New Horizons is Dead And It’s All Nintendo’s Fault

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[michaelmcclellan]

The game is only dead if you want it to be. Animal Crossing always has replay value and can beat great way to relax.

[HollyWoomy]

I think my biggest gripe is that despite suggestions since day 1, Nintendo never implemented the simple quality of life updates that would have helped the game survive longer. The dodo airlines dialogue is so long I find myself actively avoiding flying sometimes 😭

[Manuel_SJrJr]

For me, the AC experience that made it the most rewarding for me was interacting with the villagers. ACNH has a great assortment of villagers, but there’s nothing interesting about them anymore. I realize that getting berated by your favorite villager isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but most of the interactions I had felt the same overall. I’d be down for a toggle feature that allowed salty dialogue. Also would love to see doing jobs for villagers make a return.

[Rajclaw]

I think they should have given another year of updates, add more to multiplayer, more items, maybe even more new villagers, returning villagers, maybe a new shop or upgrade to a previous shop

[patricklewis]

My biggest gripe with New Horizons is that it goes full in with the sandbox aspect at the cost of the life sim aspect. The villagers started repeating dialogue almost 2 weeks after getting New Horizons to the point where I never bothered to work for getting a villager’s picture

[capnotserp]

one thing i wouldve loved is if i could invite a friend over, give them some special permission, and let them help me fully decorate my island. designing an island from head to toe would be so much more fun with a friend imo :)

[ellesimmons]

I think it isn't that surprising that people are getting bored with it when the animals themselves are so bland. It was different when your villagers were your friends and had larger personalities. You'd want to keep playing to see your friends.

[KenjiRyuma]

If they would add mini games, had a Celeste expansion to the museum to get star fragments, added more fruits and veggies, upgrade both nooks and cranny / sable sisters - it would be perfect ❤

[TheWitchofEndor-]

The next animal crossing better bring back the “moving to a new town alone” feel rather than the “decoration sim god mode” feel like the older games had. That’s the core of the franchise and it should’ve never changed. I think that vibe is why keeps people playing the older games, because they actually form a connection with their villagers and village in general.

[Silburific]

I don't think I've ever gotten bored of a game as quickly as I have with NH. It's not because of a lack of updates- it's because the base game just doesn't have a lot to do. Once you get your island exactly how you want it, complete the museum and either find your dreamies or more likely, give up because the adb is nothing but an expression of the developers' contempt for the players... then what? You continue walking around a ghost town, talking to animatronics who regurgitate the same handful of lines ad naseum, or you wipe all your data and start from scratch because fuck you- you want a new island while keeping your old one? Give Nintendo $400 more dollars for another console! And unless you have a modded Switch, there are only so many ways you can decorate your island in the first place. Games from 20 years ago have more replay value than this.

NH is the epitome of "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle". It's not a life sim, it's a big dollhouse with all of 8 dolls, copy and pasted dozens of times and dressed up in different outfits. The villagers do nothing because there's nothing for them _to_ do; your giant island only has 3 places to visit. All the _stuff_ in the game is surface level at best- scratch that surface, and there's nothing there. This is a $60 version of a paper doll.

[spilledpeaches]

my take is it's not the lack of updates, it's the lack of content in general- new leaf didnt get constant updates but it had a really active fanbase all the way up until NH came out. I almost feel like the lack of control you have over your town in the previous games gives you more to do. in NH you're basically a god who can shape your island how you see fit but in the previous games you're moreso actually living in the town as a resident, which i feel is what makes animal crossing so great, even as someone who loves customization. it's also a lot less stressful cause in NH i always worried about getting my island perfect but in NL it doesnt matter cause theres actually more to do besides decorating

[OJTheBLAK]

It’s unfortunate that ACNH has kinda gone by the wayside. They can always update and add nuance that no one is really thinking of. There’s a reason why I barely launch the game anymore and when I do, it’s just to see how much weeds have accumulated on my island

[ninckmane]

I don't think the problem is that the game stopped receiving updates - it's just that its an incomplete game. Of course, people have and will find ways to enjoy the day-to-day activities, but there's so few things to do in the game, and so few interactions that it becomes repetitive after a while, events included. And its a shame to say that, but New Leaf has more content for the game and seems to put more care into what they put out, and it only received ONE major update.

[kiba]

I haven't seen anyone mention that 90% of the updates we got were stuff from older games that the base game didnt release with initially. Every previous entry had monumental changes between them. This one just had terraforming and outside furniture. Outside furniture was an experimental feature introduced in pocket camp. As someone who grew up owning all of the games, I was severely disappointed in the 7 - 8 year wait from New Leaf resulting in this.

