JimmyJacobAC
Turned over a New Leaf
Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times (and the rest of the games, none of which we got here in the US which sucks cause I really wanna play the 3DS game) is a game obviously taking a lot of concepts from Animal Crossing. Keep in mind, when it came out, the most recent Animal Crossing was City Folk. It had stuff such as pants, proper shoe changing, a much more complex social system, flowers twinkling when you water them, neighbors in shops and fishing and doing other stuff around town instead of just wandering and other stuff that New Leaf ended up doing.
There's a few things that it did that New Leaf didn't do and the next Animal Crossing should.
1: Buying floors and wallpapers without too much dialogue.
When you buy floors and wallpapers in this game, you don't have to go to each individual one, select it, ask for it to be spread out and waste your time. You simply walk into the room where floors and walls are sold and look around. They're already spread out for you to see and if you are wondering which ones they are, simply walk next to them and a bubble will show up with the name of the floor/wall in question. The only time the store clerk has to talk to you is when you're buying it.
2: Some of the aspects of the social system in Magician's Quest.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf got the social aspects mostly right. However, most interactions were left up to the NPCs, whether it's hanging out or trading items. In Magician's Quest, once you become good enough friends with a neighbor, you can ask to hang out with them, you can give them gifts, go to school with them, etc. When you hang out with them, they'll follow you and do activites with you such as fishing, bug catching, eating or drinking, etc.
3: Variety in locations.
In Animal Crossing New Leaf, you get the town, the island, Main Street and the HHA showcase. In Magician's Quest, you get the town, the forest, a cave, the haunted house, the shopping street (replaced with a huge mall you can customize in the 3DS game), the beach (it's own separate area with distinct music), Lover's Point (a cliff overlooking the ocean, see the clip below) and the island. Keep in mind, this is a DS game we're talking about. Having a variety of locations to explore and collect stuff would be very welcoming, especially for an Animal Crossing game with the potential to be huge if it's on the Wii U.
4: More expressive characters.
This one's minor, but your character in Magician's Quest is very expressive, much in the same way Link is in Wind Waker. In Animal Crossing, you almost always keep the same face, except for in short moments such as emoticons or when getting stung by a bee. Even when you hold up a fish you caught, you still keep the same facial expression. Magician's Quest has moments where more expression could be used, such as when casting spells, but when you get teleported away by a ghost or a neighbor makes a lot of noise in their house, your character reacts appropriately.
5: Actually choosing how your character looks at the start of the game and when at the hair salon.
In Magician's Quest, you pick how you look in the beginning of the game and you can pick your hairstyle at the salon. No need for answering questions and looking up online guides. Oh yeah, you can PICK YOUR SKIN COLOR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME IN MAGICIAN'S QUEST! Want a black character? Go ahead, do it!
6: RAINY DAY MUSIC! Instead of just dumbing down the music, there should be separate music for when it's rainy! Magician's Quest has music for when it's cloudy during the day, evening, and night and it has rainy day music. It also has music for when it's snowing. Give this to Animal Crossing!
What do you guys think? I wish we could get the 3DS Magician's Quest game here, it's almost been 3 years since it's Japanese release
Here's clips from the 3DS version.
There's a few things that it did that New Leaf didn't do and the next Animal Crossing should.
1: Buying floors and wallpapers without too much dialogue.
When you buy floors and wallpapers in this game, you don't have to go to each individual one, select it, ask for it to be spread out and waste your time. You simply walk into the room where floors and walls are sold and look around. They're already spread out for you to see and if you are wondering which ones they are, simply walk next to them and a bubble will show up with the name of the floor/wall in question. The only time the store clerk has to talk to you is when you're buying it.
2: Some of the aspects of the social system in Magician's Quest.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf got the social aspects mostly right. However, most interactions were left up to the NPCs, whether it's hanging out or trading items. In Magician's Quest, once you become good enough friends with a neighbor, you can ask to hang out with them, you can give them gifts, go to school with them, etc. When you hang out with them, they'll follow you and do activites with you such as fishing, bug catching, eating or drinking, etc.
3: Variety in locations.
In Animal Crossing New Leaf, you get the town, the island, Main Street and the HHA showcase. In Magician's Quest, you get the town, the forest, a cave, the haunted house, the shopping street (replaced with a huge mall you can customize in the 3DS game), the beach (it's own separate area with distinct music), Lover's Point (a cliff overlooking the ocean, see the clip below) and the island. Keep in mind, this is a DS game we're talking about. Having a variety of locations to explore and collect stuff would be very welcoming, especially for an Animal Crossing game with the potential to be huge if it's on the Wii U.
4: More expressive characters.
This one's minor, but your character in Magician's Quest is very expressive, much in the same way Link is in Wind Waker. In Animal Crossing, you almost always keep the same face, except for in short moments such as emoticons or when getting stung by a bee. Even when you hold up a fish you caught, you still keep the same facial expression. Magician's Quest has moments where more expression could be used, such as when casting spells, but when you get teleported away by a ghost or a neighbor makes a lot of noise in their house, your character reacts appropriately.
5: Actually choosing how your character looks at the start of the game and when at the hair salon.
In Magician's Quest, you pick how you look in the beginning of the game and you can pick your hairstyle at the salon. No need for answering questions and looking up online guides. Oh yeah, you can PICK YOUR SKIN COLOR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME IN MAGICIAN'S QUEST! Want a black character? Go ahead, do it!
6: RAINY DAY MUSIC! Instead of just dumbing down the music, there should be separate music for when it's rainy! Magician's Quest has music for when it's cloudy during the day, evening, and night and it has rainy day music. It also has music for when it's snowing. Give this to Animal Crossing!
What do you guys think? I wish we could get the 3DS Magician's Quest game here, it's almost been 3 years since it's Japanese release
Here's clips from the 3DS version.
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