New Pokemon Snap thoughts!

So, the game has been out for about 5 days or so now and I finally finished the story yesterday! I have my whole playthrough up on Youtube and still absolutely plan to play more to try and complete my Photodex at the least (might try and get diamond ratings/over 4,000 points for each too– we’ll see), but for now, I just wanted to talk about my thoughts after having played the game for nearly 30 hours (and counting). Obviously, this will contain spoilers so keep that in mind!

The short version is I really adore the game even more than I expected. There’s SO many more interactions, secrets, and little intricacies and you can just feel how much care went into the game. Sure, all the Pokemon aren’t in it, but seeing how they tried to make so many different interactions and things, it wasn’t as simple as just throwing in nearly 900 models (technically more if you consider gender/form differences), but I wouldn’t be against seeing DLC in the future that maybe added in more areas somehow.

I also can’t say enough how surprised I was to see Todd’s cameo. I didn’t think they would connect them, especially when Ash is apparently 10 forever and Todd was in the anime, but seeing him grown up and here was really nice.

I really liked the cutscenes (even if I’m a bit bummed that we couldn’t choose hair color, eye color, and skin color separately), I loved the scenery, and it’s just enjoyable even just playing through the levels and watching things play out. There’s just so much to keep track of.

But I will say as much as I enjoy the game, my biggest gripe has been with the submission system this time around. I’m not surprised that the “one photo per Pokemon” was kept around and I understand why it is that way, but considering we have four spots per Pokemon with one for each star rank, I really wish we could submit one per star rank per Pokemon as those photos won’t be compared with each other anyway. It sucks getting both 3 and 4 Star photos, sometimes even by accident, and having to choose which one I want to submit– on average, I usually get at least 2 or 3 different Star rankings– sometimes even all four, and while I likely will replay the stages over and over again for various reasons, with so much to keep an eye on and some of the RNG involved, I can’t guarantee I can get those photos again or as nice as I did the first time.

And that one issue is pretty much the backbone of every other little frustration I have. I’ve mentioned before how aiming tends to be something I struggle with most in games and while I was able to somehow pull things off in the original Pokemon Snap, I feel like things are a lot more intricate this time around with not as much leeway either and much further throws. Add on the Illumina Pokemon stages where the entire thing is just an aiming boss battle and having to keep doing them to try and get certain shots again or better when my aim is just such garbage and my tendency to panic and it’s not a fun time. I’m hoping the burst mode unlock will at least help with the latter issue, but my aim may just be a lost cause and I’m concerned how that could effect game completion.

It also adds into the issue with the Request system where you maybe already took a photo that would complete a request, but since you didn’t have the request yet, it doesn’t count and thus, you need to try to get that photo all over again. To be honest, I don’t even have much care for the rewards from Requests– as excited as I was for New Pokemon Snap, the one thing that never interested me was the whole filter system. I’ve never been the type of person to really do much with photos and even now, I only actually decorated one picture (and may do another Audino one if I get a better photo later) and have no plans to decorate any others.

That won’t stop me from doing requests though– I like completing them. I just hope I can manage to unlock all the titles and things regardless, but considering one requires you to get 1 million total Sweet! Medals which is dependent on others, my hopes are incredibly low. I’m not even sure I’d manage to unlock all the titles just from completing the Photodex (so, um, please like my photos).

Regardless, despite these issues, I’ve still had a lot of fun. I also liked how Xerneas’ level 1 essentially was an ode to the previous Illumina Pokemon stages. Not that it helped me suck less, but still nice.

Also lighting up everything to get the elevator lit up was probably one of my favorite puzzles in the game thus far. It was just really pretty.

As for the epilogue, the scene was cute, but I did find the reasoning kind of a cop-out. Like all of them should love Pokemon?? So it felt like a weird reasoning if they were going to tease the question in the first place.

Anyway, despite the few negatives, I’m really just antsy to play more. Unfortunately, something about the game doesn’t jive well when my allergies are really bad :( I’m not entirely sure what as it’s not something I’ve had before with any other game I played (and I can play Animal Crossing just fine or use my computer so it’s not just a screentime thing), but I’m hoping I can get back to it soon. Fingers crossed I can at least complete my photodex, even if I fail at everything else.

Edited as of May 7th, 2021: After taking a small break due to some of the issues mentioned above, I think I’ve hit the frustration level of most achievement systems for me. I really want so badly to manage to get all the photos in the Photodex at least, but especially with how much more aim focused this is paired with much longer distances you need to lure Pokemon at times and other issues, it just doesn’t seem likely I’ll manage and that makes me really sad.

Miitopia Switch Demo thoughts!

So, the demo for the Nintendo Switch version of Miitopia went up yesterday and while I still don’t think I’m going to pick the game up again, I decided to at least get it to see if I could check out some of the newer features such as Wigs.

I will say one positive was that Wigs and Make-up were available right from the start— I didn’t even need to start the game yet, I could just play with the wigs and stuff first. There’s clearly a lot more options than I even really bothered with such as layering some of the items to make your own things or playing around with colors more– I would say Make-up easily has more to work with than wigs though. The wig choice is… okay? I like how much more fluid they seem, but for one, most of the hairstyles are longer ones so if you wanted to use them with shorter haired characters, there’s very few options. Bang choices also felt only okay.

