New Leaf: Revisiting My Favourite Animal Crossing Ten Years Later

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Highlights

• New Horizons added progressive new mechanics to the Animal Crossing collection, however is that sufficient to make it a greater sport than New Leaf?
• New Leaf and New Horizons every have distinct charms, with New Horizons extra providing artistic freedom however fewer distinctive villager interactions, whereas a return to New Leaf feels a lot the other.
• Katt is in for a foul time on my New Leaf island, why would you progress so unbelievably near me after I cannot transfer your own home?

As a younger lady with a Nintendo GameCube and a budding love for cozy video games, I used to be properly inside Animal Crossing’s main demographic when the primary sport launched in North America in 2002. Having performed every title for a whole bunch of hours (if not hundreds – don’t test my Swap profile), I believed I used to be agency in my stance that New Leaf nonetheless reigned supreme over all the opposite video games.

Sure, New Horizons was essential to lots of people’s dealing with of the 2020 Covid shutdowns, together with mine, and sure, it added a ton of attention-grabbing mechanics to the collection that followers like me had needed for years. Naturally, I reveled in it whereas I used to be out of labor that yr, co-opting a comfortable island life as a alternative for an actual one.

After life started to return to regular, I met my partner in early 2022. He instructed me New Horizons was his first Animal Crossing sport, and I instructed him that it was pleasant, however New Leaf was higher. I’ve since developed a behavior of giving him a game I love that he’s never played as a part of his birthday reward every year, so I slid a duplicate of New Leaf into the bag holding his presents a pair months in the past. We waited till a staycation to snuggle up and dive in collectively.

I’d agreed to begin a brand new city for sake of equity, so Rover’s smirk and sass greeted us immediately. The warning that he couldn’t terraform startled my companion lengthy earlier than he was given his 4 potential city maps, and he turned hyper-aware of the place the whole lot was in a method he by no means needed to be in New Horizons. We settled on maps, named our cities, and arrived on the prepare station.

The Adjustments I Appreciated In New Horizons Felt Obtrusive In New Leaf

Neither of us had been proud of our beginning villagers. I had not one however two frogs, my least favorite species in the game, whereas he acquired caught with Rodney, the internet’s least favorite hamster. Regardless of: I all the time put my home as removed from everybody as potential, with a scenic view and no person round to hassle me, so this wasn’t an enormous problem. Finally, the frogs even started to develop on me, and I realized to understand Drift continually calling me “brah” and dancing gleefully within the rain with out an umbrella.

As I started to settle into my new city, I missed my authentic city however was cautiously optimistic about my new one. So after I walked outdoors in the future and noticed a cordoned-off home building plot roughly 5 toes from my house and at an imperfect kiddie-corner angle, I used to be irate. Everybody else had clustered collectively up close to Retail, conveniently crafting a neighborhood I deliberate to spruce up with the restricted choices out there by group initiatives. Issues acquired worse after I noticed Katt transferring into the brand new home, a villager I don’t like.

She was my introduction to the sisterly varieties, and I discovered her method too passive-aggressive; Katt was one of many final villagers I’d have picked to stare wistfully on the sea beside me. Since I couldn’t transfer both of our homes, all I might do about my undesirable neighbor was bury Pitfall Seeds as a dividing line between my yard and hers. I’m notoriously aggressive in cozy video games after I dislike a personality, and oh, how I yearned to smack her proper upside her massive, dumb, fuzzy head. I believe the Nooklings are onto my malicious intent, although, as a result of they refuse to inventory Bug Nets of their tiny starter store, and we’re a number of time journey days in now.

The outdated city’s appeal remains to be far more vibrant than in New Horizons, however whereas there have been loads of components I missed, there have been parts in New Horizons I discovered myself savoring extra when evaluating the video games immediately. My companion and I are a methods away from unlocking Gracie, one in all my favourite characters who didn’t make it to New Horizons (outdoors of the Roost, that’s), however I’m attempting to assuage him with a number of the different outdated faces he didn’t know on transferring to city. He doesn’t much care for Phyllis, the in a single day clerk on the submit workplace with completely no persistence for you, although he’s shortly rising to like the alpacas at Retail, largely as a result of Reese pays extra for the apples he’s promoting than Timmy and Tommy.

The Closing Verdict

They are saying hindsight is 20/20, and regardless of having spent my actual 2020 neck-deep within the New Horizons and claiming the final sport had been higher, I’m unsure I consider that anymore. New Horizons mounted quite a lot of issues from New Leaf – having the ability to put furnishings outdoors was a literal game-changer, terraforming gave us artistic freedom like by no means earlier than, and mixing in parts of Joyful Dwelling Designer supplied virtually something we might have requested for.

However what it additionally gave us was neutered villagers, which is, arguably, the principle draw of the sport. I shortly stopped speaking to everybody in New Horizons as a result of they mentioned the identical strains on repeat. As a lot as I hated the passive-aggression of the sisterly varieties earlier than, I missed how they felt completely different from different personalities. I miss when cranky villagers had been virtually not possible to befriend, and when snooty villagers could be outright impolite to you. I do know Nintendo is the family-friendly sport model, however please cease telling me about your muscle tissues, jock villagers, the “abs” joke was humorous the primary 500 occasions.

My go to again to New Leaf helped me takeoff the rose-colored glasses I had for the sport and made me method it extra realistically. It was extra stylized, certain, nevertheless it lacks in different areas the place New Horizons thrived. I’ve began to suppose my good Animal Crossing sport could be some hybrid of the 2, so as soon as the subsequent console comes out and also you guys are prepared for a brand new Animal Crossing title, Nintendo, my contact data’s in my bio.