Animal Crossing: New Horizons – The final Stretches

In a way, this will probably be my last entry about “regular Island” stuff– everything in the future will focus almost entirely on Happy Home Paradise. Yesterday, I finally managed to hit 50 total Group Stretching sessions. It could’ve been done in 2 months, but as most people who follow me know: I really struggle with repetitive tasks, especially if they’re time-gated. On some days, maybe I could have done 50 in a row (and if you saw my Youtube video, you’ll see I was ready to do that before realizing it only counted once per day as the Nook Miles restrictions continue to frustrate me), but doing one each day for 50 days was just exhausting so I just… did them when I felt up to it or could remember. I don’t like changing the time so time traveling wasn’t an option for me to get it done faster.

It was… a very long journey just for these lines of dialogue that got blocked by a fishing tent and a bunch of reactions I’ll never actually use.

One thing you may also notice though is I didn’t make an “all reactions” video and that’s because I’m still missing some and, due to how the game decided to do reactions this time around, that is something that won’t change. There will be no more updates. Dr. Shrunk never came back (nor did the Shrunk Shuffle despite being in the game files) and so I am permanently missing 6 reactions– the Best Friend ones from Lazy and Smug villagers and all four from Cranky Villagers. I got my dream villagers very quickly and have no regrets on getting them. I’m just annoyed that one Villager exclusivity thing got turned into two this time around– at least you could get DIYs from other players, but there’s no reason the reactions should have been done this way.

It genuinely makes me really sad how much New Horizons has really pulled me down and just… killed a lot of what AC did for me. I know not everyone feels the same way (especially those who enjoy farming and/or crafting), but I don’t know if I’d pick up another Animal Crossing game if a lot of these features stuck around and that makes me really sad. The game is important to me for so many reasons and is one of my favorite series so to have New Horizons leave me feeling so defeated kills me. I know I’m not entirely alone, despite being in the vocal minority, as I have seen others bring up my issues as well. I think I would’ve minded Terraforming less if it had some similarities to how adjusting the scenery in Pocket Camp worked where you could pick the grass color and certain elements for the sky and have certain things in the backdrop. I did like being able to adjust certain things a bit, but honestly it made me sad seeing people completely flattening their islands. I’ve never been super big on using patterns for everything either– I really like using a lot of the main game’s stuff and New Horizons just feels more catered to those who do go all out on that kind of thing. Regardless, I think most people have agreed the game was missing a lot of Quality of Life features. And so many good Happy Home Designer features were excluded, even with Happy Home Paradise’s arrival.

There’s very few things I’d like to see come over from New Horizons– off the top of my head, Villagers not being able to leave without confirmation (though, I’d still prefer a lock-in feature– I was always worried to talk to them if they were thinking due to fearing I’d accidentally pick the wrong choice), new items and having more colors (I don’t think they were good enough to replace all the old items, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t like them), everything about the Museum, Harvey’s island and everything on it, all the decorating options from Happy Home Paradise (including decorating Villagers’ houses), and the new villagers (No villagers should be left behind. I still hope one day all old ones can return). For the most part, that may be it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I am missing a few things.

Regardless, with no more updates planned, it was time for the final town tour. I still hate that evening is later in this game so I can’t have the perfect scenic lighting while night stuff is also lit up. Not too much has changed since my original town tour so photo-wise, I’ll just be focusing on some of what is different… For some things, it was just a few adjustments, while others got bigger make-overs.




But you can watch the whole tour here:

My Dream Address: DA-2045-8323-2479

Obviously, it never really came to fruition like I would’ve liked it to, but I’d be lying if I said I was surprised. Ignoring having to work with smaller rooms (I really needed at least 8 minimum per side), it was really important to me to keep my island very similar to how it was initially. I never wanted to feel like I was actually tearing something down– just transplanting something in a different location.

You can pretty much just compare my map from Day 1 to now. It felt kind of silly to just… tear everything down and so I did my best to avoid that. Honestly, there’s probably even more I would’ve kept the same if it wasn’t for the whole… waterfall tiers and other pickiness of how close certain things could be to other things (Like trees by water).

Hopefully I’ll have another burst of creativity soon for Happy Home Paradise. Still wish they could give us actual themes for the Special Villagers though. I don’t like coming up with things without any prompts.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Final Plans and more Happy Home Paradise

I think at this point, my general discouragement with New Horizons is pretty par for the course and even the few good things couldn’t counterbalance where the game fell flat. Obviously, this isn’t the case for everyone– for a lot of people, this game became a big deal either due to its timely release (though, personally, I still would’ve rather seen it come out with many of the things we got over time at the start) or due to being the type of person who often changes up their island and really uses those extra creativity assets like with design patterns and optical illusions.

For me, I just wanted New Leaf with certain things fixed (like the moving mechanic, one of the things I do think New Horizons did properly) and the best of all the games up to that point, including Happy Home Designer. I wanted the “deluxe” version of Animal Crossing and New Horizons felt like a downgrade for me in many of those things to insert features I never wanted. It’s weird to play and not feel the usual accomplishment I do normally from the game. It’s crazy to think my island is essentially 2 years old now today.

