vice versa imo. Certain things could only be obtained or done during certain times of day. While I generally don't have much to do, I still don't like having to change my console's time and date to make progress. I can see this to be a pain for anyone who has a routine they cannot modify to engage with this game without resorting to changing system settings. Island customization was great but came with the annoying aspect of crafting each individual item, one at a time. There was also the extortion rates to move buildings with the addition only one building could be moved per day. Farming was largely pointless. Another shallow aspect that doesn't offer anything substanial. It did open up ingredients for cooking, but that aspect was also rather shallow imo. The requirement to connect to other players to get access to content. Some collectibles are impossible to obtain unless there is another island that has those items. Those islands need to be visited and then players need to trade, or gift. Would have preferred to obtain these via NPC islands, rewards from minigame events, or just have them available from the get go. The biggest issue with regards to this besides requiring others is how poorly implemented multiplayer still is. Everybody is paused when someone connects and when someone disconnects. An unstable connection results in a lot of waiting for everybody. Besides trade, there is really no reason to play with other people. There are as many interactive options for players as there are for residents. In short, there's little meaningful things to engage with. It was a bland addition to the series, and this direction has removed the incentive to purchase the next game in line. edit: and I should stop commenting before watching a video.
I love New Leaf. It's not just my favorite animal crossing game, it's my favorite all around game ever. That said, I like New Horizons and I don't think it's fair to hate on it because it's not identical to New Leaf. Especially given that City Folk got a lot of hate for being identical to Wild World.
I saw on your main channel community post you wanted feedback, and honestly I'm not really sure what I could give feedback on? I really like this channel for just chill yapping (non derogatory). I like falling asleep to em or working on my art alongside em. So this is just more of what i want. Your chemistry and commentary was on point. I guess the only thing I'd say is for this segment specifically, 1 hour to an Hour and a half is perfect. So please don't be worried about making it shorter. I was seated. But obviously I get this depends upon the subject and guest
Just as a side note Dreamlight Valley (I have always described as Animal Crossing with Disney Characters) has Micro Transactions. I can deffo see the next AC iteration following a similar path.
43:20 so you want a bunch of mediocre to poor Animal Crossing games rather than fewer great Animal Crossing games. Quantity over quality. Animal Crossing: New Horizon was pushed into stores before it was complete. They made a choice to release the game in it's unfinished state during the best time it would get sold. All the updates just finished up adding missing content that they had planned for it. They weren't truly "free updates" like new content. There's a diference between adding content later down the line that wasn't planned, and then there is implementing aspects of the game after release that were supposed to be there but for whatever reason weren't. Terraria has been given numerous updates over it's life, for free. All of these features that came with AN:NH could have been added to the previous games to make them better. Just saying you don't need a new game to implement a feature. It is also certainly very viable to make expansions that package together a bunch of new content (the Witcher 3 is a great example so was Icewind Dale). I certainly would have preferred a game with something engaging to do like in previous titles. Better NPCs, more and better activities, smoother multiplayer (it's a joke they haven't updated their methods). They finally added the customization of the space available, a feature that should have been in earlier games, but it's implementation now came at the cost of every other aspect. Given the direction they are headed I wouldn't see future titles worthwhile. My recommendation would be grab an emulator and pirate the older previous two Animal Crossing games. Microtarnastion isn't a thing for Nintendo? Are Fire Emblem Heroes, Dr. Mario World, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, a few Mario Karts, Super Kirby Clash, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate non-existant to you? 🤣 Then there's effectively Amiibos and those Animal Crossing cards that give you access immediately to characters and items. Pay to win is worst, and behind a gatcha system too. 47:26 Animal Crossing would make for a pretty great microtransaction based game. It makes perfect sense. So many aspects can be paywalled, just like the Sims 4 does it. I think even the Sims 3 did this. I certainly wouldn't be buying it or touch it if microtransactions crept in. Microtransactions never are really optional if you want access to all the content in a reasonable manner. oh and pocket camp was effectively inserted into one of the DS/3DS games for free, and made not into a microtransaction fiasco.
Great discussion! I played ACNH daily for probably over 2 years and have over 1300 hours in it. (I still go back to it occasionally, but it’s usually a few months in between check-ins). I am definitely a fan of them trickling updates out over time to keep attention on the game. There were certain things I wish we would have had from day one, but overall I was happy with how they treated ACNH. Unless they go the route of making AC a live-service game - we will always have this feeling of abandonment after the final update. I wouldn’t be opposed to them making it live-service, as long as they handle it correctly. I think loading it up with microtransactions would be horrible - but if they made it a subscription (reasonably priced - like under $10/month) and had consistent worthwhile updates with everything included - I could see it being successful. I love Animal crossing so much that I would happily pay $10/month to play it with new content. I have played every AC since the first one on GCN and always look forward to the next one - so I don’t mind them just sticking with the new game releases either.
