New Horizons feels like a discount New Leaf

[Kalle]

Here's jvsjeff's list of special characters that each game introduced (excluding the first game for obvious reasons):

And the list for special characters each game removed:

You can watch the full video here.

This, right here. In a vacuum it's an excellent game. Ignoring history and progress in the series. It's really amazing - which is probably why so many new fans are enjoying it so much. Putting it into perspective though, a lot of the flaws start to show.

I'd agree with your ranking as well... I'd say:

1. New Leaf (in terms of content, GCN was FAR superior in terms of atmosphere/feel)
2. GCN
3. New Horizons
4. City Folk
5. Wild World

Though I can't technically rank City Folk because I've never played it, I agree with you and StarlitGlitch on your rankings.

 

[DrewAC]

Sure, graphics has been improved, but shall we expect Nintendo 3DS resolution in "next gen console"? Let's be realistic.

Sure, let's be realistic. Have you seen Pokemon Sword And Shield? Graphics were terribly disappointing, even though it was a "next gen console." New Horizons looks beautiful in comparison.

Graphics (New Leaf Style) has been improved already in 2015:

However Wii U version of AC has failed as a game, as we already know.

Those graphics are awful compared to ACNH. Sure, it's upscaled, but that's about it. The models aren't nearly as great as ACNH's nor are the textures/shadows/shading. And the reason why the Wii U version of the game did not perform as well is because it was a spin off, not a main series entry.

I agree (partially) about physics, design - but many of those has been pointless, as example I can give a arcade-pinball machines, where we can almost-play... oh no... we can't play! We just pretending we playing. It was a waste of something what could be used in the game.
If you remember in Game Cube version of AC we had access to several actual games, fully playable. Now, we can just buy pinballs, arcade machines and do... nothing than admiring them and semi-interacting. If we can call it improvements, I definitely disagree with this.
All accessible furnitures giving us ability changing clothes... including REFRIGERATORS! What a big improvements! In real life never had any clothes in place like this... maybe I should change it? Outdoor lights? It gives almost nothing to the scenery... we could expect much more, as lights are nothing new and could be done much better.

Physics doesn't mean interactivity. I'm referring to things like trees, clothing, objects, particles, etc. moving with wind or even simulated wind through objects such as fans. That's really impressive stuff, and it does matter, it isn't pointless to many of us, including myself. Just because you cannot directly interact with an object with an NES game (because of Nintendo's choice to bundle them w/ NSO) doesn't mean that it's not important for the object to look good. This is a game all about decorating and collecting. Objects should look great, and they do in New Horizons.

Crafting could be fun... but if it's not limited as we have. We have to craft tools, or we can buy them - so at some point crafting becomes almost not necessary and we can stop it completely. From time to time, we may be encouraged to craft something, because of the season or upcoming events... but it's not enough... and finally we have limited space on our island.

Crafting is always relevant to gameplay, whether you're using flimsy tools or golden tools. Collecting materials, farming ores, etc. is as relevant in the beginning as it is in the ending. And, like I was getting at in my original post, it also increases social interaction with other players a ton, and as a result, the player economy and online community hasn't thrived in any other game as well as AC:NH.

Sure, limitations in NL may drive players crazy. But... can we use this as justification for something was wrong or unpleasant in predecessors? Sure, NL was focused on grinding, but at least it serves some purpose... but now, long-playing-players having millions of bells, thousands of miles and only one purpose is just to look at their accounts and observe how "money grows". Is it really improvements?

I feel the game is more balanced, personally. Really, the only way you're going to end up with a bank full of millions of bells now is through repeated turnip investing through players with high turnip prices or online trading.

Nintendo must have knowledge how popular was NL and what players liked or disliked. I want to remind, AC failed after NL not a once, but twice - releasing HHD and board game for Wii U. They had more than enough time to to their homework.

Again, those are spin off games. They're not designed to outsell or outperform the main series.

NH in the day of the release could be considered as unfinished BETA, but not as fully release. Summer update with diving? It was literally the same, as we had in NL - there was nothing amazing in this, no underwater scenery, just water and rocks... in 2020... what a big improvement. As an example we could compare how underwater looks in Breath of the Wild on Wii U - so console previous generation was more than strong to generate environment like this.
Another thing... lack of customisable controls in NH - camera work inside houses are made in their way, which is not acceptable for all.
Hidden objects behind the trees was made better in NL than in NH...
... and finally, as we may read about "statement of future" of NH - new updates will give us almost nothing and it may be just something really unnecessary for daily game playing.

