Introduction Post
Spring – Year 1: Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4
Current Goals:
Fast-track Blue Chickens
Fishing Level 10
Weekly Summary: Leander has taken the first steps towards becoming a part of the Pelican Town community! Having heard rumors of Shane’s chicken husbandry skills, our farmer is attempting to befriend possibly the only person in town to actively avoid having friends. Very rude; we just want to talk about chickens!
Leander has found solace in fishing. He prefers fishing at the dock in front of Willy’s shop, but will sometimes move to one of the small islands of the mountain lake. The Fiberglass Rod was a much needed purchase. The mines do instill a growing need for adventure, however…
Having met with the Wizard and “partaken” of his brew, Leander’s magics have begun to reawaken; enough that the Fae saw it within their good graces to bless our first crops. A fruitful first week back at Aurora Fields.
Daily summary & donation checklists under the cut; mod list in the Introduction post.
Day 01:
Our beginner chickens are Honey (white) & Biscuit (brown)
Cleared a small patch of land in front of the house for crops & cut down enough trees for 2 chests
Bought & planted: 1 Parsnip, 1 Cauliflower, 1 Kale, 1 Green Bean, 1 Blue Jazz, 1 Tulip, & 3 Potatoes
Said “Hi” to everyone excluding Alex, Willy, & the Wizard - Not bad!
Found all possible Spring Foragables - Great start!
Dug up a Rusty Spoon and spoke with Gunther about the museum
Hit Foraging Level 1
Day 02:
Forgot to pet the chickens; continue to be mad I can’t pet them while they’re sleeping
Got word from Willy & went to the beach for our first fishing rod
Dropped a chest in front of Willy’s shop & fished until 5pm; treasure: iron & 2 Frozen Geodes
Found Glass Shards on the beach - Serious safety hazard!
Said “Hi” to Willy & Alex, then gifted a daffodil to Linus for the ‘Making Friends’ quest
Cleared some of the farm before heading to bed
Hit Fishing Levels 1 & 2
Day 03:
Rained - Caught all rain fish except the Shad
Fenced off a portion of the Coop area for the blue chewy grass to spread without being eaten
Chickens fully grown - Got our first eggs!
Gifted Shane an egg; Operation Fast-track Blue Chickens is a go!
Purchased a Fiberglass Rod & Bait from Willy’s Shop
Spent the day fishing; treasure: iron, geode, & 2 Aquamarine
Cleared some of the farm before heading to bed
Hit Fishing Levels 3 & 4; got Fisherman achievement
Day 04:
Spent the day fishing
Gave Pam a Joja Cola to rub on her sore nose - ?
Egg for Shane
Did some foraging before bed
Hit Fishing Level 5 - Chose Fisher perk
Day 05:
Adopted our first cat, Steve “Captain America” Rogers
Cleared some of the farm towards the southern exit
Completed the Rat Problem & Mine cut scenes
Dropped a chest in the mine by the elevator for future use
Dropped a chest in front of the Community Center & moved items in preparation for first round of donations - Reminds me of stacking bugs/fish outside Blather’s while the museum upgrades in ACNH lol
Nothing worth buying from the Traveling Cart today
Spent the day fishing
Day 06:
Got high with the wizard and made first round of donations to the Community Center
Gave Sam a Flounder that he wanted for unspecified reasons
Spent the day fishing
Cleared some of the farm before heading to bed
Received a visit from the Fairy!
