Is Nintendo ambitious enough with Animal Crossing

[lars708]

I understand we all want it to remain an Animal Crossing title at the core and we can argue about how much change we want in this new version. I think people missed my main point here.

I'm afraid Nintendo won't spend enough on the production of this title

They have hundreds of people working on Zelda (an IP that sells less than AC) or Mario for years on end, yet I still feel that Nintendo thinks the development of an Animal Crossing title is a low key affair. Add to that the fact that most of the fans are : 1-Not very demanding, 2-Are OK with an art direction dating back to the N64, 3-Will buy it nonetheless, I think my fears are, at this point in time, logical.

I downloaded AC: Pocket Camp. Toyed with it a few days. Was unimpressed in every possible way. Uninstalled it. It struck me at how simple looking and ugly that game is. 2014 Facebook graphics material if you ask me.

What do you mean? I thought AC Pocket Camp looked fine? Can you elaborate?

 

[Soigne]

Truly, how ambitious can they be with a game full of talking animals? There's only so much that one can do to change the game, so to speak.

 

[Triaged]

I'm feeling pretty confident overall with how Nintendo handles the intellectual property. While there's definitely room to be paranoid, we have to look at what defines the "core gameplay" experience of Animal Crossing.

Whereas the Zelda or Mario properties are centered around a single character, really, where you can do anything from that point? Animal Crossing is less a title built around your player character, and more built around the concept of living in an area surrounded by animals!

Within this concept, I think they've done a pretty successful way of keeping it fresh and focusing on building out (or entirely focusing on) specific areas within that core.

• City Folk introduced the concept of a larger market area/city strip
• New Leaf brought public works and a lot of customization into the experience.
• Pocket Camp has pushed the concept of "additional places" (beyond the main town) beyond a shopping strip or island, into multiple additional places that build out the stories of the people there.

Where we go from here, probably incorporating the multiple-areas concept from Pocket Camp into the game. Hopefully introducing additional game mechanics on top of this? probably with a large focus on the multiplayer experience so they can sell more Switch Online memberships.

 

[shuba]

The graphics are good. They will be HD, and I love the style. I would honestly not like it if they changed the style a lot. They also keep changing it slightly, like making characters taller so that we can wear shirts/pants/socks.
The quality of life improvements they add in every version are not to be underestimated. I really hope villager management will be one of them.
Another thing is all the new content. Most importantly, the villagers get all-new dialogue. The most worn out aspect of NL is currently the repetetive dialogue for me.
In the end, it's a relaxing sandbox kind of game, so a lot is up to the player and it shouldn't get too many complicated mechanics or become too grand in scale. Just keep adding more variety and improvements to what is there.

Most of their installments were fine, just City Folk felt a little lazy. I think you don't need to worry about city folk 2 though - WW came out in 2005, CF in 2008, with 3 years distance, just like NL and HDD(a spinoff). NL came out in 2012, the switch game is scheduled for 2019, so it's 7 yrs distance just like WW->NL. Doesn't seem like a rushed or unabmitious game.

They even skipped a console (wii U) in favor of making a proper installment. Before that, they released a title for every console.

 

[Boccages]

I really hope they spend a good amount of money to get a more than decent production value on AC Switch.

 

[steele]

Long winded wishes for AC

There are a few things that hold back my personal excitement for the switch.

1. I will have to purchase a switch. -- Personally, I don't own a lot of systems and I like the hand held version of acnl. I think the fan base for acnl lacks some of the push to get a console that other titles mentioned have.
2. The new version HAS to have some irresistible new features to pull people away from ACNL and not in the CF or WW way.
3. I think what people want/need is: good friendship progression and more variety in villager interaction, more customize-able town (outside and inside) and that they want more features that can't be found in acnl. I think with the addition of amiibo that AC, in general, is making money off of the extras rather then putting the effort into the base game.
4. Personally, I've always hated "pay to play" type schemes like amiibo when it came to mobile games. Most people on acnl will put in hard work into the game rather than pay-- but when you can get exclusive content and villagers with amiibo it sort of forces that feeling.
5. I think AC needs like a virtual reality type of evolution. We need to be able to walk around our village, water our flowers by hand, make eye contact with our villagers. I think the game does not lend itself to changing the theme (slice of life world building) but rather the method and way we get that should change.
6. Aside from being on the switch... what will the new AC really "treat" us too? More object? More events? More characters? None of that, imo, matters if the base game doesn't step it up. I think that experiencing the game on the switch is not going to be a big enough difference for hand held players to really enjoy. Playing on a TV/with a remote almost feels like step back from the 3DS with the tapping feature. (I hated typing on the Game Cube).
7. Conclusion for me-- I think the game will really have to step up for me to purchase both a new gaming system AND the new game. Not enough titles draw me to the switch tbh. I am not a pokemon person--which I think is one of the other big draws.

 

[watercolorwish]

I only see fans complaining if they made a BIG change to 'switch' things up, like core game mechanics. Something I think of when I think of changes in game mechanics is the introduction of materials from PC. You need certain materials to craft basically everything in PC. I'm not saying it will be like that in the next game. They only did that because of mobile game "requirements", but I wouldn't put it past them to incorporate it somehow. Maybe RARE items will now be obtainable only by gathering the materials yourself? (Throne, crown, expensive items). This would make more sense and it would add even more value to the items, since mostly EVERYBODY can
easily get those items, at least after the first year of release. Hardcore fans would HATE this. I hate this idea as well, but maybe it can be unlocked somehow? Maybe after collecting your 100th material, you get a badge that lets you trade materials with other players, and be able to trade furniture and clothing items with other people. A trading badge? In theory is sounds bad, but I think its kind of honorable to see someone wearing a crown they crafted themselves lol.

 

[Boccages]

Oh. Unpopular opinion : I'd like grass deterioration to return. It worked great, but actually did not deteriorate fast enough.

 

[Boccages]

If Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch is the staple game on Nintendo's E3 show floor, it might indicate that the game is more ambitious than I thought : fully 3D environment and online presence. I wouldn't expect Nintendo to build their E3 presence around a lame duck.

 

[Soot Sprite]

I don't think it's going to be a New Leaf 2.0. It's been so long since we got a new game, people would be upset if it's just an updated version. Everyone is expecting the game to be amazing. A lot of the switch games already out like pokemon and Zelda have great new games already.

 

[simplehobbit]

Animal Crossing really has a great core concept. From here, Nintendo needs to just improve. Making the game larger in what it covers undermines what it's here for. AC is a peaceful game, where you haven't got worries. Additional systems will only make that less true. They need to focus on improving on everything they've got and introducing a half dozen new features and activities.

 

[maple22]

Nintendo definitely took the series to another level with New Leaf. Even the name of the game itself implied major changes pre-release.
As long as it isn't a WW>CF-esque rehash, I'll be happy.