Despite that, I ended up just using a ponytail very similar to my Mii’s usual one as the longer one felt too high, but my biggest disappointment was that once again, the wavy/ringlet-y/curly hairstyles were restricted to pigtails… It’s really not that hard to make a ponytail version when you literally have it as pigtails. I can’t say I’m surprised because it’s definitely a common issue in a lot of games– especially those made in Japan, but it’ll never not be super disheartening for me.

For the most part, there aren’t THAT many changes between the Switch and 3DS versions between demos. There’s better graphics, but otherwise, the only big differences I noticed besides entirely new systems (Hair, Make-up, and the Horse) were some new cutscenes and the Outings system.

I genuinely do find Outings really cute, but I do have one concern with them and that’s lessening the chances for money. When I first heard about them, I thought they were just changing the other trips we could get, but those are actually still here too and still just a… silhouette cruise to an island so if you want cutscenes, you should go for outings.

This little luncheon scene was also new which I guess is like… the lobby of the hotel? It’s cute though, but I wonder if we’ll still see camping scenes as well.

Finally, easily my favorite part of the game was learning we could customize the horse AND it joined our party. The cute stable and how your character rests there with it?? Also adorable. Strawberry alone makes me really tempted to buy the game.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play around as much with the Roulette Wheel this time as all our Amiibo are still in the process of being moved around and unfortunately, Amiibo Cards apparently don’t get you anything.

I will say my biggest apprehension with Miitopia though is still there: The Grinding. Experience earning is just as slow, the food stat boosts are tiring, you only have control of your character still (so everyone else in your party does your own thing), and less money opportunities also makes it harder to gear up.

I heard there is additional endgame content, but mostly in the sense of harder battles which, at least for me, just means even more grinding. For me, Miitopia’s highlights lie in the silliness of it all– the crazy plot, watching your Miis’ silly antics, seeing what kind of crazy scenarios happen next, etc., but the combat is just kind of okay and without any kind of way to get through that easier on my second time through, the rest of it just can’t carry the main gameplay mechanic to make it enough of a replay for me.

But maybe there will be some better options added in– at the very least, I’ll likely keep an eye on it. If you’d like to see my playthrough of the demo, it’s up on Youtube— You can compare it to my 3DS Playthrough of the Demo as well if you’d like.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – My full Island/Town Tour!

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My Dream Address: DA-2045-8323-2479

So, if you subscribe to my Youtube channel or follow me on various social media, you may have already seen some of these, but if not, I posted a Trailer and various posters using the official Tanuki Kaihatsu site earlier this month about how I’d be doing my big town tour video on the 10th. You can see the trailer and all the posters below:



Now, here are some pictures with my fully set island tour…










Plus a full Island Tour Video! You can also use my Dream Address (DA-2045-8323-2479) to visit yourself as well.

I will say I think the most frustrating part of this is the fact that not only is leaving my date the same for New Horizons not really an option, but watering is also so much worse.
With the way updates and new content get added and paying more attention to your in-game date (I could get new SpotPass items in New Leaf regardless of my game’s date), it means I just need to keep going until New Horizons just… stops getting updates. And there’s a chance it could always get some small amount of updates, after all, we still are missing several things from previous games in the series, not to mention the amount of content in Pocket Camp that could come over at some point.

New Horizons also doesn’t have any way to change the date in the game itself. You have to change the date for the entire Switch which can be… a lot of going back and forth depending on the game. There’s always the option of just going back every time I want to update my Dream Suite, but for one, that resets the flowers being watered so no more sparkles, and secondly if I switch back to where I was I would still have to deal with the hair issue and cockroaches in the house plus my villagers wondering where I’ve been unless I play every single day again up to wherever I was before I went back and it’s absolutely annoying to even just think about. I also really dislike changing the date– keeping the day the same in New Leaf was all I really could stand to do and with it being for the whole Switch now, the idea of adjusting it at all for New Horizons stresses me out… And again, still doesn’t fix the watering problem.

New Horizons has multiple sparkle levels for flowers depending on how many other people (possibly different towns required?) water them. This means that not only am I particularly useless by myself, I need to recruit 5 others (which a huge shout out to how many friends helped today– I’d honestly feel awful asking again because I KNOW it was a pain) to help… And then we all have to water every single flower. It’s not just 5 of us splitting the work– it’s 5 of us all doing the same job and also hoping we don’t mess up in the process. During all the watering, 1 flower, 2 Palm Trees (the same one ironically so it had to be replaced twice), and 1 Cherry Tree (which was actually my fault) all had to be replaced due to accidental trampling and shaking and it’s… so easy to just accidentally nick something between lag and the game’s tendency to prioritize interacting over tool use unless it’s talking to a villager for some reason.
And to make matters worse, it’s near impossible to keep track of what flowers you watered until it has the biggest sparkles and you know everyone hit it.