Regardless, I still had things I wanted to get done before my final town tour now that there are no more updates. The biggest is me slowly going through the Group Stretching. I had hoped to do 50 in one go, but it wasn’t possible. I’m at 35? right now so I still have to try and do it for 15 more days. I hope to at least finish before April 10th which will be my next island tour. I wish the game could be set separately from the system as I’d probably keep it as that date for various reasons.

One thing I hope to keep doing though is Happy Home Paradise homes. I’d like to complete my unfinished Happy Home Designer goal of making every character a Vacation Home so fingers crossed.

Before we get to some houses I did today though, I want to talk about things up to this point. As mentioned, I have been working on the group stretching… a lot. I had already cataloged the items from someone, but I suppose it’s still nice to earn them.



I also made sure to pop on for Valentine’s Day and was happy to see Brewster’s Hot Chocolate tradition continue. I wish it was an option all year, or at least tea, as I don’t drink coffee.

While I still haven’t visited too many islands through Dreams, I did make an exception to visit Omnipod Bay (Dream Address: DA-9645-5879-6910). I just find it really neat when an island is made to help spread awareness and I couldn’t help but check it out.




The only other thing I’ve done is just… work on the group stretching, but as mentioned, I finally felt like working on some Happy Home Paradise stuff again. I had felt pretty uncreative lately, but it was nice to have some spark again. Part of me almost wants to play more as well, but ignoring that I still have stuff to do in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, I’m still not at 100% right now.

Marshal – Retro Cafe Cabin

This one actually came out better than I expected. I’m pretty proud of it.

Simon – Cool Car Lot

Space issues made this not work out as well as I had wanted it to. I’m also kind of annoyed that the Parking lot flooring didn’t actually line up with any of the cars…

Samson – A Treasure-Packed Gym

I feel like what the “theme” was and what was actually available to use were kind of two different things– it seems he wanted to work out while adventuring based off the items included, but it didn’t fully match his description. I really had no clue what to do outside based on what was given, but I had a lot of fun inside. I actually would’ve liked to make it more of a maze, but… space limits.

Coach – Track-Meet Training Grounds

This will look odd offhand, but on the beach, he said how he wanted to push a big ball around and I immediately thought of things like the Fall Guys minigame and so it’s a obstacle course they need to push a ball through the fastest.

After this, I got a surprise– I had finished 50 houses.

Regardless, I still felt like doing a bit more.

Keaton – My Beachside Cafe

I was pretty excited initially, but I think it ended up similar to another design of mine…

Elise – Spectacle Collector’s Home

There’s always some odder requests… If it wasn’t for how glasses get displayed, a walk-in closet-esque thing instead could have been neat.

After finishing Elise’s house, I received another surprise: A new Designer rank which I didn’t realize there were more of… Apparently, there are still two more, though, I wouldn’t mind not getting the last one. The name is pretty silly.

But that wasn’t all, apparently there was something else for me to make. A Gallery for the Cafe that would exist on the second floor.

I also got more options for the work uniform including finally getting my regular white tights.

Cafe Gallery

One thing that really frustrated me with this is that there was no actual theme or recommended items (everything was just usual cafe stuff)– in the end, I did my best to make some weird… artsy garden thing, but I really prefer having some kind of direction, otherwise I generally just feel overwhelmed and uninspired (thus why terraforming ended up doing more harm than good for me). Regardless, i did actually end up being kind of happy with this, though, I forgot to put up any actual paintings…

You may also notice Cookie is the waitress instead of Merengue. This is because today is Merengue’s birthday so she wasn’t there today.

There’s apparently an upstairs you can unlock for the Restaurant too, but you need to do more roommates, so I’ll probably never unlock it, unfortunately. As mentioned above, I like to work fully with a direction– I want a theme and I want to be told what to do. I can make something out of the items given to me, but if you start me with nothing, I’m essentially paralyzed. It’s also why I hate that we’re always asked one floor or two. I’d rather the Villager just pick and let me know, otherwise 90% of the time, the second floor will just be a generic bedroom or something. But for that reason, I’ll never pick to roommate villagers myself. I honestly am not that fond of it (I don’t like that one theme gets kind of kicked to the curb) and unless it forces a certain pair together (which I’d prefer), I just worry about not managing to match things up okay.

Roswell – My Mystery Workshop

I was actually kind of excited for this one, but I don’t feel like I pulled off the interior as much as I wanted to.

Queenie – Contrast Courtyard

There’s honestly more I would have liked to do with this, but the inability to put flooring outside (My patterns are full and honestly, I prefer to not use patterns at all with house designs) combined with only being able to have one Accent Wall kind of compromised the design a bit.

And that was all the houses this time. It was a nearly 5 hour stream ^^; So thank you to everyone who watched. It should be up on Youtube soon.

My Fluffy Life: An Overview, some small notes, and a few tips

My Fluffy Life released several months ago now, but I often see a lot of the same questions popping up. So, I figured I’d give a little summary of information while also hopefully giving some helpful answers too. My Fluffy Life is very cute and overall, very simplistic, but there’s a lot beneath the surface and it’s so easy to miss out on things due to that.

