- Joined
- Feb 12, 2023
I've been genuinely geeking over this game for a week straight.
You might be asking, "Gorgi, why are you obsessed with a smartphone version of Animal Crossing?"
While your observation isn't wrong, there are some distinct differences that actually make this game enchanting as fuck.
- Characters/Gifting
- There are enough characters for them to have distinct interests and personalities, but not so many that it becomes obscure/clouded. They are also, except for the visitors, in game at all times.
- The characters can follow you and have storylines of their own/quest functions that are unique to their personalities.
- The item labelling is enough to go off of if you're really opposed to googling things. I wish there were more 2 heart items for some characters (Retsuko has none I think?) but the gifting and crafting have an effect on how well you do in the game - not enough of an effect to discourage you from playing if you mess something up, but enough for it to be rewarding when you get something right.
- Grinding/Day-to-Day
- The "day-to-day" play is somehow less obnoxious? At first I was frustrated by it because I wanted to move the storyline forward. But they do give enough to you to keep you interested and get into the rhythm. There's also no way around it (that I've found, please let me know if you have) unlike Animal Crossing, where you can just skip time whenever you feel like it.
- The grinding/collecting/crafting cycle is much more interesting because of the different areas and puzzles that are incorporated into the gameplay. You also don't have to do all of the things every day, making it less of a chore than Animal Crossing (I played ACNH during the first covid shutdown and loved it, but I've tried restarting since then to recapture the magic and it's much more tedious than I remember, and I generally love replaying video games).
- Swimming/Diving
- Oh my god the swimming/diving in ACNH is so bad it made me quit playing the game when they first introduced it. While getting the flippers and snorkle requires time because it's part of the main storyline, it is more than worth it.
- There is an extensive underwater portion of the game that you're able to access, which pretty much doubles the area in which you can cover in the game.