New Horizons is so pretty and the decorating is really cool, I just couldn’t get behind just doing all the repetitive grinding you have to do to get all the stuff you want 😭 There wasn’t much gameplay otherwise so I sadly lost interest
Personally I’ll never say ACNH was unfinished in terms of gameplay content as I do believe the devs worked on enough updates to keep us entertained for a while. Most players of acnh I’ve talked to got at least 500 hours out of the game and to me that’s more than fair. I think the issue lies more within the core of the game and its vapidity. I don’t want to turn my game on anymore because I know that sherb will talk to me about insects and dreams. It’s the same convo, over and over again. Animal crossing has never felt more soulless and no amount of updates could’ve fixed that. If there is a new installment of the game, we desperately need it to go back to its roots of being more crazy and unpredictable. We need the annoying hateful characters back. We need Resetti harassing us. Unfortunately I don’t think this will happen again. It’s kinda like the sims where the game has entered children friendly / “cozy game” territory and it’s never going back sadly
ACNH was that "perfect storm" of a pandemic and everyone turning their attention to the same thing -"falling off" is inevitable for every game but especially for something like the ACNH phenomenon
I think part of the reason people feel that ACNH was abandoned is because it's been reported that the ACNH team was removed from work on Animal Crossing and transferred over to work on Splatoon - one of the games you listed that consistently has updates and events going on. If this is true, then I think regardless of the look of the 2.0 update and the sheer amount of content that came with that update and the Happy Home Paradise DLC, moving the ACNH team to Splatoon very much reads as abandoning the franchise. Add to that the number of years without additional DLC, or any announcement as to another game in development, ACNH feels like the unwanted child of Nintendo as a company. They've made a plethora of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games since 2020, and the ACNH players got a single DLC in that time. It feels unbalanced.
I don't think they were transferred. I'm pretty sure they just shared dev teams. I think the main issue was that Nintendo wasn't prepared for how big NH was gonna be.
MY HEART. Thank you for having me, friend. I adore you.
So excited to see two wonderful creators coming together to talk about our favorite game.
Still the biggest L for this game was not being able to have multiple saves/islands. I love this game but, ain't no way I'm resetting my first island. She's too precious
100%!
yeah this is why I didn't really play it. My gf got it and I was planning on playing it with her. I made a character on the island and then we realized the coop was shit when you were doing it local, so I stopped playing. I would have played my own island if I could progress through it seperately, I didn't want to go back to an island that was massively jumping ahead in progress without me, so I ended up playing other games and watching her play it next to me through the pandemic. We literally did the Doom Eternal/ACNH meme right next to each other. I'm still very nostalgic for the music, even if I only played it for a few hours since it was going on right next to me for months while I played a variety of other games.
Probably because of how much memory the islands take up, having 3 islands would probably be too much for one switch.
@@mr_m4613 100%! On the other hand though, I’d be more than happy to buy a $20 memory card to have extra saves than none at all
Maybe I'm wrong, but I dont think saving islands takes up any noticable space in the storage. It's not using the memory if it's not loaded. It's just coordinates and id's in text format.
This is the modern day version of those paintings of old dudes in Rome debating things in a forum
Thanks 😭😭
Phil-liss-ophers
Personally the lack of NPCs and the general setup of the island is what killed it for me 😓I still can't believe they replaced Pelly and Phyllis with a card stand at the airport like 😐. What made AC appealing to me is the feeling of being in a town with the characters and some of the buildings included but it feels like they did the bare minimum is some places. I think they did really well with the decorating and customizing features in ACNH but I have never been much of a decorator. I do have hope that they will make a game that can satisfy the life sim players and the decorators.
That was such a shame you’re right! I miss the same stuff 😢 I’m hoping for a better balance in the new game too, ty for watching!
youre so right! you said this so well! I feel like they left a lot of the charme and spice of being part of a town community behind when they pivoted ACNHs main focus to customization. AC has always been about decorating but that was only ever A PART of the experience
43:10 I'm a software dev, and I can kinda answer this question.
Yes, if the ACNH dev group at Nintendo kept focus on ACNH, there would be no progress made on the next title. The dev group that makes AC also makes Splatoon, so they're already focused on 2 games as is. They can either focus on putting updates for ACNH, or the next title, but not both or else they're spread too thin.
IMO, it's clear they had to cut support for ACNH in favor of the next title; in anticipation for the Switch successor.
I’m think this is probably the most reasonable response to this topic. This is what I was thinking was probably most likely as well.
Totally agree and thanks for the insight! I totally forgot the same devs work on splatoon, that would have been great to bring up during our discussion. Thanks for sharing :)
what rubbs me the wrong way with ACNH is that...Nintendo COULD have added a lot of the furnitures and items from pocket camp to ACNH as updates
the items exist already
I dunno shit about modelization, I'm pretty sure it's tedious but doable
and since ACNH had such a successful launch these would have been better than adding old content from previous games as "updates"
If you link Pocket Camp to your Nintendo account you get quite a bit of items from Pocket Camp added to your Nook Shopping App.
The effect that games like Fortnite have had on some people's expectations of how many updates games should receive need to be studied
I'll always prefer "you buy the full game and that's the game" over constant updates and microtransactions to support it
Which is why new horizons was so disappointing. I’m not sure what promises were made by Nintendo but they gave the fan base hope of new and exciting updates when in reality most of it was just adding features we already have experienced in previous installments. The game wasn’t finished at release and we sure didn’t receive anything close to fortnite-level updates
I just wish it had *one more* update that made it so villagers could eat the food you cook.
I know the meta is to gift them fossils (because they're expensive and too large to be displayed), but that feels so impersonal.
Cooking recipes as is are cool, satisfying to collect, have so many options, and make for good decorations, but imagine if it could also be a way to build your friendship level with your neighbors. I want to bake pretzels for Lobo!
Bonus points if they'd made it so different personality types like different flavors of food more than other.
