How much customization is too much?

[Ganucci]

I just finished reading through the threads on here, DLC Discussion & Updates ~ & When can you edit the plaza? and it had me thinking. I always hear people say how they are glad we are able to edit the outdoors of our island so much and can change our appearance whenever we'd like, but I also remember prior to the game's release that some people didn't want everything to be customizable at any time because it takes away something that Animal Crossing has always held onto in some regard. In the old games your face was chosen at the beginning and you couldn't ever change it except for eye color. Locations such as the train station, Town Hall, and town square to name a few, couldn't ever be moved. Then of course the biggest things, you couldn't landscape or waterscape anything in previous games, so your town's geography could never change.
In New Horizons while there is A LOT you can customize at any time, there is also a lot that you can't such as the location of Resident Services, color of your airport, native fruit (this has been a constant in all games), and river mouths. You are also stuck with certain variants Nook Miles item with the only way to get other colors by trading with real people. Somewhat similarly, items that appear in Nook's Cranny will only appear in one or two variants, and the rest you can only find through a lucky balloon, shaking a tree, a villager gifting it to you, or trading with a real life person.

Are there certain things in New Horizons you wish you could customize at any time? And even more interestingly, are there things you wish you couldn't customize at any time or as frequently?

 

[Watchingthetreetops]

honestly, terraforming. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice and can provide an interesting atmosphere but there was something...I don't know, gratifying about getting the type of map that you truly wanted. I was so excited to have a little island at the center of my map until I realized that it didn't matter lol

 

[Ganucci]

honestly, terraforming. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice and can provide an interesting atmosphere but there was something...I don't know, gratifying about getting the type of map that you truly wanted. I was so excited to have a little island at the center of my map until I realized that it didn't matter lol

It's definitely tough because I've spent HOURS terraforming my island, but there was definitely something comforting about finding your map and then it being the same throughout all your playtime. It kinda forced you to be creative with certain areas and in a way you were able to really bond with it as it never changed.

 

[NicksFixed]

Don't forget, we couldn't move rocks either, we had to work around them. Nor could we choose villager house locations ...

I haven't terraformed one single tile of my island. I'm not being nostalgic entirely but I did think back to the previous games where you could change very little and I knew all my towns like the back of my hand because I knew where everything was at all times. I personally feel that the island I got right at the start is my island and if I changed it too much or too often, it wouldn't be my island anymore. I still think it's great that we can terraform if we choose to now, as a lot of people really wanted that, and being able to choose where buildings go is a huge benefit.

I think we need to have a certain number of constants on our islands and I don't think we should be able to change absolutely everything ... Nintendo might as well just sell us dev kits instead of games !!

 

[azurill]

I love that we have terraforming even though I have not used it much. I looked for a map that I knew I wasn’t going to want to change. I did end up changing my river to go around a villagers house better, I also added two ponds and a waterfall. The last thing I terraformed was extending one of my cliffs in my shopping plaza. I don’t mind that we can’t change the resident services airport or river mouths and wouldn’t if we could. I do wish that the nook variants would once in a while show up in our nook shop.

 

[Pyoopi]

I would say the resident services is something I want to see customizable. Like the kind of default path it sits on, the building style, and the street lamps. Possibly the bulletin too? Maybe the bulletin, building and lamps come as a one type package deal.

It would be fun if the shops and museum could have custom styles like how acnl did for the train station/plaza.

I don't think villager houses and interiors should be customizable like in HHD? (never played it). Personally, there is some strange villager interiors or I might disagree with what was given but I kind of like the different POV of the 3D artist that built the interior. It amuses me.

