My honest thoughts on this update.

[Raz]

I didn't even have access to the new crops, only visit one Kapp'n island (the first one to find you know who), haven't visited The Roost yet (the museum will close tomorrow, so I'll have to wait), haven't cooked anything other than Cherry smoothie.

Also, speaking of the smoothie, I'm curious to know if we can get the recipes to make smoothies with fruits other than our native fruit.

 

[HappyTails]

OP, do you think that it's possible you just got burnout from all the new stuff and thought you explored everything in one night and now there is nothing left?

I'm telling you now, that I don't think it's possible to have explored this entire update in one night to feel like there's nothing left to do. But then, what do I know? I still don't have access to most of the stuff in this update. *sips water*

But I do know burnout is very real. Happens to me a lot.

 

[Kg1595]

Not everything will appeal to all people, but it is way too early to make a fully informed opinion on the update— the DLC isn’t even available yet to N. and S. American audiences. I would suggest OP give this at least a few days before passing judgment.

 

[chriss]

I'm happy to see NPCs like Tortimer and Kappn but there was alot for wasted opportunities with these two in particular.
A part of me feels like they were just thrown in just to satisfy people without really putting effort into exploring their roles.

But regardless, I am happy and excited for the DLC to drop.

 

[boring]

I really like this update to be honest. As a long term player though I am somewhat sad to not see any more Nooklings upgrade.
with the addition of the DLC I feel like this update has enough to keep someone like me entertained, and it does feel like a pretty full game now, but I'll admit Im sad to not see more Nook upgrades. Wheres our five part story where we eventually get Gracie and lovely expensive sets. I somehow miss the Princess Set and Gracie set 10x more then I thought I would. In their defence, the addition of around 9000 items (including fan favourite sloppy set) is a pretty good compromise, but I feel they wondered a little bit too far from the original games furniture for long term players to feel satisfied. Its fine if youre a new player but for those of us who have the prior experience of old games it ends up making the game feel like it's missing something.

Aside from that I have only one more complaint: Island Mini-games. That is like the one feature that still has me hooked on NL 8 years later. It was a feature that added so so much replay value to the game and I'm honestly surprised to see Nintendo not capitalise on the popularity of those games. I guess they were counting on that void to be filled by the DLC, but a lot of people wont be able to afford that.

I'm not holding out for them to add those two things, but if they did ever consider in the future adding a fun little 'minor' update where they give older players the good nostalgia back, that would be pretty cool.

 

[Meadows]

OP, do you think that it's possible you just got burnout from all the new stuff and thought you explored everything in one night and now there is nothing left?

I'm telling you now, that I don't think it's possible to have explored this entire update in one night to feel like there's nothing left to do. But then, what do I know? I still don't have access to most of the stuff in this update. *sips water*

But I do know burnout is very real. Happens to me a lot.

No, I had actually reset my island in preparation for the update. I'd actually probably have been overall happy if they just gave us a shop upgrade, brought back Gracie, Returned most of the furniture sets/walls/floors and allowed us to increase room sizes.

I'm one who enjoys house customization, but most of the wallpapers in the game are just variations of other wallpapers, or wallpapers that make your house look like it's outside. And with small rooms, house decor feels very limited.

Also, Gracie just had some of the best furniture sets I've seen, like Princess and Sweets.

 

[monsieurberry]

I’m confused on how anything you listed that was in NL would have added any longevity to the game. I was onboard with the NH vs NL critique back in June 2020…but at this point it doesn’t seem like a sound argument to me. NH has stuff that NL doesn’t and vice versa. It’s the nature of s sequel.

I only wish this content did not come more than a year later but I thinks clear production was affected by Covid. This is so much work thrown together randomly.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I've time-travelled a few days in. I have mixed feelings about the update, mostly positive!
I don't have Brewster yet, gotta time travel one more day for him (messed up twice in trying to get him)

- I love the Harv's Island RVs; Cyrus is super useful. But I feel a bit disappointed that Reese does nothing but stand there like a trophy wife
- I love the addition of new crops! I have yet to try cooking but I am so excited by it!
- I'm disappointed that Kapp'n seems a bit watered down as a character. His song lyrics don't seem as varied as they were in NL, and I don't like that he's not as much of a "creep" anymore. I don't like that he's ALWAYS at the dock, and yet I can only go on a boat trip once per day.. where is the logic in that? Go home, Kapp'n!
- I FREAKING LOVE GYROIDS, I am so obsessed with them. I love that they're customisable. I could probably be entertained by them for hours
- I wish there was a GracieGrace RV
- I want Tortimer's Island and mini-games back
- I love the addition of outside storage and ABD
- New hairstyles are rad
- I did one room in HHP so far, it was fun, looking forward to doing more soon

I too am hoping they still add a bit more. But overall I really love this update. The game really needed it!

 

[Marshmallows]

I'm happy with the update! I think I'll be even happier with the dlc. I haven't been rushing much, so I don't feel like I've played through the content yet. Brewster is still building the cafe, Kappn's island tours haven't shown me anything new yet (except gyroids and flowers, good for new players) and haven't really started farming/cooking, but I did get a couple recipes which are pretty nice and made 1 dish. Love that we can store diys. Gyroids are adorable (though I wish they were a little bigger.)

The one area I'm slightly disappointed is in the house customization options. I feel there's less variety than in New Leaf/HHD in terms of styles. There may be more choices, but the choices feel more alike. I was hoping for more variety, like the heart door, or the gingerbread siding, or adding more color options to the original homes. But it's fine... I'm glad we got some new options, even if I don't love them as much as I'd hoped.

