What feature would you add in each mainline game?

[Shawna]

The other day, I was watching this video and it got me thinking about this myself. As the title asks, I'm curious to find out what features you would add in each of the mainline games, and why? It can be a feature that was in a game, but got removed in a later game. It can be a future that was in a late game, but you would also like for an earlier game. Heck, it can even be a feature that isn't in any of the games. I'm opened to all types of answers. ^-^

If you watch(ed) the video I sent, you will notice that we will have same answers for WW, and CF, and NL.

Animal Crossing: Game Cube - Sickness
I know, I know. This seems dark, but please hear me out: I think looking after your sick villagers is extremely heartwarming. It is a great way to boost friendship and discover more dialogue. Plus, I love how wholesome the dialogue is when you look after them. It makes the villagers seem more realistic. I am not saying I want my villagers to be miserable, I just think it is a beautiful way to be there for them when they are at their lowest. I would love for more examples this in future installments. Especially to the cranky villagers...I feel like they are very misunderstood throughout the series and have a hard time making friends (especially close ones). Looking after them is a good reminder for them that they DO have people who care. I feel like cranky villagers have some of the most heartwarming dialogue when they are being cared for, and when you have nursed them back to health (especially in Wild World). I am very curious to see what this would be like in the GameCube version.

And yes, I am aware that it was in e+, but there isn't an English version (at least not one that is easily accessible), and is very limited to what you can play it on.

Animal Crossing: Wild World - More Holidays/Events
Don't get me wrong, it is cute that we have holidays and events they are exclusive to WildWorld like Yay Day, La-Di-Day, Bright Nights. However, it is a bit of a shame that we do not have a lot of the regular holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even Valentine's Day. While the ones that were in WildWorld are cute, I feel like the regular events hold more value and depth.

Though if I had to choose a specific event, I would choose Valentine's Day. Look, I know it is very simple compared to holidays like Christmas, but I just love it so much. I am a sucker for the villager and friendship aspects of the games, and an even bigger sucker for being rewarded for being best friends with my favorite villager. This is my favorite aspect of Animal Crossing: Interacting with my favorite villagers and being rewarded for good friendship and/or getting special interactions on certain days and special occasions (like Valentine's Day or your birthday).

Animal Crossing: City Folk - Villager Pictures
Again, as someone who values the friendship-building aspects the most, I think it was a shame that villager photos were taken out in City Folk. It was just a wonderful indication of being close friends with a villager. I personally think WildWorld handled villager photos the best. They are actually treated as a valuable item, and not just passed along like an ordinary one like in New Leaf and New Horizons. I mean, it is still better than nothing, but yeah, I thought I'd state that they should be handled like they are in WildWorld. ^-^

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Outdoor Furniture
Public Works Projects were handled atrociously in this game. I think it would have been awesome if we could have played furniture outside. I think this is very useful in New Horizons. It's like placing PWPs, but it's cheaper and easier. If I may add something to go along with it, I also think some furniture that is more appropriate for outdoors would have been a good add.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Tortimer Island
This place was an absolute godsend in New Leaf. I have spent a lot of time at Tortimer Island farming for rare fish and bugs We can all agree that Spring, Fall, and especially Winter lack in creatures to catch, especially rare ones. Summer nights are where it's at! Not to mention, a lot of these bugs are extremely rare and are only out for two months of the year. July and August (Northern Hemisphere), or January and February (Southern Hemisphere). It would have been very useful to have a way to catch these creatures year-round without time traveling. Plus it would make making bells a lot easier and more fun.

 

[Xara]

Ooh, this is a fun question! I’ve never played the original or City Folk, so I’ll just do the games that I have played.

Wild World - Holidays (Halloween, Toy Day, Bunny Day etc)
Wild World was my first Animal Crossing game, so I didn’t know that it was the only game without equivalents to real world Holidays until I found out about the original and City Folk. I just assumed that holidays like Halloween, Christmas etc didn’t exist in the world of Animal Crossing, and that it just had its own unique holidays. I was so disappointed to find out that they did exist, just not in Wild World. I still don’t understand why they were only excluded from Wild World, or even excluded at all, but I’d love to add them in if I could. Little me loved celebrating New Year’s with her villagers in Wild World, so I know she would’ve loved to celebrate other holidays with them, too. :C

New Leaf - Villagers don’t move out without permission
New Leaf is a near perfect game to me, but I hate that villagers could move out without permission. I especially hate it now that they don’t in New Horizons, and I know just how less stressful it is to no longer have to worry about booting up my game after not playing for a while to find that one of my favourite villagers has moved out. Villagers not having to ask for permission to move out admittedly made having a cycling town in New Leaf easier, which I loved to do, but it was also ridiculously stressful.

