I feel like nobody is really happy with the game

[UglyMonsterFace]

I adore this game, and the lacking features have not gotten in the way of that because Nintendo literally promised free updates to continuously add features and events. I mean, the next update is just next month. Until I've actually run out of things to do in the game, I'm not going to complain because I have a feeling that more things to do will trickle in. I'm not a time traveller so there is soooo much I have yet to experience Sure, it isn't a perfect game, and I have a lot of frustrations, but I'm choosing to enjoy it for what it is and not compare it to New Leaf. After all, at it's current state, it is still unfinished.

 

[rezberri]

honestly, even though i have some dislikes about this game, it's way better than any of the previous games. im a fan of simulation type games, and playing the sims 4 then going to new leaf was so. boring. sure you have pwps and stuff, but new horizons has soooo much more customization. i actually want to practice making qr codes now because of the various shirts and dresses u can make. and im also looking forward to designing my rooms instead of dreading it because of all the cute furniture we've seen so far. there may not be much (hopefully just at the moment and there's more coming), but there's a lot u can do with what u have.

the villagers are also fun to talk to as well. in new leaf, they seemed very lifeless because they just walked. i would just pick villagers based on if they matched my town aesthetic or not. now i kinda just want to have random move-ins (excluding my boi stitches<3) because they're all so interesting!! i dont understand how ppl can say that the villagers have no personality in this game. are they just not trying to talk to them throughout the day??

 

[Khaelis]

People who are saying the beginning of the game is slow are failing to realize one thing... you are literally moving to a deserted island. Were you expecting a mountain of things to do? You and Tom Nook literally build the deserted island up into a bustling island town over the coarse of many days.

Once Resident Services gets upgraded to a building, the game's plot really starts to pick up -- you get so much more to do, and when you're finally recognized as an amazing town, so much more opens up to you (island designer).

The game is fantastic.

 

[th8827]

I am very happy.

I feel like the critics are just more obvious because they are vocal about their feelings while the rest of us are busy playing the game and having fun.

 

[cicely]

People who are saying the beginning of the game is slow are failing to realize one thing... you are literally moving to a deserted island. Were you expecting a mountain of things to do? You and Tom Nook literally build the deserted island up into a bustling island town over the coarse of many days.

Once Resident Services gets upgraded to a building, the game's plot really starts to pick up -- you get so much more to do, and when you're finally recognized as an amazing town, so much more opens up to you (island designer).

The game is fantastic.

Yes, it obviously makes sense for the beginning to be slow as molasses from a meta perspective. Does that make for enjoyable gameplay? Nintendo likely spent much time trying to balance this, but I still think it's a tad too slow. Maybe I wouldn't even have problems with this if hourly music didn't have to be unlocked.

 

[Jared:3]

The game is great! Im just not a fan of crafting but other than that this game is amazing!

 

[rezberri]

People who are saying the beginning of the game is slow are failing to realize one thing... you are literally moving to a deserted island. Were you expecting a mountain of things to do? You and Tom Nook literally build the deserted island up into a bustling island town over the coarse of many days.

i agree with this so much!!! even without having tasks from the game, i still have a lot of things to do. i grind for my bells, and i try to visit 2-3 islands per day and whack all my trees for wood. that may not seem like much but its time consuming. plus, with previous games u didnt have tasks like this at all. maybe for the first day or so in new leaf, but after that u had to find things to do by urself. im shook over the fact that this game even has a rough storyline.

Yes, it obviously makes sense for the beginning to be slow as molasses from a meta perspective. Does that make for enjoyable gameplay? Nintendo likely spent much time trying to balance this, but I still think it's a tad too slow. Maybe I wouldn't even have problems with this if hourly music didn't have to be unlocked.

i forgot what i was looking at that made me think this, but i feel like sometimes nintendo doesn't have outside perspective when making their games?? if all of us could come to the conclusion that we should be able to pull materials from our storage when crafting, but not the developers/decision-makers of this game then they must just kind of sit in an echo chamber in some way. obviously they listen to the community though; the path feature is definitely a testament of that.

 

[Flyffel]

I don't know who you are talking with... everyone seems to like it to me...

 

[pocky]

I didnt have any complaints about New Leaf. With New Horizons there are a couple of things I really dislike. That being said, I'm still loving it and its the most fun Ive had with AC in a long time.

