Nintendo Still Isn’t Listening | New Horizons 2.0

Nothing you can do about if you’re bored to death. That’s what you deserve if you aren’t thankful for the 2.0 updates.

I remember how mysterious and expansive the first animal crossing felt like -- what are these creepy gyroids I keep digging up? how did my brother get that cool k.k. slider song? why is apollo mad at me? A lot of this comes down to age differences -- playing as an adult vs as a kid -- but your point on this new game being a design simulator is spot on. It's not about these mysteries anymore. There's nothing to discover, only new coats of paint to work towards.

The villagers made the game fun, them not having any personality makes it hard to play daily. Don't get me wrong I love all the cool things we get to do now. However I miss getting to know everyone.

There was all of this build up to Brewster and NOTHING CAME FROM IT! There was nothing new or substantial or anything that wasn't expected. There's also more advertising for amiibo by looking content behind it. So lame. World building shouldn't be unlocked through pay-walls.

acnh feels like a game you play to design for others, and it seems being present on social media is a major part of the experience. feels like previous games were very much only for the player. maybe i miss that.

I’m mad that they won’t be adding the shops or any more shops to the main island

Unfortunately I have to agree on all levels here. I miss the perceived depth of the old games, building relationships with villagers, and even just the small feature of them running over when they saw me to request a favor did wonders in creating a sense of community in the old games. Now it just feels like my island is a diorama with lifeless villager dolls I've collected. Also your content is top tier and I hope you get the recognition you deserve soon!

I think you’ve articulated well the reasons why I feel a little disconnected from ACNH. I liked your first video too, and after buying the DLC I hopes of rekindling my love for the world of AC, I am half satisfied. I definitely like the decorating aspect, but it still feels to me like there’s a disconnect between the HOW of the game and the WHY of the game. I have felt strongly for a while that the mechanics, while fundamentally pretty good, lack deeper context to give me the warm fuzzy feelings required to make all the decorating worth it. The #1 feature I want in this game is collaboration — I want to be able to have my friends build things on MY island, and vice versa. I would settle for villagers who felt like real people, but I think the game feels hollow due to the fact that friends visiting feels like 1) a hassle because of the silly convoluted dialogue of Dodo Airlines and 2) rather pointless as it’s just a visual tour and nothing more. It’s like, ok I collected all the things and designed my paradise and it’s beautiful…. NOW WHAT??

I agree completely. I really wanted to like ACNH, but I got to the point where it just felt like I was “doing chores”. I don’t really care so much about the decorating/design aspect, and there’s no narrative to speak of, so I haven’t played in months.

I think a big misconception is that a lot of young audiences or new people who are new to this franchise are presented to these kind of videos unable to derive and understand fully the concept of what an ‘animal crossing’ game is and might backlash. It seems Nintendo have fallen through that ladder of listening to their audiences focusing more on money due to new horizons being such a big success with its bright ‘designing’ mechanism this game lacks purity and the utopia of living with your animals I could sit here and list over 100 things from the older games that created what we call ‘animal crossing’ but New horizons failed to do that. P.S new horizons was an unfinished game while it took them one full year to complete half or more things that new leaf came with since launch

As someone whose first Animal Crossing game is New Horizons, I’ll definitely agree with this video and the previous one. As you said, it seems the team behind this game has shifted from community simulator to decorating simulator. It works for new fans but definitely not for old ones, I can imagine. To add on, I love the game, but that’s because I didn’t have any expectations and only bought the game based on my perception of it from online - an island decorating sim - and knew that that’s the type of game I like to play. The reason why the game works for me is only because I never expected anything from NPC or villager interactions in the first place, and because my main enjoyment came from thinking of ways to customize my island and interact with other players in the community. When I think back on my time with the game, pretty much none of the memorable stuff came from the community aspect (since I ended up looking at the wiki before playing the game and saw that all the villagers would be repeating personality types lol), and my enjoyment came from the decorating and fandom aspect. I find myself getting burnt out with social sims so I don’t really think I would enjoy the previous games of the franchise, but it is very troubling that the shift in focus in ACNH has caused such polarizing opinions in the first place.

Love this video! The situation with New Horizons reminds me a lot of the Sims 4. Both games released at launch missing a lot of the features of the games before them. These features then get drip fed as updates, or expansion packs in the sims case, but lacking the dept of the original games. Both games lacking a lot of the charm the games before them had, with more emphasis on design than engaging gameplay. Like the examples you mentioned in the video, Kapp'n's island but no minigames, Brewster but no part-time job. Another big one for me is the holidays. For Christmas you no longer have to talk to your villagers and find out what kind of present they want. For Halloween you don't have to figure out what scares each villager to try and get the lollipop candy and the exclusive creepy set. Animal crossing was never a challenging game but i feel like there is no challenge at all with the New Horizons. The only "challenge" comes from grinding DIY ingredients or bulk crafting items etc which gets repetitive quite quickly. Villagers won't even leave on their own accord anymore and are way too friendly. It's a bit stepford-wives like. I still enjoyed New Horizons as a game but it didn't have the same impact as New Leaf or Wild World had for me.

You perfectly articulated how I feel about the update. I've been playing the series since Wild World. While New Horizons and its updates have some excellent and creative ideas, it still feels like it's missing the magic of the older games.

Spot on video! I definitely feel like the game gets a bit soulless after awhile. I also think they missed a lot of opportunities to make the multiplayer experience a lot more worthwhile. Adding things like mini-games would have added a lot to that side of the experience. It also doesn't help that Nintendo Switch Online prices have raised. It really discouraged me from wanting to renew that membership and play with my friends at all.

I've been playing since wild world, and I agree completely. New leaf is my all time favorite and I was SO excited for new horizons. I played it for a long time but it just feels so soulless. The villagers aren't unique at all anymore. You can give them whatever you want as a gift and they'll always be happy about it! I get they got rid of resetti so kids wouldn't cry, but they didn't have to get rid of all personality from villagers. I love how ac games work in real time and let you experience new things every day. I mean from the start when they did the bunny day event and it lasted forever?? that was so odd!! like it should only be one day. I feel like a lot of their problems probably come from trying to control how people play. Like not wanting time travelers. Or in new leaf I loved to beetle hunt, but to do that you pretty much ruin the mini game island so only beetles spawn. I wonder if that bothered them so they made islands you can't do that too, because you can't beetle hunt like that anymore! Just things like that. idk if it's an unpopular opinion or if people will slowly get bored of this update too, but I just hope they don't cater to the decorating crowd over the original fanbase. Or even just think that this is what we all want because it sold so well, when that was in big part due to the pandemic!

Nintendo had all the right chess pieces, and decided to play too safely

I do like the cooking feature but I wish it was more involved. Like maybe you choose a recipe and a Cooking Mama-style minigame starts.

I think if they add some of the old songs, even a handful, that would really make a difference in terms of atmosphere. As for what their primal focus should be it’s definitely villager interactions and personalities (+ more gossip/scenarios)

I have nothing to add other than.. I agree. Even after the update, my opinion on the game is just kinda lukewarm

I 100% agree!!!! I am not designed inclined at all, like the unlimited choices stresses me out... so Animal Crossing now just doesn't feel like something I can pick up and have fun with, it takes planning, and at the end of the day, that isnt fun to me.