Discussion: Do you think people are less attached to their save files than in New Leaf?

[Brookie]

Curious to see what others perceive. I'm not saying this in a negative way or anything, I just genuinely want to discuss. I enjoy these convos!

My take on it: It sure does seem that way. Back in New Leaf days, everyone (TBT) had these beautiful signatures that named the town, fruit, and villagers. (You will know what I'm talking about if you were on here in those days.) They were custom to that person and their town + aesthetic. Also, there were far more convos about villagers, how each one is special to the person, and their quirks. People often discussed the stories and backgrounds they've created for their villagers and just seemed more fond of them in general.

Disclaimer: I don't think one game is better than the other. I'm just sharing a social/people observation I've made and want to discuss it with my fave community!

What do you think?

 

[Eevees]

I cant see myself ever deleting my island I lost my old switch due to issues in real and i'm pretty attached that being said, I've seen lot people start over.

 

[moon_child]

I shared my thoughts somewhat related to this in a few other threads before and I’ll gladly share them again here. I’ve played NL extensively and by extensive I meant since release and until now. I’ve had several NL towns and some of them are still the same towns I’ve had since way back. See personally, I think the magic of NL comes from its soul and charm. When I was playing NH for the first few months or so I enjoyed it throughly because it seemed to address a lot of things I complained about in NL. You can choose which villagers you want, you can choose where to place their plots, you can terraform to your hearts content, items are readily available, no waiting around for PWPs, you can actually bulk buy bushes from Leif, flowers don’t die, grass don’t deteriorate, villagers don’t move without your consent etc. You pretty much have full control of everything.

After some time tho, I wondered why I don’t feel the same attachment for my NH island as I did with my NL island and started to think. Turns out everything else I used to complain about in NL before are the exact same things I missed the most. See NL had so much less control than NH and I think that’s what kept the game so exciting. The unpredictability of NL gave us a whole range of emotions that made the entire game experience more memorable. Not knowing who or where or when new villagers are moving kept us on our toes. It birthed favorites (randomly getting a dreamie), enemies (that one villager who decided to plop his house in the middle of your hybrid flower garden), frenemies turned besties (that one villager you would never ever choose but they moved in anyway and they win you over time) and many more. Not being able to play for a while then going back to find someone moved out already will either give you feelings of happiness (yes that ugly horrible one finally left) or devastation (omg I failed to stop my bff and now I’d have to endure several more villagers before I can get him back again). You have to talk to your villagers a whole lot because they might finally request that elusive police station you’ve been wanting for more than a year only to find out they wanted a weird looking tooth statue instead. *sigh* NL evoked so many emotions from players and the unpredictability of the game gave way for a lot of hilarity and drama. NH lost a lot of that charm in favor of customizability and control. The main focus of NL is life simulation. Living your best life with animal friends who comes and goes, getting to know them and forging relationships. Meanwhile NH focuses on design and building things (more in the vein of Pocket Camp and Happy Home Designer than the OG AC titles). It’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if that’s more your playstyle but somewhere along the way it did lose the AC charm and soul. I’ve done several islands in NH and they all pretty much played the same way, save for the timing of when I collect DIYs and items, the experience is pretty much the same. In NL, however, every single play through I’ve had was different, every town story unfolded in various ways, some more traumatic than others lollll but isn’t that what makes life exciting? This is why I think people are more attached to their NL towns than their NH islands.

 

[Croconaw]

I was more attached to this island than my town in New Leaf, yes. I usually get indulged in one saved file at a time.

 

[oak]

I personally never deleted my original New Leaf town or my original New Horizons town. I got attached to both.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

No I don’t. I think probably some people are more attached, some people less, and some people the same.

All the discussions you describe as happening on NL have occurred extensively for New Horizons from what I’ve seen on this forum for the past 2 years. I know I personally have written a lot about my villagers and experiences with them and enjoyed reading the same from other members on here. None of the topics you mentioned were ones I have not seen extensively discussed.

I feel like in general it is difficult and dangerous to compare different fan discourse occurring over a decade apart.

Everyone’s experience now isn’t the same as it was then, it’s a different world in terms of the online experience.