I didn't feel that way at all. Certainly, having more features at launch is ideal for everyone, but I think the game shipped with enough features before patches came. I've played every single main series game during its prime, and for many reasons I've went into and more, ACNH has kept me more engaged than the others have.

The latter of your post is really just pessimism. There's no way to prove/show new updates will give us nothing and will be unnecessary. Every big update we've gotten so far has been great and improved the game greatly. There's no reason for me to believe it won't continue that way, considering their track record.

As we continue to see more entries in Animal Crossing, we're going to have to become more accustomed to seeing certain things not return in the future, whether it be furniture, NPCs, features, etc. A point does get reached where it's hard for the developers to recreate everything and then try to build a new experience on top of it. And when you have a game that's essentially a carbon copy of the predecessor, it will get boring incredibly fast (look at City Folk). That's why, to compensate for it, every Animal Crossing entry should take risks, and though there is content I would like to see again from past games, I think New Horizons does a fine job at reinventing the wheel. AC:NH sold amazingly well, so I think the future will be brighter than we could imagine for the future of this entry, and the future ones to come.

 

[RollingAntony]

Deliberate choice or not, it doesn't need debating to say Holidays belong in an Animal Crossing and should have been in all at the start. Nintendo did leave it out, and if you buy a brand new copy of the game and don't update, they aren't there. That alone constitutes proof they released an unfinished game.

In regards to Redd/Art, Diving, Dreaming, Lief, etc. All of these existed in New Leaf. They are nothing new. Nintendo deliberately waited until nature day to give us Lief, waited until August to give us Fireworks, summer to give us diving, and the habit continues with each and every update we've received (not counting patches). What decides what should or shouldn't be in from release would have to be true new content and content that was unexpected. We all could have guessed Diving was coming at some point. Want an example of what true new and unexpected content? Look at Welcome Amiibo update for New Leaf. They literally cut a new hole in our town cliff and added an RV Campsite. I don't know if you played the original New Leaf, but Harvey's camping area literally never existed before the update.

I'm not saying holidays don't belong on AC, I'm just pointing out it was a deliberate choice and they told us about it. That is not proof of an unfinished game, for as much you want it to be. Many games now have day 1 patches or something similar that unlocks or adds content, it's part of how the industry works now.

And what if they existed on New Leaf and therefore are not new to the franchise? That doesn't mean they had to be added at release or be on the game at all. I mean, going by your logic, New Leaf was an unfinished game because it didn't have Celeste's observatory and the constellation creation mechanic (oh and since it never updated with that, I guess it's still an unfinished game). Can you see how your logic is kinda flawed and biased against NH? Like others have said, yes, people could have had reasons to expect all content from previous games to be day 1 on NH, but it has never been true.

And for the "true and unexpected content", does the Wedding Season event appeared on previous games? What about Gullivarrr? Pumpkin harvest? The mini-event for May Day and International Museum Day? They may have not been "groundbreaking" things, but they are new and unexpected. I could also include all the others things they have added, like hairstyles, body paint and reactions; but people mostly consider them minor additions.

 

[John Wick]

Some people are satisfied with the way NH is, and some of us aren't.

People shouldn't try to force others around to their way of thinking by gaslighting our posts reguarding our valid complaints.

If you're satisfied with NH the way it is, that's great, but don't try to tell others they should be satisfied just because you are.

Simple as that.

 

[DrewAC]

Some people are satisfied with the way NH is, and some of us aren't.

People shouldn't try to force others around to their way of thinking by gaslighting our posts reguarding our valid complaints.

If you're satisfied with NH the way it is, that's great, but don't try to tell others they should be satisfied just because you are.

Simple as that.

Let's all not forget this goes both ways, and that engaging in a kind discussion/debate is healthy for a forum.

 

[Feraligator]

I enjoyed NH so much for about 2 months and then my love for NH started dwindling quickly.
I guess I'm on the divisive side but I still play anyways because I love the series as a whole

I just wish I could've relived the joy I had with NL again like I did with NH. It only lasted ~2 months on NH, but it lasted at least 2 years with NL.

