I honestly miss everything about New Leaf except for villagers being able to randomly move out and having to plot reset every time a new villager moved in, but some of the main things I miss are:
☘︎ Tortimer’s Island! I can live without Club Tortimer, but Tortimer’s Island is the thing I miss the most from New Leaf. I had so much fun spending hours there farming rare fishes and beetles, and going on island tours. I also miss the island tours. I mostly did them by myself, but they were still fun; that’s testament to how cool they were.
☘︎ Playing hide-and-seek with my villagers. It was also cute when they’d ask you to bury a time capsule for them, and then dig it back up for them at a later date. Also also miss them asking for petition signatures.
☘︎ Main Street! It had such good vibes. It was so nice to have the majority of the buildings all in one place, and I loved that you could see some of your past villagers there!
☘︎ All of the smaller events like summer and winter solstice, April Fool’s Day etc!! The event face cut-outs at the plaza were so cute!!
☘︎ The part-time job minigame at The Roost
☘︎ Pelly, Phyllis, Pete and the Post Office. The postcard designs in New Horizons are really nice, but they’re honestly the only thing I like about the new postal system. I’ve never cared for Orville and Wilbur as NPCS much; they don’t have the same charm that Pelly and Phyllis did, and they honestly have way too much unnecessary dialogue. I also miss being able to buy a 4-pack of stationary for 80 bells and send letters for free in New Leaf, whereas sending one postcard in New Horizons costs 200 bells. I miss Pelly’s sweet cheerfulness and Phyllis’ hilarious snarky sarcasm. I miss getting to see Pete wandering around sometimes and him yelling at me when my mailbox was full xnsjnc. I miss the pelicans so, so bad
☘︎ Dr. Shrunk!!!!! I miss learning reactions from him and getting to hear his jokes. I am literally on my knees begging Nintendo to bring my axolotl boy back to me :c
☘︎ None of the tools breaking except for the regular and silver axe!!! All of the tools breaking, even the gold ones, in New Horizons is actually the bane of my existence.
☘︎ It’s such a minor thing, but the campsite tent turning into an igloo during the winter months. It was so cuteee
☘︎ Phineas! I miss seeing him wandering around and getting excited because it meant I earned a new badge. The Nook Mile achievements in New Horizons are alright and have been fun to chip away at, but they’re nowhere near as fun as getting a badge from Phineas was.
☘︎ The tropical and perfect fruits, as well as the persimmons!! I will literally never shut up about how stupid it is that the tropical fruits aren’t in New Horizons considering we live on a tropical island.
The dead perfect fruit trees were great for spooky towns as well! I know we have the Decayed Tree item in New Horizons, but it lowkey doesn’t hit the same.
☘︎ The four-leaf clovers were so cute. I honestly completely forgot about them until today :’), but they were a cute surprise to find when pulling weeds. They were nice to decorate with, too.
☘︎ The Illuminated Heart, Illuminated Arch and Tulip Topiary PWPs. I also miss the Fairytale Bridge like a mf
☘︎ Dropping Katie off at other towns. She showed up in my town so often that I started to get annoyed, but man I wish I could drop her off somewhere just one more time… you don’t know what you have until it’s gone ig
☘︎ I mourn the Snow Bunny, Marshmallow Chair, Aurora Screen, Egg Lamp, Sweets and Snowman sets, Jellyfish Lamp, Caterpillar Sofa, Wendall’s Painting, Pikman item (and the noise it made) and Sapling Clock every day
☘︎ The bunny balloons
I’m probably forgetting a lot, but I’d honestly be here writing all night if I tried to list
everything that I miss from New Leaf. I don’t have New Leaf anymore and haven’t played it in years, but it’s still my favourite AC game. Everything about it was so good, and I miss the cozy, community-oriented vibes it had. I’m grateful for all of the memories I have because of it, and for leading me to TBT, but I’m sad that the online servers are shutting down. It feels like 2013 was just yesterday.
I have so many memories staying up so late with friends to unlock rewards on the island.