Hit Fishing Level 6 & Foraging Level 2
Day 07:
Learned Stir Fry recipe
Bought a Red Mushroom from the Traveling Cart
Gave Lewis a Daffodil for his birthday
Bought & planted 8 Potatoes; purchased the first pack upgrade
Spent the day fishing; treasure: Skeletal Tail
Cleared some of the farm before heading to bed; found & read Mining Monthly book
Hit Farming Level 1 & Mining Level 1; got Mother Catch achievement
Donations:
Community Center - Crafts Room 1/6:
4/4 Spring Foraging: Wild Horseradish, Daffodil, Leek, Spring Onion
0/3 Summer Foraging: Grape, Spice Berry, Sweet Pea
0/4 Fall Foraging: Common Mushroom, Wild Plum, Hazelnut, Blackberry
0/4 Winter Foraging: Crystal Fruit, Snow Yam, Crocus, Holly
0/5 Exotic Foraging: Coconut, Cactus Fruit, Cave Carrot, Red Mushroom, Purple Mushroom, Maple Syrup, Oak Resin, Pine Tar, Morel
0/3 Forest: Moss (10), Fiber (200), Maple Seed (10)
Community Center - Pantry 1/6:
4/4 Spring Crops: Parsnip, Green Bean, Cauliflower, Potato
0/4 Summer Crops: Hot Pepper, Blueberry, Melon, Summer Squash
0/4 Fall Crops: Corn, Eggplant, Pumpkin, Yam
0/1 Rare Crops: Ancient Fruit, Sweet Gem Berry
2/4 Garden: Tulip, Summer Spangle, Fairy Rose, Blue Jazz, Sunflower
0/4 Brewer’s: Mead, Wine, Juice, Pale Ale, Green Tea
Community Center - Fish Tank 0/6:
1/4 River Fish: Sunfish, Catfish, Shad, Tiger Trout
3/4 Lake Fish: Largemouth Bass, Carp, Bullhead, Sturgeon
1/4 Ocean Fish: Sardine, Tuna, Red Snapper, Tilapia
2/3 Night Fishing: Walleye, Bream, Eel
2/5 Crab Pot: Lobster, Crayfish, Crab, Cockle, Mussel, Shrimp, Snail, Periwinkle, Oyster, Clam
0/2 Master Fisher’s: Lava Eel, Scorpion Carp, Octopus, Blobfish
Community Center - Boiler Room 0/3:
0/4 Geologist’s: Quartz, Earth Crystal, Frozen Tear, Fire Quartz
0/5 Treasure Hunter’s: Amethyst, Topaz, Emerald, Diamond, Ruby, Aquamarine
0/3 Engineer’s: Iridium Ore, Battery Pack, Refined Quartz (5)
Museum - Artifacts 1/42:
Dwarf Scroll I, Dwarf Scroll II, Dwarf Scroll III, Dwarf Scroll IV, Chipped Amphora, Arrowhead, Ancient Doll, Elvish Jewelry, Chewing Stick, Ornamental Fan, Dinosaur Egg, Rare Disc, Ancient Sword, Rusty Spoon, Rusty Spur, Rusty Cog, Chicken Statue, Ancient Seed, Prehistoric Tool, Dried Starfish, Anchor, Glass Shards, Bone Flute, Prehistoric Handaxe, Dwarvish Helm, Dwarf Gadget, Ancient Drum, Golden Mask, Golden Relic, Strange Doll, Prehistoric Scapula, Prehistoric Tibia, Prehistoric Skull, Skeletal Hand, Prehistoric Rib, Prehistoric Vertebra, Skeletal Tail, Nautilus Fossil, Amphibian Fossil, Palm Fossil, Trilobite
Museum – Minerals 0/53:
Emerald, Aquamarine, Ruby, Amethyst, Topaz, Jade, Diamond, Prismatic Shard, Quartz, Fire Quartz, Frozen Tear, Earth Crystal, Alamite, Bixite, Baryte, Aerinite, Calcite, Dolomite, Esperite, Fluorapatite, Geminite, Helvite, Jamborite, Jagoite, Kyanite, Lunarite, Malachite, Neptunite, Lemon Stone, Nekoite, Orpiment, Petrified Slime, Thunder Egg, Pyrite, Ocean Stone, Ghost Crystal, Tigerseye, Jasper, Opal, Fire Opal, Celestine, Marble, Sandstone, Granite, Basalt, Limestone, Soapstone, Hematite, Mudstone, Obsidian, Slate, Fairy Stone, Star Shards
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So, today is my first day not playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Yesterday I received my reward for getting all the art (spoilers: you don't get anything for finishing the entire museum) and after speedrunning the final phase of the DLC that I never finished, I can say that I have "completed" ACNH to the extent that I wanted to. And now I want to talk a little about it beneath the cut
I hold that the last day in an Animal Crossing game, after you've made the conscious decision to stop playing, is a sacred thing. If you're like me, you've almost every day since launch and gotten into that comfortable Animal Crossing groove, where you can get basically everything you need to do in a day done in, like, 30 minutes and only ever go out of your way to check if a specific special NPC is on your island that day. On that last day, though, things are a little different. You spend a little bit of extra time with your villagers, you finish up maybe a few small projects, and then close the game for what will probably be the last time ever. You wave your virtual friends goodbye and lose a part of you that's been there for over two years.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is so interesting because it got delayed twice(?), came out exactly when it needed to, and became one of the fastest and best selling video games of all time. In fact, I think if you exclude Wii Sports for being packaged with almost every Wii console and Gen 1 Pokemon for being four separate games, I think it is the best selling single platform game. It was a phenomenon. It even got my mom, who was not played a console game on her own since Super Mario RPG, to continually play it to this day. And soon after it came out people genuinely debated over whether New Horizons or New Leaf was better. I think now that the game has received all of its planned major updates, New Horizons is without a doubt the better game, but I think there were some legitimate reasons to think New Leaf was better back when New Horizons came out.