I get that I don’t need to do the sparkles, but I think it adds a nice touch and unfortunately, the regular sparkles are generally slower, smaller, and duller than New Leaf’s…. but honestly, I might just do it myself next time, if I bother at all. It’s just a bit too much this time.

I’m still not 100% sure if I’m happy with my island or not. There’s definitely areas where I wish I could’ve done more or were bigger. I don’t dislike anything, but when it comes to feeling like I got my hopes and aesthetic across, I’m just not sure I managed to this time and really get my vision into a corporeal form :(

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – From March 19th until Easter/Bunny Day 2021

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So with my, hopefully if everything goes well, big plan for my town tour tomorrow, this is essentially a summary up to that point both of things that have happened and other changes and things made.

First up, it was Merengue’s birthday on the 19th!

I also did more adjustments around the outside of my house. I would’ve liked to have kept the garden like the left picture, but unfortunately the regular trees will start growing unless next to another one v__v It’s very annoying.

Despite my usual distaste for some optical illusions, I couldn’t resist some of the umbrella ones lately…

I’m still not 100% satisfied with the placement of the first though, but I can’t really decide anywhere better…

I finally put some work into making a cute fan and flag that match the Town’s Flag. I think they managed to come out nice. I also put one flag and another Mush Stump at the campsite which I think works better as an intro to the area than the one pink flower did there.

I might switch up the path there maybe, but still undecided.

Bunny Day also came back around, but with the shorter time and having pretty much everything done that it could interfere with and not needing to find any eggs, it wasn’t really an issue. I also can’t say enough how much I adored some of the new Bunny Day items.

It really excites me for what kind of new items we could see in other events this year. Also I already want more storage x-x

I was surprised to be given some eggs right off the bat from Zipper and some of my villagers. I didn’t really need them, but it’s probably still worth holding onto incase of any new Bunny Day DIYs in the future.


I also quickly used up my 50 new designer slots to help spruce up various areas around my island after being happy with my adjustments to my Cafe area.


The Nook Point system finally came out at the very end of March. I pretty much just cataloged from friends, but I did think this one poster looked nice…

I’m going to keep saving up for future items though. As a side note though, I need more mail favoriting slots too :(

Finally, April 1st arrived and it was time to see if my landscaping really worked out! The Cherryblossom trees finally being in bloom really brought the rest of the Island together. I wish it could effect fruit trees too (or well, some at least?) or at the very least, cherry ones for obvious reasons.



And now, on April 4th, it’s officially Easter and thus, the last day of Bunny Day. I even dressed up a bit, partially also for Meg’s Easter Party.

And then made a few little adjustments back on my island…

With Cherry Blossom season here again though, I’m looking forward to doing my town tour video on the 10th :) Which should also be my next entry. I just hope I can make up my mind about some things first.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – Initial Thoughts…

It’s been a while since I got a new Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon game. The last one I really enjoyed was A New Beginning which was on par with my favorite Harvest Moon: 64. Besides that, there were certain features I liked in other games (And Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade had some promise for me), but it was more just settling into the same thing.

I ended up playing over 6 hours of Pioneers of Olive Town (PoOT) so far, but have already hit a bit of a slow down point despite only being halfway through Spring and to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll get out of it. In general, I always struggle when a game’s really harped on a specific way to progress and that’s unfortunately very true this time around with the huge focus on Makers in this game.

If you like makers and enjoy crafting, you likely won’t be bothered by some of my main issues in this and that’s fine! But it is absolutely a drag and frustrating for me.

In general, I probably should’ve looked into it all more, but I was taken in by the customization and starting cutscene because the one thing I love more than customization where I actually have options I like is seeing my character integrated into the story.

Regardless, it’s not even just the Maker timer (which I am unsure if we got the shortened timers already or not, but to be blunt, unless it was instant or I could put in multiple at a time in one maker, it’s going to annoy me), the big issue is that you can only do one at a time. The reason for this is because you’re able to have up to 20 of the same Maker and considering each one takes up a 2×2 space (Why can’t it even just be 1×1??), that is… a lot of space taken up just by makers. You have to craft each one, some require things crafted from another Maker, when you even unlock things isn’t clear, and just… I barely have interest in having more than one, but I’m essentially purposely putting myself in a position where I just won’t be able to progress decently otherwise.

Earning money has been slow, even on Seedling mode, and while they at least added an option for things like unlocking areas on your farm, tools and house upgrades still require the materials and you can only buy the non-maker processed ones from the shop which brings us to our other issue: The farm is constantly covered in trees, weeds, and rocks. They spawn incredibly fast due to the sheer amount you need (Right now, I would need 90 of both branches, 150 Silver Ore, and 150 Iron Ore to get my next house upgrade on top of 30,000 gold), yet there will eventually be an area off your farm you can cut down trees and there’s plenty of rocks in the mine and I feel like this much grass does not need to be spawning especially when it slows you down and it’s hard to want to work on the farm when it builds back up so quickly.

The new puddle system also feels like an interesting idea in theory, but annoying in practice. I like the treasure part, but all the individual puddles are just tiring to get rid of. And while there’s water pumps for the big lake, considering you need to constantly fuel them (with yet another thing you have to process through a maker), that just makes it feel even slower.

