So, coming out of the Investor Meeting in Japan, we got a few interesting tidbits of upcoming things. To get them quickly out of the way, there was the announcement of NX being released for March 2017 which I much prefer–I really wasn’t ready for it to come out later this year so knowing we have until Spring of the next year is quite a relief. The upcoming Zelda has been confirmed to be releasing for both the Wii U and NX at the same time (and thus has been pushed back until March 2017), so we will probably be going for the NX version. Supposedly the game will also be the main focus of Nintendo’s E3 this year, but I hope we will hear about certain other games too.
Regardless, moving over to what interested me the most… Nintendo also announced new mobile games with their next two being Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing.
Now, by itself I was a bit iffy about it, thinking it could be something like Farmville or those various games where you place buildings in a town and have an awful energy system, but apparently the game is confirmed to have connectivity with a console version of the game…
“Building on the positive consumer reaction to Miitomo, Nintendo announced that its next two mobile apps would be based on the familiar and beloved Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises. Nintendo plans to release both of these applications this fall. As for the former app, while making it more accessible in comparison to the Fire Emblem games for Nintendo’s dedicated gaming systems, Nintendo aims to offer the great value of a role-playing strategy game. Nintendo will design the latter game so that it will be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems. By playing both Animal Crossing games, users will find increased enjoyment. Both of these are pure game applications. Compared to Miitomo, they have more prominent game elements, and the game content will tie closely into Nintendo’s dedicated games business. Nintendo will provide more details about these applications closer to their launch period, and aims to have multiple types of apps that appeal to different audiences and different groups of players.”
— Business Wire
And this makes me wonder a lot–will it be more like a companion app such as Fallout 4’s Pip-Boy on phones or more like a aforementioned game where just playing both will let you unlock things in the other? While part of me is hoping it’ll be more of a companion app (Maybe with checklists and various things you can do without turning the game on… like making sure nobody will move away), considering it will be out in Fall of this year (and I’d be very surprised if we got a new AC game for Wii U in the Fall with NX about half a year away at that point) it will more likely be a game in itself which I’m still not entirely sure how to feel. I’ll definitely try it out though to at least have stuff ready for when the next AC game comes out. I just hope it’s more like how Happy Home Designer was than some silly energy management game or a reused game just with AC assets.
Of course, if it’s connecting to some kind of game, it means a new Animal Crossing could be coming as early as next year if it is for NX and if so, possibly even be out by Holiday season next year. Which means I really need to finish badge hunting in New Leaf :P
Which brings me to something I’ve been hoping to do for a while… Features I most want to see in the next AC. I’ve mentioned on and off several of them, but this is me going full-out with it all so, here we go! This is a much more expanded version of my last entry nearly 2 years ago.
- Choose our Appearance (or at least our skin color). While I always enjoyed the little quiz at the beginning (and was lucky enough to always end up with the face I liked best while answering honestly), most people just answer it to get the face they want. And if you want a darker skin tone, you need to wait forever to try and tan it. I feel like taking a step out of Happy Home Designer and just letting you choose it all to start with the conversation being just for fun or maybe picking you a random outfit (“What’s your favorite color?” could be a fun question to add) for your starting clothes would be nice.
- Town/Character Transfer. This is one where I could really go either way for it, but I think it’d be nice if there was some kind of transfer (or a better one) like with Wild World to City Folk. Though, if you could transfer more (Such as Patterns, all characters, villagers, and catalog), that’d be nice too.
- Patterns can be edited regardless of creator. I get why it exists, but I also don’t feel it fixed the problem in the long run. And if anything, it just made it more frustrating if you had multiple characters. None of my characters can edit any patterns besides my Mayor character due to not having made them. If this feature has to stick around, at least make it so if the town ID is the same, they can still be edited.
- More Villagers in our town. If we have a bigger town, it’d be nice if we can have a bigger limit. I don’t know if I’d want 15 again like Gamecube (though, I’d be okay with it), but I think 12 could be a nice number over the 10 we currently have.
- Be able to choose who can move in. Assuming we keep the mayor role (or get an even bigger one in the next game), it seems silly we can’t choose if we want to allow someone to move or not. Having Isabelle greet you saying “Villager wants to move in! Is that okay?” and you agreeing or denying would be really helpful for people who are trying to get specific villagers or prefer a smaller town.
- Be able to choose where someone can move. If a villager is moving in though, there is no reason Nook can’t be at the door when you exit and ask you to place their house. If you decline, he’ll decide where it goes (for a randomly placed villager house).
- All items from Happy Home Designer to be in the next game. Happy Home Designer brought tons of nice new items into the game and I really want them all to return.
- Be able to customize the interiors and exteriors of all shops/buildings. Happy Home Designer’s big thing is it really gave us a lot more we got to work with and customize than what we usually get to. I’d love to be able to continue doing that and really make my town unique with my own versions of Re-Tail and the Museum and Able Sisters’ shops just as a few examples.
- Option to move items like in Happy Home Designer. While I still like the old pushing and pulling by hand in the games, the stylus moving was really handy and let me toss out everything I wanted to use without worrying so much about it.
- No item limits. One of the things I’ve always missed from the Gamecube version is the lack of item limits per house. I’m good at fitting a lot of things in/placing stuff creatively and still making it a bit roomy and it’s hard to do that when I keep getting hit with the fact that I apparently placed too many items. This especially becomes an issue with a lot of wall and ceiling items as it can cause the floor to end up looking very bare.
