I want to understand why some people despise New Horizons

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I think that AC is one of those series that people are super passionate about. We expect alot from AC games as each entry as we always get new features and each game feels like a step up from the previous entry. New Horizons, while it does a really good job in many aspects--is definitely a weaker entry in the AC universe as compared to alot of other games. It doesn't feel fleshed out, villager interactions feel flat and lifeless, and there just aren't a ton of new features that make it feel like an Animal Crossing game. It doesn't feel finished and a lot of people had very high hopes for this game since New Leaf was the best AC game since Wild World. It felt like they were making strides in the right direction and the game just kind of...fell flat.
 
Huh? Please show me where I said high sale numbers = flawless. I never did because it isn't true, so I'm not ignoring anything. I strictly talked about how something is usually massively popular for a reason (ie a large group enjoys it). That doesn't mean it is flawless! :)

I mean, you can completely ignore sales numbers. The other thing you mentioned is the stronger point. We have hundreds of hours in the game, and wouldn't if it was lacking content. It's INSANE to say a game you've played for 400+ hours is lacking in content, but here we are. But again, I completely disagree with the negative/pessimistic folks here so 🤷. Game's great. Better than new leaf.
 
Hooo boy. Believe me, I love NH and I've spent a lot of time on it, but this game has a LOT of problems:

*Why can't you craft multiple of an item at once? I was super excited for the introduction of fish bait only to find out you're forced to craft it 1 by 1, it's incredibly tedious.

*Why does mables not allow you to select multiple items from the same category to purchase in the dressing room? There's no good reason you should keep having to re-enter the dressing room over and over again.

*Why do the wands not allow you to save hairstyles/eye/skin colors to an outfit?

*Speaking of the wands, why do you have to detransform in order to change clothes?

*Villager dialogue is UNBELIEVABLY repetitive in this game. I can only think of a few times in all my years of playing new leaf that I ran into the same dialogue again, but here even though I hardly talk to my villagers 4/5 times they just say the same thing they've already said. Why is the amount of dialogue seemingly so limited?

*Fewer ways to interact with your villagers. They hardly ever give quests, AFAIK things like hide n go seek & time capsules also don't exist anymore. It feels like there's very little reason to talk to them, especially when they're probably just gonna recycle dialogue anyways

*Dear mother of god, the online in this game is complete ass. It's a neverending cycle of watching the 5 minute long arriving/leaving cutscene, constant disconnects, and for some ungodly reason giving people the ability to "leave quietly" which completely screws over literally EVERYONE else on the island. And yes, I do know the dodo cutscene is just the games loading screen, but the load times were never this bad in NL.

*The NPCs talk way too damn much in this game. Talking to CG, Saharah, Flip, and especially the dodos is just a constant button mash fest. The fact that saharahs dialogue was patched to make buying her stuff quicker makes it seem like the devs are aware of this problem. Ironically, the only NPC who I've felt doesnt talk too much is Blathers of all people

And these are just some examples off the top of my head. Overall, this game feels weirdly clunky and outdated compared to most modern games. Many of these could be easily patched, but who knows if that'll happen.
 
*Villager dialogue is UNBELIEVABLY repetitive in this game. I can only think of a few times in all my years of playing new leaf that I ran into the same dialogue again, but here even though I hardly talk to my villagers 4/5 times they just say the same thing they've already said. Why is the amount of dialogue seemingly so limited?

I'm playing new leaf and new horizons concurrently right now. I dialogue is 1000x more repetitive in New Leaf. Talk to a villager 10 times in NL, they'll repeat the same dialogue 4-5 times. Talk to a villager 10 times in a row in NH, they'll say 10 different things. I can see preferring NL dialogue, because opinions are subjective, but NL is objectively more repetitive.
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That doesn't.

If a game sucks, you wouldn't play it for more than 100 hours.. COVID or no COVID.

Or are you saying that you'd play a **** game because of COVID because you have 0 other games to play?
No, obviously new horizons was the only game in existence during covid, so we had to put hundreds of hours into it as gamers.
 
Ah yes now the thread just derails into everyone smack talking each other about why they're insane to like/hate the game. The order is restored.