I like Olive Town a lot. I wish I could get a better outfit already, but I’ll deal for now. I am intrigued by the characters. It’s just the general game mechanics that have already worn me down. I also feel like my character runs really slow? I don’t know if that’s just me, but it feels like just going back and forth to Town or even trying to get places takes so long and then time is already up.

It’s times like these where I wish there was still some kind of gifting system

(One last aside: I was really sad the Egg Hunt was just a series of cutscenes… There were a few other minor nitpicks I had, but I would say the main issue for me really does come down to the makers)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Reflecting on a Year of New Horizons

With it being officially a year from the release date, even if I technically started my island on the 19th due to the time zones, I wanted to try and gather my thoughts on how I’ve felt about the game after playing it every single day for a year now encompassing ~1,385 hours.

I think offhand those numbers would say that there was clearly tons to do in the game… But it’s less that there was a lot to do and more that certain things just… took a lot longer to do. And at least in my case, a lot of those hours were making patterns and catalog cross-checking to make sure I didn’t miss anything. That last part especially has taken SO much time, partially in combination due to how many items are only possible to check at Harvey’s Island due to the weird hidden nature of Seasonal items. At least Promotional Items have finally started showing in the catalog proper.

When it comes down to it, I still 100% feel I would’ve preferred the game take longer to release with everything in it than the rolling release updates we’re getting. I actually do not particularly enjoy constant content updates. I don’t like having to constantly recheck games (or have them installed in cases of non-physical titles) for some content that may be limited time. That isn’t to say all forms of this annoy me– Early Access games I expect as much and things like the 1 Year Anniversary Cake I genuinely find really cute and enjoy. That’s a cute bonus. But things like events we’ve had before or long-missed NPCs feel less like content updates and more like belated features. There are exceptions, of course, like the May Day Event where we got to see Rover again. Considering how we really only got to see him as cameos to begin with, and even he was missing for a while, it wasn’t odd to see him gone again, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t missed. And still, my only issue with the May Day Event was the fact that it was just one maze.

But I think especially with New Leaf, it felt almost like a love letter to fans from the beginning– it fixed a lot of issues people had with City Folk and improved on things from all three previous games, it brought back NPCs we missed, brought back characters (and even more in a huge content update years later), and added in things that had been missing. It gave us reasons to just enjoy playing, so many ways to help friends, and really built on those previous games– giving us more control than ever as Mayor and still letting us see what Tortimer was up to too. It felt like a true successor. And with some amazing new interior customization introduced in Happy Home Designer and some amazing items and interactivity through Pocket Camp, it really felt like the next game could truly take it all to new heights, especially if on another home console.

New Horizons, living up to its name I suppose, feels like a soft reboot more than anything. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but as someone who grew up with the series, seeing so much gone took a lot of the heart for me. Isabelle’s voice is different, the relationship between the characters feels off, so many characters are just not around. And one of the big things that stands out to me is the direction doesn’t feel the same. The game seemed to really want to focus more on a purely creative standpoint than a life sim, between less interaction with villagers (Sure, they can talk about some things around them now, but what does it matter when they apparently get annoyed as soon as you talk to them more than once a day), removal of tons of existing items, the smaller side rooms (and smaller height of the upper and lower rooms), and the emphasis on terraforming. You literally can not access certain parts of your island easily/without tools unless you terraform. And yet there’s still so many rules. The tiered nature of cliffsides made so many areas I had planned out become a lot smaller than I had originally wanted them to be and it made the one thing I was actually excited about with Terraforming feel more like a nightmare.

But it also highlighted for me how much I just don’t enjoy landscaping. I don’t enjoy that part at all. I’m very much a “work with what I have and mold it to what I want” than a “work from scratch” type of person and while I still did that, my favorite parts of customizing still felt empty due to the smaller sizes and certain features not happening after all such as ceiling items and customizing door ways and window styles from Happy Home Designer. Just imagine if you could even decide how Nook’s Cranny and the Able Sisters shops look this time based off certain design elements? I feel like they had everything there, but for whatever reason, chose not to take it.

And I think especially with New Horizons, it often feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Flowers not permanently destroying if you accidentally run through them is great, but now you can’t store them which means you can’t really save any just incase.
Storage limits feel rougher without them upgrading it every single update as they pump in more items. Especially when so many people feel the need to hoard crafting supplies. Honestly, if crafting materials had their own private storage, I would be fine.
Villagers won’t move without your approval, but there’s still no way to just lock one in, the last villager you get can’t move out until another moves in (which may suck if someone gets someone they don’t want), and it takes much longer for them to prompt.
Villagers may ping a bit more often, but you can’t outright ask them if they need anything.
We no longer need to be suggested for special items to be put outside as anything can and the “special” items can be bought through Nook Miles… But colors can vary per island, you can only have one island per Switch, and Online now costs money. The irony that they made it so we can get seasonals through Nook Shopping so everyone can get them somehow (Yet still removed the events which still could’ve been featured regardless) but still added multiple factors that cause problems if you can’t pay for online, including online-exclusive items, is just another awkward change.