As for the furniture, RIP sweets sofa and marshmallow chair. Doesn't seem like they made it... but there's other items that look great. I'm hoping they're saving the sweets set for a small dlc in the future. I don't understand why it was excluded with how popular it was in New Leaf. I guess they wanted to move away from the more fairytale thematic sets.

Really looking forward to redecorating villager homes and using accent walls and partitions and all the new stuff that's coming with dlc. For me, I expect the dlc will keep me plenty busy! There's things that are 'missing' from NL, but they've improved and added so many things in NH that I'm content.

 

[nightglow]

As for the furniture, RIP sweets sofa and marshmallow chair. Doesn't seem like they made it... but there's other items that look great. I'm hoping they're saving the sweets set for a small dlc in the future. I don't understand why it was excluded with how popular it was in New Leaf. I guess they wanted to move away from the more fairytale thematic sets.

I just thought of this, and this makes ALOT of sense to me. One reason they may have moved away from that particular furniture set is because of the cooking being introduced. It may confuse new players and a goal of Nintendo was to get more people into Animal Crossing. It may have been confusing to have the cooking mechanic introduced with how you can either eat the food or display it while having the crafting mechanic such as the fruit furniture which you do use fruit in order to craft it. For those who are new and they see a marshmallow chair for example or a cake table, it wouldn't be new user friendly really. Nintendo is kinda about new user friendliness.

 

[ForgottenT]

Just to clarify, what do you mean with "new director"? The director for this game is listed as Aya Kyogoku, who was also the director for New Leaf with Isao Moro. Both of them also helped the director back on City Folk, Hisashi Nogami. And Nogami himself is still involved as producer. There's no new director.

You could maybe make a case that neither Moro or Kyogoku kept the "true philosophy" that Nogami and Eguchi had for the first three games, but that's on both New Leaf and New Horizons, not only NH.

Huh I stand corrected, it's not really her fault, she took the game in the direction that she wanted, but while it's true that she were the Director for New Leaf as well Katsugaya Eguchi as the producer made sure it kept the original style, and feel, but in anything Animal Crossing related after New Leaf he's been listed as "General Producer" and I haven't been able to find anything about him working on the titles, other than his name being in the credits, I were surprised to find his name on the Splatoon franchise too.
I could say a lot more about it, but in the end it's just speculation based on information, or lack thereof, and what I, and other have perceived.
But I misremembered nonetheless, I'll edit my original post.

 

[Hypno KK]

I don't have a big opinion since I haven't played enough yet. I'm happy with the update. People are complaining about missing stuff from NL, but back when NL was the latest AC game, people also complained about it missing stuff from the previous games. I'm ok with there being differences between the two, I don't expect NH to be an exact clone of NL. I'm also happy that a lot of quality of life features seem to be based on player feedback, it shows they've heard what people have been requesting for a while now.

 

[Skandranon]

My one gripe is why kapp'n is once per day? Why can't it be like the airport but u r limited by how many nook miles u acquire. finally thought I had a use for my over a million miles and discover that still don't really need them that much :/

 

[azurill]

I love the update. My only disappointment is that you still can’t just go to another mystery island you have to go back to your island first. I’m trying to island hop for Chadwick but having to go back to my island every time is so time consuming.

 

[tsukune_713]

im really loving the update though there are a few things im a little sad about, like no returning tropical trees, no gracie grace, and so far whats able to be told they lied about there being more crops than whats shown...

though i heard a rumor of a new tree added from the dlc though i dont know for sure

 

[JKDOS]

Judy just invited me to her house, and I thought sweet let's go!
And then we just... Teleported there, just another example of my problem with this game,

This TBH. It was a bit disheartening when I seen it just teleport us there. It would have been so cute to have the villager follow you to their house.

 

[Khaelis]

My one gripe is why kapp'n is once per day? Why can't it be like the airport but u r limited by how many nook miles u acquire. finally thought I had a use for my over a million miles and discover that still don't really need them that much :/

My guess is the fact we can obtain very rare material from them. Not to mention islands in different seasons, meaning you can catch fish much earlier than previously possible.

They probably felt the need to restrict it so we didn't gain too much progression from it.

 

[Rosch]

This TBH. It was a bit disheartening when I seen it just teleport us there. It would have been so cute to have the villager follow you to their house.

There is a reason why they didn't do it. You have to consider everyone's island's layout. Some users put villager houses in isolation and you can't just expect villagers to climb up cliffs without stairs, or swim a lake, or hop across a river.

 

[ForbiddenSecrets]

This TBH. It was a bit disheartening when I seen it just teleport us there. It would have been so cute to have the villager follow you to their house.

I’ve been thinking on this and I believe it’s because we can place villager houses places with no ramps. They can teleport down to the rest of the town when we are not looking but there would be island set ups where following the player back wouldn’t work. Not saying it doesn’t kill some of the feeling, it does, but I think they did it for practical reasons.

EDIT: Typed too slow whole eating dinner haha post above me says the same thing.

 

[JKDOS]

I’ve been thinking on this and I believe it’s because we can place villager houses places with no ramps. They can teleport down to the rest of the town when we are not looking but there would be island set ups where following the player back wouldn’t work. Not saying it doesn’t kill some of the feeling, it does, but I think they did it for practical reasons.

EDIT: Typed too slow whole eating dinner haha post above me says the same thing.

I was going to mention that, but I figured although it could look weird in those circumstances, as long as you're allowed to enter the house first, it wouldn't matter in the end. Though it could still be the primary reason Nintendo decided not to bother.