1) terraforming and outside decoration.
I know new leaf had pwp, but this is the first game in the series where you can truly make your town (island) your own.
You can make pretty much anything you want!
And with the path tools, making paths is so easy now.
It used to be the most horrible tedious thing to do.
I'm also going to include in this part how you can chose where everything goes. No more random houses plopping down ruining your layout.
2) the villagers.
I know villagers are far from exclusive to new horizons, but they just add so much life to the game. I'm constantly talking to them!
Giving them their daily gifts and doing favours for them, helping them when they're sick.
They just really make it feel like home.
I especially love how they have so much dialogue dependant on what's going on. Clouds? They'll talk about it. Trails in the sky from a plane? They'll talk about it. Near an object? They'll talk about it. Visitor on your island? They'll talk about it.
It makes them feel so alive.
Speaking of feeling alive, they no longer just wonder around aimlessly. They actually do stuff on your island. They'll interact with things, go fishing, sing, catch bugs, play, look at the flowers.
I can actually believe they live here.
3) crafting
Its one of the best things they did for the series.
It means that no matter the time, day or night, you can play the game.
You need materials to make things with so it added gathering to the game. And since you can make furniture, you can design your island even when the shops are closed.
And since you need DIYs to craft, it's added a new collectable to the game.
It was especially amazing in the early game as every day would expand what you could do.
But even now, I still sometimes get new DIYs. It's a great feeling.
I didnt get all of the autumn ones, so I'm really excited for autumn to come back around.
Edit: honorable mention to, and I know this is controversial, but how they made shampoodles into the mirror and the post office into a letter stand.
Before it was a case of if you wanted to change your look, you could only do it once per day, and you could never know with any certainty (without a guide) what you would look like.
Now you can freely change your look as much as you want and it is very freeing.
And for the post office, I hated mail in previous games because of how you had to buy paper to write on and carry it around with you. It was just awkward and clunky. And how you had to take mail out of the box and put it in your mail inventory... just the worst!
Now if I want to send someone something, I can just go straight to the postcard stand, and do it there and then! It such a better system.
And as a bonus, mail stays in your mail box and it can store 300/deletes your oldest to replace with new ones, so there is no need for the janky inventory management.
.Very helpful to able to try out outfits on villagers or myself and use items without needing to buy them.