 

[Lavamaize]

I think a lot of people love this game. I believe the only people that dislike it are the ones who though that you could have multiple islands on one switch for different accounts.

 

[Deimos]

There is a poll taken on this game with Members of this forum (found here). Most people seem to like it with a few (1-4) rating it less than 5 stars.

 

[cicely]

i forgot what i was looking at that made me think this, but i feel like sometimes nintendo doesn't have outside perspective when making their games?? if all of us could come to the conclusion that we should be able to pull materials from our storage when crafting, but not the developers/decision-makers of this game then they must just kind of sit in an echo chamber in some way. obviously they listen to the community though; the path feature is definitely a testament of that.

I see that kind of discussion when it comes to Nintendo's online service. I don't really play many online games so I don't have much reference other than what other people say, but apparently Nintendo makes baffling choices. Like, they have kind of an outdated model of how online play should be.
You're right though, I really wonder what goes on beyond the scenes.

 

[sunchild]

i'm loving it so much! i wouldn't really take general opinion on "no one is happy with the game" or not just from one website, be it this one or another.. there's a lot of people out there that are loving it. there are so many people i've seen on social media and real life picking up this game because of the hype and are playing the heck out of it!

 

[Mairen]

The animal crossing community has grown larger over the years, and with more people joining the fandom, we are going to be seeing more opinions from both sides of the spectrum.

If I can share an opinion, (and this doesn't apply to ALL time travelers) I think a large part of the problem is no one has patience anymore these days. They want things now. They want things completely their way. So rather than playing the game at a more natural pace, a little bit of progress each day, people chose to time travel. Aaaand they got everything unlocked in a matter of days. And then they ended up sitting around with nothing left to do, and were unhappy about that. Some time travelers understand and purposely do this because they are happier to play at a faster pace, and that's fine! But I believe there's quite a few others who jumped into time travel without really thinking about the consequences of this, and were left unhappy because they "ate the whole cake in one day instead of enjoying a little piece each day to make it last longer" >.< That's one source of the complaints.

Another thing that people have a hard time adjusting to is that they became attached to certain things in new leaf and feel unhappy at not having all of those things available at this time. Whether they are left out entirely or will be added at a later date, no one can say. I hope people can realize that this isn't New Leaf. It's New Horizons. An entirely different game. It might not have everything that new leaf had, but I don't think we honestly got a horrible animal crossing game yet. We're going to have plenty of content, even if it's not the same content.

 

[meggiewes]

The more I play this game, the more I adore it. The crafting system is super fun. Everything from pulling weeds to gathering materials is fun. I've spent more time just wandering around my island than fishing and that is saying something because I love to fish in Animal Crossing. The villagers are opening up to me. I got Katt to talk to me about the amount of turnips my husband sold on my island. Searching for those DIY message bottles is super fun. The mystery tours are a rush.

Yeah, I spent a long time crafting frying pans to sell to Timmy and Tommy today, but I made over 100,000 bells today in frying pans alone! And I cleared out my inventory of iron doing it. I wish I could craft multiples on the tool table, but oh well. I can deal with that.

Harvey's Cabin is really fun to play with. I spent way too much time setting up a skeezy diner and picking out characters to populate it to take pictures. Plus I get rewarded for having my own fun by being able to get posters of the animals I used a models.

I'm interested in seeing what will happen with future updates. I do have concerns over a lot of missing characters, but with the announcement of bringing Leif back and knowing that they did change up holidays between the first few games, I'm willing to see what the development team has decided to do with this game. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it isn't New Leaf 2.0 and I'm ok with that.

 

[M_Rat]

The biggest complaints I've seen is all the things New Leaf did 'better'. Honestly, New Leaf is overrated, and this game shouldn't have to live in New Leaf's shadow, it can very easily be it's own thing if people give it a chance.

 

[Corndoggy]

im really enjoying it so far, but the lack of content can be discouraging to new players, so hopefully with seasonal updates we get more stuff

 

[rezberri]

The animal crossing community has grown larger over the years, and with more people joining the fandom, we are going to be seeing more opinions from both sides of the spectrum.

