My [Potentially] Major Concern with New Horizons

[TheRealWC]

Let me preface this by saying I'm incredibly excited for New Horizons. I was initially skeptical on the idea of crafting and living on a deserted island, but I'm opening up to it. I'm glad Nintendo found a new, interesting path for the series without reusing the mayor idea.

With this being said, I'm worried about one big thing: Animal Crossing as a series moving too far from a pseudo-neighborhood simulator into being a pseudo-town builder.

I know not everyone will agree with me, but to me personally, Animal Crossing has always been about being a part of a bigger community and interacting with the world around you. I like the idea of creative freedom, but I'm worried that the personable element of Animal Crossing is being lost at the expense of some of these new features.

Let's start with AC:NL. New Leaf was the biggest push in series history for more creative freedom in the town, and it was so much fun! Being mayor was interesting and fun and allowed for some new changes to incorporate to different play styles (a big example of this being ordinances). However, the villagers suffered. While the debate on if villagers have become stale based on their personality (i.e. Cranky and Snooty villagers being too nice) is well-documented in this sub-forum, I found that, in general, conversations were boring and quickly reused. Villagers didn't really say anything interesting. Compare this to a past game like Wild World. Villagers used to ask you for advice and responses and used to tell you interesting gossip and had seemingly at least as much variability in what they said as in New Leaf.

Another thing I will add is that I barely got any villager-on-villager interactions in New Leaf. I was told it was based on karma. In my opinion, this is an awful idea. I want to see villagers talk to one another and have me be able to butt in on what they are saying. It adds another element of liveliness to villagers. This used to happen all the time in past games, so I hope its added into New Horizons.

I will give the developers credit for villagers so far in New Horizons. Having them wear accessories and different types of clothing as well as have them interact in new ways in the environment is interesting. New Leaf did this to an extent with villagers fishing and shaking trees. While this is all fine and dandy, the poor conversations make villagers seem almost like pretty objects rather than other living creatures you're sharing the town with.

Continuing with villagers, I'm worried about Amiibo. After the update in New Leaf, it was easy to buy an Amiibo card for a villager you wanted, scan them in, and move them into your town. I hate this so much. While people will naturally buy villagers they want, using real money to get a villager into your town is concerning because it promotes this idea of picking pretty villagers rather than making friends with them. I hope for New Horizons that all villagers can be moved in by in-game and conventional manners and certain villagers don't require external acquisition methods. In my personal opinion (and I know people will disagree with this), I hope Amiibos aren't used to move in villagers at all. The idea of buying a villager with real money just seems dirty to me.

To recap, I hope villagers aren't just a pretty icon for your town. I want villagers to feel real and say interesting things. People are still going to hate ugly villagers, as they always have, but I hope that conversations are good enough to get some people to reconsider.

What are some ways interesting villager interactions can be implemented? For one, I'd like to see more villager conversations with one another that are not based on the karma of the player. Having a more defined friendship meter (whether it's visible or not to the player) that has varying dialogue could be interesting. Maybe this meter could move up and down based on how the player interacts with the villager? Helping the villager out with errands could raise friendship, but hitting them with a net could lower friendship and lead to more hostile dialogue.

I welcome new changes to the series as far as creativity goes, I just don't want Animal Crossing to lose it's spirit. Rant over

 

[Antonio]

I disagree, the villager interactions weren't ever good. Yes, they were more verbal with their anger in previous game but the villager interactions weren't that good. There was more variety in New Leaf in terms of what they say compared to previous games. However, I see the villagers actually doing new stuff in New Horizons so who says there isn't more variety in there conversation.

Also, the game is way better as a town simulator then a neighbor simulator.

 

[John Wick]

I'm all for moving villagers I want in, with amiibo cards and figures.

I don't have time to cycle through hundreds of villagers until I finally get who I want, and I will never trade for a villager. I had a shocking experience with that.

As for the NL dialogue, I agree. It sucked.

Wild World to this day, has the best villager interaction and dialogue. It's true to the villager's personality, and it was extensive and witty.

 

[Ossiran]

I like having pre-established towns, but if they go that route after this, it will feel like a step down. People keep wanting more creative freedom, and Nintendo is giving them what they want.

I agree that dialogue needs more like to it. New Leaf was just too tame and static.

 

[AlyssaAC]

I do agree with the "whole move in with cards idea." I'm not a personal fan of moving in with Amiibo cards. I tried it for awhile and eventually decided I liked moving in villagers randomly and not with the cards or other Amiibo. Also, I REALLY agree with the dialogue in New Leaf. It got really boring and repetitive after awhile to the point, that's one of the reasons I stopped playing New Leaf. Hopefully in New Horizons, the dialogue will be very much improved and not just the interactions with the villagers.