We don’t even have as many multiplayer features and in some cases, it feels even more limited because we can’t access our storage or anything while on another Island. We’re still limited to how much we can send and we can’t save as much mail. I guess because there’s no Post Office this time.

And that’s the thing, as much as I can think of that I may enjoy with New Horizons, every single one also comes with a downside– like a catch to that enjoyment. Such as more reactions, but tying them to specific villager types. Or how the posters can’t be cataloged properly unless you scan a villager or bring them in to Photopia which not all Villagers have Amiibo.

Obviously, I still play. The game is important to me and I also feel a real attachment to my villagers, even if they feel a lot emptier this time around. But it sucks feeling like all my favorite things to do are falling apart– keeping up with the catalog sucks this time between some items not showing up and not being told if you already have something like you could be in New Leaf (not to mention keeping track of different colors as well…). I’ve also gone on multiple rants already about how Nook Miles feel more grindy and less rewarding and take away the initial message of the badge earning, so I won’t repeat myself, but it’s sad to see such ridiculous numbers and ways to just make them even more exhausting to do such as how K.K. Slider’s concerts only count once per night in your own town.

And sure, I did play for hours recently with the Sanrio release, but none of it was enjoyable– it was just stressful as I panicked trying to figure out what to do and where. As much as I liked new things when the Welcome Amiibo hit, trying to fit everything sucked and wasn’t a fun time. I really enjoy planning ahead and this type of schedule doesn’t allow me to do that.

In exactly three weeks, it’s supposed to be my big town tour and main dream suite update, but it’s hard to be excited because who knows when something may come out that better fits and I’ll never be at a point where I know it can be done and I can be satisfied with it. I can’t just keep the date the same either due to how they keep adjusting things, including new content that is date specific.

When it comes down to it, at least for me, New Horizons doesn’t feel the same, and going by the name, I’m sure that was part of the point, but that doesn’t make it feel like a proper sequel to the game I loved so much in the first place. I just wanted a fun game where I could customize and hang out with my villagers– not super crafting landscaper with some NPCs that already ran out of all their lines.

It always feels hard to really put it all into words. I still keep hoping it’ll eventually add the things I really hoped to see, but at the same time, the fact that it’s being updated the way it is just really gets me down and it’s something that has caused me to burn out on a lot of games (such as Splatoon) and I’d hate to see it happen here as well.

Finally, if you’re enjoying New Horizons just as much or more than New Leaf or a previous Animal Crossing, that’s great! But the idea that people can’t be upset and complain is ridiculous, especially when a lot of updates just come across as refurbishing content that in other games was there from the start and making decisions that feel a bit stressful (Such as Bunny Day being adjusted for 2021 making it not be accessible in the past) for what they could possibly entail.

And in general, I’d love to actually play the game more. I’d love to help my villagers out and work on more things, but the game won’t let me. I can’t ask for more to do, it just tells me to stop. Until it drops something else and I have to go through a mess all over again.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – The 1.9 update!

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Normally I try to get the posts done same day, and well, I suppose the 18th is the official update date anyway even if it went up the evening of the 17th here, but there was… a lot. Even with the general nervousness over the amount of Sanrio items, especially when people who may be new to the series or never got a chance to get them back in 2016 will still be waiting for over a week to get them, along with the limited amount you can order each day (There’s a total of 80 items if you include the new posters for the Sanrio Villagers so you’re looking at over 2 weeks of ordering just Sanrio stuff to catalog it all at the least), Isabelle dropped a HUGE amount of news on us including brand new seasonal items, some quality of life updates for Patterns/Designing, and adjustments to Bunny Day.

While I found most of the updates interesting, I’m not thrilled about the Nook Points thing. I don’t really like multiple currencies in games to begin with (and New Horizons already has two not counting the Heart Gems during the Wedding Season event), but just the idea of having to constantly to remember to log in to use the Nintendo Switch Online app is frustrating to me (not to mention people who may not have a cell phone or own an older one that can’t run it).

Regardless, the special update item was a really pretty 1st Anniversary Cake. I wonder if they plan to do these each year or not.

While I was more interested in the Sanrio stuff than the Pattern updates, since it was on the way, I made sure to stop by Resident Services first.

It was then off to Harvey’s to invite the Sanrio characters along!

Essentially, the way it works is for each one scanned in, you unlock their respective collaboration items and 2 Posters (A Collaboration Poster and one for the actual Villager– the former was given when you scanned them before they were properly in the game) in the Nook Shopping Special Items section (Posters in the poster section, everything else in Promotional). So if, for example, you only had Rilla for whatever reason, you would only scan in the Hello Kitty items.

Annoyingly, even if you catalog the items, you can’t rebuy them unless you scanned in the Amiibo. You also can’t even get these villagers otherwise– people can’t request them to move in their town. You have to move them in through the campsite yourself. While I can understand them not being randomly around on Nook Miles Islands or being able to just show up randomly as a camper, I find not even letting people help out others is really disheartening.

