I threw shade.
I fished.
I donated to the Museum through Tom.
I styled on my animals because they're ugly and terrible (I hate them).
I made every tool except the shovel.
Impressions:
- It's fun, in a way.
- They have game-ified Animal Crossing and tossed its prior zen focus into the garbage. In previous Animal Crossing games you get a bill and it's up to you how to pay for it. Maybe you like fishing. Or selling fossils, or fruit. Maybe you have a preference for bug catching. The crux is that the onus is on you the player. Animal Crossing, previously, was about making your own fun and ticking the games boxes in your own way. Now, with the introduction of Nook Miles, you go through lists of things to do. In the past there were badges, which gave you quasi goals to strive for, but they were always in the periphery and not the main meat. In NH you have to fulfill requirements to get points to add to your Nook Miles. It feels like going through a list of things to do. Lists. In Animal Crossing. Disgusting. Eventually I ran into a problem where I barely had 5000 Miles but didn't know what else I could possibly do so I went through list to fulfill goals. This essentially turns Animal Crossing, a game about routine and zen, into a game about checking off boxes.
- Furthermore, so much of it is lazy mobile game tier crap too. Stuff like,"earn points by taking a picture of yourself!" that you would find in some crappy ass free to play mobile "strategy" game where you upgrade a single base and shoot from level 3 to 4. Vapid crap like that. They have essentially listened to the people that bitched for years about how Animal Crossing isn't a "real" game, which is truly baffling. In many ways, it feels more like a warped version of Minecraft than Animal Crossing.
- I like DIY. I also like that tools break easily. It means you'll be using currency in a meaningful manner regularly, it'll also force you to interact with the world more to seek supplies. It definitely makes me want to upgrade my tools to at least silver immediately.
- All these weeds. I like that. I love cleaning my towns and I cleaned up at least 300 weeds today alone. What's cool is that you can sell them for lots of cash. My aspergers and OCD went into full zen mode picking up the weeds. If I saw them and couldn't reach them, I picked em.
- Animal Crossing with vibration yessss.
- I upgraded my tent with the 5000 Nook Miles, sent 5-6 samples to Blathers and now I'm fishing late at night with classic Animal Crossing fun to see what I can get to add to my collection.
- I dislike the island motif already. I miss the post office. I miss the shops. My island is so empty. I know the point is to work your way up, but fuck. It's. So. Empty.
All in all, it was a bad first impression though. In many ways it goes against why I love Animal Crossing in the first place. This game could go either way. This first day didn't fill me with the glee that New Leaf or Wild World did. This game could go City Folk status
Time will tell. I can't believe I went in with the bare minimum given that I didn't follow this game at all pre-release, and that I'm still disappointed. I really hope it gets better.