 

[Starboard]

I don't know how popular this opinion is but I think I'd be happiest if we were able to customise pretty much everything that can have variations. I'm only saying that because the reason I'm so obsessed and keep coming back to this game is because I'm so happy with how my town is, how my character looks, where the buildings are, etc. I love that there's no worry of if I'll hate a choice or the placement of something in the future. I don't like the concept of resetting repeatedly at the beginning until you have something you like and I don't like that I have to rely on others to collect all the furniture that the game has to offer. I don't really mind that I couldn't choose the placement of RS or my airport colour since I'm not overly picky, but I do find myself thinking that more players would be happy if they were choosable. I personally don't think it would take much away from the game, but that's just me.

Having said that, at times I do kind of like designing within restrictions. It makes me feel a sense of achievement when I've made something look good! And sometimes I end up doing things I really love that I wouldn't have done otherwise, so that's a plus!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this game's level of customisation.... but I really wish I wouldn't get so anxious whenever I have to name my player and town, since you can never change it again

 

[Nefarious]

It's better to have more customization than little. I think everyone forgets that it's optional to terraform or to move buildings or rocks, or to even overly decorate the outside of your island. After the initial story you can play it as vanilla as you like. I love that we can manipulate the environment way more than we could in New Leaf, my map only went through a bit of terraforming on the top right side but is completely as it was when I first picked it. I think the only other customization aspect I'd ask for is building styles or at least the type of pathing the resident services sits on. Even then though, I'm really happy with what we've been given so far.

 

[Etown20]

Ideally, I think the variations that can only be accomplished by resetting (river mouths, airport color, and plaza location) should all be customizable. I also wish the Nook Miles items weren't color-locked and were customizable like the rest of the items in the game.

 

[visibleghost]

i really like the level of customization you have in new horizons. it would be a worse game than new leaf without the ability to terraform in my opinion because of the lack of items. i don't know if i would want to be able to change what you cannot change now, in some ways it's a bit of the charm to have to work around some parts like the resident's center or your rocky parts of the beach

 

[marea]

I want things like buildings exteriors and interiors to be customizable. The nice thing about it is that it is all optional, you dont have to terraform if you dont want to, or even move buildings/change their design or color if you feel it takes away from the ac experince. I never wanted to change my town hall exterior in nl but i like the concept of being able to do that, and i might even use it if we could here, and if i liked the designs. I cant think of an option to customaize in nh that i want removed.

 

[sleepydreepy]

In the old games your face was chosen at the beginning and you couldn't ever change it except for eye color. Locations such as the train station, Town Hall, and town square to name a few, couldn't ever be moved. Then of course the biggest things, you couldn't landscape or waterscape anything in previous games, so your town's geography could never change.

I was thinking about this too earlier, debating whether or not I liked the ability to change my facial features and landscape at will. But then I realized I guess in real life buildings could technically be moved around, rivers could be created or filled in, and your facial features theoretically could be changed with plastic surgery (lol). And the reason why this isn't completely unacceptable to me is because of the addition of autosave. Autosave creates a needed balance so we don't have total freedom and unlimited power. I think the day that AC gives us a free undo button plus the ability to change landscape at will, then it will have gone "too far" because it would feel more like an obvious computer program than a "life simulation" game.

 

[Livia]

The main thing I want is to be able to move resident services. On my first island it is right in front of the airport so I can’t make a nice entrance.

 

[dizzy bone]

I think terraforming was a really great addition to this game. It's something that you don't have to do if you don't want to, but it's definitely something that keeps me interested in the game knowing I can tear everything down again and start fresh on the same island. I do agree that I like prefer some things to be unchangeable because it reminds of a more classic AC experience - for example, even though we have the ability to change our eyes/nose/mouth I chose not to and I keep the same face (and hair too) forever. Again, it's nice that these kind of things are optional. That said, my first impression of this AC title was that it was "all about customisation" with how much we could do with terraforming and outdoor landscaping. That's why I was a little disappointed when there were no building exterior customisations like in New Leaf because I figured those kind of customisation options would be the "bare minimum" of what we should be able to do. Even our house exterior options are pretty lacklustre. So while I think that our customisation powers in this game are pretty awesome as it is, I'd be bummed if exterior updates are not included somewhere down the line because it only makes sense for a game like this.