[monikalul]

I feel like this game is lacking a lot of things that made the other games great. Main issue I have is the VIllagers dialogue is so bland, they have like the same 3 lines making it very boring to talk to them. And why can't Nooks shop be upgraded more, second floor?

[Elite_Teach]

I love the idea of decorating your island with furniture instead of having public works projects but after you get your perfect town there really isn’t much left to do

[albino]

As someone who has only been playing ACNH for less than 2 months, I can see why this game took off. It’s so relaxing and some of the villagers give you a warm feeling when you speak to them. Shame it won’t get much of an update for veterans but just know that there are still new players coming in and enjoying the game you all love 🙂

[farmpunk_dan]

Imagine if they had made it so multiple people could share an island and cooperatively develop and decorate it. Would have massively expanded the appeal of the game and made its lifespan 10x longer.

[squidgirl]

The problem I find is new horizons doesn’t have the re-playability the previous games had. The updates kept everything in new horizons fun, Being able to do way more and not giving more to do it with just kinda makes it feel less creative by being more creative… I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but it just feels like new leaf and the games before it had a lot more that wasn’t explicitly explained to you and you had to discover on your own, meanwhile most of the interesting features that are new in new horizons is explained during the update announcement, making it easier to grind for the new stuff and rush through it only to find you now have nothing to do. If you already have your new horizons island the way you want it and have done all the newest stuff, it’s hard to find interesting things to do.

[xXSamhaiXx]

The pocket camp thing was what I kept saying, not only does pocket camp way more furniture and aesthetics in it, the animals also actually interact with the furniture. My original wish was to have the fortune cookies in acnh, I think they enhance the villagers by giving them a background story/theme to go with them. I should have known that we don't get that tho bc after all they are technically loot boxes.

But aside from that the items in acpc just feel like so much more care and love went into them. Like if you just look at the differences between a furtinure set in NH and a fortune cookie set in pc. It feels more detailed, same with the clothing, like animal ears and tails, cute stuff to carry or wings to wear, even things like little ghosts that fly with you. I always thought pocket camp was their "try out" for what items/aesthetic to put into nh, and then it'S 80% cottage core items until the 2.0 update. And I might be a bit to honest here, but 90% of the updates that we got were things that already were part of the previous game(s).

Even characters like celeste where just a "new skin" to an already existing itemset. Sure previously you had to get the zodiac set via free updates, but in the sense you are just doing the samt thing. Talking to a character to recieve the itemset (in this case the crafting recipies). I loved the idea of what new horizons could have become. Mainly bc I used to play pc and I loved the idea of having all of those items and events in nh. Hell take the pc model- Each month has a different theme, there is a garden event, a gyriod search and a fishing tourney. All of those have a set you can get. If you play all of them you might get all the pieces. If not, there could be a villager who appears on your island and maybe for nm exchanges you furniture pieces you weren't able to get.

And probably my biggest piece of critique is the fact that your villagers are lifeless puppets.
PC has so many cute furniture pieces they can interact with in unique ways- WHY was that no possible to be done in NH? Why can the villagers in the mobile game use a hot spring but on my island it's useless besides being decoration? Or all the amusement park stuff. It's like your island is a museum where no one is allowed to touch anything or use anything. I hate that so much.

Animal crossings main focus was friendship and interaction. That is where they could have added stuff to, like the fortune cookies adding to the villagers backstory. But instead we got a sim like "create your own island" simulation that is 90% old stuff and 10% more power to decorate. ANd personally I think that is sad.

Animal crossing new leaf was my fave game of all time, pc made the wait bareable but NH dissapointed me, I feel like it's obvious the devs wanted to move on to splatoon 3 and seeing how much care is put into it, it's clear where the energy went. But personally I don't know if I am going to buy the next animal crossing game, if we even get one.

There is no reason they should not be allowed to use the pocket camp items. Even if we had to have like a "Pay once a year and get new items every month" like in pocket camp. I just wish this game felt like actually new and not like they were leaving us waiting months for old game features to be patched in.

I feel like NH is done, like I don't think people would go back even if it got a massive update. The one thing nintendo should do is listen to the fans and put the care this game deseves into it. Don't have your team work on another big title at the same time. And for the love of god give us more varieties in items (just gimmi the pocket camp stuff) that animals can actually use.