(It lasted like 3 years on CF but I was like 9 y/o, it just isn't the same when you're an adult and I hate that lol, but that's life)

Part of this is probably to do with growing up, but I know for certain that the other part is because NL raised the bar way too high with how innovative it was compared to its predecessors. If NL didn't exist then I probably would've enjoyed NH way way more.

The QoL features of NH (stuff that we all hated in NL like random move in locations) make it hard to go back though for me.

 

[John Wick]

Let's all not forget this goes both ways, and that engaging in a kind discussion/debate is healthy for a forum.

Obviously it goes both ways, but it seems to be those with complaints that cop the the most criticism, more often than not.

I wouldn't dream of telling anyone how they should feel.
I'd like the same courtesy is all.

 

[DrewAC]

Obviously it goes both ways, but it seems to be those with complaints that cop the raw end of the stick more often than not.

I wouldn't dream of telling anyone how they should feel.
I'd like the same courtesy is all.

Sorry you've had bad experiences sharing your feedback. Everyone's is 100% valid.

Whenever I post, I'm more than happy to see responses to my opinions and engage in a discussion. I try be optimistic that maybe, as unlikely as it may be, people from Nintendo could be reading discussions on various websites involving people with all sorts of opinions, using that to make the game even better than before.

 

[Boidoh]

You can watch the full video here.

You know, looking through this, I feel even worse about the content in NH.

 

[Yoshisaur]

I agree somewhat. I do really really like the ability to design my entire island as freely as I can in NH but the other aspects of the game are very watered down. I wish there was more expansive dialogue with the NPCs tbh. They all say the same stuff over and over. That's one of the few things that I am definitely annoyed about.

 

[Lanstar]

I guess I'll copy-paste my feelings about New Leaf I posted 3 months ago in this forum - and I still feel this way right now:

__________

I haven't played New Leaf since the day I began to play New Horizons. Part of the reason is the circle pad of my 3ds broke off, and its plastic snapped in two, making it impossible to glue back on. The other part, though... I love the freedoms granted by New Horizons so much, that whenever I think of what I could potentially do in New Leaf, it feels, like a major hassle.

Like , maybe I want to plant a cedar tree/shrub in a new spot. Oh wait, I can only buy a 3 starts per day, and they each hog one spot in my inventory...

How about new public works projects? Oh wait, I must choose a spot very carefully, as building it takes a day, and demolishing it takes another day.

How about a nice run around my town? Oh wait, Grass deterioration - walk slowly.

Maybe I want to refurbish a furniture item. Oh wait... Cyrus takes 30 minutes to get it done, and I have to check the internet for a preview to see if it's what I'm after.

Maybe I'll let a villager go to get a new one. Oh wait... 10 days for the move, and uncertainty of move ins means I have to place path patterns all over the place.

Maybe do some shopping to buy something new... Oh wait, I already have most of that furniture and clothing in my catalog.

The only thing I may do if I come back is talk to villagers, redecorate my home a little bit, and maybe check Tortimer Island. But otherwise, I feel like I've played the game to death, and would rather utilize the freedoms granted to me in New Horizons. -.-

_____

Sure, New Leaf has many more features - but the number of features doesn't always equal the best game play. I urge people who glamorize New Leaf to stop playing NH and play your existing NL town for a couple months (NO resetting your file!), and see for yourself. I find that the additional freedoms you get in NH are worth much more that many of the additional features of New Leaf.

 

[John Wick]

I wish I hadn't sold my 3ds and copy of NL over a year ago.
I'd definately be playing it.

 

[Baroque]

Yeah, I feel the same way. There are several additions that I really do appreciate: being able to decorate your entire island is a big deal, we shouldn’t look away from that... but then again, a lot of what made New Leaf charming is totally gone now. I think most of that could be saved by bringing back some of the shops and venues present in New Leaf, though: bring back The Roost, bring back Harriet and her salon (Whatever it’d do now, anyway...) bring back that fortune-telling cat. Let us make our entire town if the intent actually is for us to customize and build a whole town on an island, not just freakin’... Nook’s cranny and the tailor shop :/

 

[Red Cat]

NH is a better game overall than NL for a variety of reasons, but it didn't have to be either/or when and could have easily been done. NH was an unfinished game at launch and the different seasons, holiday updates, and continued COVID isolation have been enough to keep players interested so far, but once the one year anniversary rolls around, Easter 2.0 isn't going to cut it anymore. Nintendo is eventually going to need to stop the drip content and make a WA style splash to keep people engaged, especially as more and more people get vaccinated and back out into the real world. I'd like to see them "complete" NH before losing most of the casual players and they will be gone long before the end of the planned 3 years of updates.