And as for the issue of "What if I *do* and want them to place the food item as furniture in their house?", I think the villager could go "Oh this looks delicious! Do you mind if I eat it right now?" And you could respond "Dig in!" or "You should save it for later!"
Without a feature like this, cooking feels kind of incomplete. For food to serve you aesthetically or alternatively to give you energy to pick up trees and break rocks is nice, but to be able to feed my neighbors would round it out and give it a meaningful use.
I do agree with every point made in this conversation. I think what really disappointed many players and made them think the game is incomplete or abandoned is that so many features that really made quality of life and gameplay good in new leaf have been left out. What really upset me is that there is no upgrade for Nooks cranny and as a lifelong AC player, upgrading the store was always something I was waiting for. Also the fact a lot of NPCs were taken out was a bummer. But I wouldn't say the game is incomplete, even if I'm missing some features from previous titles. I'm still playing new Horizons for a reason
I’ve been playing since new horizons came out and personally it kinda started getting boring when people weren’t posting all the fish they were catching and all their villagers but instead now it’s just people making these crazy designed islands. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s just when it’s all you see online about the game it becomes hard to catch up with personally
this was alrdy the case with New Leaf unfortunately
@@mehdigeekTo be honest, I’ve went back to New Leaf in the past months to try and complete my public works projects and my encyclopaedia (was originally trying to get all badges etc and trade turnips but online services shut!) and i’ve found online that the player base has become a lot more calm at this and is more posting snapshots of life on it rather than the crazy hacked towns in 2024!
The only thing they should've added at the end is the option to have more than one island on a switch. Im not very interested in playing my current island that I started in 2020 anymore and would like to start a new one but having to straight up delete the old island is crazy to me.
I think they should have spread the 2.0 update & HHP over a longer period rather than dumping so much in one go and saying "that's your lot!". They could have at least dropped 2.0 minus the decorating aspects in Nov, and then released that with HHP the following spring/summer.
The amount of updates was a good amount to consider the game not "abandoned", but it was the lack of previous features/content still on the table when the updates we're finished that felt wrong. The store only having one upgrade felt like a glaring omission for example. Also, I think it would be reasonable to expect a very small team to continue adding new furniture to the game occasionally at even half the pace that Pocket Camp receives new items.
I believe they could have added a lot more from the previous games, and continued adding if they wanted to! Thanks for watching
Pocket Camp funds that new content with gacha and microtransactions, though. Most of their nice stuff is paywalled. ACNH has a ridiculous amount of items with customization at the end of the day, I just don't expect them to keep making content for free.
ACNH was my introduction to the franchise. I was a big GameCube head, so I am not sure how I missed Population Growing. I went back and played New Leaf, and I LOVED the feeling of new leaf, but missed the expanded creativity offered by New Horizons. In a make-believe world that clearly will never happen, I would love New Leaf but with New Horizon's graphics and decorating potential. I love ACNH. I got back to it over and over again, but I also love New Leaf for a whole host of different reasons.
I was heavily addicted to ACNH around 4 years ago but I got so fed up with the Storage Restrictions that I quit! I think Item Management is the top reason I quit most games tbh! The Single Save thing also seriously annoyed me!
for me new horizons has always been kind of a snooze because the villager interactions are so boring and repetitive?? i don't know if it was the fault of the english localization team or what but the villager dialogue is such a step down from previous games. that's the update i had always hoped was coming. It's called animal crossing and they made the animals boring... now all the game is good for is decorating =\
We didn’t talk about this but yes! I wish there was more complex dialogue! It was glaringly obvious how repetitive it was when you had more than one villager of the same type, too. Could have been more variation for sure
I also understand decorators love the control, but not having control over everything was also kinda the point of the game, too. You can’t control life, you are just a piece on the board. I kinda miss that a bit!
I remember people being so butt hurt about the last update cause they said no more free updates...so sooo many people took that as maybe more paid content. After 2.0 i was pretty content that the game was done. They gave a lot of what people wanted
Agreed! Thanks for watching!
I think a lot more could have been done... But I see it as them stopping New Horizons and moving on to whatever the next game is going to be 😏 I think after the sucess of this game, they probably wanted to start development on the next one right away
The lack of character interactions is what killed the game for me. When it came out, I played it for a couple of months during the covid lockdown, but as soon as I unlocked the island crafting feature...there was literally nothing left for me to do and I fell off right after that. Things like having villagers invite you to their home should have been in the game day one...but even still. I expected more interactions from the villagers that set it apart from the last few previous entries. What kills me the most is when the first trailer dropped for the game. NH hinted at the fact that the villagers would be able to interact with everything you put outside, which sounded awesome! I love the idea of setting up rides or other unique things and maybe having the avatar interact with these items with your villagers! But no, that's not what we got and to me. That trailer felt like false advertising because the only things they can interact with from what I'v seen are beds and chairs ONLY. Probably because the code for this was copy and pasted from the previous title.
I do have other issues. Most of them involves creating a unique section of my island (like a dance floor, for example) and never ONCE seeing a villager go over to the section I had created. They usually stay near their houses, shops, or the town hall and never really seem to venture outside of that. There should be a way to either schedule or request a villager (or multiple villagers) to a spot to hang out and the fact this has not been implemented yet is actually pretty jarring to me.
as a lifelong animal crossing fan, i’m really curious to see how people react to the next title. i think the pandemic was really crucial new horizons’ popularity, and i wonder if the HUGE amount of people nh brought in will primarily keep ac on their radars or stop keeping up as much. like will people still feel the appeal of animal crossing without being stuck inside?
i have so much to say about this game it’s not even funny 😭😭
True!! We’ll have to wait and see!