But I do not believe there is any less engagement from players of new horizons vs new leaf, as an aggregate of fan experience. For some people who don’t like new horizons I think it may feel like that though. Which is understandable.

I also feel like it is ultimately not a good way to judge the relative merits of either game, or a cause for concern for fans of either game.

I don’t think you (op) intended to cause any arguments, but I’ve seen this devolve into arguing about which one is better so many times that I feel like I should put some kind of disclaimer on my response - I’m not telling anyone what to think.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Said this is a different thread so I'll say it here, Well I've done a lot of restarting last year ever since I got my 2nd switch and 2nd Copy of the game. Now I have more features to do that I can ever do before. For example I can just move my regular Resident (Not Resident Representative) off any island and they still keep all of their stuff, DIYS learned, and Achievements that they unlocked. Plus I can visit myself using local online play that doesn't require NSO membership (Still need to be online though).

I can still keep my stuff thanks to transferring all the stuff I have to the other island and then give it back again when I have my new island. I've done like 50 times so this year I am just chilling with my 2nd island. There are sometimes I may want to restart, but I have to learn to take my time with this game and not rush through it. Restarting does make things more different and becomes a lot more interesting when you do things differently that you could've never done before.

That being said, I would never restart my main island, I had it for so long that its like my special place for holding everything that I've had for the longest time. The 2nd island I can just easily restart but before I do that I have to make sure all my stuff is carried over to the main island just so I don't lose all of the items. Having a 2nd switch and 2nd copy of the game was the thing I needed the most last year.

 

[Bluebellie]

I’ve restarted my new leaf town multiple times, and I’ve had multiple towns there. I have never restarted my new horizons island. I am very attached to it, more than I was to my new leaf town. Though my new horizons island is sort of a continuation of my new leaf since I knew I wanted something similar in new horizons. I had a couple of original characters I created in new leaf, and I just recreated them again in new horizons. I supposed I don’t miss my new leaf town too much (though I really loved playing it), because I recreated my town all over again. A lot of my villagers also made it back ( Nan, Rodeo, Mathilda, Roscoe). I think Cole and Agnes as well.

I had a year to plan it out until new horizons came out and I was able to fix a lot do things that made me reset my previous new leaf towns. I made sure to pick an island name I wouldn’t regret, and character names I wouldn’t regret either. Having a cohesive theme also helped. My new leaf town was gothic. I initially started my new horizons as gothic, but it has morphed to more of a gloomy/shabby look with hints of gothic elements (dark interiors, dark villagers).

I do remember the signatures because I’ve always wanted one. I just always figured I would get one once I actually finish my town/islands and create a dream address (except I never finish them).

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I think so. Now all people do is design and then delete, design - delete over and over for their "theme." In New Leaf it was all about enjoying the game and having fun with your town and those signatures were so cute! I think New Horizons isnt the problem, I just think its all the new players who started with New Horizons and it doesnt matter! If you have fun deleting over and over its your amazing game! I just think people delete SO SO MANY TIMES for NH???

Edit: I think its also because things in New Leaf take FOREVER to be built and unlocking things tkae FOREVER so you may be playing for a few years before you can even afford things like a light house lol I started new leaf in 2014 so that was my first AC game!

 

[Flicky]

I wonder if it has something to do with how much more customization NH offers, and how watered down the villagers are compared to NL? Or maybe that you'd need an entire new console just to have a second island?

I haven't restarted either game. There was a time when I was considering buying another copy of NL so that I could have a second town with some of the other villagers I really liked, but I eventually decided against it. I would love to have a second island for a new theme, but I can't afford to buy a second Switch console, so my only option is to delete my current island. I won't do that, but I think a lot of people are happy to do so, especially since the villagers aren't as interesting as they were in NL.

I also think social media plays a big role, too. A lot of people seem to restart continuously so that they have more content for their insta, youtube, twitch, etc.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I wonder if it has something to do with how much more customization NH offers, and how watered down the villagers are compared to NL?