 

[CrankyCupcake]

I enjoyed New Leaf so much. I played it for years. But I wouldn't go back to it. New Horizons is a better game for me, even though by better, I don't mean quantifiable qualities such as a bigger item count or a longer list of new NPCs. I just like it better. I think it's amazing that I no longer have to tolerate new villagers putting down their houses wherever they pleased. I don't have to worry about my flowers dying or my grass disappearing. I'm not big on terraforming but I do appreciate being given the opportunity and power to change the course of my river or flatten my island, if I felt like doing so.

New Horizons also looks fantastic. I like a good-looking game, since I can't help but look when I'm playing.

 

[Monokuma73]

Sure, let's be realistic. Have you seen Pokemon Sword And Shield? Graphics were terribly disappointing, even though it was a "next gen console." New Horizons looks beautiful in comparison.
(...)
Those graphics are awful compared to ACNH. Sure, it's upscaled, but that's about it. The models aren't nearly as great as ACNH's nor are the textures/shadows/shading. And the reason why the Wii U version of the game did not perform as well is because it was a spin off, not a main series entry.

I never played any Pokemon game so I have no opinion. I never say graphics is awful / ugly in ACNH, but what I want to underline is a fact, a graphics improvement (somewhat) has been done and if AC for Wii U would be a proper game, instead of board one - I would guarantee its success. No more, no less.
I can find many good games with worse graphics, and those games are a pure pleasure to play them, but there's a lot of beautifully looking games, but there's no temptation to play any single minute.
And once more... I will not take excuse as "spin off" - it's their problem, their decision to make spin off instead of "normal game" and they fail.

Physics doesn't mean interactivity. I'm referring to things like trees, clothing, objects, particles, etc. moving with wind or even simulated wind through objects such as fans. That's really impressive stuff, and it does matter, it isn't pointless to many of us, including myself. Just because you cannot directly interact with an object with an NES game (because of Nintendo's choice to bundle them w/ NSO) doesn't mean that it's not important for the object to look good. This is a game all about decorating and collecting. Objects should look great, and they do in New Horizons.

Sure, you're absolutely right. I personally enjoy "physics", but what I'm trying to say, is something I calling "wasting potential" and many of objects using physics wasting potential of this, like my given example pinball machines.
I will not take your statement "game all about decorating and collecting" - as all of AC was about this, but this doesn't stop developers for implementing interesting features, starting from first iteration of AC game on GameCube.
At this point we got situation where something has been given, but even more has been taken away.
Two examples:
Club LOL versus K.K. every single week waiting since 5AM with simplest stools for his audience to perform one song.
Label in ACNH, homeless "person" instead of having own part of family store.

Crafting is always relevant to gameplay, whether you're using flimsy tools or golden tools. Collecting materials, farming ores, etc. is as relevant in the beginning as it is in the ending. And, like I was getting at in my original post, it also increases social interaction with other players a ton, and as a result, the player economy and online community hasn't thrived in any other game as well as AC:NH.

In my personal opinion, "making money" and all economy had higher difficulty level and was really unpleasant, however in ACNH we may have too much money and absolutely no way to spend them.

I didn't feel that way at all. Certainly, having more features at launch is ideal for everyone, but I think the game shipped with enough features before patches came. I've played every single main series game during its prime, and for many reasons I've went into and more, ACNH has kept me more engaged than the others have.

The latter of your post is really just pessimism. There's no way to prove/show new updates will give us nothing and will be unnecessary. Every big update we've gotten so far has been great and improved the game greatly. There's no reason for me to believe it won't continue that way, considering their track record.

As we continue to see more entries in Animal Crossing, we're going to have to become more accustomed to seeing certain things not return in the future, whether it be furniture, NPCs, features, etc. A point does get reached where it's hard for the developers to recreate everything and then try to build a new experience on top of it. And when you have a game that's essentially a carbon copy of the predecessor, it will get boring incredibly fast (look at City Folk). That's why, to compensate for it, every Animal Crossing entry should take risks, and though there is content I would like to see again from past games, I think New Horizons does a fine job at reinventing the wheel. AC:NH sold amazingly well, so I think the future will be brighter than we could imagine for the future of this entry, and the future ones to come.

