i have pretty harsh feelings about this game. i love animal crossing, i always have. it was a huge part of my life growing up and some of my most wonderful memories are of playing City Folk at night in my grandmas house. That game was there for me then, and new leaf was there for me as a teenager. so when this game came out, i thought this would be the animal crossing game that would be with me through adulthood. I was so excited for this game, it was giving me panic attacks the week before release.
When i first started it up, i fell in love with it. it looked beautiful and it was so amazing seeing my favorite characters in HD as opposed to the crunchy 3ds screen. i thought the villagers were very well written and funny, and i still do kind of think that some of the dialogue is genuinely good, but it started wearing off fast.
The game is so empty. theres nothing here. Every time i used to open this game, all i can picture is the boardroom meeting in which they were plotting to make the game more marketable. Its been gentrified, that's the only way i can describe it. The villagers offer you nothing emotionally, theres no GracieGrace, no city, no little secrets to find. there is no depth here, a world that moves without you, or a sense of wonder. all the hallmark features of previous games have been removed. it is a marketable product. A product that produces products, merchandise for profit (new leaf never ever had this much merch, but i noticed immediately how much they were making for this game). And ever since i realized this, games just havent been as fun. I feel like they all embody this game in a sense, giving up what makes it impressionable and personal to become something else. i worry very much, because every single mainline game ive ever cared about seems to be following this path. it's upsetting. I simply can not see how you could enjoy this game, unless you simply didnt know what you were missing out on.