The thing is, Animal Crossing was all about building a community and being a chill experience. I feel like when New Horizons came it kinda dropped the whole idea of building a community and just turned into the whole make your island however you want and design things the way you want too. This created an unbalanced issue where its like do you care about building the community or designing your island? Then when the 2.0 update came it brought back stuff that feels more like Animal Crossing, but then its like it did much more to increase the design aspect. The game went through some identity crisis. Does it want to be a game where you can just design what you want and not be limited, or is it about building a community with all these cute animal villagers?

 

[oddbear]

i think part of it is how hard it is to redo your island. new horizons gave us pretty extensive island customization features, and it takes HOURS just to do the terraforming part. it's much easier to just restart your island then have to spend hours undoing it if you don't like it or want to change it.

everything in new horizons is so heavily based on customizing that that's all anyone really cares about, including the developers. people only want the cute and aesthetic villagers because the villagers are really watered down. they are so stereotyped (especially the jock villagers- i can't stand hearing them talk about how they do 473 push ups every morning or something and they're a tiny round hamster) and they have the same dialogue. it at least felt like they had some sort of personality in new leaf. if you have two of the same villagers, it's like they have the exact same brain. it's kinda sad because the series is called ANIMAL crossing not decorating crossing.

if you only care about customizing, then why would you care about your save file? it's much easier to just start a new one instead of spending hours redoing your island. there's not that much else to the game.

 

[Brookie]

I also feel like it is ultimately not a good way to judge the relative merits of either game, or a cause for concern for fans of either game.

I don’t think you (op) intended to cause any arguments, but I’ve seen this devolve into arguing about which one is better so many times that I feel like I should put some kind of disclaimer on my response - I’m not telling anyone what to think.

Yeah, I totally forgot about the arguments a year or so ago.

And I hope it doesn't come across like I'm judging the merits of ACNH, it's a great game and I love it.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Hard for me to say because I wasn't part of any animal crossing community during the prime of New Leaf.

BUT I have never deleted either of my NL towns, and I won't ever delete my island to start a new one! I think it just depends on the type of person; some people will always wanna start over, and some people will always want to keep what they started with. I don't think it has to do with one game being better than the other.

 

[RollingAntony]

Tons of things I absorbed from New Leaf as an outsider was the way everyone was resetting their towns constantly. Chronic resetters were everywhere and tons of communities focused exclusively on the design aspect of the game; hacking to get everything perfectly aligned, showcasing their pretty homes with the same furniture sets over and over again, etc.

Looking at parts of this forum and other sides, I see the same stuff I see with NH- stories for their characters, people loving certain NPC, some residents/villagers being more/less valuable depending exclusively on their looks, etc- it's a bit weird when people point out that only on NH residents get picked because of its looks when NL had hundreds of "tierlists" and a select group of villagers appeared on every town because they were the cutest designs.

Even some discussions are the same ("the villagers are so watered down, AC should be a life-sim not a design game!"), but there are more ill-intentioned people and trolls now. I didn't see a lot of people posting screenshots of dialogue from NL, the screenshots were from previous games (and it was mostly the same pool of conversations).

It's also a completely different world now than 10 years ago- and likewise, the same players that had NL 10 years ago are on a very different place now. While we weren't exactly using stone wheels, social media and everything is much more faster and invasive than before. It's far easier to think your villager is "special" if you didn't see ten thousand screenshots of every bit of dialogue the first day. You are inclined to believe that the first game that pushed the design game to the front was not doing that if you didn't have every bit of the game overanalyzed for you to read each morning. People think the residents of NH are the "same" now because there's cynicism on the tons of content creators that appear on your feed daily (negativity gives you likes and money), whereas NL had less content being created just to get money (it's much less difficult to find videos of everything related to NH than NL). It's easier to feel less attached if you burnt through years of content on less than a week because you aren't slowly experimenting a life-simulator, you are rushing to be the first to get the perfect island (or you just simply don't have nothing else to do 'cause you're stuck during a pandemic).

Personally, I care more about the community life of my game than the decorating aspect. Not that I don't enjoy the latter, but I'm not silly enough to imply NH is just about decorating when there is an overwhelming amount of content directed at me which helps me get attached to the little rascals I live with- and both combine to create an unique experience that I won't get ever again if I restart. And if I restart, I'll get another unique experience but I probably would be discouraged and it would be very hard to play another file. NH has so much charm, soul and personality that my savefile is part of my journey.