Don't get me wrong, I spend many more hours in ACNH than in any other AC games. I have 770+ hours and still playing every single day. I started in early September so I consider myself lucky I had game already updated to reasonable level of content.
I'm not trying and never tried to tell ACNH is a bad game, but I have my expectations and there are thing I like more and things I like less and some of them are not acceptable for me.
I'm not expecting from Animal Crossing to create a copy of previous iteration, just adding "HD" in the tile, this is not a solution and do agree, it will become boring quite fast. But, I can't glorify game just because something has been added, what was in previous iteration, because it's not a real challenge, and comparing how much was taken away to what was added, I may be slightly disappointed, can I?

 

[Boidoh]

Sure, New Leaf has many more features - but the number of features doesn't always equal the best game play. I urge people who glamorize New Leaf to stop playing NH and play your existing NL town for a couple months (NO resetting your file!), and see for yourself. I find that the additional freedoms you get in NH are worth much more that many of the additional features of New Leaf.

I tried this a couple months ago. It only made me miss certain things that New Leaf had. Sure, in terms of designing your island, NH is a big improvement. But for people who that wasn't the primary focus, New Leaf knocks it out of the park.

 

[Splinter]

I'm glad it was stripped back, I was thinking after new leaf there's probably nowhere left for it to go now in the format it was currently in, desert island setting was the right way to go, crafting mechanic gave it something different and removal of a lot of restrictions from the older games was also a big bonus. Once we have every final update it will feel more like the ultimate Animal crossing game. Just being able to decorate outside is huge for the series imo.

 

[daringred_]

i love how preferring NL in any capacity, no matter how many or which valid reasons you give, automatically means you're "glamorizing" it like okay. i don't need to go back and play NL because i literally still play both my NL towns regularly alongside NH -- the only reason i don't play them daily is because it's been 7 years and i don't usually have the time on top of other stuff. when i do, however, i still ironically play just one of them for longer than i do NH despite having the exact same routine in both titles.

never once have i seen someone who prefers NL tell someone who prefers NH that they're "glamorizing" it, or don't understand, or are objectively wrong, and yet that's literally almost all i see NH lovers say to those who prefer NL.

 

[Boidoh]

I'm glad it was stripped back, I was thinking after new leaf there's probably nowhere left for it to go now in the format it was currently in, desert island setting was the right way to go

I don't get it. NH isn't that a drastic departure from NL. Making it be a deserted island only played a role in like the first few weeks. After that, especially after you've decorated everything, it's far from a deserted island, and you're right back to continuing where New Leaf left off. That's not a bad thing, but you're framing it as though putting it on a "desert island setting" was a huge departure for the series.

I swear, it's only in this fandom that stripping content is considered 'keeping things fresh'.

i love how preferring NL in any capacity, no matter how many or which valid reasons you give, automatically means you're "glamorizing" it like okay. i don't need to go back and play NL because i literally still play both my NL towns regularly alongside NH -- the only reason i don't play them daily is because it's been 7 years and i don't usually have the time on top of other stuff. when i do, however, i still ironically play just one of them for longer than i do NH despite having the exact same routine in both titles.

never once have i seen someone who prefers NL tell someone who prefers NH that they're "glamorizing" it, or don't understand, or are objectively wrong, and yet that's literally almost all i see NH lovers say to those who prefer NL.

Exactly.

Honestly, for me, I saw the flaws in New Leaf compared to previous titles (even though at the time I had never played any of them extensively). Despite all the additions, I wasn't a fan of the hourly music, rolling log view (I love that NH allows me to have a bit of an overhead camera), and other stuff I can't recall at the moment. Despite all of that, I found myself enjoying New Leaf even though some of those flaws bothered me quite a bit.

I don't think I'm glamorizing New Leaf.

At the same thing.. NH isn't a "departure" from New Leaf. I understand why some of you think that way, and I did too when the game first came out. I remember drawing some diagrams and saying that it's either an evolution of City Folk or the original GCN game due to the way it disregarded most developments of New Leaf. However, as the updates came out, it became clear that they were just gonna add in things like bushes and diving as DLC. It wasn't a "new direction". Instead, it made the game feel incomplete.