The game can be played across multiple services, using an account system so you can log in through Steam, a Mobile device, and eventually even in Browser. That said, if you have it on a Mobile Device or Steam, you will need to buy it again.

If I had to describe the game simply, think old Virtual World meets Scrapbooking. While there are other players around you, you can’t actually interact with them nor are they necessarily there in real time. The main way you can communicate to other players is through the Bulletin Board and through Letters. Regardless, I’m getting a little ahead of myself so let’s start from the beginning.


My Fluffy Life starts with letting you make a cute little plush character. You’ve just moved into Cotton-Floof. You get a house, you meet some new shopkeepers, and each day you can roam around and click things to build up Happiness. The various things you can click in the scenery can give you 1, 2, or 3 points depending on how happy it may make your MFL character. Generally, the less often you may see something, the more points it gives, but I have had some things give me different points. You can also earn extra points by interacting with a plant in your window once you’ve bought one before going out and if it’s raining, you will get extra points if you rent an umbrella from Nina. That said, you use up energy every time you click something– if you run out of energy, you can either eat food or go to sleep until the next day. Happiness can also be earned by playing minigames (both actual minigames and ones where you fill orders). Every 20 Happiness can turn into 1 Teddy Coin, the main currency in the game.

Happiness can be turned into Teddy Coins by clicking the Computer and hitting the arrow below your Happiness and Teddy Coin amounts. It’ll automatically turn all possible Happiness into Teddy Coins. That said, with Happiness recently becoming a currency on its own, I hope eventually it may be a manual option. There is currently one limited store that exclusively uses Happiness for the items and it seems this may happen again in the future so I’d personally recommend spending the Happiness you want before turning it into Teddy Coins as it doesn’t seem that Teddy Coin items will be going away at this time. Even new items that were added to the usual stores for the Holidays stuck around.

There have been limited currencies for Halloween (Tickets) and Valentine’s Day (Love) as well. This will likely continue for future events, but I kind of hope there will still be a Teddy Coin option (or even the option to exchange Teddy Coins for an event currency).

The Stores and NPCs

You initially only start with 3 Stores. The first is Muffin’s store, Baked with Love, sells baked goods. Eating them will let you recover energy if you would like to keep clicking around for Happiness over playing a minigame. That said, the game works on its own time– you can play through as many days as you would like each day. The main reason for keeping the day the same is if you have a lot of good bonuses (IE: It’s raining and there’s 3 happiness per click spots) or maybe want to make sure you buy some things that need to be delivered tomorrow before, well, going to tomorrow. Everything else can be done even if you have no energy. Energy will also go down over time, though, slower than if you’re clicking for Happiness.

Second is Pupu’s store, Pupu Stationery, where you can buy stationery for using in your letters and Scrap Book. Even if you are not much of a writer or scrapbooker, you’ll likely want to consider some of Pupu’s items for some of the NPC Quests (which I’ll talk about later).

The last store, which will have two spots before it for the other shops you can unlock, is Flora’s shop: Delicate Breeze. This is the furniture store. Besides furniture, you can also buy Tea to recover energy as well. Essentially, this store is also where you can decorate your Fluffy’s home. After buying an item, it’ll generally be equipped automatically so if you want to switch to something else, you need to click it again so there will be a pink border around it.

At the moment, your house can contain: 1 Fireplace, 1 Bed, 1 set of Lights, 1 Desk and Chair set, 1 Table and Chair set, 1 Window, 1 Back Wallpaper, 1 side wall color, 1 Door, 1 rug, 1 set of Curtains, and 1 Plant. You can mix and match among any of those selections, but only one pick one of each “type”. The Plants are not sold by Flora. And don’t worry, you do have some starter furniture initially.

As for the stores you can unlock… On the 12th day, you will unlock Fay’s shop, Fairy Gardening. She sells the Plants that you can have in your house. As mentioned above, you can only have one plant on Display at a time. Interacting with the Plant before going out each day (So if you sleep, you do need to interact with it again) will give you bonus happiness when clicking.

On the 23rd day, you’ll unlock Bibu’s shop, Warm Hug. He sells Clothing plus Cookies you can eat for energy.

There are also two other NPCs– Tuffy and Nina who are siblings. Tuffy will deliver your mail. If you buy anything from the stores on the computer or use a code you got from a friend or NPC, he’ll deliver the items the next day. He’ll also deliver the stationery that is marked on the calendar.

Nina shows up whenever it’s raining, and you can rent an umbrella from her. You do need to rent the umbrella every time it rains (after all, you are just renting it! Don’t worry, it automatically returns itself), but it does give you bonus points if you have one. The Rain itself does not– it’s just the rented umbrella.

Besides the NPC stores, there’s also stores you can access through the Computer in your Fluffy’s house. Stuffie Self essentially allows you to buy things to change your Stuffie’s physical appearance. Maybe you’d rather be a cat or bunny or puppy instead or want a different expression– simply buy a Sewing Kit and whichever option you want and then use them from your inventory after they’re delivered.

