I want to preface by saying that I grew up with Animal Crossing and have always been a major fan of the series. I played the GameCube version of Animal Forest and put nearly a whole year into both Wild World and New Leaf each. The entire concept of the game vibes a great deal with me. New Horizons only builds on everything that came before, and while I certainly had a great time with it for over 200 hours, I feel it is a weaker link in the series as a whole for a couple reasons.
My biggest complaint is that completing a set of anything or finding an elusive crafting recipe is only really possible through trading with other players. In all my time with the game I never got recipes for simple items like the custom sign post which I wanted so bad, nor the rare cutting board that I needed for other recipes. I didn't have good internet when this game first came out and therefore couldn't trade for these items. I felt barred from much of the experiences in this game due to playing in single player only.
This was bad enough, but Nintendo also introduced much more customization in the game and still kept it short of perfection. There were so many times I would find rare items and them be the wrong color or style and I can't do anything to customize them. This again made more of a problem for people like me who only played solo.
I realize that some of this has been remedied with the addition of Cyrus on Harv's island, but I feel it's too little too late. That holds true for most of the things in this game. The Roost is one of my favorite things from New Leaf and we had to wait so long to get it. I was honestly burnt out from all the hours of shooting down presents and getting duplicate recpe cards that I couldn't be bothered to keep playing. It's a shame, because the things this game added were very well needed changes to keep the game entertaining for longer, but as I said, 200 hours in and I was still missing the most basic of recipes. I got overwhelmed, and it didn't have to be that way.
I still think the progressional gameplay updates were cool because it kept the game interesting. I just think their update schedule was a little flawed when it came to prioritization. The Roost should have easily been brought along for the first Fall of the game instead of nearly a year and a half after release.
New Horizons is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have flaws that I feel not many people talk about. Multiplayer has almost always been a facet of the series, but this is the only time it has ever felt like a borderline requirement. I long for the old days when I could hop on for a half hour to an hour a day and get everything done. The game has become such a grind which, to me, contradicts the spirit of the original games. I'm honestly very curious to see what others think about this take or if they feel the same in some capacity.
My biggest complaint is that completing a set of anything or finding an elusive crafting recipe is only really possible through trading with other players. In all my time with the game I never got recipes for simple items like the custom sign post which I wanted so bad, nor the rare cutting board that I needed for other recipes. I didn't have good internet when this game first came out and therefore couldn't trade for these items. I felt barred from much of the experiences in this game due to playing in single player only.
This was bad enough, but Nintendo also introduced much more customization in the game and still kept it short of perfection. There were so many times I would find rare items and them be the wrong color or style and I can't do anything to customize them. This again made more of a problem for people like me who only played solo.
I realize that some of this has been remedied with the addition of Cyrus on Harv's island, but I feel it's too little too late. That holds true for most of the things in this game. The Roost is one of my favorite things from New Leaf and we had to wait so long to get it. I was honestly burnt out from all the hours of shooting down presents and getting duplicate recpe cards that I couldn't be bothered to keep playing. It's a shame, because the things this game added were very well needed changes to keep the game entertaining for longer, but as I said, 200 hours in and I was still missing the most basic of recipes. I got overwhelmed, and it didn't have to be that way.
I still think the progressional gameplay updates were cool because it kept the game interesting. I just think their update schedule was a little flawed when it came to prioritization. The Roost should have easily been brought along for the first Fall of the game instead of nearly a year and a half after release.
New Horizons is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have flaws that I feel not many people talk about. Multiplayer has almost always been a facet of the series, but this is the only time it has ever felt like a borderline requirement. I long for the old days when I could hop on for a half hour to an hour a day and get everything done. The game has become such a grind which, to me, contradicts the spirit of the original games. I'm honestly very curious to see what others think about this take or if they feel the same in some capacity.