I had to make this thread, or the universe would have imploded in on itself from the lack of balance xD
 
I'm playing new leaf and new horizons concurrently right now. I dialogue is 1000x more repetitive in New Leaf. Talk to a villager 10 times in NL, they'll repeat the same

I know this is anecdotal evidence, but this honestly has not been my experience in this game at all. Even aside from the repetitive normal dialogue (I swear I've seen the jock "MUSCLE MADNESS!" bit like 100 times now) If you do online hosting, or if there's an event like halloween or a fishing tourney that's all your villagers will talk about. The fact that my villagers noticed I put pumpkins up around the island was cute and cool the first time, but it's annoying to keep getting it when you just want to have a normal chat with your villagers.
 
I mean, you can completely ignore sales numbers. The other thing you mentioned is the stronger point. We have hundreds of hours in the game, and wouldn't if it was lacking content. It's INSANE to say a game you've played for 400+ hours is lacking in content, but here we are. But again, I completely disagree with the negative/pessimistic folks here so 🤷. Game's great. Better than new leaf.

I honestly don’t think it is insane to say a game is lacking in content that you’ve played 400+ hours for. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I think both sides make valid points.

I enjoy playing this game very much and agree in some ways it is better than NL. However, I am concerned with the amount of content lacking after this much time since it was released. What i feel is lacking is furniture, in some ways customization options (i realize we do have more options for some but some options we had in the past like antique bed, we have no customization option), nook store upgrade, room size. This is my personal opinion; I admit I am one that took all of the furniture choices in NL and HHD for granted and advantage of them, which is part of the reason my expectations were so high and why I am disappointed with some (not everything) of what I have now. If anyone does not feel that the game isn’t lacking in some shape of form, then that’s great :) I mean it. Just be aware that not everyone feels the same.

I am also concerned about the content being locked behind a subscription that we had for free in NL and about their decision to fix something that they could’ve easily fixed right away, but instead chose to fix it before the amiibo cards are released.
 
There are TONS of valid criticisms of NH. I have no problem with people pointing them out. No bulk crafting, not able to customize colors on furniture with variations, lacking QoL, lacking content from past games. Even things I disagree with like not liking dialogue or hourly tunes... But in these negativity threads everyone starts piling on and criticisms become irrational. There's no way to say the dialogue is more repetitive than NL. If you think it is, you're forgetting New Leaf. It's NOT the best dialogue in the series, GCN or WW are imo... But it's objectively not as repetitive as New leaf.
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I know this is anecdotal evidence, but this honestly has not been my experience in this game at all. Even aside from the repetitive normal dialogue (I swear I've seen the jock "MUSCLE MADNESS!" bit like 100 times now) If you do online hosting, or if there's an event like halloween or a fishing tourney that's all your villagers will talk about. The fact that my villagers noticed I put pumpkins up around the island was cute and cool the first time, but it's annoying to keep getting it when you just want to have a normal chat with your villagers.

I think it's fair to say that there's a problem with the villagers always starting with observational comments. Because if you only talk to each villager once or twice, they're all going to just comment on pumpkins or what you did yesterday. I think maybe they shouldn't front load dialogue with that kind of stuff... Make it so the things they say with the 4th or 5th convo can appear first. Might help. Maybe that is what people mean when they say "repetitive". But as far as one villager repeating the same dialogue verbatim back to back, they don't do it in this game nearly as much as New Leaf. New leaf they do it allllllllllll the time.
 
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I actually am probably 50/50 split on my feelings. When I sit down to play, I enjoy it quite a lot. The aesthetics and getting to dress up/design my house is what initially got me into the series when I was a kid. That being said, I do miss a lot of the series they cut. It's expected that they're bringing back big things like NPCs and such, but I have a lot of doubt on whether they'll bring back things like the old furniture sets. The mini games/island/museum exhibits are something I'm also bummed about the lack of, though I have more hope for that getting brought back.

And while playing, I don't mind the flatter villager personalities. That being said.... I also pretty much never go out of my way to talk to villagers unless it's for a task/ping. It doesn't bother me much while I'm running around doing the chores, but then when I think about it, it kind of makes me sad when I think of how I just sort of don't care about villagers beyond their looks or if they're someone I was attached to from WW/NL- at least compared to how diehard attached I got to Bones, Del, Apollo, and Merry in previous games. I KINDA feel that way about Paula, but not nearly as strong.