Rollcake Store is another clothing store and your primary option before Bibu opens up Warm Hug about 3 weeks later in-game. Of course, you can still get items from the NPCs during this time.

The final store right now is the Happy Baby Store, a limited time clothing store, where all the items cost Happiness instead of Teddy Coins. It hasn’t been said when this store will leave, nor do I know how often another store will show up, but at the time of writing this (the last day of February), it’s still here!

Finally, I want to note that not every food item gives the same energy so don’t just buy any food item you want. Bibu’s cookies cost 50 Teddy Coins, but actually only give 10 Energy. Meanwhile, Flora’s Tea costs 20 Teddy Coins and lets you recover 20 Energy. All of Muffin’s food also have the 1:1 rate that Flora’s Tea has so I’d purchase from her or Flora depending on how much energy you’d like to recover.

Quests and Codes

As I mentioned earlier… There are NPC Quests, but not the way you’d usually expect to get them. To get these, you need to add each of the NPCs to your friend’s list– Muffin, Pupu, Flora, Fay, Bibu, Tuffy, and Nina… and then send them a letter. Tell them Hi, introduce yourself, you don’t have to be super overly personal– just friendly. That said, do not spam them— they will not be happy with that. A response can take a couple of days. The process is not fully automatic yet, but when you do get a response, they may ask you some questions or for your help with something or for… inspiration like, “I want to see some pink things” or “I would like to see things with wings” or “I want to see some flowers”– while some stuff you can just write an answer to, most of the requests require you to either add in a picture you took and/or use some of the stationery you bought from Pupu. Keep in mind that each photo you take costs 10 Teddy Coins.

There are only so quests right now, but as you complete them and become closer friends, they will also give you codes for special items. These codes can be redeemed through the Teddy Bank on the computer. You cannot get these items any other way. My usual outfit is actually made up of gifts from the NPCs. They’ve honestly given me some of my favorite items in the game.

I try to still write every so often in case there’s anything new. Sometimes they’ll even give you some sneak peaks on what’s to come as well.

Besides getting codes from NPCs though, you can also get them from other players or make some yourself. Essentially, if you click the little heart in the bottom right corner of your inventory (the little bag under the camera), you can pick an amount to “donate” which will give you a code that someone can then redeem to get access to those items. You can also gift Teddy Coins by clicking the heart under the amount in the Teddy Bank.

Here are some codes I’ve put together as an example– some are stationery, but some are Teddy Coins! If you use one, please be sure to comment and say which you used.

FUKZN6
6WVXXE
UGJT7K
9AZXBJ
PX6W2L
All 5 have now been taken!!

You can often find people sharing stuff on the Bulletin Board :) If you take one from there, don’t forget to send a message saying Thank you.

Events, Seasons, and Stuffies

At this point in time, My Fluffy Life has had three events: Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day– the latter of which is happening right now, but is supposed to end tomorrow.

Halloween was the very first event. It brought Fall along with it and also unlocked the way to Gentle Hills which you could get to by clicking the path to the left of the sign. The event was more or less entirely held there, but you could get candy from all the NPCs once per in-game day the first time you clicked them each day. There was also a present in Gentle Hills that you could click to get a Dress and a Candle.

The main part of the event required you to play minigames to earn Tickets. There were 3 games: Angel Bunny which was essentially like Flappy Bird, the Pumpkin Patch which required you to pick all the Pumpkins that weren’t bruised, and Baby Teddy where you had to watch Baby Teddy and click them everytime they showed up so they wouldn’t jump-scare you gently.

Tickets were generated based off which game and how long you managed to last. There were 7 Outfits, 5 Accessories, and 4 Stuffies.

There was also a Gachapon Machine you could use for 1 Teddy Coin which would either give you one of 9 exclusive Stationery or Candy which you could eat for energy.

The Candy unfortunately didn’t stick around, but the stationery did… Though, of course, as one gets used each time you use them, you can eventually run out.

When Halloween left, the Fall season stuck around keeping the Pumpkin Picking game, but also bringing in an Apple Picking game and letting you harvest Honey and make Jars of Honey and Jams to fill orders for more Teddy Coins. There was also a fundraising thing set up for raising funds to get sweaters for the Christmas Event.

The Christmas Event brought in Winter and several new things. It also took place in Gentle Hills. The main part of the Christmas Event that is no longer around is the big Tree where you could write wishes and put gifts for others to grab (you could grab one an in-game day).

Like Halloween, there was also a gachapon with 9 stationery items.

There was also a giftbox with a Santa Hat you were given when clicking it. Everything else introduced in the event stuck around after Christmas left. Due to the fundraiser being successful, you were able to get one Sweater a Day (in-game) for free clicking the box. There were 9 total to get– which one you got each day was random.

A Stuffie Workshop was set up for you to fill orders for requested Stuffies. For every 50 orders you filled, you could then pick one you made to take back with you. I made… a lot.

There was also a Cookie Making workshop to earn teddy coins. You got a free apron the first time you helped out.

As mentioned, the free sweaters and both workshops are all still around, but I’m guessing they will leave when Winter ends. One new minigame was also added after Christmas ended– a sledding minigame to help earn more happiness.

