Written by TheChoujinVirus
Note: This review may contain spoilers to the game. If you do not want to be spoiled and want to be surprised, don’t read.
Heya, it’s ya boy, Choujin here.
I recalled my last media review, we talked about the Animal Crossing movie that I wanted to do a review of the newest animal Crossing game. For those who might not have been paying attention, the Nintendo Switch had one game released on March 20th. It’s a hugely anticipated game that people were waiting for a very long time. So enough with the banter and long-winded chat, and let’s get started with the review of Animal Crossing New Horizon.
Summary of the Series and Gameplay
Animal Crossing, in general, is basically a soft life simulator game where you move into a village of animals where you explore, collect furniture, do jobs, catching bugs and fish, digging up treasure, make friends with your virtual animal neighbors (or with other players or friends) as well as participate in holiday events. Though animal crossing is known for not its story, things changed in New Leaf, where you become the mayor of your town and can build items called Public Works Projects.
In Animal Crossing New Horizon (like all animal crossing games), you play as a villager. However, in this game, you are part of Nook Inc’s Deserted Island Package. You and two other villagers (in my playthrough I started out with Reneigh the horse and Poncho the Bear) are greeted by Tom Nook. You are then given the first task in setting up your tent (and helping out your first two people with their shelter) as then you’re tasked with gathering items and food to celebrate your first day on the island. You get to name your island at this moment, too (for me, I called my island Astera), and you’re on your way of island life.
Though throughout your game, as the first player (known as the Island Representative by Tom Nook), you are tasked to improve the island. Such tasks include having stores opened (both The Nooklings and Abel Sisters), getting the Museum, encouraging villagers to move into your town and planting plots for their houses, and finally building up your town’s rating in order to attract K.K. Slider to your town for a performance.
Though throughout your everyday life, the game encourages you with a cool feature called DIY (Do It Yourself), which at the beginning of the game lets you build furniture and, in some parts of the story, things like your first bridge and plots for new neighbors. Of course, it’s also used to craft yourself tools like shovels, bug nets, fishing rods, and slingshots. Best of all, the DIY system requires you to gather resources. Some resources are made from stuff like twigs, rocks, iron ore, wood, and even odd things like Easter eggs and peach petals.
Oh, and if you need more resources, your town’s airport, known as Dodo Airlines, will take you to other islands to gather resources. All it costs you is Nook Miles, a currency you get through doing daily activities like catching fish or talking to neighbors. Sometimes, you may get random events besides holidays. Some days you may get visited by C.J. the Beaver or Flick the Chameleon (both buy fish and bugs at higher prices as well as hosting tournaments), Saharah the camel who sells wallpaper and carpets for your house, and others like Kicks the Skunk or Label who sell you rare clothing.
Animal Crossing doesn’t have any limitations save for what your mind can do and how far you can do with your island.
Island Paradise: What makes New Horizons great to me?
New Horizon brings several different things to the table than previous expansions. One such unique feature is the whole early part of the game. While the first Animal Crossing games had you move into a village and New Leaf lets you become the mayor of your town. New Horizon has a plot where you have Tom Nook setting up a deserted island into a thriving Island town or city. The satisfaction of watching your town start from just tents to houses and seeing it develop gives you a sense of pride.
Another thing I like is the DIY system. The ability to craft your own furniture does shopping for furniture a bit easier. Why waste money when you can make your own bed? Acquiring the recipes are also pretty fun too, as you can find them from your neighbors, the Nookling store, bottles that wash up, and even from balloons. Each is pretty unique and cute to boot. This makes decorating your house pretty fun.
Finally, what makes the game good is from what is described as they incorporated the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This means that summer happens during Christmas if you register your island as being Southern Hemisphere. Something that I never thought would be implemented in Animal Crossing. One factor is that they also incorporate the Welcome Amiibo feature from New Leaf. Later in the game, once you have built the campsite, you can recruit villagers through the use of old AC Amiibo cards. This can make getting favorite villagers much, much easier. Though as the game has some feats I like, there are some parts I felt are lacking.
Island Issues: what the game needs improvement.
One glaring issue I find annoying is tool durability. As I mentioned before, the DIY system lets you build tools, and sadly the tools break over time. Flimsy items break the quickest while the iron (and unfortunately gold) break the slowest. This can become a pain in the butt if you’re trying to use them and suddenly having them shatter after a few uses. You either have to make multiple items in case one break (which means that it takes up space). Another issue I felt was the story takes a pretty slow pace. As much as I know, Animal Crossing is more of a journey than a destination, it can become a bit of a slog when the game takes its fat time. I felt annoyed when Blathers arrived, and I had to wait the next day just to get the Museum, and one factor was when I had 3 neighbors move in, I had to wait 3 full days just for all three of them to move in (they moved in one at a time) so it felt inconvenienced for my goal to play the waiting game.
Especially when you learn that it takes one month (without changing your switch’s internal clock) for the Nookling shop to open. One issue I may have is the neighbors. Sure, they greatly improved on the neighbors’ design and have them do some interesting things like having them sing and having sheep villagers finally wear shirts instead of scarves, but the problem is their personalities. Though each character is an individual, they still have the same default personality categories (e.g., snooty, grumpy, lazy, etc.), which means that some villagers (example Ketchup and Flora) will share the same mannerisms and words despite being different. It can be frustrating to notice that, and it doesn’t help that some of the Amiibo Villagers aren’t in the game (these were exclusive villagers that came from non-AC amiibos such as Epona from Zelda amiibos and Felyne from the Monster Hunter Stories Amiibos.) It feels a bit annoying I can’t have those characters as I had good memories of them from New Leaf.
Lastly, though, the game’s big feat is the multiplayer, as you can have up to eight players. The problem is that whenever someone arrives or leaves, everything is paused, and you have to go through a bit of a cutscene. Not a problem if you got one or two people visiting, but when you got more..it can be SOOOO annoying when hosting things as simple as Turnip trading or just get-togethers. I’m sure you’re going to ask me, “But Choujin, what about the One Island per switch thing.” I didn’t put that on the list as I don’t need another island, and one island is enough for me to enjoy. However, I do feel for those who share the same game and the same house with family but are fearful of being locked out.
Should you go across the New Horizon?
In short, the game is a pretty fun game to play and something you can pick up for a few hours a day to check up on your villagers and build your island to the ground up with only your imagination. Would I suggest New Horizon for anyone? If you’re an Animal Crossing fan, yes! If this is your first foray into the Animal Crossing franchise, I’d go for it too and start off. It’s a perfect game for anybody who is following shelter in place orders and beyond that. What makes it also enjoyable is that there’s going to be future DLC and events that’ll make the game last longer for those who bought it on release day.
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