I especially miss the snark of cranky villagers. I will say that all of the villager dialogue has more personality and vibrance than in NL in content, but skipping right to being friends with cranky villagers.... man, at LEAST NL had that. I feel that way with snooty villagers as well, but I've been super partial to cranky villagers and earning their friendship ever since I was a little kid playing WW. And anything with snooty villagers would be a huge improvement from NL, haha!

I will say though also, as someone who's of the "play for a week, put down for a month" sort, this game is MUCH friendlier to that play style, which I appreciate a lot. In the past, that's something that stressed me out due to fear of villagers moving, so I would put off playing again SIGNIFICANTLY longer.

Also a major downside for me, which sounds silly... no moving away letters!! I always held onto and cherished them, but the total lack of them totally broke my heart! Even villagers I didn't care for much, I always felt strongly about holding onto the goodbye letters.... :(
 
The topic of the title is literally 'I want to know why people despise New Horizon' It was hate at first, but I feel like despise is even too strong. Most of us have said we like it, just are disappointed with certain things. It's like the unpopular threads and people jump at others for having, you guessed it, an unpopular opinion.

Except the dissatisfaction/satisfactions ratio for this game is pretty divided compared to the other games. So that's kind of telling. I'm a pretty easy going person, so for me to voice my concerns you know there's stuff that should be addressed and not just scoffed at.


I'm not going to be that person who says New Leaf had the best dialogue, because I often remember running to one of my two peppy's and both of them regurgitated the same dialogue right after the other. Not all the time, but I still vividly remember how that brought me out of the immersion.

But I also don't care for how the villager's in NH will remark about how you did x, y, or z the other day. It was really old when I was fossil hunting every day and they would always talk about that first. All of the villagers. Or how they'd comment on what I was wearing or holding. I did come across some cool dialogue akin to some of the ones I liked just as much in NL. I just wish it happened more often and wasn't so rare (at least on my gameplay)

One of the things that I think is unnecessary is how the villagers will lowkey have dialogue that seems to border on you being nosy/cling/talking to them too much if you initiate them in conversation more than once. Like I could talk to them in the morning and than my second time could be at night and they'd react in that way. It kind of rubs me in the wrong way.
 
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That doesn't.

If a game sucks, you wouldn't play it for more than 100 hours.. COVID or no COVID.

Or are you saying that you'd play a **** game because of COVID because you have 0 other games to play?
Yep. Exactly.

I bought the switch for NH alone, hoping it would be at least, as good as NL.
I have no other games.

It's a fact the pandemic is one of the reasons (not the only reason) for the absurd amount of hours.

Just google it.
 
I thought long and hard over why NH is barely better than my most hated AC game: City Folk.
To begin, no way was this game in development for seven years. The same team behind Animal Crossing made HHD, NL: Welcome Amiibo, Splatoon and Splatoon 2, at best they had three years maximum, one at minimum. So we're already off to a bad start, an outright lie just to make the AC fanbase feel better on why it took so long to get this game.

2nd point: spacing out of content and stuff in the launch version. They're treating the game like its Splatoon and Splatoon 2, which is rightly harming Animal Crossing. For those games, a steady pace of new content is expected in the genre, but Animal Crossing has always been fine with releasing everything it was going to contain at launch. I feel this is the biggest factor hurting it in two ways. First is the fast lack of things to do after an update and second is simply not knowing if things like Bunny Day, Reese and Cyrus wedding anniversary or Halloween will be back next year, or will be gone forever once development of updates ends. For all we know, once development ends and the team goes off to make the next game or Splatoon 3, these events may be gone forever and they've never said otherwise.

3rd point: Lack of older items. This is the big tell that the game can't have been in development for seven years. If they'd worked that long, all previous furniture sets would be in the game right now, from Modern to Rococo. Where are they? With the new fruit types that New Leaf got, and no sign they're coming back. Yes we got a lot of items, but frankly, everyone is working from the same pool of them. People have been creative but it still is rather disappointing that even furniture sets that were there from the beginning got the chop and lie on the cutting room floor never to be seen. I will forever miss my modern wood set, it was my favourite.

4th point: Lack of NPCs. I want Brewster back damn it! Everyone does. But we have the same small pool that cycles through a three-four week period. When was the last time anyone found Sahara, Lief or Kicks useful? Or saw Redd at all?