Finally, Valentine’s Day added a booth in Gentle Hills where you could make Valentine’s for friends and buy special stationery (there are 9 different ones). Depending on which type of chocolate you attach to the gift will determine how much Love the person receives to spend on items. The Chocolate Lollipops gave 100 Love, the Chocolate Strawberries gave 500 Love, and the box of Chocolates gave 1,000 Love.

You could then spend the Love on up to 12 exclusive items. You need 8,000 Love to buy one of everything. You could send friends as many Valentine’s as you like though so if you wanted to send the same person like… 20 Valentine’s, the only thing that can stop you is if you run out of Teddy Coins.

And that sums up the events so far!

So, Stuffies. As mentioned, you could get 4 from the Halloween Event. Besides those, there’s obviously the Stuffie Workshop ones which have a lot of combinations– you have 3 types to choose from, 5 colors for each (their default + 4 patterns), 4 bows to choose from, and 3 outfits. Even the face is optional.

Finally, there’s Shy Bunny Plushies— these are gotten by actually making your own custom one from the store and ordering it. You will then receive a code you can put in on the website to get your Stuffie in the game along with 2 infinite stationery items of your Stuffie. There are currently 11 different species you can pick from and regardless of what kind you get (IE: A full plushie, a pin, a keychain, etc.), it’ll be a full regular Stuffie in-game. Besides the species, you can pick one of three arm positions and various accessory options. I hope to get one of each one day.

Closing Thoughts and other tidbits

I feel like I covered a lot of the general gist of everything and summed stuff up, so just some kind of final things. For one, you do get a cute profile page. You can also change your Fluffy’s name here at any time.

The Scrap Book seems to have infinite pages. I usually use it to make notes on what items seem to give 3 points and also for saving cute stationery and photos.

If you really want to rush through the day, but don’t feel like clicking everything to get your energy down, you can just leave the game up in the background while you do other things. Energy will still go down over time. I personally like to have my energy empty before I stop playing just in case something gets added where it’d be better if I slept until the next day (or like, new items added to one of the stores where I’d have to wait until the next in-game day for them to be delivered).

Finally, remember to be kind! A lot of people are just looking for something cute and calming.

My problem with Digital Kickstarter Exclusives for Games

Before I begin, I want to reiterate what I said in the title– this has nothing to do with most physical merchandise. While it can be a bit frustrating, obviously sometimes you can only afford so much– that’s the entire point of having the thing on Kickstarter in the first place. I will admit I do have mixed feelings on exclusive physical stuff tied specifically to how many other things you buy (IE: You can only get this item if you bought at least 3 or 5 or 10 other things), but that’s genuinely not the focus of this post. This also isn’t about obvious limited stuff like “design a character!”– this is specifically about the generally presumed inconsequential– things relating to customization or getting things a little bit earlier. Things that, to be blunt, could just be paid DLC.

And that’s kind of my issue. I’ve seen too many games go up on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other similar sites where there will be some kind of “Digital Deluxe” tier that includes things like a special outfit or skin and a special pet and a special hat. Some of these tiers aren’t too much higher than the game itself– maybe $10 more. Others pack in so much stuff, you may be looking at $100-$200 to get everything.

You may be thinking, why would it even cost that much? Generally, it’s because tons of other things are packed in– think of how a lot of Mobile Games will have some kind of special item pack– the item is maybe worth $5-$10, but the pack itself is $30-$50 because of premium currency and other random boosts and things. While these generally are more substantial, including things like a soundtrack, artbook, Beta access, and/or possibly even a whole other copy of the game. And the thing is, outside of maybe Beta access: Most of those will not be exclusive to the Kickstarter. Maybe physical versions of the soundtrack/artbook, but again, this has nothing to do with physical stuff– it’s simply those digital vanity items. That said, I have absolutely seen some where they gave options for you to add on the items yet priced some of them at $20-$50.

I think what blows my mind especially with how common this has become at this point is a lot of the time it’s for more down to Earth, play how you’d like, simulator or casual games where they advertise fun customization and cute pets and then lock some of them behind a limited time paywall. Even worse, sometimes there may be a cheaper tier with everything… that is then limited in number.

And I don’t know, when I play fun casual simulation-based games, wearing my favorite items and collecting lots of cute things (especially pets) and being able to place all the furniture are some of my absolute favorite parts of playing a game.

I don’t mind if they want to give Backers a discount– like “Oh, you can get these now as part of your pledge if you pledge for the game” and then just… let people buy them later (and I say this as someone who has pledged for these things previously, but I know friends who have skipped a game because something they really liked was exclusive to a Kickstarter). I feel like if someone wants to back, they are going to regardless of those limited items… And if they want those, I think they’d still be happy with them discounted?

The last Kickstarter I pledged with Kickstarter exclusive digital items, I actually couldn’t afford to pledge for both the game and special items so I ended up just getting the special items. I figured I could try and get the game eventually, but since these won’t come back and it would take away some of my enjoyment of the game otherwise, I should buy the exclusives instead. And that was when I decided I wouldn’t pledge to Kickstarters with exclusives anymore. It actually really stinks too because there’s games I had been following and looking forward to so much and then see some huge price to get some items that you can only get there.

