The Amiibo addition ruined the game

[Ikkie]

Hi guys. I've been a huge fan of the animal crossing series ever since I was like 13. I started with new leaf, so the game is very dear to me.

But I have bought an old game card from 2013 and re-started a town, after the... silly Amiibo update. I even reset my 2ds so I will not get updates for my old un-updated game-card.
I get the reasons why people love the campsite, getting your perfect villagers etc etc etc.
But I hate how it completely took over the entire game. Even the game card icon changed!!!! and on the game card itself, it wasn't the first sapling you plant anymore. it became the gosh darn van! And the packaging for the game changed so drastically. They removed re-tail and the two alpacas from the packaging, for the entire campsite. even the entire name changed and became this dreadfully long name. Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo. Welcome amiibo? seriously...

The older game-cube version also had cards you could scan or get a secret code from to get items etc. But back then they didn't change the entire game to just fit that.

it felt like there was so much emphasis on micro-transactions. buy the cards! buy these special amiibos! its like the insanity a year ago for Raymon in ACNH.
it just changed my whole feel about the game.it felt too money hungry , too based on getting a "perfect" town to the point of having say in even what villagers live there. Wasn't it more fun to either bully someone out, or just deal with random villagers u know nothing about and get to know them? I dreaded the campsite so much. The new items were cool but it wasn't worth the entire game "look" changing.

Look. im not bashing anyone that enjoyed the update. Honestly I get it! but I just.... its just not for me. Maybe I didn't explain myself well enough. But it's just not my cup of tea.

I would've ignored the game update and campsite if it wasn't for the packaging change and icon change....

I've been wondering for so long if anyone else feels the same

 

[Mars Adept]

I enjoyed the update and as someone who isn’t a fan of amiibo, I didn’t find the amiibo stuff to be overbearing. I really liked Puzzle League and Desert Island Escape (which was a really smart idea to add as most reviews of amiibo Festival claimed it was the only good/best part of that game), and of course you could trade for the new furniture items as always. There were a lot of quality of life additions as well, such as sitting on rocks. Back when it was first revealed I was upset they were updating a 3+ year old game instead of making a new one, but looking back, I much prefer New Leaf, with or without the update, over New Horizons, even with all its updates.

 

[JKDOS]

For collectors, the game redesign might be a problem, but I'm sure there are more v1.0 floating around on places like ebay than the updated version if you really needed to collect it.

The game is still the same one but with more features. You still plant the sapling, and you still have Reese and Cyrus. The game is just better overall now just looking at the QoL house decorating features alone. The only shame is that we never got half-grid placements since this feature already existed in Happy Home Designer.

When the update first launched. I didn't own a single amiibo, until I bought a physical copy of the "new" re-leased New Leaf for my youngest brother. Each new copy of the game included 1 random amiibo.

I enjoyed playing the game again with the extra features, and meow coupons were some nice mini-objectives. I never once felt like the game was pushing micro transactions at all. Sure there was the lamp, but you could store it and forget about it. Since this was pre-New Horizons, amiibos for your favorite character where cheap. I could have easily splurged on some but didn't. The camp site had the special NPCs visit every day selling you furniture for meow coupons, and that was cool time to time.

 

[Takiyama]

The amount of things that encourage you to buy an amiibo is kind of depressing, I agree with you in that regard. Things like the telephone inside of Brewster's Cafe, as well as the fact that you must have the amiibo of a particular villager to invite them to your campsite, is kind of annoying. At the same time though, it has given birth to Animal Crossing fans working together to trade amiibo so everyone gets their dream villagers!

Edit: Just realized this is for New Leaf, sorry for the useless post

 

[LambdaDelta]

I do enjoy the japanese subsubtitle of amiibo+ a tad bit more

 

[Belle T]

To be honest, I don't quite understand how any of this ruins the game itself. All the complaints you've listed are at best metatextual. Otherwise, aside from added Amiibo functionality and other new features that are largely optional, the game plays more or less identical to the original. To emphasize, I am the first person to shut off a game at even the slightest hint of microtransactions, and I found the Welcome Amiibo update to be... fine. Yes, it is obvious that it was made to incentivize players to buy Amiibo cards. But not only is the base game almost entirely playable without them (to the point where I can't even think of a single feature that requires them off-hand), but after shoving the lamp in the Drawer of Purgatory for all time, they never badger you about it ever again.