I think it will. I think ACNH brought in a LOT of new gamers. I've heard a lot of people say it was the first game they ever played (or first non mobile game) since they were stuck at home and they saw everyone playing it on social media and they figured they'd get it since all their friends were playing it, and now they are gamers playing a bunch of different games.
@@Zectifin i hope it will! i need people to play the next one with lol
I can see the points people have when they say it wasnt abandoned, but I truly think it was...
It just had so much potential to be more than what it was, if you see the constant effort put into the silly acpc app in comparison to the mediocre updates the main game got its just disheartening. (Yes I understand they're two different platforms and blah blah but still the main game falls flat big time.)
The game was already disappointing in terms of charm, character interaction, multiplayer activities, the only thing they really focused on was the decorations.
So if thats really all they wanted to focus on then I think they should've done a lot more to continuously release new item sets in game for holidays, events, etc. similar to acpc.
Thank u for sharing! It would have been nice to see more in those departments, you’re right. I miss the old charm of the character interactions
I don't think it was abandoned but it definitely lacks a lot of content compared to New Leaf, and I also think part of the original charm has gone too. I think it's similar to the Sims series. Sims 4 is the best game in the series in terms of creativity and decoration, but lacks the charm and gameplay depth of the previous games.
I also feel like people's enjoyment of New Horizons vs other AC games will depend on your preferred play style. For myself, I don't really enjoy the decorating/terraforming aspect so New Horizons gets pretty stale after a while. However if you are someone who loves decorating and terraforming your island, you are going to get so much enjoyment from New Horizons and the older games will feel much more restrictive and boring in comparison.
As someone from the East Coast of Canada, hearing “summer starts in March” doesn’t seem like a real thing haha. This was a fun discussion
LOL right?! Thanks so much :)
I live in Phoenix and is basically summer here for 9 months. We get summer, extra summer, summers last stand, and the comfortable season.
That first easter update... so many eggs and that damn rabbit😭😭
i absolutely adore this kind of content liss!!! i don’t have gamer friends irl so i love listening to these longer conversation-type videos about niche gaming topics like this (and they are perfect for my long trip to work heheh)
My main problem with animal crossing is nintendo switch. Its a decorating game you cant experience to its fullest without dropping to 10FPS. I remember decorating my whole island entrance perfectly mimicking a small japanese village, i was so excited about it, but once i started decorating the villagers houses’ exterior, all my excitement was gone. Any loading screens took FOREVER, my game wouldn’t stop stuttering, the fps drops were chronic, non stop, i couldnt even walk a straight line properly. It became an annoying experience. And I swear the decoration was not even that intense, i couldn’t bring myself to decorate any further then the entrance area + city lobby. I just wish we could play New Horizons somewhere else. I would def pick up the game again if it released somewhere else, and we know that aint happening
Idk man i feel like im the only one who doesnt feel "abandoned". I have over 1500 hours which is a phenomenal pay off for $60 plus $30 DLC. I feel like YT creators are upset because 4 years after release, their channels are getting less traction because they were focused on a single game. And i mean no disrespect, i love both of your channels and many other ACNH focused creators! Just feels like people get so riled up about it and i dont feel the same
Totally agree, like most the time I see the sentiment on Twitter and I have to remind myself that people will just say whatever for likes on there lol. I feel like a ton of people forget how much playtime they got in NH (for those like you and I who were obsessed with the game) and want more more more when it takes time for stuff to be made!
Pocket Camp integrated with a new AC that features a futuristic, contemporary mansion, penthouse suite, Victorian house, cabin in the woods, yacht, cute n fast cars?
Growing up is hard. But as someone who started in wild world. I will always have an appreciation for the little things. I do not get sick of the villagers. I always find a way to relate to it. It always brings me back to tue good days. For some of us the franchise is ingrained into who we are just as they hoped we would be.
my biggest issue was that my internet at home was the type that my switch didn't work with, so I basically couldn't go online and connect with others players. and my boyfriend who is very good at pc's and programming, even game up on trying to make it work. we couldn't easily just change our internet provider, as it's a shared one in the entire apartment building.... so yeah, that was actually my biggest issue with the game tbh.
i can tell you right now i will NEVER abandon my girl Kiki I usually play for a bit most days, occasionally will miss a few days or a week but that's mostly because my island never feels done so I feel like i always have stuff to do or change
I was OBSESSED until the last big update! I thought I was so excited for it but when it came it was so overwhelming and wished I had this stuff the whole time, so I didn’t put all this work into something I wanted to change immediately. That’s what turned me off and every time I get back on I still get overwhelmed.
it was really nice to hear you guys list all the updates! it really put into perspective just HOW MUCH we actually got!
yet as someone who grew up with wildworld and played New Leaf for many years, i still feel like there are things lacking... especially the Villager AI or personalities are so so different from the earlier games... also after returning to ACNL i realized how much i prefer to not be in controll of every little aspect of the island all the time. i liked being a part of a town, not some kind of god that is liked by everyone.
all that doesnt make ACNH worse or anything, its just that sadly it doesnt have what made me fall in love with the series in the first place.