As it is, with 80 brand new items just from the Sanrio characters, ordering everything for cataloging purposes has been exhausting. Regardless, thanks to friends, I at least managed to get some of the priority ones I really wanted to decorate with.

With items in hand, it was time to start redecorating. I started with the Kitchen– it was a hard choice deciding between the Pudding and new Anniversary Cake, but essentially the other would be placed in the cafe.

I would say of the interior adjustments, the only one I’m not 100% satisfied with is the “backyard” area.

I might switch it back– I haven’t decided yet, but it just frustrates me as if the room was 8×8, I would’ve been able to do what I wanted with no issue and without the weird shifting…

Other changes involved adusting things in the bedroom and basement.

The real highlights though, at least in my opinion, were some of the exterior adjustments. I wasn’t entirely sure how this would come out when I first had the idea with the Kiki & Lala Bed, but it actually came out great and I’m really happy about it.

Next up was the Zen area with a couple of the Kerokerokeroppi items.

The Cafe then got a small upgrade with some of the Cinnamoroll items.

And I also did a couple of adjustments in the market area. I thought the Hello Kitty Topiary would work better here and I decided to finally replace the one egg with a bush because I have a lone egg in the Playground area already anyway.

One thing I was especially happy about was finding a nice place for the Cloud Machine in the end. It ended up being smaller than I though and it was something I really wanted to use.

You may also have noticed my outfit is a bit different in these! I couldn’t help but wear the Kiki & Lala Dress + Shoes for a wile. It doesn’t really beat out the Lace-up dress for me (Though, how can you beat out a dress with both puffed shoulders AND bell sleeves??), but I really love the colors.

I then moved onto some pattern-related changes, now that we have 50 new patterns, the main thing I could do was work on certain other pathing things I wanted to do along with cleaning up borders. Near my house, I added a splash of color and some borders to the Waterfall Shrine area while also adding some borders to the planter section by the terrace.

The Cafe got the biggest makeover with all new patterns. If it was possible to edit patterns or multi-layer them, I think it’d have been cute to add some cherry blossoms in, but I do think it looks really cute as is already too.

The final, and relatively smaller, exterior changes were at the Museum and Secret Beach. While I didn’t think the Stone borders looked great everywhere, I felt they were perfect for the Museum… And I couldn’t help but fill in the last space by the Secret Shore.

This is probably the most I played New Horizons in at least several months– even picking it up again very quickly after putting it down. But I’m not sure how much was me enjoying playing vs. me stressing out trying to keep track of everything. It didn’t help when I had the endless saving bug and had to close out of my game which was incredibly nerve-wracking. Thankfully, everything was fine.

Finally, to touch upon a few other negative aspects, I just kind of want to go back to the time locking debacle. And I feel it’s important to mention this is from someone who doesn’t even time travel, but the whole situation just encourages hacking and also makes people feel behind/locked out among other issues (like people getting items from friends and not realizing they shouldn’t have them yet and then having their Dream Suite reported and just, there’s so many layers due to this stupid slow update system and gating things).

I am really excited for the new Bunny Day items most of all, surprisingly. I think they are all really cute and might even use two of certain items… I just hope we can buy as many as we want each day as there’s 5 new items, but only 8 days of the Event this year… Along with removing access to the event last year. I’m guessing that’s partially due to the change in length causing issues but why not just… have it end sooner? Why have it so it’s gone altogether? I just feels really strange to me. :/ And also kind of worrisome for what could happen for other events in the future.

Most of the new Prom items (essentially anything you can get at Able Sisters) are apparently already available and a friend was kind enough to let me catalog them to have one less thing to worry about. I think my favorite items are the accessories, honestly. The Sash isn’t available yet, but still looks nice, and I think the shoes, masks, crowns, and tiaras are all really cute.

I’m fairly disappointed with the dresses though, to say the least. I like the bubble one and the necklace on the slip one… The problem is that for some reason, sleeves are just a foreign concept I guess. At this point, nearly every new dress that has come out through an event (exceptions are one Halloween dress and the one Easter dress) have been sleeveless and just… if you were making three dresses anyway, why couldn’t at least one have sleeves?? While in New Leaf my issue was the lack of color variations, my issue in New Horizons is the amount of cute dresses that lack sleeves.

Regardless, I am looking forward to the Forsythia and Cool Globe as well, plus some of the Nook Point items (or at least, what I assume will be Nook Point items) seem neat even if I had the entire system.

For now though, it’s back to slowly ordering items to catalog… So many items…

I did update my Dream Suite though, so feel free to come visit!: 2045-8323-2479

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Shamrock Items, Judy’s Birthday, and other various things

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While there’ a lot going on today (March 10th) as well, we still have a lot to talk about leading up to it as well…

With a handful of changes done to fit in the new Mario items, I continued to see how things adjusted, but also work on doing more with the different stages of trees.

With March hitting, we also got a new gift from our in-game Mom– this time some homemade candles. I wish I was as talented as our Mom apparently is. She ended up giving me one of my favorites of the candles too.

As for the Mario items, I did some coin adjustments as planned and I think this looks a lot nicer.

Risha kindly let me stop by her town to pick some flower petals incase of any future flower recipes. Now I have a full stack of nearly every flower.