 

[nightglow]

Of the short time I played new leaf, outside decor actually felt earned. Public works projects took a long time to get from a villager, then you had to have a dedicated spot for it, and then earn the money for it. It took alot of effort to have your town in a layout you liked. It also took longer as a result for your town to actually look like a town. Not saying new horizons doesn't take alot of effort, but new horizons is more tedious in my opinion.
I just really like the idea of public works projects from nl, villager yards from nh, access to all flowers through shop rotation, and terraforming that isn't tedious if you get far enough into the game. Honestly some people enjoyed the game more by not having any cliffs beyond what's required for creature hunting because it allowed more space, and less fuss of trying to organize buildings and ramps. Or avoid waterscaping. Or they just stuck with the default map no matter what. I think that speaks volumes about the terraforming process. With the camera angle being limited and the lack of angling buildings, I think it added to frustration of trying to organize without blocking other stuff.

 

[Rosch]

Stuff in New Leaf is a lot more difficult to unlock, and there actually a real sense of achievement and progression (main street and the town tree). So it's a lot more difficult for people to reset because there is a bigger sense of attachment to things.

Whereas in NH, many people are more willing to reset because mostly everything is a lot more accessible and customizable from the get go. Building placement is no issue. Villager interior are no longer worrysome. Any villager can be invited thanks to amiibo. Majority of the furniture are a lot more accessible thanks to HHP. Customize your furniture anytime thanks to Cyrus. DIY Recipes can be traded, etc.

So yeah, NH players are less attached to their save files.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Yeah, I totally forgot about the arguments a year or so ago.

And I hope it doesn't come across like I'm judging the merits of ACNH, it's a great game and I love it.

No no, it isn’t you, I feel like you are coming from a good place.

In general threads like this make me very nervous. it took me overnight to work up the nerve check the thread again, so thank you for responding kindly.

Tons of things I absorbed from New Leaf as an outsider was the way everyone was resetting their towns constantly. Chronic resetters were everywhere and tons of communities focused exclusively on the design aspect of the game; hacking to get everything perfectly aligned, showcasing their pretty homes with the same furniture sets over and over again, etc.

Looking at parts of this forum and other sides, I see the same stuff I see with NH- stories for their characters, people loving certain NPC, some residents/villagers being more/less valuable depending exclusively on their looks, etc- it's a bit weird when people point out that only on NH residents get picked because of its looks when NL had hundreds of "tierlists" and a select group of villagers appeared on every town because they were the cutest designs.

Even some discussions are the same ("the villagers are so watered down, AC should be a life-sim not a design game!"), but there are more ill-intentioned people and trolls now. I didn't see a lot of people posting screenshots of dialogue from NL, the screenshots were from previous games (and it was mostly the same pool of conversations).

It's also a completely different world now than 10 years ago- and likewise, the same players that had NL 10 years ago are on a very different place now. While we weren't exactly using stone wheels, social media and everything is much more faster and invasive than before. It's far easier to think your villager is "special" if you didn't see ten thousand screenshots of every bit of dialogue the first day. You are inclined to believe that the first game that pushed the design game to the front was not doing that if you didn't have every bit of the game overanalyzed for you to read each morning. People think the residents of NH are the "same" now because there's cynicism on the tons of content creators that appear on your feed daily (negativity gives you likes and money), whereas NL had less content being created just to get money (it's much less difficult to find videos of everything related to NH than NL). It's easier to feel less attached if you burnt through years of content on less than a week because you aren't slowly experimenting a life-simulator, you are rushing to be the first to get the perfect island (or you just simply don't have nothing else to do 'cause you're stuck during a pandemic).

Personally, I care more about the community life of my game than the decorating aspect. Not that I don't enjoy the latter, but I'm not silly enough to imply NH is just about decorating when there is an overwhelming amount of content directed at me which helps me get attached to the little rascals I live with- and both combine to create an unique experience that I won't get ever again if I restart. And if I restart, I'll get another unique experience but I probably would be discouraged and it would be very hard to play another file. NH has so much charm, soul and personality that my savefile is part of my journey.