Do I necessarily want all the items? No. Well, unless it’s pets or pink and princess-y, but generally, I actually do not necessarily want most of the items. I just… do not like the principle of it. I think it’s unneeded. I think it’s completely possible to make it a DLC thing. I think it leaves people out for no reason when there’s plenty of other ways for people who pledged to show they have done so (like… having your name in the credits). But most of all, I just find it baffling that this is such a thing in largely single player games. Like do you really care if someone who only found out about the game after it released paid for a DLC pack to get something that came in the tier you pledged for? To be honest, whether a single player game or not, with customization (or vanity things in general– whether just a silly emote, a hat, a pet, or a chair), I always feel more options are better so it’s just a shame that now it’s almost routine to see a set of items get stuck behind a limited one-month Kickstarter wall.

It just makes me sad to think someone maybe finds out about the game late or just couldn’t afford to pledge right then and there and misses out on something that really shouldn’t need to be exclusive.

The Foraging Frustration

Something I get asked every so often is why I play so many games that feature foraging and/or farming/gardening if they’re both features that I find really tiring. Crafting can also come up sometimes with this, but not as often and is usually more expected with the general issue of limited inventory spaces while needing to constantly hoard up things, but even Crafting cripes kind of boil back down to those same two subjects: Foraging and Farming.

Before I get into it, I want to state that these are absolutely my personal struggle with them, and I know is not an issue most people have (or there’d probably be less simulation games that include them). It’s also very likely that others who also don’t care much for these systems may not have the exact same reasons as to why and that’s fine! This is just me talking about it.

So, to answer the initial question: The reason I keep playing them is because of pretty much everything else. I love collecting things, I love decorating my house, I love talking to the characters in-game and making friends, I love customizing my character, I love designing in general. I also love doing quests and helping out the characters. There’s so much I really enjoy that I try to deal with the grind despite how much it drives me nuts.

As for what I dislike, mainly I really struggle with doing the same tasks over and over. Even with my love of quests, doing repeatable quests (especially if I have to do the same one daily) is exhausting for me. After a while, it almost feels like a constant state of deja-vu and even doing it just once suddenly feels like doing it 10+ times. I’m not always up to doing dailies in general, but when it adds on that feeling, it becomes even worse. It’s also part of why I wish things didn’t have as many limits because sometimes, I do have that moment where I can just… stomp on through 50+ of the same quest and hit that goal I need to (Using New Leaf as an example, I listed to K.K. songs 100 times in a row for that badge versus New Horizons that decided that no, it only counts once a week so have fun doing this every week for 2 years).

Foraging especially, while relatively simplistic, I find almost mind-numbing. I know some people find it relaxing, but I just… at best, I’m just bored, at worst, I’m losing my mind. Especially if I can’t keep track of where I’m even going. My mind is always going and when it comes to things that are just… collecting up stuff for no reason and just because, my mind is just going to wander in the worst places because it has nothing else to focus on.

With farming, it’s essentially foraging with extra steps and a time gate on top of it and so it’s just… multiple stages of boring for me. And I’m sure a lot of people reading this will just not be able to wrap their head around it and to be honest, I feel the same way about people who love these features! I think if they have more of a purpose, like… getting one of each to complete a Research Book or a Museum or something can be fun, but when just collecting to level up or to hoard materials for some kind of crafting/upgrade system, it just feels so incredibly exhausting. Like I’m just walking in circles endlessly. Especially if there’s inventory/storage limits.

Obviously, there’s no real option to such a thing, a lot of the times it’s more a core mechanic than I make it (as every Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game, I suddenly exclusively have a Dairy farm), but it’s definitely a system I struggle with in every single game and especially when I’m not feeling well, it feels even harder to do.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus – Thoughts so far

While I haven’t gotten to play it as much as I’d like (being sick sucks) and thus, there’s a good chance some of what I end up saying here may change, I’ve been really enjoying the game. For reference, I’m just about to hit the Kleaver fight and have played for roughly 7-8 hours so far.

While I was worried for a similar issue like what I had with Pokemon: Let’s Go, I haven’t run into as much of the same problem. Maybe because I can quickly find resources to make more Pokeballs AND also immediately make those Pokeballs. Maybe I’ll feel a little more stressed about when I need better balls (which honestly, I probably already do), but for now, it’s not bothering me to be trying to catch so many.

I think what also helps is that I have a constant counter for how many I need, there’s no “catch streak” requirement just to get certain Pokemon to even spawn which you would then need to needlessly repeat, most Pokemon can be found in decent batches so you can try and get a bunch to knock it out at once, and there’s multiple different ways to try and get that Pokedex report done.

I will say most of my complaints come from being the only person who plays Pokemon and hates the battle system. I really do not like the whole “hey, some Pokemon will just aggro you and start chasing you down”. I could maybe stand the Alphas in the sense of them being mini bosses (though I still wouldn’t like it), but otherwise it gets very… tiring. Sure, I could just turn around and fight it, but ignoring the chance of another Pokemon sneaking up behind me to also try and kill me (while you likely will not die, the game repeatedly brings up that you could), I just… don’t want to. When there’s so many other neat ways to get “Pokedex data”, the battle mechanic is especially boring to me.

