The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Thread

[Runa216]

Lonely_Dolphin said:

Runa216 said:
My prices are at 120, but, like....eeeeh. I gave up on this game.

I Recently saw a video about 'new updates coming to Animal Crossing New Horizons', meant to look like a Nintendo Direct. It was fake, but seeing that video made me realize just how deliberately frustrating and obtuse Animal Crossing actually is. Just a lot of forced redundancy and purposefully clunky controls meant to make you go slower and struggle more. I just went looking for it and apparently it doesn't exist anymore (It was either deleted or went private; Nintendo probably filed a lawsuit because...well...I love Nintendo games and products but seriously fuck their iron grip on their IPs and complete lack of respect for their audience)

But yeah, little things were always slightly naggy to me in this game, and seeing about a dozen of them outright laid out for us and all the remarkably simple ways the game could be made better made me realize....nope. I went from playing this game 5-8 hours a day and loving it to...I think I kinda hate it now just for how little it respects its players. I put over 75 hours into the game making it I think my 5th most played game on the Switch...and I might never touch it again now that I really saw how deliberately frustrating and time-wasting the game is.

You cynical, entitled brat. How dare you complain about this game that Nintendo clearly over delivered on. You should be grateful to have payed $60 for this great act of generosity. You need a shift in perspective.

More seriously, this is pretty funny coming from you. "Do as I say, not as I do" and all that I suppose. The thing is, the comment of yours I'm parodying was over a game with a situation very different to this one. There was no sudden shift in quality or content standards. It was clear from the get go that New Horizons was going to be an Animal Crossing game that improves on it's predecessors, but is still very much an Animal Crossing game a.k.a. slow actionless tactile chore simulator. You only have yourself to blame for not realizing this before purchasing. I'm not just trying to ridicule you here, keyword being "just" hehe, but hopefully you learn from this and will better research games before buying in to future.

Also, don't completely abandon the game, just take a break from it. Come back to it in a few months when there will be a new season with new stuff to do as well as all the free updates since then.

A few things:

1 - I didn't buy the game. My brother bought it for me so we could play together. It was a gift. 

2 - There's a huge difference between a game that deliberately wastes players' time and a game that had to cut some content to meet deadlines. There's a world of difference between being purposely obtuse to waste time and regrettably cut content. 

3 - the issue I have with animal Crossing isn't the chores - I loved shakin' trees and pickin' fruit and planting and building and laying out my island. the core gameplay loop is quite enjoyable and why I stuck with the game so long. the PROBLEM is how you do it all. Going into your menus is a chore, talking to people is a chore, crafting is a chore, getting things assessed or donating is a chore, finding out how much something is worth is a chore. I get that the game is basically comprised of chores, I'm okay with that, but the design elements of it are specifically tweaked to waste as much time as they can. why should I listen to Blathers' inane squawking in slow motion every time I wanna donate a fossil? why in the world must I start a 7-layer-deep conversation with Tom Nook if I accidentally press A at the wrong time (which happens a lot since 90% of this game is 'mashing A to scroll through redundant dialogue'). you can't just go back one level, you have to start ALL over again. 

Every little thing regarding the UI seems purposefully designed to waste entirely too much time. I get that the game is really only supposed to be maybe 1-2 hours a day to do your daily chores and update stuff and talk to your villagers, but if that's the case, why does everything take 2-3x as long as it should? that 5-8 hours I was doing for a while really was only getting about 2-3 hours worth of work done, the rest was all struggling through the menus you have to scroll through every time you wanna do something or mashing through a conversation you've literally had hundreds of times already or waiting for the painfully slow animations. 

I want to like this game, and if they can fix these issues I will, but I don't think Nintendo sees them as issues. they designed it this way for a reason, and I don't like that. 

It's a well-made game aside from that. the core gameplay loop is fun and relaxing and exactly what the world needs right now. I really do understand why it's such a major success and I hope it continues to sell well...but my time has value and I'd rather not waste it on a game that deliberately takes so much more time than it should. Yeah, I've put 75 hours into the game, but based on what I've accomplished it's only like 30 hours worth of work.