Oh boy, here it is. After a little over two weeks of playing, I'm ready to talk about the biggest game of 2020 so far (next to Doom Eternal). Yes, yes, my Animal Crossing blog post is here. BACKGROUND:
Though I've technically played a bit of Animal Crossing before, and know a fair bit about the game (thanks to secondhand knowledge + Smash), I haven't really gotten into the series in a full capacity (i.e. actually playing the game for a sustained period of time). I was pretty young when I first checked it out, and didn't really understand the appeal of games like it until I was older. I actually wanted to get New Leaf for the 3DS, but I never got around to it. Instead, I held out for the Switch game, and here we are. This franchise is a good example of me getting into a game due to someone else's enthusiasm for it. A good friend of mine (whom I've known since grade school) was super into the Animal Crossing game on the DS, and it was her interest that got me to try out the game initially. Years later, another friend of mine in college (who is part of our little Nintendo fanboy circle of friends) ended up getting New Leaf for the 3DS, and seeing how invested he got really put the game on my radar. I really hope I can recreate a similar effect on other people with these blog entries of mine. PLOT: Your avatar (often known as the Villager) has the wonderful luck of acquiring the Nook Island Getaway Package, the latest in Tom Nook's (notorious raccoon/tanuki business tycoon) moneymaking schemes. You are sent to a deserted island in which you will begin your new life, and with the guidance of Nook himself, turn the island into a wonderful paradise. Most Animal Crossings play out the same way: you're the new fella in town, Tom Nook buries you in debt, you live out your life in the town while trying to pay your loans off, and you meet other animal villagers who move into the village. The only difference now is that you're on an island. It's by no means a particularly captivating story, but given what the game is about, the bare minimum is more than enough. Though there are hundreds of animal characters in the game, only a few prominent NPCs have distinct personalities, while the rest fall into specific archetypes. The villager themselves is a silent protagonist, a mere vessel for you, the player, so you don't get much in the way of compelling characters. That said, what little personalities the NPCs exhibit are more than enough, as every interaction with them (and there are many ways to interact with the animal villagers) was wholesome or silly in a good way. The animal villagers are even interesting to watch even when you're not talking to them, as they enter all sorts of animations when you leave them alone (e.g. they go out fishing, interact with furniture, and even emote when other villagers are present). PRESENTATION: This is the first time a mainline Animal Crossing game has been in HD, and it looks absolutely wonderful. It's got that usual cheery Nintendo vibe: bright colors, cutesy designs, generally pleasant to look at. There are also some elements that lean more into a realistic style (like the insects and fish, or some furniture pieces), but they mesh well with the predominantly cartoony art style of the game. Most of the animal characters have cute/cool designs (I say "most" because there are definitely a few villagers who look like serial killers), and your villager character has more customization options than ever before (though it's nothing on the scale of, say, Sims). The most impressive aspect of the game's visuals lies in the minute details. Stuff like furniture pieces, which are scaled differently from the characters, boast a lot of intricate details in their models, and interacting with some of these objects even leads to unique animations (e.g. interacting with a faucet makes the water run). Even shit that would otherwise go unnoticed was taken into account, like clocks telling the correct time, or house plants shifting when a fan is turned on. It's a ridiculous amount of polish for what pretty much amounts to mere decoration. The effects of the game are nothing to scoff at, either. Aside from the aforementioned wind interactions, there are also well-placed shadows accurate to the sun's position and other light sources, beautiful-looking water, and even impressively polished textures for items like clothing. It's some mind-blowing levels of polish. The game's music is as chill as they come, and though it takes a while to unlock, you get to a point where the track changes every hour, keeping things fresh as you play at different times during your day. The standout tracks are, of course, the ones featuring musician dog K.K. Slider, and those tracks feature amazing variety in terms of musical style. GAMEPLAY: I'm sure, at this point, you've seen a fuckton of Animal Crossing on your social media feeds or elsewhere on the Internet. You're probably wondering, "what the fuck do you do in this game that has millions of people completely enraptured?" Well, the simple answer is: you live out a carefree life on an island. Before you begin, the game sets the stage, as well as throws most of the important customization options out of the way (character name, avatar appearance, etc.), as well as some other options that directly affect gameplay (island layout, the hemisphere you're island is on). Once that's all done, you're spirited away to the deserted island with two other animal villagers (who are randomly selected), where your only shelter is a shitty tent. Once you're there, it's off to the races. The common misconception about games like Animal Crossing is that there is no goal. While it is true that the game is very open-ended and you can play it in pretty much any way you want, to say there isn't a goal isn't entirely accurate. In the early stages of the game, Tom Nook nudges you along by giving you tasks that unlock essential features (such as the shop, or building your house) or help you obtain more shit. Now, you can choose to immediately focus on the tasks the game gives you, or you can go "fuck that" and do something else until you feel like going back to the big objectives. Animal Crossing is incredibly lenient and freeform, which lets you play the game at your own pace, and I understand that doesn't appeal to everybody. If you're the kind of player who is overwhelmed by open-ended games, or dislike figuring out what to do next on your own, you won't like this game very much. In the beginning, the "goal" is to set yourself and your fellow villagers up for your new island life. First, you pitch your tents, then the game teaches you how to pick up items, which allows you to acquire resources. Then, you learn how to craft things using those resources (a new feature in the series), which is how you obtain tools. Those tools allow you to obtain more valuable resources, which can be used to craft better things, as well as acquire all sorts of shit worth selling. You can then use the Bells you earn from selling shit to start paying off your loan, or to buy all sorts of items (like tools, furniture, and more). This is the game boiled down to its bare essentials, and while many other games feature a similar gameplay loop, Animal Crossing handles it quite differently. Whereas the point of crafting, harvesting, and selling shit in similar games is survival (think Minecraft), Animal Crossing leans more towards