But what makes it even worse for me is battles feel slower in this game. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I find moves feel weaker, that super effective doesn’t always feel that way, the whole “sometimes a Pokemon can move twice in a row” gets really annoying especially if ganged up on by multiple Pokemon, and I just… find them extra stressful? Every single move feels weightier and while some people enjoy that, I liked being able to get those battles out quickly with one proper attack.

Trainer Battles are generally simpler, with most trainers having small Teams, if more than one Pokemon. At the very least, it means I can explore without worrying about my eyes getting locked with a trainer ready to try to destroy me versus just running for my life from whichever Pokemon saw me instead.

I will say that leveling also feels slower and I’m not entirely sure why or know if that’s truly accurate– it’s possible it’s not that I’m leveling slower so much as it feels like I’m just not able to do as much, or in a sense: I still feel really weak despite their levels which partially goes back to what I said about Battles feeling slower.

Unsurprisingly, I’m still not fond of crafting, though, I feel like this game has annoyed me less with it than most others. My only complaint is still having a bag limit. The increments are by one slot, consistently get more expensive, and I do believe there is STILL a limit. Yes, you have storage, and yes, you can fast travel to it, but if you’re me, that doesn’t mean you’ll find your way back to where you were that you suddenly needed more room anytime soon. It’d be nice if it was possible to do a temporary warp spot. Maybe it’ll feel a little less frustrating when I unlock the ability to have helpful traversal Pokemon though.

I also find it interesting that we finally have various different sized Pokemon in a game besides Pokemon GO and Pumpkaboo’s existence, but with the focus on Alpha Pokemon (which are huge) and how they may even have special moves, I feel like smaller sizes don’t get as much opportunity to shine.

Regardless, the game actually has a lot of neat quality of life features from the quick warping from the get-go, easily being able to swap Pokemon, having Pokemon just… be able to grab berries/materials for you by just tossing them at it, a decent aiming system (though, I still manage to miss a bit too often), the ability to choose if you want a Pokemon to evolve manually, being able to just… have your Pokemon learn and replace moves whenever you want without any TMs, and even an item that lets you evolve Pokemon that require trading if you don’t have anyone to tradeback with. A lot of these things I do hope to see make their way into a future game series.

I will say where the game is kind of lacking for me though is customization– I think they wanted to try and tie in stuff appropriate to the time period and culture which is fine, but I wish things still weren’t gendered. Besides hairstyles, certain clothing looks different as well, and I much prefer how the “fancy” pants look on the boys than the girls. I also wish there were more color options– we already see them be a bit more unique with some of the Fancy outfits or patterns so I kind of wish there were in general.
I also continue to wish that they would consider letting us pick hair and eye color separate from skin color. It’s kind of immersion breaking for me when I know I’ll be changing my hair color and eye color as soon as possible to see a different one in these initial cutscenes. The character on the ID also doesn’t change which makes me sad. I’m hoping our character’s changed appearance will stick, but part of me figures it’ll reset somehow anyway.

Finally, I find it very odd that you can’t remove the headscarf on the only ponytail style that girls have? I like it enough that I’ll stick with it if I need to, but it feels odd to force especially when no other hairstyle has it.

Anyway, despite my reservations and struggles, I’m actually really excited to see what’s next in the game. Also, the Midnight Music has to be easily one of my all-time favorite tracks in a Pokemon game at this point. It really feels magical in a way I can’t fully put into words.

Cats vs Pickles – Kittens vs Gherkins?

With Toy Fair 2022’s cancellation here in New York, Cats vs Pickles did a special Zoom meeting in their official Facebook Group to show some of the things that would’ve been shown during Toy Fair and also were currently being shown in the London Toy Fair.

Firstly, there was the Gold Wave. I had seen some press articles talking about it so that was one of the things I expected. What I did not expect was the sheer amount. Gold Wave will apparently incorporate 156 Beans and 60 Chonks (Purple Wave, for Reference, has 72 Beans and 24 Chonks so this is more than twice as much). The Magenta Wave, which is already in the works, will also be just as many and I just find that… insane. And also hope I don’t want toooo many because space and budget, but they are so very cute.

From the small percentage shown off, Claude Monet was my favorite of the Bean-size. I also found Fromage very cute.

There were also some great Chonk designs shown too and I hope they may end up in Bean form as well, but I don’t know if I’d have the patience to wait with how much I love these designs…

It’ll be hard waiting until August for these releases. From some small previews, it feels like a lot of the ones teased at this point either through commercials or back in Toy Fair 2020 will be part of this Wave so it’ll be nice to get some of the ones I’ve been waiting on for over a year now.

We also got to see more of the Dogs vs Squirls in person which was great. I had already known there were four dogs I really wanted since I first saw information about them. After seeing the updated Squirrel faces on a Wholesale site, one of them won me over as well.

And seeing Brenda and Cheezer during the Zoom won them over for me too.