Anyways im glad the island designer crowd has a great game! while the other people hopefully have ACNL to fall back to!
They definitely abandoned the game. I was extremely dissatisfied. They haven’t left an AC game so early before. I think it’s because they put all hands on deck for the new game+ possible console.
Love this style of video! I have not played ACNH in a good while though I was super into it for a long time (1,000+ hours). But after decorating my forever island and doing everything else, I got bored with it.
Yay so glad u liked it!! ❤️❤️
Omg now I need a podcast
Omg lol I’m too inconsistent for that 😭😭
@@lisspilled boooo I would love a liss podcast (even if its inconsistent!)
New Horizons is my first title I've played. I absolutely love it. My current island is the opposite hemisphere of my irl one, but I find it so funny to be doing summer things in winter and vice versa. Thanks for talking it through and helping me realize I also joined about the time of the first summer update
I’m so glad you liked it! Tysm ACNH rocks!
@lisspilled Definitely!!! So sad I didn't connect 1 or 2 of my resets to anything meaning I lost them. But I still have a good amount of them, 5 I think
I think, what i thought of "no more free updates" that we would get paid dlc. I was still hoping for minigames or pocket camp pack haha but i love the game either way.
Excited to see the next AC game on a "supposedly" stronger system.
Im hoping in the next AC, they fix the need to pause everyones game when a friend is coming. 😅 that was so annoying when i held a handful of high turnip sale at my island.
Yes I didn’t consider that people were thinking more DLC was coming! Good point. And 100% the online sucks major
I still love the game but am so bummed that there aren’t any more updates to look forward too. It was my fifth animal crossing game (I played wild world, the one on Wii can’t remember the name, new leaf and happy home designer) and it was by far my favourite since I enjoyed the decoration and terraforming so much. Loved that they included so many design features and I love the aesthetic. Still haven’t finished my first island though 😂
i was so upset when they added kappn to ACNH but there were no mini games 😫 that and the coffee mini game were always my favorite parts of new leaf! also wish character dialogue had more soul.
Man, this really made me wanna pick up ACNH again. I’m also so hopeful the next installment of the game will be great! 🤞🏻
Ty for posting Liss I love the longer vids perfect to watch at work 🫶🏻🫡
Tysm for watching!
a lot of the holidays ACNH had are real japanese holidays like children’s day, obon etc 😊
New Horizons was really good.
Most people played for a very long time… it was not abandoned, there just wasn’t nothing more to add.
I loved terraforming, it was so fun and so new (for this game), I just regret not having enough shops in our island.
I've been itchting to go back and play Animal Crossing again, it was so much fun, and i didn't get to play the Vacation home dlc much before i got burnt out, but everytime i open the game i just see fields of flowers and weeds covering every inch of free space on my island i get overwhelmed and close it, lol. i'm attached to all my villagers so i don't want to start over, but spending an hour or two ripping up flowers before i can start again is too daunting, ughhh. D: they should of added a push lawnmower item to quickly clear your plot imo
I don't necessarily think acnh was abandoned- I believe they gave everything they had to give for that game and it's not feasible to even expect constant updates. Hard agree on the events being locked the way they were since it was always fun to see the community start buzzing again every few months the first year.
However that being said, I do wish they did add more new items for at least another year especially for the seasonal events. (even as a kind of Pocket Camp player the items make me jealous I will not lie. The new items for the monthly updates gives you a lot to do in that game in comparison even if its the same events every month) But even then my stance is that no I don't think acnh was abandoned
Right like if they added more furniture I would NOT complain lol ❤️ ty for watching
I feel like they saw the popularity, wrapped up NH, and have had them working on the next AC for the next console… for a launch title, or one of the first handful of games.
Totally see that! Can’t wait!
OMG you have such a talent for a podcast. I've never played ACNH, but it was such a joy to see you two bouncing of each other comments.
Thank u so so much!
My only thing here really is that for preservation, they release a definitive edition of new horizons that has all the content on the cart, so it can be accessed. The paid DLC could be kept separate if its a 'base version' of the game, otherwise should all be on the cart.
IMO for the game I blame twitter and the sims players they ruined animal crossing, granted the original creator stopped working on animal crossing before new leaf
i Hate that the game is just a sims 3 or sims 4 game my fav animal crossing games will forever be N64, gamecube , wii,
but i feel the people ruined it due to their complain about every little thing and forced nintendo to just cut and stop
This slayed, absolutely love talking again about all the updates it helps me remembering all the awesome days I would watch the new updates almost monthly on live with everyone and getting super excited~ love you guys!
I really enjoyed this!! it’s great because there is stuff to watch if you want to watch the video directly, but you’re not missing anything just listening to it in the background. it’s a good length too!! I also really like you having a guest on because it gives you someone to bounce off.
and I love how you don’t completely criticise the game, but balance your thoughts with stuff you like and stuff you don’t like
DUDE collab of the century. love y’all 🩷
I recently saw one of your videos on your main channel where you did a decorating challenge w your community and it prompted me to open animal crossing on my switch for the first time in a couple years!! I realized I never played the happy home paradise dlc even tho I already had it so I’ve been enjoying that :’) but I wish there were more minigames too, I hadn’t realized it before you said it but I think that’s part of why I got so bored of NH so fast back when it came out! ALSO I miss villagers being mean!!! They used to be so sassy and snarky and then they just made them… old? Crotchety? I thought that was so lame imho!
