ABANDONED: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Nov. 30th, 2020 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoOne more buzzer-beater housekeeping clear of an entry, which is... not what I foresaw at the beginning of the year. But then again, that's always how Animal Crossing games go, isn't it? In with a bang, out with a whimper.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the glue that single-handedly held the first half of this year together. We preordered it and picked up our copy just (like one or two days) after our state's first wave of shelter-in-place lockdown orders came in... I remember being very nervous about whether GameStop was going to hold on for those final two days, since of course we had the physical version preorder so I couldn't just download it from home. Of course, given how GameStop went on to become the ur-example of a soulless corporation gleefully sacrificing its own workers to feed the capitalism machine no matter what, I guess I shouldn't have worried.
If you've never played an Animal Crossing before, it's a series of slice-of-life sims wherein you talk to your neighbors who are all furries, fish, catch bugs, buy clothes, decorate your house, decorate yourself, decorate the entire island, and just... relax. Almost everything is tied to the real-world time and date; the player is encouraged to check in with this or that task once a day, store inventories change daily, the weekly concerts happen on Saturdays (once you unlock them,) weather changes and bugs and fish go in and out of season throughout the year, etc.
Every time I've ever played an Animal Crossing game, it always follows the same cycle:
1) Become utterly consumed by it for months, clocking up 250+ hours in it
2) Eventually have my fill
3) Face the incredibly awkward guilty feeling of never having a proper exit plan in any AC game. The time starts to feel like pressure. I haven't played in like an entire week? Oh God, my villagers are going to miss me and be mad at me, there will be weeds everywhere, etc.
4) Burn out
5) Very eagerly look forward to the next game because they're always fantastic, though. Plus, if anyone I know gets into the game in the meantime, I will very happily dust my island off and hang out with them, help them into the world if they're new to the series, visit their island, have them visit mine, do all that social stuff. Come say hi!
The New Horizons experience followed a similar trajectory, only this time, the urge to build and customize entire islands all day never really left me. Instead... well... no points for guessing what happened this time.
Still, zero regrets. I mean, this game was our rock through the opening storm that was this entire pandemic. It has a warmth and charm and cute (and cute) characters that I still think fondly of even now. I sank 250+ hours into the dang thing! I don't care if by calendar that experience starts to lose its initial push in a year or two weeks; anything that gets that much playtime was--and still is--a great experience that was every bit worth its asking price. I loved this game. I still love this game. If someone new wants to get into it, I will dust it off and join you. It's just... you know. I think we're at that sort of awkward state now where Animal Crossing games always end up, where that's just what happens when you more or less feel done with a game that has no actual ending.
We still have that "ongoing" Let's Play that, yes, I do still want to wrap up. I have the screenshots. I figured where a decent stopping point would be. We'd be taking a "'TODAY' ON ANIMAL CROSSING" tone when this show was taped months ago, but it could work. We just. You know. I'll get around to that at some point.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the glue that single-handedly held the first half of this year together. We preordered it and picked up our copy just (like one or two days) after our state's first wave of shelter-in-place lockdown orders came in... I remember being very nervous about whether GameStop was going to hold on for those final two days, since of course we had the physical version preorder so I couldn't just download it from home. Of course, given how GameStop went on to become the ur-example of a soulless corporation gleefully sacrificing its own workers to feed the capitalism machine no matter what, I guess I shouldn't have worried.
If you've never played an Animal Crossing before, it's a series of slice-of-life sims wherein you talk to your neighbors who are all furries, fish, catch bugs, buy clothes, decorate your house, decorate yourself, decorate the entire island, and just... relax. Almost everything is tied to the real-world time and date; the player is encouraged to check in with this or that task once a day, store inventories change daily, the weekly concerts happen on Saturdays (once you unlock them,) weather changes and bugs and fish go in and out of season throughout the year, etc.
Every time I've ever played an Animal Crossing game, it always follows the same cycle:
1) Become utterly consumed by it for months, clocking up 250+ hours in it
2) Eventually have my fill
3) Face the incredibly awkward guilty feeling of never having a proper exit plan in any AC game. The time starts to feel like pressure. I haven't played in like an entire week? Oh God, my villagers are going to miss me and be mad at me, there will be weeds everywhere, etc.
4) Burn out
5) Very eagerly look forward to the next game because they're always fantastic, though. Plus, if anyone I know gets into the game in the meantime, I will very happily dust my island off and hang out with them, help them into the world if they're new to the series, visit their island, have them visit mine, do all that social stuff. Come say hi!
The New Horizons experience followed a similar trajectory, only this time, the urge to build and customize entire islands all day never really left me. Instead... well... no points for guessing what happened this time.
Still, zero regrets. I mean, this game was our rock through the opening storm that was this entire pandemic. It has a warmth and charm and cute (and cute) characters that I still think fondly of even now. I sank 250+ hours into the dang thing! I don't care if by calendar that experience starts to lose its initial push in a year or two weeks; anything that gets that much playtime was--and still is--a great experience that was every bit worth its asking price. I loved this game. I still love this game. If someone new wants to get into it, I will dust it off and join you. It's just... you know. I think we're at that sort of awkward state now where Animal Crossing games always end up, where that's just what happens when you more or less feel done with a game that has no actual ending.
We still have that "ongoing" Let's Play that, yes, I do still want to wrap up. I have the screenshots. I figured where a decent stopping point would be. We'd be taking a "'TODAY' ON ANIMAL CROSSING" tone when this show was taped months ago, but it could work. We just. You know. I'll get around to that at some point.