I also ended up running into Teddy and Diana where they were having a Tongue Teaser Battle which wasn’t an interaction I had run into before. Diana won in the end, but how fast could you say “How many books would Tom Nook cook if Tom Nook cooked his books?” (please don’t cook your books)

Continuing to make other adjustments around the island, I adjusted my garden, moved a pumpkin to Flurry’s house, and continued to accessorize the beach. I also added some trees behind our lovely Dinosaur friend to give it a little more depth.


I had tried to control the balloons in order to get a present in a specific spot, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out to say the least.

This doesn’t count how long I spent making some Jail Bars for the other side of the island with attempt #1…

For one, the Jail Bars don’t actually Filter the Balloons so much as they don’t let them pass. This means that a Balloon could still spawn where a Jail Bar is blocking– just it won’t get past and it’ll bounce lower. It’ll ALWAYS bounce lower so if you want it up at a higher point, you just… won’t get it this way. This doesn’t have any effect on the RNG. Similarly, you can’t have Balloons spawn in the highest or lowest acres so it’s just… super close RNG to pray it somehow spawns right below the line between B and A otherwise all I can do with the Jail cells is bounce it down to the very bottom… which is completely useless for me.

Thankfully, Duck is working on a Cyberpunk town right now so I’m glad the jail bars at least didn’t go to waste.

Interior-wise, I flipped around the screen as it felt more likely you’d be looking at it while in a bathtub taking your bath and maybe relaxing over sitting on the toilet.

Meanwhile, I got things prepared to finally scan in all 461* Amiibo Cards and during my testing, since it was my first time scanning some, I ended up getting a call from Harvey about the posters.


*461 is because there’s 100 cards per series (with four total series thus a total of 400 from the normal sets), 50 Welcome Amiibo RV Cards, the 6 Sanrio RV Cards, and 5 Promo Cards from the original set– the 3 cards from Amiibo Festival plus special ones of Isabelle and K.K. Slider through magazines in Japan.

Finally, March 10th arrived bringing us the new Shamrock items! For one, there’s the lovely Shamrock Soda, a Shamrock Rug, and also a Shamrock Doorplate for your walls or door. There’s also new clothing available through Able Sisters, though, I think I have my own green outfit I like a bit more.

For now, only the Door Plate is sticking around, but can you tell what item is probably my favorite of the new Shamrock Day stuff? :P

Meanwhile, in honor of MAR10 Day, Nintendo updated their official Dream Address once more with some new things set up using the new Mario items. I made sure to dress for the occasion.

Not too much changed since the first time I went besides literally the season and construction area replaced with the Nintendo stuff, but it was still a lot of fun! If you would like to visit, the Dream Address is 6382-1459-4417




It was also Judy’s birthday today!

Finally, going back to the Shamrock stuff, there’s also a new DIY available through Balloons this week (essentially from the 10th through to the 17th): A Shamrock Wand that essentially just looks like a cane.

And that concludes the incredibly busy March so far… And we’re not even halfway. With the Sanrio items coming in less than a week now, I finally managed to get all my Amiibo Cards out from their box (as we’re still moving and rearranging things) which means I can finally scan them all.

(The artwork done for the custom Villager Card (which does work using my personal Villager Amiibo’s data) was done by Inchii Artworks)

While I won’t be making an entry for it (there isn’t much to say), I will update this post when I finish :) And there will be a video up on my Youtube channel! As for the next main post… You won’t have too long to wait– it’ll be after the upcoming update on the 17th!

To end this off though, just one last picture at my second favorite time of day during my favorite hourly music:

If I could somehow mix that sea green sky with the pink goldeness of everything at 5PM/6PM, I think that would perfectly encompass my island.

Edit: As promised, I did finish my Amiibo Card Scanning video! All 461 have officially been scanned:

I never realized how finnicky it could be to scan them all in, but I am happy they are all scanned now. I just hope there may eventually be some cards for the new posters too as not having all of them in the Nook Shopping catalog bugs me even more when I’m just missing those 6 now…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Mario items and Pie!

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March is finally here and with it comes brand new Mario items plus a pie for Pi Day! Thanks to friends in time zones where it hit March 1st sooner though, I got to enjoy those items on the last day of February which meant I could work on setting things up sooner for one, but also maybe help lessen the anxiety where I’ve thought it was Monday for like the last three days.

Peach’s dress is really cute. I don’t think I’ll wear it over my usual attire, but I still like it and I’ll at least be wearing it for a bit later next month…

I do think Peach’s crown looks nicer than how the regular Crown looks this time around. Not super big on the shoes though and it’s kind of sad the sound effect doesn’t happen while getting dressed through the wardrobe, but oh well.

I really can’t say enough how much I wish rooms were bigger. I’d love to display the Pi Day Pie permanently because, well, I love pie, but it just doesn’t feel right being placed in tis specific spot.

The Forgotten Grove pretty much got the biggest upgrade with some of the Mario stuff allowing me to draw together that fantasy-esque secret garden look a bit more.

Of course, I still placed a few other items elsewhere as well.