the scale of expansion and improvement (think Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon). You start out picking up sticks, then once you figure out how to craft tools, you can start catching bugs or fish, or start chopping up trees for wood. You can then sell that shit to pay off your house (which allows you to expand your house later on), or buy furniture to decorate your island with. It's understandably not appealing for some people to grind out what essentially amounts to in-game chores just to make their island pretty, but for the millions of Animal Crossing fans out there, it's quite therapeutic to fish for 30 minutes, sell your haul, then buy a bed that looks awesome in your house. I can certainly say it was therapeutic for me, given how stressful the past two weeks have been. Progress in this game seems like a pretty nebulous (perhaps even nonexistent) concept on paper, but what I'd say is the primary metric for progress is the development of your island. As you keep playing, you eventually unlock important landmarks like the shop and museum, gain the ability to build bridges and inclines (allowing you to reach previously inaccessible areas on your island), recruit more villagers to live on your island, and even become a god and be granted the ability to completely terraform your island to your liking. Working towards each of these long-term goals is always satisfying in the end, as you end up unlocking a feature that expands what you can do in the game. Other long-term goals include paying off multiple house loans, which allows you to expand your home to have multiple rooms, filling the museum with exhibits (i.e. collecting as many unique bugs, fish, and fossils as you can), and improving your island rating (which is a roundabout way of saying "make your island look pretty"). The game doesn't outright force you to do all these tasks (though certain things are locked off in the early game), so it's really up to the player what they want their Animal Crossing experience to be. In my case, my obsession with completing the Pokédex carried over to this game, and I focused on collecting bugs and fish for my first week. Then, once I did what I could on that front, I pivoted away to making my island look nice. The amount of things you can do seems overwhelming, but the thing is, you don't have to do all of them. If you need even more of a guiding hand to help you along on your Animal Crossing journey, New Horizons introduces the Nook Miles Program, which is this game's version of achievements. Accomplishing various tasks will earn you Nook Miles, which can be spent to acquire special items (like exclusive furniture, or important upgrades like expanded inventory space). Later on, you get something called Nook Miles+, which is the game's equivalent of "daily" tasks (like in mobile games), allowing you to earn even more points. While you can play the game however you want, the Nook Miles Program is a fantastic way to incentivize exploring the other facets of the game, as well as keep track of progress on certain things. What's fascinating about Animal Crossing's gameplay is that it operates in real time. That means everything in the game operates on the actual 24-hour clock (e.g. if it's 10pm in real life, it's 10pm in the game). Certain things are only accessible during specific times, such as accessing the shop (which is open only during specific hours). talking to villagers (they go to sleep at night), catching certain bugs or fish, and more. This concept extends further to days (certain NPCs only show up on a specific day of the week) and months (the seasons change according to your set hemisphere, as well as pool of bugs/fish you can catch, and special in-game events become available). It's a mechanic that encourages you to take it one day at a time, almost to a frustrating degree (some things, like building bridges, make you wait until the next day to actually use the damn thing), but it is one you can work around by changing the internal time on your Switch (a process dubbed "time traveling"). I personally am content playing the game as it was intended, though I do understand that some people just want to get to the good part. If your personal island isn't enough, you can visit other islands as well! Your first option is the Mystery Islands, which takes you to one of various pre-designed islands. This is a good place to harvest extra resources, potentially catch rare fish and bugs, and even meet new villager friends who will move to your island. I kinda wish the islands were properly random to make things interesting (it merely selects one out of a small set of possible islands), but I suppose they serve their purpose well enough as a source of extra shit. Your other option is to go visit the islands of other players. Very early on, you unlock the airport, which allows you to fly to player islands online (or the reverse, which is opening your islands to visitors). The game has a smart precaution against online troublemakers, limiting certain tools and the ability to move furniture around when there are visitors, but some restrictions can be lifted if you are Best Friends with the other players. While I have had a blast playing online with my friends and making our own fun (especially in the current status quo of staying home), Animal Crossing's online is far from perfect, with a subpar chat, the constant need to have players be idle when people are entering/leaving the island, and certain functions that don't affect online gameplay at all being inexplicably unavailable when people are over. Hopefully they fix some of these things in future patches. Honestly, it has been quite challenging writing about this game, as there is simply a lot of minutiae you can get into when talking about it. For example, I haven't even gotten into the millions of clothing options you have access to, or elaborated on the terraforming (which allows you to create paths, waterways, and even cliffs), how goddamn annoying crafting can be, or how fucking amazing the museum looks. There's also stuff like how many unique spawn conditions there are for fish and bugs, the variety of fruit trees you can plant, the ability to create your own custom designs for clothing and terrain, the new NPCs who you can sell fish and bugs to, or the wacky Amiibo functionality. There is a shit ton of things to do and see in this game, and I doubt my words can do it justice. VERDICT: Even with my gripes with the online and other things like how crafting is handled, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still a fantastic experience. There is so much to this game that I couldn't even manage to write about all of it, and it boasts a tremendous amount of polish to boot. With what the world has come to right now, it's no surprise that a happy-place game such as this has taken everyone by storm, and I'd like to think that all that hype is well-deserved. If you're stuck at home and you own a Switch, this is a game worth getting right now. If you don't own a Switch (or you don't really understand the appeal of Animal Crossing), go check out the older Animal Crossing games (like New Leaf for the 3DS, or the original on GameCube; emulate them if you must, I won't judge). Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my island. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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