5th point: monotony of crafting certain DIY. This next sentence is for the person at Nintendo who designed fish bait, then made it craft one at a time. Dear person at Nintendo who made fish bait craftable just one at a time, there is a reserved spot in hell for you, with company parking and a car, you earned it.

6th point: wanting to turn the fanbase on Isabelle. "I found a missing sock!", "I watched something on tv and learned the topic puts me to sleep!" "I had a call with my parents." Dear. God. Shut. Up. With. The. Splatoon. News. Clone. Isabelle was actually useful in New Leaf, sure she didn't mention when a guest was in the town palaza, but at least she was still useful. But I guess someone hates her as they clearly made her an annoying parody of herself while copying the "news" from Splatoon and Splatoon 2, and it very much feels like an effort to make Animal Crossing fans hate her and wish her gone. And by saying this and making comparisons, I'm insulting Callie and Marie/Pearl and Marina as at least the Splatoon news thing may happen on each start-up, but it lets you know the current stages in each mode, where here Isabelle is just about as useful as putting out a fire with a single snowflake.

7th point: One by one clothing purchase. To the Nintendo employee who made this choice, please see my sentence to the other person made in point five, you earned that spot too.

8th point: Loading and multiplayer issues. Yep, same to you third Nintendo employee, good job, you earned it with added jaccuzi and choice of torture victim each month. Seriously why do we pay for online with servers that are more fragile than an egg under the tracks of a tank?

Now don't get me completely wrong, New Horizons is a good game, it came at a time where I lost my dad to cancer rapidly, but is it perfect? No, neither was New Leaf (though it was very close). I feel we'd have been slightly better off if it had been delayed again but that would have left no big spring release, and I understand with the global pandemic meaning we have to be distanced to try and help against the COVID virus, that they might have had to delay or even cancel planned updates. Though Sakurai and the team behind Smash Bros got Minecraft Steve to work not just in his own DLC stage, but previous DLC stages and all 108 existing stages from launch in the same situation, the Animal Crossing and Splatoon team could learn something from how he made this happen.

Overall, NH is fun, yes repeating dialogue happens, personalities feel washed down from the older games, but we have a game where we can have an island look exactly how we want it, a first in the series. Could it be better? Without a doubt. That's why I continue to play, because perhaps by the end of update development, it'll be the game that it should have been at launch. And if they can make fish bait multi-craft and give back old furniture sets I'll be even happier as I place my modern wood set back out.
 
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I don’t hate the game but it’s not my favorite. Here’s my reasons:

1) the midday music is very annoying to me. I’m already not a huge fan of the 70s style instruments and melodies used, and it gets really grating for me after like 15 minutes and I have to TT to a different hour; that never happened to me in New Leaf.

2) crafting is interesting but not implemented well. Why don’t items allow you to craft multiple if you have the materials? Just makes pointless busy work. Why can’t I change the color of certain items by crafting? I don’t like that some are locked by needing to find the item and catalogue it.

3) I feel that the overall theme of the furniture and clothing was much more... normified for lack of a better word. Like there isn’t as much extremely quirky/bizarre furniture and clothing sets. Meanwhile there’s like 1000 options for casual wear and college dorm style furniture... like.. I don’t want realistic. I’m playing a video game. I would play the sims if I wanted realistic.

4) terraforming, while an INCREDIBLE concept, is again implemented poorly. Why are destroying and creating the same button? It constantly makes me accidentally destroy what I wanted to create and vice versa.... they could’ve just made build one button and destroy another. Also having to build every single last square one at a time is..... a nightmare. I wish you could select entire areas and raise or lower a level. It would make it so intuitive and fun. Or drawing shapes....

5) we only got like 5 new villagers...........

6) when moving a building, why cant I just move it over like 1 square. Why do I have to move it to a totally different location and back? It wastes time and bells and punishes the player for choosing a spot poorly. I HATE that.

7) why did they take away all the npcs and shops and things you could add to your town? It added variety and interest. Why make the island so bare bones?


anyway.... I could go on but I’ll stop now. Don’t get me wrong, I like this game a lot. But it Isn’t quite what I wanted.
 
