POLL---Be Honest: How do you REALLY feel about New Horizons?

[Lavamaize]

Overall, I think it is an awesome game, but still needs a bit more content in the game!

 

[KayDee]

As it is right now, I think it’s my favorite out of the series but I’m also not opposed to them adding in the features/items that everyone has been requesting, which would tip it closer to one of the best games ever for me.

 

[rainadash]

I liked decorating as a side activity in past games. It seems to have become the main activity in New Horizons and unfortunately I can't enjoy the game as much because of the big lack of other activities from previous games. I've tried to really engage in terraforming and landscaping my island, but I just get bored and exhausted.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Its a good game, but yeah it does need some work. I am somewhere in the middle. While I think there is things in the game that do way better and it does do really good from past AC games there is still other stuff that sets it back from being a perfect game. Here's the thing I remember way back in the day on the GameCube you would used to have 2 towns on each memory card. When I saw New Horizons I was hoping to make multiple islands but instead it has the one island per switch which did annoy me very much.

There is alot of issues that bother me like the online is not all that good. All you do is just shop on their island, and sure you can interact with their villagers, and of course have a fun time hanging out. There is literally no modes. I know when the Dream Suite came out last year in August 2020 I barely use Dodo airlines anymore. Its 2021 and we still have to deal with the constant load screens. I mean why can't it just be you can still do stuff on your island, while someone else is coming or leaving?

Then there is the villager dialogue. Villagers seem to only talk about themselves depending on their personality and they would prattle on the same topics about what you are wearing, who visited your island, reminding the player what they did yesterday, and of course always asking you same questions about being inside villagers homes or just asking about other player's hobbies. This can be cute at first, but it gets tiring to hear them say it everyday. Now sure the argument can be made that villagers do same more unique things when they are inside the shops, museum, and when they are in events. While that is all cool it still doesn't make them interesting. New Leaf villagers used to come to your home when they ask you to and sometimes they would ask you to pay hide and seek. That is no longer a thing in New Horizons. Villagers need to have more life to them than just repeat the same topics over and over again.

The Crafting and DIY are good additions to the game but the way it was executed and how it was handled after 1 year later it really doesn't hold up too well. The constant grind for looking for DIYS is RNG and the crafting takes a long time just to get items you really want. If Nintendo would've took inspiration from Minecraft and Stardew Valley maybe the Crafting would've been better.

As far as the shops I am just going to say this New Horizons compared to past AC games in terms of upgrades has the least amount of shop upgrades. You can upgrade the shop 5 times to reach to the full potential. Even in New leaf when you got the final shop upgrade you had Leif joined in and then Gracie Grace was up in the top floor. It was by the best thing we've ever seen. Why is that the Nook Shop in New Horizons has only one upgrade? There should be a new upgrade where it adds new items that we never seen before. I get that in past updates the nook shop would always display items that are limited time which is a good idea but the problem is that the variant you have is a different color and the only to get that said variant that has a different color is to trade with someone else. In past AC games the nook shop was always your go to whenever you wanted new furniture and it always was refreshing whenever new stuff was added even in the full upgraded shop there is so much stuff to get and you can see what they have. This one in New Horizions just doesn't do much. There needs to be more variety and a reason to keep shopping at the Nook shop.

Lastly is the Nook Mile Shop. Its probably the most underdeveloped thing in this game. One year has passed and the nook miles shop has barely seen any sort of upgrades to it. Yeah sure in the updates you can use Nook Miles to get new Reactions but thats just it. The items remain the same ever since you first started playing. There is no way to customize the items you just got from the Nook Mile shop. You have to ask someone else if they have say a Green Streetlamp for example.. but you only have the black version on your island. What bothers me is that when you catalog these items, you cannot buy them at the Nook Mile shop. Its available on the Nook Shopping Catalog but its "not for sale" so whats the point? You might as well just trade these items in for different colors which can be tedious to do. The point is the Nook Miles could've been better if the game actually added new items to the Nook Mile shop that encourages you to earn them more all the time when doing tasks everyday when you play the game. I would've loved it if there was like new features added that you have to get nook miles to unlock it. Remember in the beginning you had to spend a lot of Nook Miles for your Tool Ring, Hairstyles, and Pocket Size? To me that felt rewarding and you felt accomplished for unlocking them. After one year of playing there is barely anything new added to the Nook Mile shop.

