The Pro-ACNL (Anti-rant) Thread

[meggiewes]

As an astronomy enthusiast, I love that the game follows the moon phases (e.g. since the moon is currently at its first quarter, it is also at its first quarter in the game). :,)

Wait...really? Well, I'm going to have to go see it tonight. I follow the moon phases IRL and I've never noticed this in-game.

 

[Rosewater]

I love seeing my blue hydrangeas bloom in the summer! They look beautiful with my blue flowers planted around town.

 

[Mayor Monday]

I was walking around town after a week's break from playing. I cleaned everything up and idled a while. It was so peaceful.

NL holds up to the simplicity of Animal Crossing.

 

[JKDOS]

New Leaf as a whole is relaxing. The visuals, the music, the atmosphere. Every time I load the game and set foot outside my house, there is a feeling of serenity. I'll admit finding a villager has moved or finding a villager has placed a house in an unwanted location can be annoying but it doesn't ruin too much.

• Mainstreet was a bit 2-dimentional, but for what it's worth, it was pretty cool for what it was.
• Meeting past villagers on main street was also kind of neat.
• The custom exhibits in the museum was a cool feature.
• DJ K.K. was the coolest thing since sliced bread.
• Isabelle was more useful and less annoying.
• The campsite added in Welcome Amiibo may seem useless without Amiibos, but it was still a new area to visit with its own music and campfire you could dance at or sit down at. Plus, Franklin had some good kitchen furniture to buy.
• Tortimer island was great. You could go somewhere where it was summer. Collect beetles and sharks, and even steal some flowers from solo minigames.
• When starting off the game and looking for bells, Re-tail was awesome because you could sell duplicate fossils to your villagers for up to 9,000 bells a piece.

Now with New Horizons out, one thing that is definitely different is there is less worry/stress in New Leaf. There's no need to worry about

• Where you want your museum or shops
• How you want your plaza or entrance to look
• Where you want your villagers houses or how you want their yards to look.
• Where your cliffs should be. How your river should be
• Where your inclines and bridges should go
• How to tie your town together with pathing
• There was no stress over whether or not any of your tools were near the end (aside from the axe)
• The game doesn't autosave. So you are free to make mistakes

Some other things that New Horizons makes you miss

• Rooms in New Leaf are 8x8
• You could write a bunch of letters and mail them all at once at the post office
• Storage is accessible from other towns
• ABD is accessible from other towns
• No cutscene when joining another town. Means other players aren't stuck waiting for you to finish watching it.
• Villagers would ask you to visit them or they visit you. They might even ask you to find them something. Some villagers had better houses than they do now.
• Plenty of more choices of furniture. Fun furniture too like the Sci-Fi sets.
• The fishing competition was more fun. Rather than endlessly catch fish for 3 minutes and repeat, you would try to catch a specific fish, and you would compete with your villagers over who could get the largest. And there has been plenty of time where my villagers put up a good fight and beat me in the end.
• Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice is acknowledged in funny exaggerated way.
• Good luck days where money rocks wound double the amount of money you get.
• Being able to search for Dreams by town name

 

[CasualWheezer]

There are many things that I love about New Leaf. The soundtrack is great and perhaps has the best music in the entire series. I also love how villagers just show up unannounced to come visit you at you house. Although I only have one house at the Happy Home Showcases it's still a pretty cool feature nonetheless, especially for people who used Streetpass and have a lot of houses there. Being able to customize furniture with Cyrus was also definitely a nice feature. I could go on and on but those are the ones that I can think of on the top of my head.

 

[Elias_]

For me, it's the overall atmosphere that is so great about New Leaf. From the beautiful music to the nice art style, it's just great. I also think that it has a lot of content to it and always gives you new goals to achieve. Obviously, the game has its flaws, but for me, the game has the best balance between the different ways you can play Animal Crossing. Especially coming from Wild World/City Folk, the game felt massive. Just the fact alone that you could plant bushes and place fountains or benches outside, made the game so much more customisable.

 

[Juliet7466]

I love Tortimer Island. It was such a fun thing to do with friends when you were bored. I also loved all the extra fruit we had, like bananas, lychees, mangos etc.

 

[Nenya]

I recently realized how much I like the music in New Leaf, too. I haven't played since New Horizons but my husband still does and hearing the lovely hourly music makes me smile.

 

[your local goomy]

Bananas. 'Nuff said.

 

[Kirbyz]

i love the idea of ordinances. for instance, the beautiful town ordinance. sometimes not all of us have the time or energy to play everyday, so ive always been fond of the fact that the hybrids i spent so long to breed don’t wilt. it’s always been a nice touch. ive never used any of the others ordinances, but they’re quite unique as well and i think they’re a perfect addition to the game in and of itself.