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I thought long and hard over why NH is barely better than my most hated AC game: City Folk.
To begin, no way was this game in development for seven years. The same team behind Animal Crossing made HHD, NL: Welcome Amiibo, Splatoon and Splatoon 2, at best they had three years maximum, one at minimum. So we're already off to a bad start, an outright lie just to make the AC fanbase feel better on why it took so long to get this game.

2nd point: spacing out of content and stuff in the launch version. They're treating the game like its Splatoon and Splatoon 2, which is rightly harming Animal Crossing. For those games, a steady pace of new content is expected in the genre, but Animal Crossing has always been fine with releasing everything it was going to contain at launch. I feel this is the biggest factor hurting it in two ways. First is the fast lack of things to do after an update and second is simply not knowing if things like Bunny Day, Reese and Cyrus wedding anniversary or Halloween will be back next year, or will be gone forever once development of updates ends. For all we know, once development ends and the team goes off to make the next game or Splatoon 3, these events may be gone forever and they've never said otherwise.

3rd point: Lack of older items. This is the big tell that the game can't have been in development for seven years. If they'd worked that long, all previous furniture sets would be in the game right now, from Modern to Rococo. Where are they? With the new fruit types that New Leaf got, and no sign they're coming back. Yes we got a lot of items, but frankly, everyone is working from the same pool of them. People have been creative but it still is rather disappointing that even furniture sets that were there from the beginning got the chop and lie on the cutting room floor never to be seen. I will forever miss my modern wood set, it was my favourite.

4th point: Lack of NPCs. I want Brewster back damn it! Everyone does. But we have the same small pool that cycles through a three-four week period. When was the last time anyone found Sahara, Lief or Kicks useful? Or saw Redd at all?

5th point: monotony of crafting certain DIY. This next sentence is for the person at Nintendo who designed fish bait, then made it craft one at a time. Dear person at Nintendo who made fish bait craftable just one at a time, there is a reserved spot in hell for you, with company parking and a car, you earned it.

6th point: wanting to turn the fanbase on Isabelle. "I found a missing sock!", "I watched something on tv and learned the topic puts me to sleep!" "I had a call with my parents." Dear. God. Shut. Up. With. The. Splatoon. News. Clone. Isabelle was actually useful in New Leaf, sure she didn't mention when a guest was in the town palaza, but at least she was still useful. But I guess someone hates her as they clearly made her an annoying parody of herself while copying the "news" from Splatoon and Splatoon 2, and it very much feels like an effort to make Animal Crossing fans hate her and wish her gone. And by saying this and making comparisons, I'm insulting Callie and Marie/Pearl and Marina as at least the Splatoon news thing may happen on each start-up, but it lets you know the current stages in each mode, where here Isabelle is just about as useful as putting out a fire with a single snowflake.

Now don't get me completely wrong, New Horizons is a good game, it came at a time where I lost my dad to cancer rapidly, but is it perfect? No, neither was New Leaf (though it was very close). I feel we'd have been slightly better off if it had been delayed again but that would have left no big spring release, and I understand with the global pandemic meaning we have to be distanced to try and help against the COVID virus, that they might have had to delay or even cancel planned updates. Though Sakurai and the team behind Smash Bros got Minecraft Steve to work not just in his own DLC stage, but previous DLC stages and all 108 existing stages from launch in the same situation, the Animal Crossing and Splatoon team could learn something from how he made this happen.

Overall, NH is fun, yes repeating dialogue happens, personalities feel washed down from the older games, but we have a game where we can have an island look exactly how we want it, a first in the series. Could it be better? Without a doubt. That's why I continue to play, because perhaps by the end of update development, it'll be the game that it should have been at launch. And if they can make fish bait multi-craft and give back old furniture sets I'll be even happier as I place my modern wood set back out.
Slow hand clap from me.

You nailed it on every point!
 
Yep. Exactly.

I bought the switch for NH alone, hoping it would be at least, as good as NL.
I have no other games.

It's a fact the pandemic is one of the reasons (not the only reason) for the absurd amount of hours.

Just google it.
I don't know about everyone else, but I couldn't put the hours into it when it first came out because I had to work through the entire pandemic. And I was often overworked...but I checked on my friends' status every now and then and they got like 400-600 hours in the first month. I curiously checked to see how many hours are regularly in a month and one of them was like 100 hours shy from that.

I know they wouldn't had been able to do that if they were still working or had school.
 
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