With that said I will mentioned what I do like about the game. The graphics on this game are some of the most impressive I've ever seen on a Switch game. The way the flowers move, the trees, and anything else in the wind is just really nice. There are really small details where you can put a Fan inside your home and you can see how different objects affect based on the direction the wind from the fan is coming from. The sounds of the bugs were well done, the water waves were really great, and the wind is a helpful mechanic whenever you're looking for Balloon gifts. The way you control your character is really responsive and you can run all over your island. Everything from using tools, shopping, swimming/diving, and basically storing items have felt more fleshed out compared to past AC games. There is more pocket storage, you can store more things in your home more than ever, and there is Nook Mile tasks to do whenever you want to feel accomplished. By far the best thing about this game is the customization and terraforming. You can customize certain furniture and items from crafting, have a lot of custom patterns or objects on your island from someone else who designed it using the Kiosk, and of course the one thing that stood out the most is terraforming. Making your island the way you want and how you want it to be has never been so expressive and giving you the freedom to do whatever you want.

So yeah thats my brutally honest thoughts on what I think on Animal Crossing New Horizons as a whole.

TLTR: Animal Crossing New Horizons is a good game, but it needs work and to improve on a lot of things. The graphics, gameplay, and customization were the only things I truly liked about the game. The rest however like the villager dialogue, crafting/diys, shop upgrades, nook mile shop and the online are the things that really hold it back for me.

 

[Fruitcup]

I love it, I made it through a whole year without taking major breaks which is something I've never done before in any other AC game. I've already sunk more hours into this game than all other combined. The only thing I miss is more villager dialogue but I've never really been one to talk to my villagers much anyway.

 

[Moritz]

I love it, I made it through a whole year without taking major breaks which is something I've never done before in any other AC game. I've already sunk more hours into this game than all other combined. The only thing I miss is more villager dialogue but I've never really been one to talk to my villagers much anyway.

With that last part, ironically villagers have a lot of dialogue. But they tend to only say the same few things the first few times you talk to them

So the less chatty players will find less reason to talk to them, and the more chatty the player, the more reasons they have to keep talking.

Its a little confusing why they say the same few lines for the first 2 or 3 of the day.

 

[Fruitcup]

With that last part, ironically villagers have a lot of dialogue. But they tend to only say the same few things the first few times you talk to them

So the less chatty players will find less reason to talk to them, and the more chatty the player, the more reasons they have to keep talking.

Its a little confusing why they say the same few lines for the first 2 or 3 of the day.

Ohhhh, I didn't know that! Since they usually make comments of talking too much I leave them alone lol I'll have to give it a shot

 

[Moritz]

Ohhhh, I didn't know that! Since they usually make comments of talking too much I leave them alone lol I'll have to give it a shot

Its not quite the same thing as the line is exclusive to nights with shooting stars (I assume) but I've spoken to kidd like 15 times tonight (I like to talk to them a bit tooo much haha) and got rewarded with dialogue I've never heard before as far as I recall and I've played since launch


You can also get fun ones from being near items or things like a plane having gone by from a visitor

And im sure you've noticed but since any villager can talk to any other villager, duplicate personalities can also lead to new dialogue. So if you've never had 2 jocks before, doing so will get you conversations you've never seen.

The personality sub types have different dialogue behind it so like raymond will have stuff that colton will just never say even though they're both smug.

So yeah, the game has a lot of dialogue, but if you only talk to them a couple times a day, you might never see the bulk of it which is a shame.

 

[KayDee]

Its not quite the same thing as the line is exclusive to nights with shooting stars (I assume) but I've spoken to kidd like 15 times tonight (I like to talk to them a bit tooo much haha) and got rewarded with dialogue I've never heard before as far as I recall and I've played since launch
View attachment 369266View attachment 369267View attachment 369269View attachment 369270

You can also get fun ones from being near items or things like a plane having gone by from a visitor

And im sure you've noticed but since any villager can talk to any other villager, duplicate personalities can also lead to new dialogue. So if you've never had 2 jocks before, doing so will get you conversations you've never seen.

The personality sub types have different dialogue behind it so like raymond will have stuff that colton will just never say even though they're both smug.

So yeah, the game has a lot of dialogue, but if you only talk to them a couple times a day, you might never see the bulk of it which is a shame.

This is why I don’t get when people say that villagers in this game are lifeless or robotic. A lot of the dialogue in this game is contextual as opposed to the previous games wherein they’re pretty much canned dialogue unless there’s an event going on, which is a lot more repetitive. The game actually rewards you for taking the time to talk to your villagers. Add the fact that they do a lot more activities now like read a book, use furniture, even fall asleep while on their phone. But I guess Rosie from Gamecube is more interesting since she can call you ugly.

 

[LuchaSloth]

Any game that I've put 500+ hours into is obviously a great game in my opinion. It has its flaws...but, it's definitely my most played game of the entire past year. So...how could I reasonably say it's not great? It is.

