Soundtrack, atmosphere and even immersion are pretty close to perfection in this game. Just listen to some of the hourly music on Youtube if you haven't already. I'll link some of my favorites here.
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The gameplay loop consists of classic Animal Crossing - you collect fruit from trees, catch bugs and fish and dig up an occasional fossil. The main 'goal' of the game is paying off your house's debt, but it shouldn't be treated as the main focus, because you'd usually play this game for other reasons than just to 'finish' it as fast as possible. I'm talking about a key part of the franchise here - the villagers and the interactions with them.
If you're coming from New Horizons, you're probably sick of your villagers repeating the same three lines every single day. Fortunately this is not the case in New Leaf. Villagers have a lot more variety in conversations and are not your biggest superfans at the beginning (as opposed to New Horizons). Of course the topics will be repeated every now and then - but that's because the game doesn't expect you to talk to someone a hundred times in a row and the devs didn't want to spend a lifetime working on dialogue for humanoid animals - which is understandable!
I mentioned the atmosphere in this game being especially good earlier. The emptiness and closed shops with calm songs in the nighttime are a direct contrast to the cheerful and lively atmosphere with peppy songs during the day. Both feel very different and it's hard to explain that feeling. It just feels right.
Decoration is a rather major aspect in this game too and it's obviously not as refined as in New Horizons, but you still have many options to design your town and home nonetheless. For the only time in an Animal Crossing game you take the role of a mayor and are allowed to build various sorts of infrastructure in your town - if you have the funds. You can't place furniture outside in this entry, but it's not a negative for me, as this feature wasn't added before either and is just a really good QoL improvement in New Horizons.
The upgradeable shops in the shopping district are a really cool concept and give you a feeling of progression. The more you play the game, the more stuff you'll be able to buy. This is done entirely without FOMO (fear of missing out) and allows you to play the game at your own pace.
Speaking of FOMO, the seasonal events like Halloween and Christmas are unmissable and repeated in a yearly cycle. If you would really like to attend those events despite not being there at the given day, you can go into the game's settings and set the day to whenever you want. I would not recommend time traveling as it messes with the intended slow pacing of the game, but feel free to adjust the date as you want if you want to experience more of the game in a shorter timespan.
5 PM
7 PM
11 PM
The gameplay loop consists of classic Animal Crossing - you collect fruit from trees, catch bugs and fish and dig up an occasional fossil. The main 'goal' of the game is paying off your house's debt, but it shouldn't be treated as the main focus, because you'd usually play this game for other reasons than just to 'finish' it as fast as possible. I'm talking about a key part of the franchise here - the villagers and the interactions with them.
If you're coming from New Horizons, you're probably sick of your villagers repeating the same three lines every single day. Fortunately this is not the case in New Leaf. Villagers have a lot more variety in conversations and are not your biggest superfans at the beginning (as opposed to New Horizons). Of course the topics will be repeated every now and then - but that's because the game doesn't expect you to talk to someone a hundred times in a row and the devs didn't want to spend a lifetime working on dialogue for humanoid animals - which is understandable!
I mentioned the atmosphere in this game being especially good earlier. The emptiness and closed shops with calm songs in the nighttime are a direct contrast to the cheerful and lively atmosphere with peppy songs during the day. Both feel very different and it's hard to explain that feeling. It just feels right.
Decoration is a rather major aspect in this game too and it's obviously not as refined as in New Horizons, but you still have many options to design your town and home nonetheless. For the only time in an Animal Crossing game you take the role of a mayor and are allowed to build various sorts of infrastructure in your town - if you have the funds. You can't place furniture outside in this entry, but it's not a negative for me, as this feature wasn't added before either and is just a really good QoL improvement in New Horizons.
The upgradeable shops in the shopping district are a really cool concept and give you a feeling of progression. The more you play the game, the more stuff you'll be able to buy. This is done entirely without FOMO (fear of missing out) and allows you to play the game at your own pace.
Speaking of FOMO, the seasonal events like Halloween and Christmas are unmissable and repeated in a yearly cycle. If you would really like to attend those events despite not being there at the given day, you can go into the game's settings and set the day to whenever you want. I would not recommend time traveling as it messes with the intended slow pacing of the game, but feel free to adjust the date as you want if you want to experience more of the game in a shorter timespan.
harliscool123
6 months ago