I feel like I know why New Horizons may not have the same longevity as New Leaf...

[McRibbie]

You're right about this, but this isn't what I'm talking about. When I say 'sequel' I'm not so much talking about just features, elements or structure. I'm mostly talking about the theme. Thematically speaking, New Horizons doesn't follow the the AC games of the past the way New Leaf did. NH is a mainline game, it does have most features and elements all the mainline game have, but theme-wise it leans more heavily on design than community. NL don't do that. To give an example: up until NL, the design element of the game was strictly focused on your personal house. HHD changed that, and NH took what HHD did and went further, to not just your house, but your whole island. AC has always had it where you could place limited types of items outside, with the highest limit of this in NL with PWPs. But even with this, you still needed to be a part of your community in order to get these items to decorate. In NL you still had to have your villagers come up to you and "suggest" for you to build a pwp. In other words, you had to talk to them on a regular basis in order to see progress in your village.

In ACgc, WW, and CF, progress was defined by talking to and making friends with your villagers. If you wanted to see more rare or new items, you had to be friends with them. When they told you they wanted to hear from you by mail, you had to send a letter. When they told you to plant flowers in order to make the village pretty you had to do it, if you wanted to see progress. And only when you reached 'perfect' town status, could you get a new bridge, or fountain, windmill or lighthouse. This does not happen in New Horizons, at all, to a point where in NH there are limits to getting new villagers, but there are NO limits to getting new outside furniture. Outside of the tutorial phase, you don't really need to talk to your villagers. You can stay perfect strangers and still do everything you want to do in the game, whereas in the past, this definitely wasn't the case. Now, of course you can if you want to, but you don't NEED to, and that's what I mean when I say that community and relationships in NH have taken a back seat. They're not absent, but just not the focus.

In NH, one of the first things you're told to do is pick a spot for your neighbors' homes. Then you have to set up more spots for other villagers and put down their furniture. Then later on, you have to set up more spots for more buildings namely the museum, tailors, and item shop. You're told early on that fruit lets you move trees and bust rocks at will. Later after that, you're told to beautify your island for KK to visit aka progress. Nowhere in this tutorial phase are you made to focus on building relationships with your villagers. You're told to talk to your two neighbors, but only briefly. They're not the center focus, which is building up and decorating your island.

Contrast, with NL: you can't progress forward without consistently talking to all five of your starting villagers. You have to talk to them repeatedly at the start of the game, getting them to sign the petitions. They're the focus and you have to get to know them, because later on you can't build pwp's without their suggestion, aka their 'permission'. Contrast again with ACgc, WW, and CF: The first thing Nook has you do in those games is to employ you to work for the villagers. Again, they are the focus. From ACgc through NL, the overall theme is the community and relationships you build and grow with your villagers. NH's theme doesn't focus on this.

NH's theme from the tutorial phase and well after focuses on decorating and building, and I'm saying that this started with HHD. The criticisms that started in NL was addressed in HHD, and I'm saying that particular theme of building and decorating has since grown and continued with NH and PC.

Sorry in hindsight for the very long post it wasn't my intention. Also, sorry if I came off as saying that NH was a shallow sequel of HHD, that's not what I meant at all. Tbh, I love NH, more than NL! For me, NH may not be about community, but I looove building, terraforming, decorating, and the character customizations are just perfect! I love NL too but being a lighter toned character all the time when it comes to customizing...yea, I'll stick with NH.

If you put it like that, yeah, I understand what you mean.
Tbh, I think that's a shame in some ways, and a benefit in others, and is the reason why I'm honestly on the fence about NH.

I'm hoping the next game gets the balance better (although I'm also concerned a balance isn't possible, and we're going to get a string of games that makes one part of the AC fandom hopping mad, and another really happy again).

I've also written FAR longer posts so I'll forgive the long post

 

[Corrie]

It's amazing how New Leaf gets so many free passes by some people. It does many things "worse", so many characters got done so dirty, it got rid of so many features, yet it's always fine. I really hope this annoying discourse disappears if/when a new mainline game is announced.


And if by any case the above is considered off-topic even tho other people are posting that kind of things, the upcoming Bunny Day reminded of how much people let social media and the internet as a whole hurt their NH gameplay and longevity. While it was amazing to see NH everywhere on the internet, at the same time, many people took it on the worst way possible (wanting to be the first to do x, wanting to get everything day 1, comparing your island to others, eating up everything posted by content creators downplaying the game/posting their "opinions" (but treating them as facts) and changing the discourse around the game forever, etc.