Thank you so much for writing this, I couldn’t agree more. I really think that most likely neither the tone of the game nor the way people in general engage with it have changed much at all. The same complaints happened with new leaf, and the same unfavorable comparisons to new horizons and other prior games will occur with the next game no matter what changes.

but 10 years ago was also a very different time, and for people who have played as a child or young teen, being 12 and playing something is really different than playing at 22 (and nostalgia is a very powerful feeling) There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think too often people point at the game at being ‘different’ without taking into account that you are a different person and the way you engage with media has fundamentally changed both because of your personal growth/ change and the changes to how we engage with things as a culture - esp the ubiquity of social media, in this case.

It’s also always nice to remember that a ‘not good for me change’ is not the same as a ‘ruins the game for everyone change.’

It sounds like NL probably isn’t for me, because i don’t have the time/ patience to do manual resetting ‘tricks’ (I prefer the flexibility built into NH) and I am not interested in mini games or multiplayer options. And I prefer the more wacky canned dialogue in NH (including bugs stuff from the lazies) to the canned tutorial language that seems to have been more prevalent in NL. But I don’t think that means that NL is a bad game, it probably just doesn’t suit me personally as well as new horizons does. And that is fine.

Many people on this forum alone have spent 2000+ hours playing the game, so I don’t think there is any reason to believe people are less attached. And it does look like a majority on this thread are saying they have an equal or greater attachment to their save files, so that is nice to see come through.

 

[tessa grace]

Honestly I think it just depends on the player and also the community of players they're influenced by.

I wasn't playing NL during its prime time of playing, however I did play the game for several years and honestly, I reset the game like 6 times. Partially this was because I had the option to sell my town (after welcome amiibo came) but also because I did everything and got bored.
I've never reset my ACNH island. I've considered it but ultimately I decided to keep it because I was attached.

However, like many people have said on this thread, you guys are right about the design aspect becoming a primary aspect of New Horizons. One of the reasons this is, at least in my opinion, is because of it blowing up in 2020 and the greater access to social media than during New Leaf's era. More than 3 times the amount of copies of NH have been sold compared to NL, and it is by far Nintendo's biggest game in the franchise. A lot of this is because of the popularity online. I'm not saying that social media didn't play a part in 2012 as well, but it was a much different dynamic and less teens (which makes up a solid portion of Animal Crossing players) were online as well.

Now, because of the boom in NH and social media, you can find thousands upon thousands of youtube videos, dream islands, pinterest pins of towns, social media posts, and much more of these towns that everyone wished they had. I often find myself losing motivation to play because I feel like I can't compare my town to others, and I become so focused on making my island look pretty that I forget to enjoy the rest of the game, which is making friends with the villagers and just generally taking it slow.

So, I think with the comparing and people constantly designing, it makes them less attached to their game files and more susceptible to resetting because they could have a cleaner slate to work with and want to experience the fun of the beginning of the game again. Just my opinion though.

A lot of players play differently, though, and wouldn't reset their island in a million years. We've seen it with a lot of people on this forum! Really it just depends on your main reason for playing the game.

And honestly? If you like to reset, reset! Have fun with the game in however you see fit. It's not my place to judge people's "attachment" to a game or even NL versus NH just because they play the game differently from me. As long as everyone is nice and happy, I think that its completely fine

 

[kemdi]

From what I've seen, people are not as attached to their NH save files. But honestly, I think a huge part of that is not New Horizon's fault and is more so economic. In New Leaf, after a player finished with a town and if they wanted another one, all they had to do was get a new cart. They're cheap, and a good portion of long time NL players have 2 towns or more. Just a few bucks would let players keep the first town, while they start another one. A lot of people would reset, but most people, if they had a bit of cash, would just get a whole new town on another cart.

That's not an option with NH. If you want a new island while keeping your old, you have to get another console. And of course compared to carts, consoles aren't as cheap. For a lot of people, getting a new one, even a lite, may be out of range. As a result you see a lot more people starting over by deleting their first save files and rebuilding, rather than having to buy two or more consoles/islands.