I might adjust the coin placement a bit more, but I definitely want them over there at the least.

Besides placing things around the island, I also gave Judy a Princess Peach dress. I’ll likely order one more to give to Cookie as well.

Finally, I spent some time over on Harvey’s island. Besides just wanting to play around with the Mario items in his Photopia Studio (unfortunately, the pipe doesn’t seem to work right in the studio), I also wanted to check that I had managed to catalog everything with Leo.

I really can’t say enough how much I hate that the Nook Shopping Special items, outside the daily tab, do not catalog properly. Harvey’s sucks to look through SO MANY items to double check and that paranoia that I missed out on something isn’t fun. Even if we can’t order something anymore, I wish they just showed up with everything else.

As for the Pipe though, I’ve decided to just carry two around so I can make warp points as needed when I’m going to have to quickly go back and forth certain places. I will say the Pipe entering animation is a lot cooler than the exiting. It’s just a bit anti-climactic when you’re leaving the pipe.

Anyway, for now I’m set until Shamrock Day… or well, week I suppose since it starts the 10th even though Shamrock Day is the 17th. Hopefully I’ll have good luck with the balloons… The 17th is going to be pretty hectic as it is.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Hinamatsuri Items and Sanrio’s full return!

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I was originally planning to make this post on Monday (or Sunday night) when the Mario items (and Pi Day Pie) would be available as there wasn’t too much to say regardless of how much as I adore the Hinamatsuri items with the Hinaningyo being my favorite item since the original Animal Crossing and very special to me. I’d really love to own one in real life one day T~T

However, Nintendo ended up dropping quite the announcement today with confirmation that yes, with the Sanrio Amiibo Cards finally releasing in North America and getting a reprint in the UK and Japan, the Sanrio Villagers and items will be returning as a lot of people hope and hypothesized:

On one hand, I’m happy to see them here… On the other hand, I have no idea how and where I’m going to fit things.

I had already spent a lot of time making room for the Hinaningyo in preparation for the Hinamatsuri items. Like I re-arranged the bedroom so many times:

While waiting for the update to hit, I did a few adjustments in other parts of the island as well.

I’m still not entirely sure if the Festivale Balloon Lamps will stay there or not, but I haven’t found anywhere better yet…

I also finally managed to finish Wisp’s Nook Miles Stamp. This was the last more RNG-related one so it’s nice to have finished it.

Then the update was here and while I waited for online to come back up, I tested out the Mushroom Mural in my “yard” area. It’s cute, but not something I’ll end up using at any point.

And finally, when online hit, thanks to so many great friends from other time zones who sent one over, my favorite item was back:

For those who are unaware of why I like the Hinaningyo so much, besides that it’s really pretty, it’s one of the items I was most fascinated with in the original Animal Crossing game and is actually the item that got me interested in Japanese culture and learning so much about all the various festivals and holidays, among other things. While I’ve always wanted to travel and learn languages and try different foods, it’s the item that really made me become interested in the cultural part as well. I’d love to own one in real life one day.

Continuing along, the other Hinamatsuri item was the Blossom Lanterns which I ended up setting up in various places near my Zen area.

I did experiment with other areas too along with considering switching certain things out, but it just didn’t work as well as what I was already doing.

And then with it officially turning over to the 25th, Spring arrived as well.

But like I said, just as I thought maybe I’d have a bit before the craziness of March, the Sanrio trailer hit and I’ve been essentially scrambling since. Besides just wondering where I’m going to fit things I really want to use, I also find myself wondering how it’s all going to work. Will the items be available for everyone as soon as the update hits March 17th/18th*? How will you even GET the items? Will they just be part of your catalog for scanning a specific Amiibo or part of the promotions section of Nook Shopping? Do you need to scan each one for all the items? Will each villager give two posters now or just the Sanrio Collaboration ones and not actually have their own special poster? Or will their posters overwrite the old ones? Can you tell I’m getting way too anxious over this?

*I feel it’s important to note that the update is a little over a week before the reprints of the cards actually release. Or maybe that’s just the USA’s release date. I actually own the cards from the original UK release so I really want to get my Amiibo Cards back out before all this :( Stupid moving… Though, I do hope to get a North American set from Target just to match my other cards. I really hate exclusives though, especially in the time of the pandemic and tons of scalpers.

Despite my numerous concerns and questions, I did start preparing ahead such as moving things around to fit the Tranquil Bridge in the Zen Garden:

I’m hoping to fit the Stone Lantern somewhere here too…

I also moved some things around at the Cafe for some of the Cinnamoroll items.

There’s so many other items I want to fit in (and a few Mario stuff as well), but most of it will have to wait until they arrive or are just full switching out.

I think the one thing that I found frustrating though is a lot of my ideas for the interior would be fine if all rooms were at least 8×8… But they’re not. I’d like to think the My Melody Chair would’ve been really cute on the other side of the porch if I had the room…:

Despite the construction though, I did update my Dream Suite today! So feel free to check it out: DA-2045-8323-2479

In the meantime, I just really hope I can manage to fit everything I’m hoping to… But please Nintendo give us those house expansions… T__T