(Note: if you like New Horizons, that's perfectly fine! This is just how I feel about the game as someone who infact... spent 700 hours on this game, being my longest played AC game lol)

Prolouge: Pre New Horizons

Growing up, I loved Animal Crossing. My parents gave me New Leaf to play on my older brother's 3ds back when it first released, fell in loved with it and even ending up buying two more acnl cartdriges through the years of 2016 up to 2019. During that time of 2018 to before New Horizons, I even played the older games and ended up enjoying them. My 3rd New Leaf town was made when I was 13 and made on March 20th 2019, kind of funny that it was exactly a years release away from New Horizons but it really made me appreaciate the game even more before the release of the new game everyone was waiting for. And so, the beginning of the pandemic in America, I had my 3ds in the line of 6 people at the local Gamestop, saying goodbye to all of my villagers as I eagerly get the game. Sure it was fun for the first month but then...

This island doesn't look empty, but it's hollow.

Sure, it was fun at first but I quickly discovered how the villagers didn't have much to say in day-to-day life. I often just got looping dialogue boxes everyday so I eventually stopped talking to my villagers way faster than the previous games, it felt like the focus was more on aesthetics than substance and that can most be seen in the villagers. The summer of 2020 made the animal crossing black market skyrocket, the more desirable villagers were extremely expensive and led to actual scams and losses in money, Raymond is loved for how he looks but in reality? He was just another smug villager. The villagers just acted like pretty statues for your island instead of neighbors sorta.

The biggest pro of New Horizons

One of the praises I can give to this game is for sure the graffics, it's beautiful and like what I said in the previous paragraph, a lot of it is aesthetically pleasing. This certainly comes into play with the game's main focus, decorating the island. It is the game's biggest pro but also biggest problem because I feel like a bit too much was put into the decorating part of the game instead of the personality of characters and also I can't believe they killed off the pelicans oof. The game is a lot more like a city builder than AC for me unfortunatly and that brings me to my point for this essay (or whatever you could call this.)

Will future AC games improve upon New Horizons as a foundation or not?

Animal Crossing New Horizons has sold the most copies in the entire franchise, ever, it's not even close. New Leaf sold about 13 million copies, a best seller for the 3ds while New Horizons sold 42 MILLION COPIES AS OF MAY 2023, the game is one of the best selling Nintendo games ever. I state this because due to the amazing reception and sale of the newest Animal Crossing game, it's possible that Nintendo may not return back to focusing on the social simulation stuff. Or a better situation would be to learn from the problems of New Horizons (focus on decor instead of the balance of social sim as well as decor) New Horizon's graphics and improvements to developing towns and houses can be a great foundation for the franchise if more care will be put into the personalites and characters.

Slowing Down

Now that it is 2023 as of me writing this, I just sort of lost my love for the franchise and I'm afraid I might not ever get that feeling I felt when playing the first 4 AC games. I just hope that the future games will be better. Thank you for reading!