 

[matt2019]

I think customization is good, I’m glad we can do it here

 

[samsquared]

hmmm i sort of agree about terraforming being "too much"- i just think maybe the scale of terraforming should be taken down a notch. i love being able to choose my residents' home locations, the shop locations, and being able to design the island. however... i think i'd probably prefer the game to have 1000-ish unique preset maps that cannot be changed. let the player choose between 10 or so but give everyone a unique island.
I think the "island terraforming" as it stands now is truly a game changer. I've said this before in other posts, but I think the focus on designing the island is making this game more of an "advanced HHD" than an actual Animal Crossing game- which in the past prioritized the social interaction between you and the animals equally with your item collecting. There are supposed updates in the works that will fix that issue, but as it stands now, we had to sacrifice a lot of things that I think draw me to the game MORE to get this feature. if i wanted to build everything from scratch, i'd just play the sims LMAO I'd also like a better balance of custom DIY items and furniture sets. Everything leans heavily towards DIY right now, and DIY is fun but I don't want to do it for /every/ furniture set.
& i agree with dizzy, I would like to customize the exterior of not just my own house, but everyone's house, all the shops, and the town hall.

 

[Bilaz]

Tbh I think another reason why some people don’t want as much customisation is that it kinda makes them feel pressured to make everything look good? And it’s also all everyone talks about, ‘how complete is your island’
You can leave things vanilla but not many people care about your museum anymore
and as much as people say ‘don’t compare yourself to others’, it’s a community, so I really understand why less creative people would feel a little left behind by their relaxed life sim

I’m personally really starting to love the terraforming though, and I wish we could have both. I really miss the NPCs having stories to unlock like in Wild World and I’d like more stuff to do with villagers

 

[littlewing]

i tend to be of the mindset that there's no such thing as too much customization as long as it's entirely optional.

i know there's a decent chunk of people that dislike the terraforming feature, and after several months of struggling with it i'm starting to think it's not for me either, but i'm still glad it was included. i always love to have as many options as possible to truly make something "my own", even when i end up not utilizing even half of said options.

i do agree with @samsquared though about the design-aspects of the game seemingly being prioritized over the social aspects, which does bum me out. :/ i wish they'd have balanced these things better.

lastly, i agree with everyone that's mentioned being able to customize building exteriors! i'd love that. i'm thinking it wouldn't have to be super in-depth, but more like choosing a general theme or "vibe" for the buildings on your island. i like mine to look sort of rustic and "barely developed", and i'm hoping to keep it that way, so i'm kind of dreading any future nook's cranny upgrades...

also i miss the dirt plaza. is that just me?

 

[Mairen]

I really love the character customization we've been given, and I also like how we can choose where to place amenities and homes. If the next game didnt have terraforming, however, I cannot say I'd be disappointed. I do use it in this game and have enjoyed it just fine, but it's also something I could live without!

 

[Xara]

i’m a sucker for customization. while i don’t want control over everything and i haven’t done much with terraforming, i’m so pleased with the freedom that new horizons has given us; being able to choose the location of most buildings + being able to relocate them, choosing what we look like rather than our appearance being determined by questions at the start of the game, etc has been a godsend and i’m so happy that these features were included! that being said, i’m pretty open about possibilities, too! the one customization feature that i’m really hoping for is the ability to change the exteriors of rs and the airport but i’m not opposed to other ideas that have been suggested, like the option to decorate the plaza!

however, the one feature that i could absolutely do without is further villager customization options; i know there’s many people who would love being able to customize villagers’ interiors and exteriors but i’m not one of them,, i’ve said this a few times before but i’d never want total control over my villagers; being able to 100% customize them would make them feel even less like my neighbours and more like decorations and i don’t want that. i’m perfectly happy with just being granted control over where their homes go and am forever grateful to nintendo for not subjecting me to plot resetting again