As someone who has no real interest in Amiibo cards, at no point in the game did I feel like I was missing out on anything that would otherwise have interested me. If anything, the overwhelming amount of quality of life improvements makes it a considerably better deal. The new title and the update to the game icon are tacky, but they're nothing to do with the actual gameplay.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I loved the amiibo update personally! I bought some amiibo cards and had tons of the figures as a child and loved all the cool things. I still love it and it added SO MANY THINGS that even people without amiibos could enjoy. It only changes the home screen icon if you bought the WA version. I personally dont see anything wrong with it but I guess it did take a little bit of New Leaf's identity but I have a WA copy and an OG ACNL copy since I have multiple towns so I understand kinda!! It was a bit scummy since Nintendo really REALLY needed money because of my favorite console failing and not really anyone buying HHD add on so the wanted a way to make more money. I understand your opinions though! Everyone is different ~

 

[DJStarstryker]

I don't think it ruined the game, but it is true that if you don't own amiibos or don't want to/can't trade online, then you do miss out on a lot of the Welcome Amibo update, as a large chunk of it does revolve around amiibos. Many of the new items can only be acquired by scanning amiibos. Those items ARE tradable though, so even if you don't own amiibos, you can still get them while 3DS online play is still available. I mean, I know that's frustrating, but honestly NL has a lot of region-specific items and DLC that requires trading too that was in the game even pre-Welcome Amiibo update.

I'm thankful for the update because it added a ton of new items, a whole lot of new villagers, more stuff to do, etc. It breathed a lot of life into an already great game years after it first came out.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

You can get NFC Amiibo cards on Amazon or eBay for pretty low prices. In fact you can get any Amiibo cards for low prices. I got a set of miniature Sanrio Amiibo cards for under $10 on eBay and they look pretty good and are interestingly the perfect size for fashion dolls.

 

[kyle on saturn]

the update is alright to say the least, i did buy amiibo cards and even the scanner when they first released, its nice if you want to move in specific villagers easily without grinding the campsite or trading sites, although finding people who are willing to hack in villagers for you wasnt too difficult. the path reset (cannot move on paths) function was probably the best addition with some new furniture. unfortunately some of the good stuff is only available with certain amiibo cards/figures. after i had lost my scanner features like scanning in npcs and using wisp became useless, but theres easy wraparounds to those with help with people who know what theyre doing. it is unfortnate that it was basically the last update as its all we see now but its nice to get an update 4+ years into its lifespan.

 

[Drawdler]

I wouldn’t say it ruins the game and the new furniture and vouchers were a lot of fun. There are little improvements I was shocked to come back and see, since I felt like they were part of the game from the start, like the storage. But I will give you a hard agree on it being unsightly and I hate how Nintendo made amiibo cards to cash in. Also, this is silly, but it feels dated seeing it. Like they changed the icon etc. to make it look more new and epic, but it just isn’t new anymore.
AC has a lot of potential to be milked, amiibo cards were the start of it coming into the mainline games and Pocket Camp was the start of new games made for milking (I’ll ignore [the game we do not speak of] since it flopped anyhow). Not trying to imply PC sucks as a game or something because I never played it, I heard it honestly isn’t that bad, but it is a mobile game and even if it’s relatively unobtrusive for a mobile game mobile games are very different about monetisation. I hope the “milking” stays at those, because honestly, the amiibo functionality is already annoying enough. And using a smartphone app (NookLink) for some items but they do that with all their online games so blehhh.

 

[Groovycat64]

Ruined is a strong word. It's totally optional. Meaning, you don't have to buy the cards at all. All it really is, is for collector's, and people not willing to wait or spend a LOT of time trying to get the one villager they really want. Only card I bothered to buy was Celia since she is my favourite villager of all time, and I probably don't have the time to seemingly endlessly try and get her to my town.

Still, it's totally up to you if you choose to buy them or not. You're really not missing out on anything if you don't buy them. I wouldn't necessarily describe them as microtransactions, since it's not like you're spending real money on in game bells or anything essential needed to progress in the game. To get your favourite villagers is already optional (I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this point) in a way, since you don't HAVE to get them, if you're not willing.

Either way, just play the game and enjoy it. Don't worry about getting the amiibo cards, or getting a "perfect town". That really isn't what Animal Crossing is really about in my honest opinion. It's suppose to be a fun, and relaxing game you play at your own pace, and you do what you want and do as much or little to your town as you feel like.

 

[Virga]

I used to play New Leaf with friends in high school and college, but once my circle of friends drifted apart in college I kinda developed a new respect for the amiibo update. The cards are a convenient way to pick some villagers now that I don't have anyone to trade villagers with locally. Before I started using these forums, cards were sort of the only option to have any control over what villagers I got LOL

I even bought an extra console and copy of the game last year just so that I'd be able to always have the option to grab villagers/items from my second town. Once the 3ds wi-fi servers go down, amiibo cards and local play would be the only way to get some of that content...

 

[Broccolo]

I have just purchased a Nintendo 2DS XL, and am wanting to buy New Leaf.

Is Animal Crossing New Leaf: Welcome Amiibo, the one to buy?
Are there updates available for this game, and can you still download them?

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I have just purchased a Nintendo 2DS XL, and am wanting to buy New Leaf.

Is Animal Crossing New Leaf: Welcome Amiibo, the one to buy?
Are there updates available for this game, and can you still download them?

All the updates are there. If you buy a new copy of NL, it will be the Amiibo version.

 

[Broccolo]

All the updates are there. If you buy a new copy of NL, it will be the Amiibo version.

Thank you.