I experienced my first depressive episode less than a year after New Leaf‘s NA release. I didn’t play for roughly 2 weeks because of it, and finally booted up my game again only to find that Beau, my absolute favourite villager at the time, was moving out. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him because in my panic to try and get him to stay, I time travelled backwards, causing him to move out. It also took forever to be able to move him back in again because of the 16 villager cycle, and even then, it wasn’t my Beau. It was such a painful experience that I still remember it almost a decade later. I would’ve loved to not experience that, especially with what I was already dealing with at the time. I’m forever grateful that New Horizons changed it, and really hope that future games don’t revert back to villagers being able to move out without running it by you first.

New Horizons - Tortimer Island
Tortimer Island was one of my favourite parts of New Leaf! I have so many fond memories of staying up later than I should’ve just to farm rare beetles and fish on Tortimer Island. Whenever I was bored, I could just go to the island and spend at least a couple hours there just fishing and catching bugs. The island tours were also a lot of fun, even though I did them by myself for the most part!

I understand why Tortimer Island didn’t make it to New Horizons considering we live on an island now, but I still miss it. I would’ve loved it, or something similar to it, to be in New Horizons. I miss rare beetle and fish farming, the tropical fruits, and the island tours! I‘d be fine without Club Tortimer, but I’d also be fine with it being in New Horizons as well!

 

[micat]

I’m also just going to do the games I’m most familiar with.

New Leaf - Changing your Default Skin Tone

This has been talked about already, but it would be nice if this game had an option to change your skin tone from the start rather than relying on tanning. I do like tanning, I think it’s a fun feature! It’s nice that you can also tan year-round thanks to Tortimer Island. I just wish my character wasn’t default white. Other than that, I couldn’t think of anything else to change ;-; there’s so much I like about this game.​

New Horizons - Bringing Back Special NPCs/Shops

Yeah, I know by the 2.0 update, a lot of the NPCs came back, but some played minor roles compared to previous games, and some of them only showed up if you had their amiibo, or in HHP. I feel like these characters brought a lot of life to the games and it’s a shame they weren’t prioritized.​

(These are some ideas and thoughts I had: )​

• I would have liked Copper or Booker to show up again, bringing back the lost and found with them. Maybe they could’ve helped you locate a villager or deliver a lost item.
• I also wish they didn’t replace the pelicans with a letter stand; I would’ve liked to see Pete walk around town, delivering mail, at least. Same with Wendell in the dream islands/towns.
• Label could have had an expansion to the Able Sisters, but this time selling her own clothes, like Gracie. (I also wish Gracie joined her somehow.)
• Some NPCs could’ve asked if they could open shop on your island if you prefer that over rotating shops.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Tortimer Island

Yeah I wish this was in New Horizons as well! It made making bells so much easier. I prefer it over the random islands that Kapp’n sends you to, or the Nook Miles’ islands. The mini-games the island had weren't bad either.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

Animal Crossing: Population Growing - Sickness
I cannot really think of anything specific since this was the FIRST Animal Crossing, it is pretty unique but I agree! Sickness honestly is a really cute feature and I was so sad it was removed in New Leaf's WA update.

Animal Crossing: Wild World - IRL Holidays
I absolutely loved the cute little holidays in Wild World and truly think they added alot, it would have been great to have them in the other titles but I don't like how they removed the "normal" holidays! These are great additions to fill up some of the blank months but not at the expense of other holidays imo!

Animal Crossing: City Folk - More House Upgrades
I love City Folk more than the average Animal Crossing fan but sooo many things made it feel like a console-watered-down version of Wild World. I paid off the loans way to quick!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Changeable Skin Tones
As someone who is naturally pale (Chinese Club ), this never occured to me but I realized that anyone who was not pale had to tan to get their skin tone correct??? New Leaf is so wonderful and has SO MANY GREAT THINGS but this definitely needed to be added....

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Tortimer Island 🏝
I agree with everyone that this would add SO MUCH TO THE GAME! It was (and still is!!) an absolute BLAST in New Leaf and the medals and island shop were such great additions.

 

[PapaCrossing]

For New Horizons,

I would add the feature to purchase Nook Miles Tickets in bulk and being able to have an inventory feature to track each item gifted to you from a villager. Having former villagers remember you would be nice.

 

[Shawna]

This goes for a three pre-NL games: GC, WW, and CF. I would also make it to where villagers can send letters spontaneously once you have a high enough friendship with them. Hell, even visit randomly, but I would also add a DND system. I wouldn’t want them doing it when I’m in the middle of decorating.

As for CF, I never understood why picking up villagers from the city to move to your town was never a thing.
Similarly, it would be awesome if the villagers that could appear in the city weren’t limited. A lot of them won’t appear in the city such as Ankha, Kabuki, Astrid, etc.