Tons of people hating BD because eggs were appearing everywhere and couldn't find iron nuggets because of course, you had to upgrade the Cranny as soon as possible to not lag behind- everyone was posting about how to upgrade and guides of the fastest way to do it. Tons of people crafting hundreds of fish bait because the first Fishing Tourney could be hindered by the eggs and of course, everyone needed to get all the fishing prizes on the first tourney because I saw a tweet about the gold trophy and how come I don't have it (which of course didn't contribute to people burning out on the crafting system). Tons of people popping hundreds of ballons to grind on 10 days the Cherry Blossom DIY because you had to complete everything year 1, and you would never get the DIY that people were bragging about having their island decorated with so much pink and with season coming to an end and I also need to decorate with them because those DIY are useless after the season (which in turn also meant people were breaking tools constantly and getting tired of this too). Tons of people abusing external-turnip sources to get millions of bells the first week.

And rushing and grinding on such a short span, made many things look way cumbersome than they are- don't get me wrong, I do think something like the breaking tools could have been more refined, but I also think people exaggerate its flaws and overlook that the other QoL cover some of them.

All that was burnout, and I really don't think it was the game's fault. The game never forced anyone to grind everything to oblivion; not on release date, nor on the various updates. But many people did, and then got the weird (and false) idea the game had no content and no longevity.

Best post right here lol.

I was guilty of forgetting about NL's flaws until I read people's comparison posts that pointed out things like the horrid PWPs. I remember grinding for them in the water and good lord, I hated every second. NL isn't the best game ever if you look at it and I feel like lots had the same mindset as I did before where you forget the bad stuff. Nostalgia sure works wonders.

NH does things loads better to the point where I actually struggle to go back to WW, CF, or NL. The only thing I really like better about those games is the music. Not a fan of NH's hourly music at all. Otherwise, I don't wanna go back and see, to me, that's what makes a great game. Where the new one improves so much. NH has things I don't like, such as the breakable tools, but it brings so much to the table. The Able Sister's changeroom was a feature I loooove, even though it isn't perfect either with having no cart feature.

NH has lots to do. I didn't grind the game as much as most people during quarantine so I didn't experience burnout. My island is nowhere near done and if you actually spend time talking to villagers, their dialogue is really not as bad as people say. Sometimes they say short things and the convo ends which bugs me, but it beats NL's where five years into the game, you're still getting tutorial dialogue. Not saying it doesn't exist in NH but I haven't had any villager of mine give me any tutorial hints.

 

[-Blue-]

I never thought the villager's in NL were that great. They were actually very bland, but I don't believe either game is strengthened by the villagers. I remember chatting with friends about the new AC game (whenever/whatever it would be) and we hoped for better interactions. I do wish NH had as many errands to do for them as NL offered, but I also hated how my villager's in NL never did anything but put me to work. Like all the time. There was no actual chatting with them for the most part. It was just being forced on another task.

I miss the option in AC where you could select 'give me work!' or whatever it was. That needs to come back.

 

[Corrie]

I never thought the villager's in NL were that great. They were actually very bland, but I don't believe either game is strengthened by the villagers. I remember chatting with friends about the new AC game (whenever/whatever it would be) and we hoped for better interactions. I do wish NH had as many errands to do for them as NL offered, but I also hated how my villager's in NL never did anything but put me to work. Like all the time. There was no actual chatting with them for the most part. It was just being forced on another task.

I miss the option in AC where you could select 'give me work!' or whatever it was. That needs to come back.

"Take me to another island to get me signatures!" Ugh. I did that task once and never again. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't want tasks to come back lol. Like, get your fruit yourself. It's on the tree right in front of you.

 

[-Blue-]

"Take me to another island to get me signatures!" Ugh. I did that task once and never again. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't want tasks to come back lol. Like, get your fruit yourself. It's on the tree right in front of you.

Yeah, but that's why something like a third option of 'give me work' would be great. If you don't want to do it, just don't select it. And giving them rotten fruit was amazing.

'That peach was delicious! Is what I would've said if it wasn't so not delicious!'
'I think I ate a worm...did you mean to give me a bad apple?'