 

[TheRealWC]

I like having pre-established towns, but if they go that route after this, it will feel like a step down. People keep wanting more creative freedom, and Nintendo is giving them what they want.

I agree that dialogue needs more like to it. New Leaf was just too tame and static.

This is what I’m trying to say, but you put it much more eloquently than I did. I like the creative side, I just don’t want the classic feel of Animal Crossing to be lost.

 

[moo-kun]

Ok! This was my idea for Amiibo usage and I thought it made it more fun:

When you scan in an Amiibo of the villager you want, you can add them to either snail mail or e-mail.
You can become pen friends and slowly build up their friendship to invite them over.
You can have a campsite, and the villager could stay in an RV or tent or igloo (I really hope we can have an igloo in the mountain would look so amazing in winter) and they could stay more than one day. I'd even love for them to stay at my house - you'd probably have to have a house with the adequate expansion to do this. I'd love to invite other villagers too so we could have a slumber party, tea party etc... Back to the point!
They'd get to explore the island through the things you have added and they may want to stay permanently but it won't be easy!
I think camping villagers should be a little harder to obtain and it kinda makes me a little sad that some villagers are worth more than others? Seriously? None should be rare unless they are an Amiibo like Sanrio or a special Amiibo.

I also got quite tired of the recycled speech patterns in NL... All personalities were watered down and it felt like they were just pussyfooting around tbh... I liked it when they were mean to me, I enjoy it when they need to let off steam but they didn't really seem alive in NL although some things were pretty funny! I hope each personality can shine in NH!

I hope this game has improved on things we liked and really improved on things we disliked! It seems they've taken into account our frustrations with customisation and listened to us.

We can't really be certain of anything more than we've seen atm though, so I think we should just wait for the next direct to make a clear judgment. They're really going to have to show us an in-depth look at what we can do...

 

[Ably.Saucey]

I'm also concerned about the villagers and the 'town' aspect becoming back burner, but I think that at this point, all the advertising and "leaks" (as if) are about new features, to drive the hype up. Why promote what already is? At least, that's what I'm hoping.
At least villagers don't openly rifle through your pockets and steal your stuff anymore....

 

[John Wick]

This is what I’m trying to say, but you put it much more eloquently than I did. I like the creative side, I just don’t want the classic feel of Animal Crossing to be lost.

Ditto!

I don't want to build everything from the ground up like it is in PC.

That's not how AC is.
I like getting my main items from the Nooklings.

Creativity is fine, but don't drag us backwards, to the caveman days where we are learning to make our own tools.

That is a downgrade, in my opinion.

Edit. What crafting will also do is take more time away from my family and things I need to do in real life.

It will take hours to collect wood and other materials if I have to build just about everything. Turning the game into a chore, not a pleasure.

 

[Blue Cup]

The villager possession and trade side of the New Leaf community was honestly pretty disgusting at times, so I was happy to see the amiibo cards swoop in and destroy the seedy underbelly of the community; the screams and cries from those that had become mentally over the event were hilarious.

I don't have any other opinions regarding villagers as they are all the same anyway sans different textures, no matter how much dialogue you give them, cranky villager A is ALWAYS going to be exactly the same as cranky villager B and so on and so in. They're only individuals in name only and thus I never cared about them beyond just being vehicles for obtaining items, and if they were to offer the option to play and live on an island without villagers getting in the way, I would take it in a heart beat.

 

[Corndoggy]

i agree with y'all on here, i really do want there to be more diversity in personality of the villagers and in speech patterns. I have only noticed it recently when i got really back into NL but the conversations are all the same repetitive stuff and became so boring, to the point where i'm now looking to get rid of my jock villagers because their repetitive dialogue just annoys me so much (if i get called ladybro one more time by teddy im attacking him with my net). I think the reason so many people are nostalgic for the old ones doesn't just go based off the fact they were their originals (mine being wild world, i have never played the gamecube version sadly), but based on the extensive dialogue. The earlier games really did make it feel like you were part of a town, making friends and creating a community (the original game was created due to loneliness and has amazing villager interactions). Sorry for the build up, but i just hope that villager dialogue gets a boost and more of a focus has been put back into the original meaning of the series, friendship. Having a pretty town is nice and all, but if the villagers feel fake and robotic a lot of the magic will be lost in my opinion.

 

[Boccages]

I agree wholeheartedly. I?m also worried they push the series into a dollhouse simulator like HHD. I really like Animal Crossing for interacting with villagers. It?s my prime motivation.