 

[tybalt_cake]

kinda boring and without the charm other games had but i still have high hopes on what updates they could give to us this year

 

[PugLovex]

the voting was a little hard, i wanted to choose "it's okay, but it could use some work" but i was hesitant because i feel like it sounded that i thought the game was just ok (i still voted it though)

i love new horizons, i love the new features, npcs, etc. BUT! i'd really like the older npcs, the old features, etc. i really miss going to the island, club LOL, the roost, the police station, and more. i wish there was a little more to do, but hoping it comes with future updates!

 

[peachycrossing9]

I love ACNH, it's my favourite game they have released so far. But like everyone else is saying it still needs a lot of work and there is a good chunk of content missing.
The game got me through some rough stuff last year, and is my escape from the real world when things aren't great. I don't just play it for the content. I play it because it genuinely makes me happy. I have put 1,000 plus hours into this game, so yes I do love it and I try not to complain about what's wrong with it, because it just gets repetitive since so many other people have most likely already bet me too it.

I look forward to whatever Nintendo has in store for this game. I hope they bring in some of the NPC's that are missing and add in more furniture.

 

[Livia]

To me it’s the best game I’ve played. About a year ago I would’ve said the sims 4 was the best game, but I can’t play it anymore because of several reasons, so now NH is the best. I mean I love this game so much that I bought a second switch and copy of the game.

This is probably very unpopular, but I would’ve still been happy if NH didn’t have any updates and remained the the way it released. Of course I also love the updates though and because I never played NL, most of the content like diving and Leif and the holidays are completely new and exciting to me.

 

[Aaryana]

I like the game a lot but it’s not the best game ever. It’s better than just “okay” though. I guess the options don’t fit great for me. I only played New Leaf and New Horizons. There are some things from NL that I miss (running over flowers to destroy them, Tortimer) and some things that I like a lot better in NH (villagers don’t leave unless you say ok). Overall, I think it’s a great game and I look forward to future content (hopefully).

 

[psiJordan]

I love this game!
even though there’s some stuff missing, it has still provided me with so much joy and excitement over the past year and that’s what really matters

 

[Autumn247]

I love it, but there are some things it's missing. I wish there was a Nooks Cranny upgrade, I wish Brewster's Cafe was there, and I kind of liked when the villagers were a little meaner like in Wild World, they kind of had more personality then

 

[SarasalandMick]

I feel like a lot of people around here aren't completely honest and/or stay quiet about their feelings about the game because they don't want to upset others and start any drama. I thought it would be interesting to see how people really feel about the game. Since this is entirely anonymous, I want you to vote completely honestly.


I thought it'd be interesting to see the results.

EDIT TO CLARIFY: First option refers to all games in general, not just Animal Crossing.

I personally love it. I was always a huge fan of the decoration side of the Animal Crossing games, and I love that this game in the series gave us the option to decorate outdoors too.

 

[Valeris]

The quality of life changes this game offers are bar none the best in the series. Villagers not moving out without your okay, for example is huge. You can feasibly leave the game for extended periods of time and come back knowing they'll still be there. Where it falters is the content; the caveat is that's something that is being made up for albeit slowly. When we get increased villager dialogues, Brewster, and the like the game will top all previous iterations. Until then, New Leaf despite lacking the multitude of quality of life changes New Horizons offers is just the better game.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Honestly, it is the best game I have ever played. Like I feel ridiculous even saying it but it was like I have been looking for this exact game forever and finally found it. I have not played an animal crossing game before, but I have played a variety of video games from duck hunt and the Mario games of course, to the Sims, which I spent a ton of time on, and several generations of Pokémon. I have even tried out a variety of mobile games.

I loved the game as it was last may and honestly was skeptical when I heard they were adding diving in, because I was worried it would be too much to do and make the game too busy. (I did end up loving the addition of diving though)

I know I am somewhat of an outlier, but I just truly am this happy with the game. I like getting the updates, some of them I am more interested in and some less, but I don’t need anything more added to help me love the game. I don’t think it is even possible actually

that doesn’t mean I don’t like or appreciate new content, or that I dislike people who do want more updates to add things they feel are lacking (as long as they don’t expect me to consider it lacking)! People I like and respect very much on this forum have a variety of opinion on what they do and don’t want to be added in future updates, and i think that is why it is an interesting place to hang out.

People engage with the gameplay in different and various creative ways, and have a different experiences and connections with the franchise. I can appreciate where people are coming from and understand why they feel the way they do. As long as they respect my opinion

so yeah, I think we have a lot of updates ahead, and I am looking forward to them - I can’t wait! But nothing more is needed for me to complete my enjoyment of the game (even the only thing I really really want - more villager spots).

I think acnh if going to be the game I compare all other to for a very long time - if I ever get around to playing other games again...