Honestly? Yeah. It does.
I know that New Horizon's doesn't need to be nor was it meant to be New Leaf 2. It's a new game in the franchise so it'll have differences, like how Wild World & New Leaf aren't the same game and that's okay. I'm not looking for a second New Leaf, what I'm looking for is an improved Animal Crossing game and while in some ways New Horizons is an improvement, as a whole I can't help but feel disappointed by it. I've posted in tons of threads about my disappointment in New Horizons to the point where I probably sound like a broken record but I paid nearly $100 for the game (Canadian prices, woohoo), I should own the whole damn thing.
I never played and never had NL before updates, I was lucky enough have an access to final version of NL for reasonable price. I can say more, I bought almost all (suitable) AC games in 2020 (excluding City Folk for Wii, as I already had this one, but never played) and all of those games been completed. This gave me some sort of security and reason to believe / trust in new version (NH) when released as a full game... will be literally full one... but it wasn't.
Once more, I was lucky enough to buy NH (two Switches, two copies of NH) late August / first week of September 2020 so I had no feeling disappointment of lacking features added in summer update.
Most disappointing fact is related to three last updates (Halloween, Turkey Day, Toy Day), not only because of the content, but because those updates should be a part of full release and don't pretend a Big Nintendo giving a gift for FREE, because it's not true.
A lot of New Horizons flaws are often defended with, "it'll come in an update, that could be changed in an update, it's written in the meta-data (or whatever that's called) so it'll come in the future, etc. etc" and yeah, it very well might, but that's ridiculous. The game should've been released with NPC's, shop updates/more shops, inclusive/more diverse hairstyles, and holidays amongst other things, already included. It's frustrating that so much of the game is hidden behind updates when it's not a free to play game. I paid money for a full game, but I didn't receive a full game at launch, so I'm going to be hypercritical of what I paid for.
I totally agree with you. If the game is free / free to play, alpha, beta etc. we may expect to pay something extra. Having a full release of software giving or at least should give sense of buying finished product, or if it's not finished, a proper information should be given for a customers.
I heard and read more than enough about high hopes, about "bright futures", about data-mining, about big free update, full of content just round the corner... but as I wrote so many times, I don't believe it would ever happened. The fact something has been data-mined in the code, doesn't prove anything.
One more thing - island has fixed size and there's not really place for extra buildings... sure, if we want we could destroy as much as we pleased and place more and more buildings... but is this a way?
Other flaws are frustrating and I will compare it directly to New Leaf. Why am I not able to get every fruit type unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to look at patterns people design unless I pay for online? Why am I not able to obtain every colour of the already limited furniture available unless I pay for online? That's ridiculous that those features aren't available to players who choose to or are only able to play solo. Those are core features of the Animal Crossing experience and it's unfair they're locked behind a paywall.
There is more. I do agree with you, when we talking about literally forced to play online and obviously buying online membership. When I bough Switch + NH for my and my GF I was intended to play only with her, using local play. However in the time when we bought, local play was terrible mess and it was unplayable. Probably it was silently fixed (but I'm not 100% sure). I bought two online membership, for one year each, but I has been done against my will. If I would have this knowledge before purchase I may be acting differently.
But, whatever happens in the future, my "New Year Resolution" is not extend online membership after September 2021 when my membership will expire. Enough is enough.
It looks like game couldn't be completed without online membership, but customers are not clearly informed about this.
In different ways the game feels like a step back because it feels empty. Animal Crossing is such a charming game and I really feel like New Horizons lost some of that charm. The game is gorgeous, sure, and it has some really cute little details! I love that we can see snow from our windows, and that the villagers can sing, and sit, and carry items around, they did a really great job with the way the game looks. No doubt. But it's empty. My island has two stores. Two shops that don't upgrade, or at least they haven't yet, and the game has been out for nearly a year! By the time I put a year into New Leaf I think I had most of mainstreet unlocked, if not all of it, and maybe even had the full store upgrades too. Hiding those things behind updates under the guise of "making the game last longer" is silly. I played New Leaf for years without needing the game to hide holidays and features behind yearly updates.
In some aspect, New Horizons is not New Leaf 2, but New Leaf 0.5 and there's no real justification for this. Sometimes I have a sense of different teams with different vision working on same game. NH is visually improved, is charming, sweet, adorable etc. But some aspect of NH has been taken away, stripped, reduced - can we call this improvement, because I can't.
Same, I do not agree with statement "making the game last longer", especially after last three updates. Those updates haven't changed a bit in quality of life, haven't improved a game as a whole.
I dunno. I do love New Horizons, it definitely has some good aspects. I love being able to put furniture outside - I think that adds a lot to the game and I have a lot of fun decorating my island with more than just the handful of PWP's we had in New Leaf. I love that we get to move houses and the campsite around and I love having fences, those are really cute. I love being able to change my eyes, nose, mouth, hair, gender, and skin tone by just looking into a mirror. I love the new villagers, Sherb is so cute, even if I'm not a huge fan of how they altered the lazy personality, but still. I love how the game has pathways now! Ones that are recognized on my map, that's a lot of fun. I love how much bigger the island is, that we get to add in more than three bridges (I think that was the New Leaf limit?) and we get to add inclines, and I do like having the option to terraform even if I find it a little overwhelming and not the easiest thing to do. Also rocks! I love that we can break rocks in New Horizons.
I don't agree only with one thing... size of the island. Is not big enough. If we would like to play with flowers, we need a lot of space, orchard... a big one requires more. If we would like to have a park with shrubs, fences, fountains - still require more and more... and space is limited and we loosing a lot of space behind all buildings.
New Horizons does have aspects that I love, it can just feel overshadowed by the parts that are frustrating and by the parts that feel unfair, especially when I look at my time with New Leaf. I think with New Leaf the main things that frustrated me were: the character customization in New Leaf was abysmal and I'm really bummed that wasn't fixed with the Welcome Amiibo update, definitely a huge let down. Villagers randomly moving out if you didn't play the game every single day and then having villagers randomly choose a spot to live. The house plotting was slightly improved with the Welcome Amiibo update but it's still finicky. And that's really it. I'm sure there are little things that also bother me but those three are my main issues that still stick out when I think back to the game. I do visit my New Leaf town from time to time and it's still charming and I love it a lot.
New Horizons was a really big step forward, but in some aspects was a couple steps back. If I can't find any explanations and understand why such a thing has happened, always the answer is: "money". Despite the fact Nintendo earned a lot of money selling NH, releasing ultimate version of AC would ruin possibility to release another and another one, to make even more money.