If I can share an opinion, (and this doesn't apply to ALL time travelers) I think a large part of the problem is no one has patience anymore these days. They want things now. They want things completely their way. So rather than playing the game at a more natural pace, a little bit of progress each day, people chose to time travel. Aaaand they got everything unlocked in a matter of days. And then they ended up sitting around with nothing left to do, and were unhappy about that. Some time travelers understand and purposely do this because they are happier to play at a faster pace, and that's fine! But I believe there's quite a few others who jumped into time travel without really thinking about the consequences of this, and were left unhappy because they "ate the whole cake in one day instead of enjoying a little piece each day to make it last longer" >.< That's one source of the complaints.

Another thing that people have a hard time adjusting to is that they became attached to certain things in new leaf and feel unhappy at not having all of those things available at this time. Whether they are left out entirely or will be added at a later date, no one can say. I hope people can realize that this isn't New Leaf. It's New Horizons. An entirely different game. It might not have everything that new leaf had, but I don't think we honestly got a horrible animal crossing game yet. We're going to have plenty of content, even if it's not the same content.

im commenting on this thread too much i gotta stop oop- but i definitely agree with u here. on reddit, ive seen a lot of random ppl ask on the animal crossing subreddit if theyd like this series because they like stardew valley, harvest moon, or some other type of game like those two. the fact that these titles form a lil group in (uninformed) people's minds is troubling bc in stardew valley the days in the game are literally 12 irl minutes. if u play a fast-paced game like that then u may not like a literally following the irl clock game like animal crossing.

the fact that "outsiders" compare these two games may alter people's perception on the game, and if u come in with the intention of it being fast-paced without time traveling ur going to be sorely disappointed.

i also thing that the rate at which we unlock things is a little odd, but after 3 days im still trying to set up my trees just right so i can farm for wood faster. im gonna die when i get my next villager and have to pick its house location. i think i can find things to do while i wait for a clothing store i'll only be in for 5 minutes max.

 

[RETSAMDET]

I have mixed feelings about the game so far, and on the whole I think I prefer New Leaf. That said, I only started two nights ago, and I haven't had time to play today, so I'm still in the very early game. I'm hoping that some of the things that bug me will get better, or at least stop bothering me as much, as I go along.

My biggest gripe is having breakable tools. That's a mechanic I dislike in pretty much every game that introduces it (e.g., BOTW), and my feelings are no different here. It adds stress to my gameplay loop, and now I feel like I have to maximize my use of each tool to gather resources, catch valuable bugs and fish, etc., before the tool breaks. Resource-wise, I'm finding it easier and less frustrating to buy tools than to craft them (even though I'm pretty sure crafting is supposed to be the preferred option), but that gets expensive in the early game. Plus, my inventory isn't that large (three rows right now), and I'm sick of tools and crafting supplies taking up so much space.

The other thing that's causing stress is the reward for catching a certain number of fish in a row. Now I feel like I have to be hyper vigilant in my fishing, and it's not as relaxing as it usually is. Once I get that achievement, though, and once I stop building flimsy fishing rods that keep breaking, I'll probably feel better about that point.

It probably doesn't help that I spent several days reading people's complaints about the game, negative opinions of sharing an island (which I'm not actually doing), and worries about cut features before getting a chance to start my town. I was really excited, and then, after a rather stressful week owing to the COVID-19 situation, I spent my weekend locked inside, reading negative AC discussions on the internet and waiting to see if I developed viral symptoms after someone I work with reported having a fever (fortunately, I've felt fine so far). The entire scenario dampened my hype a bit, and it's been hard to garner up enthusiasm again.

Overall, I do like the game, and I'm looking forward to playing it later before bed (although I'll admit that post-midnight isn't the ideal time for playing AC, and my Switch clock is currently in sync with the real-world clock). I like my villagers, I like my airport, I'm fairly happy with my fruit. I haven't encountered any element of my town layout that I strongly dislike so far, so I'm pleased with that as well. I think I just need to give things a little more time to start to grow attached to my town. Unlike my ACNL town, it doesn't really feel like home yet.

 

[SweetSpark]

I am very happy with the game so far, but I do share the opinion about the tools breaking... I wish I did not need to craft them so much. I also really wish I could craft MORE THAN ONE fish bait at a time. I love using the bait but not making it...

However, I am so happy to see AC on the TV again. I did not mind NL being handheld, and I love being able to switch between handheld and TV but seeing the game in such nice graphics is great.