- Separate section of inventory for tools. Like most people who have played AC, letters have essentially become my toolbox. And I’d really like to have a proper toolbox instead at this point.
- Complete overhaul of the moving system. Simply put, you should be able to set villagers you want to keep forever. If you become good friends with them, there should be some kind of option for them to be like “Would it be okay if I stay a permanent resident here forever?” and that would be just so amazing and then people wouldn’t have to worry about their villagers up and leaving if they can’t check everyday (or if they did and the villagers just forgot to tell them). Not to mention you should be able to stop a villager even if they are in boxes along with being able to move them back in even if they moved out recently. Multiples of the same villagers do exist–it’s not that weird. Even an option to turn off moving altogether and/or for specific villagers would help a lot.
- Be able to move in specific villagers through their Amiibo Cards. Right now, Amiibo Cards do not have many uses. They can be used for Amiibo Festival games or to summon specific characters into Happy Home Designer to immediately due their house (or to show up at a house you’re visiting that you’ve decorated). Adding the option to scan them and be given the chance to invite them to move into your town if you have space would be super helpful and handy for those who may not be comfortable playing online/doing villager trading/rotating.
- Return of Ordinances, Mayor, Dream Suite, and Public Works. I don’t have anything to add other than that I just really enjoyed these features.
- Be able to have more than one ordinance. It’d be nice to be able to pick more than one and it could just go up in price for each one you want to add on.
- Beautiful Town Ordinance includes immunity to grass and flowers from running. Grass degrades much slower and Flowers are immune from wilting, but both can still get messed up from running around. Considering flowers are immune from being ran through in the Garden Tours on the Island of New Leaf, it’d be nice if the Beautiful Town Ordinance was upgraded to include that kind of immunity as well. It’d make a lot of sense, anyway.
- Be able to visit people’s Mall Area while Dreaming of a Town. The shops can stay closed of course, but a lot of people put quite a bit of effort into their Museum Exhibits that they can have and if those return, it would be a shame if people still can’t see them unless they visit the town outside of a dream.
- Be able to place more public works/Public works replaced with just furniture and being able to place furniture outside. 30 isn’t actually that much in the long run and considering it also counted bridges, you could place even less. Allowing the placement of more would be nice. Or even just leaving Public Works for things like full new buildings and bridges and letting people place as much furniture as they want elsewhere. Plus this lets me have a fountain in my house. And I really love fountains.
- More Pattern spaces. It’d be nice to have them all on one character/not need more characters for patterns.
- Be able to design bottoms. We can design nearly everything else–it’d be nice to be able to design skirts and pants too. I can understand the issue with shoes or more hats (though, shoes would also be fun/nice), but I was super surprised to see we couldn’t do skirts and pants.
- If badges return, be able to tell just how close you are. One of the hardest things with getting the last few badges I need in New Leaf is I have no idea how close I am and there isn’t a good way to find out. Bug Catching gives you the Bronze Badge at 500, Silver at 2,000, and Gold at 5,000. Those are big gaps and even if you know what badge you have at that moment, you can be anywhere between those two numbers and have no idea just how close you might be.
- Alternate colors for Gracie’s Princess Set. Considering we can recolor the Trump Set, it’s not like none of her sets can be recolored. The Princess Top was originally pink in World World before being changed to blue to match the new Gracie set. I’d be nice if it could be recolored pink. Purple would probably also be a nice recolor for the set.
- Map out your town yourself. Right now, we have pre-set maps, but being able to place the big buildings on the map itself could give your town even more uniqueness.
- Be able to experience all the different holidays in your own game. Not everyone is able to meet people from other regions and while I’ve always had fun going to their towns for their Festivals and getting something special, it’d be nice if we still had them in our own game or at least the items (just expensive) in our stores. You were able to buy the Hinaningyou in the Gamecube version so it’s not like it has never happened in the past.
- Be able to buy more than one thing from Redd per visit and get it then and there. Not everyone plays with more than one character or shares a game. Similarly, let people get it there–I don’t know why it needs to be mailed when you are literally seeing the item in person. But yes, not being able to buy more than one really just ends up with people possibly missing out on more real paintings/sculptures, which brings me to…
- Art should still be able to be ordered from the catalog. It was such a pain to help out friends due to the removal of this feature and while it makes sense you can only get the fake ones from Redd, there is no reason you can’t get more of the real ones through the catalog.
- Tools on the Island should be upgraded based on what tool you have earned/have. – I expect the Island and Tours to return and it’d be nice if the tools there changed up so people could have a golden fishing rod and golden net on the island.
- Be able to be worked on also on the go. While I do prefer home console Animal Crossing games, I think it’d be nice if you could use your 3DS or phone and do stuff as well while out and about.
- Campsite/Igloo be useable by your own Villagers as well over just out of town Villagers. It’s how it worked in the Gamecube and it’d be nice to see our own villagers feel like camping every so often.
- Be able to catch jellyfish again/Remove Jellyfish as a diving obstacle. They are incredibly annoying when it comes to Diving and are unneeded. We don’t need that kind of “penalty” and they should just go back to being able to be caught. I loved having a Jellyfish in my house. Diving in general has slow enough spawns and can be tiring enough control-wise without being forced to swim around or be constantly stung by jellyfish.
- Be able to plant perfect fruit from other towns. – I just think it’d be nice. Some of them are really pretty.
Those are just off the top of my head, but I’m sure I’ll think of more in the future. For now, I’m going to go back to working on New Leaf and crossing my fingers for more detail on the Mobile game soon.