Loved this video. Thank you for the trip down memory lane! I was one of those swept up in the ACNH lockdown fever eagerly anticipating each update as it was rolled out. Back then was when I stumbled accross both of your channels and how I discovered the incredible online community that I’m pleased to see still exists. I’m with both of you. It’s time to look ahead. I would rather the time and effort being spent on the next AC being done right.
I took a year off of AC, and stopped all content. This weekend I got the urged to play again, and decided to restart an island.
I still have a feeling that Nintendo had a very specific plan of what they're going to do with the game, that's why we didn't get some features from prev games. Maybe some of the QoL updates were an extra additions beyond their "to do list". But I think they will try to make next game more balanced for design enjoyers and mini games fans. Or I'm on copium and the next AC game will be even more experimental lol.
I was one of those who said it doesn’t feel finished because New Leaf was such a huge part of my childhood. Having heard what your thoughts were helped me accept the game as is. I’m currently hyper focused on New Horizons again. I flattened the island and am building it up slowly. My island lagged so much I couldn’t bear it anymore. I hope with a simpler island I’ll enjoy the game again 🙈🥺💜
I have gone back to enjoying New Leaf with mods due to how unfinished New Horizons STILL feels to me compared to all the features New Leaf has.
New leaf definitely had a whole different vibe
I personally think most of the player base abandoned the game before Nintendo did.
*edit: Meaning the casual people who stopped a month or two later, I feel like the percentage of people of who stopped made them reconsider REALLY supporting it.
You’re right and I wish we expanded more on that!
I love this commentary and overview so so much! I missed out on all of this as I didn’t get my Switch and ACNH until November 2021. I can’t imagine how exciting each update was and what a unique and bonding moment it was for experience all of this together. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!
Honestly, i don't think animal crossing new horizons has been abandoned but its in limbo, there's a big difference there. Nintendo can still see engagement with new horizons and the game is still selling very well. Its the highest selling game in Japan, the second highest selling game on the switch and i think the 8th best selling Nintendo game of all time overall. So Nintendo definitely sees the success and engagement still going strong.
Nintendo also released the Lego set for ACNH and the aquarium tours throughout the wotld to spread the notoriety of the franchise.
Nintendo said that this will be the last major FREE update, they never said the last update in general. Meaning we could still get paid DLC like we did with Happy home paradise. Maybe theyll be more major islands through Nintendo switch online.
I think the reason ACNH is in limbo is so that the OTHER cozy games released on the switch doesn't get overshadowed by big animal crossing new horizons updates. Let them get their shine first, then Nintendo will come back to ACNH when most of the other cozy games are done.
I know Nintendo is not done with new horizons because we still dont have a post office yet, what mainline animal crossing game do we know that went on without a post office? They've ALL had one.
I really loved the forced participating in holidays at the actual time, i feel like i dont usually care about spoilers too much but it is nice to sometimes not have a choice to see new items before you can get them. I eventually went back to new leaf for reasons im not sure of but i did enjoy horizons too!
I really enjoyed ACNH, but it came out in 2020 when I was a student, and there was literally nothing else to do.
I'd love to start a new island, but I've graduated, got a job, and ACNH feels so time consuming. Like, I don't have enough time for ACNH AND BG3! But BG3 had so much to explore whereas ACNH is what it is.
It’s fun to hear about your experience with the game ! I’m newer to the game so learning about all the updates is so informative! Like Roswell is one of my villagers and I didn’t know he was added on the 2.0 I think 😊 28:28
I dont think its unreasonable to think a full animal crossing installment will be close to the switch 2s release or within the year. Part of the reason new leaf to acnh took so long was because it was an entirely new system they were developing for and a new engine they had to create. Theyll likely be using the same engine for the next installment the same way tears of the kingdom did with breath of the wild, especially since rumors say the switch 2 will be backwards compatible. They know acnh sold a lot of copies but probably more importantly, it sold a tonnn of consoles. Theyre gonna want it early for the switch 2, potentially spring 2026 after the holidays to boost console sales again
I'm also from the Phoenix area! Mesa bookmans! I grew up in Mesa. Yeah for those that don't know, it hits high 80s-low 90s in march/april. Its 100 by may and regularly 117 in July/August. Sometimes 120. The low at night can be mid 90s and hotter than the high in most northern states.
I really need to move north.
its good for them the end the lifetime of the game at some point. They aren't going for a live service model, if they kept giving updates it would either push back the next AC game, or people would have played ACNH so much they would be burnt out by the time the next one comes out. You want to leave some room between releases so that theres some longing and people will wont to come back. They want the next game to do well and not everyone just plays one game forever.
Love both you and Katie, great to see you guys chatting about ACNH together!
She’s the best!
this made me so nostalgic, i just got caught up in real life and my acnh obsession fell off but it was a big (maybe sometimes too big) part of my life for a couple years. but i always feel like it will come back for me when it's time, even if that's the next game release. i hope to see you guys for that rennaissance.
We will be there for sure 🫡 thank u sm ur the best
This made me realize just how little of the game I have played. I stopped SO EARLY. 😅 might have to start over and start fresh
10:39
that's not an exploit. That's literally the interest rate in every other animal crossing game once you hit a certain amount it caps at 99k bells. in new horizions it's 9,999. If you played New Leaf you got the 99k. This is the first animal crossing game since they added the bell interest that they nerfed it like that.