 

[Verecund]

Yeah, I'm very concerned that the villager dialogue isn't going to be improved, at least not to the level that WW was at, which I think had the best dialogue of the series. I do like the increased customization they're giving us, but it feels like they're giving us that at the expense of interesting villagers, which isn't worth it to me. I stopped enjoying NL after a couple years because of the awful dialogue, but I can still enjoy WW despite the limited customization because even after several years, the villagers aren't completely dry. Honestly, I doubt there will be much improvement from NL, but I'm hoping that's just me being cynical because I really want to be wrong. I also really liked the pre-established small-town neighbourhood setting from previous games. The island setting for NH is a cool change and I'm excited for it, but I hope they don't keep giving us more and more control over our towns in future titles because I liked just being a normal, average resident of the community like in the earlier games as opposed to building and controlling a town, and even though I doubt it'll happen, I wouldn't mind going back to that in the future.

I also really hope they don't make any villagers amiibo-exclusive (except for any collaboration ones that might be there because I don't care about them and I don't want them in my town); I used amiibo when WA first came out, but it just wasn't the same as having a villager I really wanted move in naturally. It killed the magic of it, and I moved in some of my favourite villagers only to realize that I really didn't care about any of them after they were in my town. I'm fine if there's an option for amiibo as long as it's not mandatory to get a villager I'd want, but I don't think they'd do that unless they do an update later on like they did with WA.

 

[Yuki Nagato]

I feel this concern. I'm also worried that we're going to end up with a crafting game, rather than the life simulator-lite that Animal Crossing has always been.

 

[DrewAC]

I get what you mean. One of the reasons why I'm really liking New Horizons is the fact that we are no longer the mayor. It seems like we are back to our old status of being just like the other animals, in this case, members of the Nook Getaway Package. We start in tents exactly as they do, and progressively work our way up.

I find crafting to be also symbolic of our 'normal' status within the town. We're not working through special NPCs to fulfill public work projects in our fancy town hall, but we are literally picking weeds and crafting at little stations we place in the town.

With that said, there should be a balance, and we should have some increased customization within our towns as the games go on. Should players really have to sit down and reset town maps 1 by 1 at the beginning of their game for hours+, and still be unhappy with lots of small things, such as rocks inconveniently placed? What I like is that Nintendo acknowledges that group of players, and makes small incremental improvements that give them more power, while also preserving the original "AC feel" to things, making sure the player's power isn't too out of control. In this instance of the town map, their response was to give us 4 maps to choose from at the start, rather than just going all in and letting us choose every little aspect of our town's map.

And I don't think the game supporting a little more "town-building" elements is a bad thing, either. Look at paths. Now we no longer are stuck relying on people designing things and consuming all 8 of our limited design slots on paths which were very annoying to place around. The game has its own path building feature. And it doesn't seem implemented in a "soul-less" way; there's a special tool we use and walk all around our town, where we could run into many different villagers and interactions around town.

As far as villagers go, probably the biggest criticism of New Leaf was the dialogue/behavior of villagers. Judging from screenshots, it looks like they'll be more involved around town, so we can only hope dialogue will be improved too.

TL;DR - I wouldn't worry too much. Nintendo has a good track record of simultaneously pleasing both fans that want more control and the fans that want the original feel of AC (rolling with what you get) at the same time.

 

[TheRealWC]

I get what you mean. One of the reasons why I'm really liking New Horizons is the fact that we are no longer the mayor. It seems like we are back to our old status of being just like the other animals, in this case, members of the Nook Getaway Package. We start in tents exactly as they do, and progressively work our way up.

I find crafting to be also symbolic of our 'normal' status within the town. We're not working through special NPCs to fulfill public work projects in our fancy town hall, but we are literally picking weeds and crafting at little stations we place in the town.

With that said, there should be a balance, and we should have some increased customization within our towns as the games go on. Should players really have to sit down and reset town maps 1 by 1 at the beginning of their game for hours+, and still be unhappy with lots of small things, such as rocks inconveniently placed? What I like is that Nintendo acknowledges that group of players, and makes small incremental improvements that give them more power, while also preserving the original "AC feel" to things, making sure the player's power isn't too out of control. In this instance of the town map, their response was to give us 4 maps to choose from at the start, rather than just going all in and letting us choose every little aspect of our town's map.

And I don't think the game supporting a little more "town-building" elements is a bad thing, either. Look at paths. Now we no longer are stuck relying on people designing things and consuming all 8 of our limited design slots on paths which were very annoying to place around. The game has its own path building feature. And it doesn't seem implemented in a "soul-less" way; there's a special tool we use and walk all around our town, where we could run into many different villagers and interactions around town.

As far as villagers go, probably the biggest criticism of New Leaf was the dialogue/behavior of villagers. Judging from screenshots, it looks like they'll be more involved around town, so we can only hope dialogue will be improved too.

TL;DR - I wouldn't worry too much. Nintendo has a good track record of simultaneously pleasing both fans that want more control and the fans that want the original feel of AC (rolling with what you get) at the same time.