 

[BluebearL]

It's all been said before but having opened it up again today now that I have gotten some time again, I remembered once more why I prefer new leaf to new horizons:

-The relaxed atmosphere: I don't need to spend my time worrying about the aesthetic, theming, and executions of the design of my town.
-I love being able to visit villager homes and them mine, its a super cute mechanic and is always perfect if you want to steal some of their furniture,
-That hourly music is just lovely and probably my favorite soundtrack out of every animal crossing I have played.
-I actually really like the fact that villagers can come and go, it feels realistic and adds a bit of adventure to the game. I love getting new villagers.
-I love that the amiibo process of moving someone in and/or out is so much quicker than in New Horizons.
-I love the large cast of NPC's, each have their own unique personality and a function that adds life to the game.
-The Happy Home Showcase was a really cool feature back when I could streetpass other people playing the game.
-The flowers not growing like crazy as they do in New Horizons is nice, I also just think they look really cute in New Leaf.
-Tortimers island is such a great way to spend time with friends not to mention the mermaid set.
-Furniture and clothing are pretty great in this game.
-Nothing is too easy or too hard to obtain, I can feel relaxed whilst working towards something (eg: unlocking the final nooks upgrade).

 

[your local goomy]

I miss the little animations your character would do in certain weather. Like, if you were to wear long clothes during the summer months, upon leaving their house when you start up the game, they'd sweat and fan themselves. On the opposite, when wearing short clothes in the winter, or when you come out from diving in winter/at night, your character would shiver. Just one of the cute things that makes the game charming and one of my favorites.

 

[StarlitGlitch]

Every time I see the graphics I'm reminded of how cute this game was

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

-I just love the villagers in this game. There are so many interactions you can have with them, their personalities make them a bit different from each other, the drama, and they can be mean from time to time which was hilarious.
-It feels a lot more charming just walking around doing things. The music, graphics, and even SFX sit well with me.
-I liked how you got emotions. I may have found going to Club LOL a bit annoying and useless back in the days, but looking back it was neat.
-HH Showcase was awesome. Made road trips more exciting since there was that random chance you'd get someone's home.
-NPCs don't feel like dead robots. They have real personalities and I found each individual quite charming.
-Limited flowers you can breed each day was nice. Makes it less crazy.
-I actually enjoy not being able to terraform looking back. It adds a sense of challenge to the game not being able to move buildings wherever and having to work with what you have.
-I loved the furniture sets.
-The game feels like a great mixture of old and new while still feeling that sense of nostalgia and that is exactly my cup of tea. Love the game for that.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

I've already considered this to be the apex of the series, and for a multitude of reasons. Let's elaborate on those reasons:

• Being the Mayor — a nice change of pace from the standard Villager your character was before.
• Little details, such as your character's running animation changing to a more feminine one when wearing "female" clothing. You better believe I had loads of fun having my little guy in skirts and dresses, while my second PC was more of a tomboy. There's quite a lot of these charming little instances sprinkled throughout New Leaf (such as villagers reacting to some of the reactions taught by Shrunk), and I love games that do this.
• Next to the original game, NL had the (2nd) best soundtrack. And despite only playing it for more than a year, it eerily makes me feel very nostalgic, almost as a sort of homage from some of the music I grew up listening to.
• Before New Horizons, New Leaf's Villagers were often one of more the criticized aspects of the game because of how noticeably "nicer" they were, or some other dumb nonsense. You play as a MAYOR; of course they're going to be more receptive towards you. "Personality" isn't just about how mean or nice a character is, and honestly, Peppies and Jocks were much better off with this kinder approach.
• All three Able Sisters reunited, working with each other. That's a great thing to witness, especially if you're familiar with the backstory of these characters.

Unlike most other games in the series, there's nothing about NL that annoys to me the point of frustration, other than hailing to certain archaic design choices from the previous games. That's a huge reason why it has such a long-lasting impression on me. I played the first three games before jumping into this one, and doing so allowed me to appreciate it more than I probably would have had if it was my first main AC game. I've been wanting to play this since it was brand new, and while it does sting to finally play the game long after its heyday, I'm still glad that I was able to play it in the first place.

 

[Nenya]

I love being able to scan Monster Hunter Felyne into the game. He has quite the personality!

 

[Kitsuragi]

i miss this game! the music is so so fun to listen to, and i love island tours. awe, i wanna get another 3ds now.

 

[xmenfan2001]

im sure someone's said this already earlier in the thread, but being able to prevent your villagers from moving out in a non-convoluted way is incredible. i've started wild world recently, and ive had to PLEAD with tangy and send her a letter with gifts TWICE now, because they seem to want to move out at the drop of a hat and that's the only way to keep them in your town!!
also, the "save and continue" feature is something im finding myself missing HEAVILY in the other games i play (nh and ww) - its so convenient for when im not done making adjustments to my town, but want to make sure i dont lose anything without having to exit all the way to the meny

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

I don't have much to say despite NL being my second-favorite AC game, but I absolutely adore the Animalese in this game. I love hearing my villagers speak, especially the cranky villagers.

The Animalese in NH is fine and fits into the game more (NH seems a lot more 'quiet' compared to other AC games, which seem to have more 'loud' and 'jarring' sounds), but NL Animalese reigns supreme.

Another thing I love about NL is the fortune cookie items, every time I get a Zelda-themed item (epsecially if it's something I wanted or didn't have yet) I get so excited about it. XD

 

[Nenya]

I am playing two of my "unfinished" NL games again, and enjoying them! Yes, I'm surprised and pleased. Omgosh, I forgot about how challenging it is to get the perfect town rating, but lily of the valley flowers are finally showing up on the cliffs. (Geez, Isabel ) I have to study up on breeding hybrids because that is the specialty of my town named Wagtales (five cats and five dogs). Love those blue pansies!