It's literally part of the franchise, not a exploit. It was just Nintendo going "You're not allowed to have fun anymore".
I was so sad when they made Peacock butterflies sell for less bells and also spawn way less often.
As for the interest nerf, it's like. sure. if you time travelled years into the future to build massive interest, maybe its busted? But that's the player's decision. If you want to discourage that behavior, have the game recognize when you do massive time jumps, or punish them with weeds, or some sort of Resetti-type "yell at the player for exploiting" feature.
But to just outright nerf the bell interest rate is so cruel for daily players just playing the game as intended.
Nah, the game wasn’t abandoned, it was finished. I recently hit the 2000 hour mark. For what it cost plus DLC that is insane value. Also, completely agree that I’d like them to focus on the next game instead of making a live service game. The fact that there is still more that the community would like to see in Animal Crossing encouraging to me as they have room to build on the next game.
AC:NH wasn't abandoned. It was given most basic elements the previous games had, with a few new things that don't reallly add a whole lot to engagement.
I found it hilariously silly people got excited over updates as if they were new features (they weren't new features at all, just missing content added post release).
Here's a few things that killed the game for me, and future games for the series.
Residents have little in the way of personality, and lack any meaningful interaction. I expected them to be more engaging in conversation, and be able to play with them several games (hide and seek, go karting, tag, volleyball, golfing, scavanger hunting etc). Would have also loved to have seen them post things on the message board (like if they were throwing parties), and send letters you could respond to creating a chain of back and forth letters, similar to how the (dot)hack// games had.
They've been adding many new characters, and with that increase in numbers comes ever more generic AI scripting, so most characters will end up the same. More doesn't mean better in this regard.
I also feel that aspect of making dream homes for residents could have just been applied to the island in the first place. You're designing an island, why not just have that be the dream island with homes built on high ground, or near rivers, or any desired themed objects. It's just silly to have it all be a seperate thing to travel to. The residents don't do anything in the way of decorating the island anyway. It's wasted update on something that could have just been a main part of the game. By the time this was implemented I already was sick of decorating for the sake of decorating so I barely touched this "feature".
They still didn't learn real time mechanics isn't a great idea. It's a video game, and one shouldn't be revolving their life around a game, but vice versa imo. Certain things could only be obtained or done during certain times of day. While I generally don't have much to do, I still don't like having to change my console's time and date to make progress. I can see this to be a pain for anyone who has a routine they cannot modify to engage with this game without resorting to changing system settings.
Island customization was great but came with the annoying aspect of crafting each individual item, one at a time. There was also the extortion rates to move buildings with the addition only one building could be moved per day. Farming was largely pointless. Another shallow aspect that doesn't offer anything substanial. It did open up ingredients for cooking, but that aspect was also rather shallow imo.
The requirement to connect to other players to get access to content. Some collectibles are impossible to obtain unless there is another island that has those items. Those islands need to be visited and then players need to trade, or gift. Would have preferred to obtain these via NPC islands, rewards from minigame events, or just have them available from the get go. The biggest issue with regards to this besides requiring others is how poorly implemented multiplayer still is. Everybody is paused when someone connects and when someone disconnects. An unstable connection results in a lot of waiting for everybody.
Besides trade, there is really no reason to play with other people. There are as many interactive options for players as there are for residents.
In short, there's little meaningful things to engage with. It was a bland addition to the series, and this direction has removed the incentive to purchase the next game in line.
edit: and I should stop commenting before watching a video.
Whenever I see Katie, I just think of Beau.
This is ACNH royalty right hereeee
Omg 😳
I love New Leaf. It's not just my favorite animal crossing game, it's my favorite all around game ever. That said, I like New Horizons and I don't think it's fair to hate on it because it's not identical to New Leaf. Especially given that City Folk got a lot of hate for being identical to Wild World.
Imo ACNH stopped "early" on content because they're busy making AC for the Switch 2.
I agree! Ty for watching
That, and the majority of this team had to transition over to working on Splatoon 3
katie and liss AGHHH IM SO HAPPY
We love Katie!
@@lisspilled we love u too queen...
ILYSM!
@@KatieCozyway
Haven't touched animal crossing in a year but this has me CRAVING IT! cancelling all my plans so ready for it to take over my LIFE 😂
I saw on your main channel community post you wanted feedback, and honestly I'm not really sure what I could give feedback on?
I really like this channel for just chill yapping (non derogatory). I like falling asleep to em or working on my art alongside em.
So this is just more of what i want. Your chemistry and commentary was on point.
I guess the only thing I'd say is for this segment specifically, 1 hour to an Hour and a half is perfect. So please don't be worried about making it shorter. I was seated.
But obviously I get this depends upon the subject and guest
Thank u so much! Super glad u enjoyed it
I hope this is a podcast! You’re so good at this!
Just as a side note Dreamlight Valley (I have always described as Animal Crossing with Disney Characters) has Micro Transactions. I can deffo see the next AC iteration following a similar path.
I know this might be a stupid question.But for someone who's never played the game.Do you have to play online or can you play offline.
You can totally play offline!
it wasn't, it got more content updates than any other game in the franchise and was given an entire game as a DLC
Loved this and would watch more videos from you in this style! Cool to get less scripted more off the cuff conversation vibes
43:20 so you want a bunch of mediocre to poor Animal Crossing games rather than fewer great Animal Crossing games. Quantity over quality.