Well said. I don't dislike the increase in creative freedom and I agree that it's a good thing. You did bring up some good points too that point to Nintendo balancing both. I just hope they don't swing too far in one direction.

I'm not worrying per se, I just wanted to see what other people's opinions are and gather their input. The only thing I'm worried about would be villager dialogue, but whatever happens happens.

 

[Nooblord]

I remember the producers of AC mentioning how interactions with villagers will be improved and they’ve been working on a lot of dialogue to help give villagers more personalty. Or maybe that was a dream, idk.

Anyways, I believe that those making the game do listen to the feedback of those who play AC, but also take initiative for creative control, and have to try to balance the two. I believe a lot of fan suggestions will be implemented in NH, but we will also be introduced to features some may not find “fitting” for AC. That comes with innovation, and I’m completely ok with that. I don’t want an AC we’re all too familiar with, like City Folk was to Wild World. You can always go back to play the older titles, I know there are a lot in these forums that still do.

In regards to concerns I have with NH; Pocket Camp left a bad taste in my mouth, and my greatest fear for NH is having to go on “fetch quests” to gather materials for villagers or to build an item you really want. Or maybe they try to include limited time events that are as tedious as the gardening events in PC. Also, if friendship has a numeric value, like in PC, that would be a major downer imo; because as much as I’d like to build relationships with villagers naturally, if there’s a cheap way to level up the friendship of a villager I really like, I’d probably take advantage of it, in turn cheapening the value of that friendship. I understand why PC is the way it is, considering it is a mobile game, and I have faith that those mobile game mechanics will not be implemented into NH.

However, we really don’t know much about the game at this point. I find it strange how eager people are to dismiss it with the little information we have. I’m certain I’ll fall in love with it, the same way I did with previous titles, even with doubts I originally had with the new direction NL was going in. I actually was not a fan of longer bodies, and preferred the stubby look of the humans in past games. Now I can’t imagine going back, lol.

 

[Spongebob]

Continuing with villagers, I'm worried about Amiibo. After the update in New Leaf, it was easy to buy an Amiibo card for a villager you wanted, scan them in, and move them into your town. I hate this so much. While people will naturally buy villagers they want, using real money to get a villager into your town is concerning because it promotes this idea of picking pretty villagers rather than making friends with them. I hope for New Horizons that all villagers can be moved in by in-game and conventional manners and certain villagers don't require external acquisition methods. In my personal opinion (and I know people will disagree with this), I hope Amiibos aren't used to move in villagers at all. The idea of buying a villager with real money just seems dirty to me.

THANK YOU! I really hope they don't use amiibo cards to let villagers move in again. Some of my favorite memories on these fourms were trading villagers and looking at villager tier lists and stuff. I kinda hated how easy they made it with the update. I liked the journey of trying to find a villager I loved! It was a lot of fun.

 

[John Wick]

I really hope we can use them, as I would never use a traded villager. One reason being that the villager will keep mentioning the other player forever.

Another is I did buy a lot of amiibo cards and figures because I want certain villagers I've always had since Wild World in 2005.

It wouldn't be the same without Wolfgang, and I wouldn't want to cycle through hundreds of villagers to get the ones I want. Especially if we can't even time travel.

I could be dead by the time the villagers I want cycle through.

I also had a terrible experience trading, so I hope I can just move in who I want.

(It is my game, and it should be an option.)

 

[Zanreo]

Gotta admit, I'm a bit mixed on the whole crafting aspect... on one hand it's convenient in some ways, just getting items available at a certain point instead of having to wait for them to show up... on the other hand, I'd honestly rather just buy the items rather than having to gather materials, and it was also kinda fun going to the shop every day and see what new items were in - also remember my early days of the game asking other players if they had (item) yet and if they wanted to trade/sell x3 Hope you can also buy them as usual, or at least reorder items (for bells) you've already crafted! And I don't usually mind crafting mechanics in other games, but it's gonna take awhile to get used to it here...

As for the villager personalities in NL compared to older games, yeah, I see where people coming from. While I never found them THAT bad and didn't think they didn't have any variety betwee personalities, I've been watching some Wild World videos recently out of nostalgia and I can really see and remember the difference and wouldn't mind a bit of the old "style" back - I feel the WW dialogue was more memorable overall. Another thing is how villager conversations in NL are pretty rare - villagers can walk right next to each other, INTO each other and not talk, while in WW it seemed like they started talking every time they got close. Hoping villagers will start talking more again, some of those convos were really fun!

One thing I do appreciate from newer titles is the increased levels of customization, especially for your own character - being able to wear new types of clothes in New Leaf was great, and the fact that New Horizons lets you choose skin tone from the start just makes me wonder why this wasn't done earlier in a main series game.

Crafting aside, though, I'm still really hyped for this and excited to find out more... and we still don't know that much about the game, expecting a Direct in not too long!