New Leaf has very clearly defined progression. As you go through the game, it is really easy to see when you've reached a new milestone because you unlock a massive new building on Main Street. With the town management side of things, you unlocked more you could do as mayor and more public works projects as your approval rating increased. There was a tree in the middle of town that grew as time went on, and if I recall correctly, you did not unlock the the credits for the game until you had played for a year. New Horizons on the other hand has basically nothing to indicate progression after the first three weeks. Within three weeks you can get K.K. to your island, have basically all the special NPCs and shops unlocked, and see the credits. This is due to a shift gameplay focus. ACNH tasks the player with creating their own progress by allowing the entire island to be customizable.
New Horizons's greater focus on customization I think is also part of the reason why some New Leaf fans were disappointed. When the game first launched, player to villager interactions were basically the same, if not scaled back some from New Leaf. It also really didn't add much for the collector type players. Sure, there were some new things to donate to the museum, but there really weren't a ton of new things to give to Blathers compared to New Leaf. The only really new collectible was crafting recipes. For players more interested in the life-sim or collection aspects of Animal Crossing, New Horizons really didn't improve much on New Leaf (at least at launch).
New Horizons is fundamentally a game about design and customization. You can play any item basically anywhere on your island. Choosing the landscape of your town in older games was a big deal because it couldn't be changed. In NH, though, you can create and remove rivers and cliffs to your liking. Villagers used to randomly choose where to set up there houses. In NH, you get to decide where houses and any building, excluding town hall, placed, and you can move them whenever you want. The villagers you got used to be entirely up to chance. Now you can spend resources from playing the game to get a chance at picking a villager of your choice before letting a completely random one show up. Placing furniture in your house is no longer a grueling and tedious task since they added in the HHD UI. Even the DLC points to the customization aspect. The two primary rewards for completing the DLC are new ways to design rooms in houses, and the ability to customize your villagers houses. ACNH is a game about designing the perfect island first, and a life-sim game second.
Perhaps the biggest difference between New Horizons and its predecessors, though, is its shift away from inconveniences of old Animal Crossing. Your inventory is expanded, you have tons of storage, and, most importantly, the game does not hold a gun to your head, telling you to play every day. There is no longer the Sword of Damocles that is your villagers randomly moving out. You're free to just skip a day or two or ten and your villagers will never leave, at least not without asking you first.
ACNH is the best Animal Crossing game in the series as of now, but its not without its flaws. The first is the villager dialogue randomization. You start to get repeat dialogue really fast, which is weird, because even in the last few months of me playing, I would still randomly stumble into dialogue I had never seen before. They really should have had the game track what dialogue you've read and prioritized the dialogue you hadn't. Other than that, though the villagers are great and feel more real than ever. The fact that they have routines, and things they like to do throughout the day is really cool, coupled with the insane amount of interactions they can have with furniture on the island. Also, when they aren't spouting repeated dialogue, they have some special dialogue for really, really obscure situations. The other major flaw in New Horizons is the lack of multi-crafting. It should have been added in an update and its absence in finished product discourages people from crafting.
Overall, it's really hard to summarize my feelings for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's a game that's been with me through a lot, and I think it deserves at least a little recognition for occupying me for over two years
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