Animal Crossing: New Horizon was pushed into stores before it was complete. They made a choice to release the game in it's unfinished state during the best time it would get sold. All the updates just finished up adding missing content that they had planned for it. They weren't truly "free updates" like new content. There's a diference between adding content later down the line that wasn't planned, and then there is implementing aspects of the game after release that were supposed to be there but for whatever reason weren't. Terraria has been given numerous updates over it's life, for free. All of these features that came with AN:NH could have been added to the previous games to make them better. Just saying you don't need a new game to implement a feature. It is also certainly very viable to make expansions that package together a bunch of new content (the Witcher 3 is a great example so was Icewind Dale).
I certainly would have preferred a game with something engaging to do like in previous titles. Better NPCs, more and better activities, smoother multiplayer (it's a joke they haven't updated their methods). They finally added the customization of the space available, a feature that should have been in earlier games, but it's implementation now came at the cost of every other aspect.
Given the direction they are headed I wouldn't see future titles worthwhile. My recommendation would be grab an emulator and pirate the older previous two Animal Crossing games.
Microtarnastion isn't a thing for Nintendo? Are Fire Emblem Heroes, Dr. Mario World, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, a few Mario Karts, Super Kirby Clash, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate non-existant to you? 🤣 Then there's effectively Amiibos and those Animal Crossing cards that give you access immediately to characters and items. Pay to win is worst, and behind a gatcha system too.
47:26 Animal Crossing would make for a pretty great microtransaction based game. It makes perfect sense. So many aspects can be paywalled, just like the Sims 4 does it. I think even the Sims 3 did this. I certainly wouldn't be buying it or touch it if microtransactions crept in. Microtransactions never are really optional if you want access to all the content in a reasonable manner.
oh and pocket camp was effectively inserted into one of the DS/3DS games for free, and made not into a microtransaction fiasco.
16:00 halloween was my favorite update
Great discussion! I played ACNH daily for probably over 2 years and have over 1300 hours in it. (I still go back to it occasionally, but it’s usually a few months in between check-ins). I am definitely a fan of them trickling updates out over time to keep attention on the game. There were certain things I wish we would have had from day one, but overall I was happy with how they treated ACNH. Unless they go the route of making AC a live-service game - we will always have this feeling of abandonment after the final update. I wouldn’t be opposed to them making it live-service, as long as they handle it correctly. I think loading it up with microtransactions would be horrible - but if they made it a subscription (reasonably priced - like under $10/month) and had consistent worthwhile updates with everything included - I could see it being successful. I love Animal crossing so much that I would happily pay $10/month to play it with new content. I have played every AC since the first one on GCN and always look forward to the next one - so I don’t mind them just sticking with the new game releases either.
I see what you’re getting at and while I would moan and groan at a subscription I would 100% buy it lmfao 🤣
Just let me date and marry my villagers Nintendo. I know it'll never happen but that's my dream Animal Crossing addition
I just started the game for the 1st time, about 2 months ago.
New Horizons is so pretty and the decorating is really cool, I just couldn’t get behind just doing all the repetitive grinding you have to do to get all the stuff you want 😭 There wasn’t much gameplay otherwise so I sadly lost interest
The colon I needed!!! Love both of your channels!
Animal Crossing is not literally dead frr but it doesn't have a option where you can play with two ppl
YAY! NEW LISS!!!!!
Woooo!!
Personally I’ll never say ACNH was unfinished in terms of gameplay content as I do believe the devs worked on enough updates to keep us entertained for a while. Most players of acnh I’ve talked to got at least 500 hours out of the game and to me that’s more than fair.
I think the issue lies more within the core of the game and its vapidity. I don’t want to turn my game on anymore because I know that sherb will talk to me about insects and dreams. It’s the same convo, over and over again. Animal crossing has never felt more soulless and no amount of updates could’ve fixed that.
If there is a new installment of the game, we desperately need it to go back to its roots of being more crazy and unpredictable. We need the annoying hateful characters back. We need Resetti harassing us. Unfortunately I don’t think this will happen again.
It’s kinda like the sims where the game has entered children friendly / “cozy game” territory and it’s never going back sadly
ACNH was that "perfect storm" of a pandemic and everyone turning their attention to the same thing -"falling off" is inevitable for every game but especially for something like the ACNH phenomenon
This was a game that encapsulated the stupid rona virus. Once it was over, so was so much of the investment into the game.
I think so, once people started going back to work and resuming normal life there definitely was a fall off
I think part of the reason people feel that ACNH was abandoned is because it's been reported that the ACNH team was removed from work on Animal Crossing and transferred over to work on Splatoon - one of the games you listed that consistently has updates and events going on. If this is true, then I think regardless of the look of the 2.0 update and the sheer amount of content that came with that update and the Happy Home Paradise DLC, moving the ACNH team to Splatoon very much reads as abandoning the franchise. Add to that the number of years without additional DLC, or any announcement as to another game in development, ACNH feels like the unwanted child of Nintendo as a company. They've made a plethora of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games since 2020, and the ACNH players got a single DLC in that time. It feels unbalanced.
I don't think they were transferred. I'm pretty sure they just shared dev teams. I think the main issue was that Nintendo wasn't prepared for how big NH was gonna be.
i’m always sat for a liss vid 🤓
Yay this is so fun!! You’re definitely a natural for this!! 😮🙌🏻
Thanks love ❤️❤️❤️😘