I’m still not fully won over by the different fabric usage as much, but maybe I’ll feel better after actually having them in-hand. I love dogs though so it’s definitely not enough to hold me back from wanting some. They should be coming out in late Spring apparently so at least it won’t be too much more of a wait :)

The biggest surprise though which I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted were the “Kittens vs Gherkins”– essentially baby versions of the Cats and Pickles, and maybe even some new ones, of the ones we know and love. The first shown was of a Baby Majicat and Majicat was actually one of my very first CvP:

There were honestly tons I adored– Baby Merkitty, Baby Joey, Baby Stripes, Baby Pawberry, and Baby Sour Menace are just some of my favorites besides Baby Majicat.

But every single one they showed I at least liked. There will apparently be 48 different ones with 2 Babies plus a cute krinkle blanklet per blindbag. They are also supposed to be stocking in August in Walmart Stores, but I’m really hoping they may have some big batch bundles online because I honestly would love to get a… 24 blindbag bundle and do a fun unboxing stream. I think it’d be a lot of fun and I’d love to see all the different ones and cute blanket patterns too. I also just… do not actually have any Walmarts near me, unfortunately.

Regardless, it was exciting to see how much is planned for this year and there’s so much I’m looking forward to. I just… hope I can buy them online too.

Wholesale Promotional Photos from License 2 Play.

Tears of Themis – ~6 month Review of the Global version!

I had a few people suggest I do one of these and at this point, I’ve played Tears of Themis every day since its Global release. I also played it every single day of the Closed Beta. To say I like the game a lot would be a bit of an understatement, but I will say what I like most about the game is also possibly its biggest flaw: Where’s the story content?

Ironically, while in the middle of writing this, my question kind of got answered in a way— Covid has made it a bit harder to record voice actors. Apparently, Artem’s Japanese voice also actually caught it so here’s hoping he recovers okay. It’s possible this may just have to do with future content and not the story, but I feel like there’s a good chance this is still part of it as events and card stories generally have a lot less dialogue. Stories also have voices for EVERY character in them and Chapter 6 has a large cast and is one of the darker cases.

I do wish they still kept things in order though– I would have preferred them to just say “some voices won’t be ready yet” and still keep the timeline intact over us getting Events at a much different order and also many much sooner before the story content. Chapter 6, while announced for the first half of March, is now roughly 2-3 months later than when it released on the original server (January 2021). And personal story 3, which had released after the Skadi Event on the original server in late February 2021, will now be releasing in early May… That is a huge gap in what was originally only a month. The Romantic Rail Getaway Events were originally after Skadi, yet we got one half already and will likely get the other half before the new story content and just… as someone primarily playing for the story content, I’d rather have it, voice acting or not.

When I first spoke about Tears of Themis, I said my only complaint at the time was the entire Card System exists only to force a gachapon system in the game and to be honest, that is still my biggest complaint with the only other thing coming close is the timeline destroyingness of the Event schedule. I think my biggest issue is that events from those cards can be brought up in other card stories so if you never managed to play them, you have no idea what they’re talking about. I don’t really like Character information locked behind a gachapon and I do wish there was a way to access the story even outside the cards. You’d still need the cards for the debates, which I do still feel are often really awkward interruptions of the story content (Having a stronger deck though, I often get through them so fast, I no longer even notice), so it’s not like they’d be worthless without the story, but I suppose some cards would get less love.

Going back to the story stuff, I do hope they may give more information on what voice acting will be missing as they do say just “some” of the Japanese voice content will be gone and as you can pick things separately (Each character can have a different language voice plus a category for all other characters).

As mentioned, I love the story stuff. I love learning about the characters. I think all the characters are neat in their own way, even side ones. I love the mysteries. I love how even Events have a mystery aspect (Though, they are brutal for newer players to catch up– it’s too bad there isn’t an “easier” version for people who join later). It’s made it so every piece of content is really interesting, though, it’s another reason I wish the timeline wasn’t such a mess right now.

I still think if you enjoy mystery content, it’s worth a playthrough even if you’re not big into Otome stuff. You can always skip the card stories (which are essentially “dates”) and only the last part of the personal story ends romantically. I wouldn’t really call myself an otome game fan (I am… notoriously picky and a game that just focuses on romance is not my thing), but I still find everything just… really fun? I think all the characters are interesting even outside of a romance-aspect.

And well, considering most people play for the Otome game aspect, clearly that’s pretty good as well.

As a quick pros and cons list though to finish this off at this point:

PROS:

  • Mysteries!!
  • Intriguing overarching story
  • Neat Events
  • All characters have merits and there’s always more beneath the surface
  • Art is very pretty
  • Really lovely music
  • Dailies can be very quick to get through as you level up more.
  • Voice acting is great in every language
  • VERY Forgiving even if you’re not great at mysteries or still under-leveled– you have unlimited Hints, are not penalized for trying/guessing incorrectly, and if you fail a debate/trial, you get your stamina back.

CONS:

  • Timeline is a mess on the Global server
  • Story disputes feel weirdly placed more often than not
  • Events can be brutal if you’re a newer player
  • Odd friends list limit (It goes up as you level, but…)
  • Some lines are only voiced in Simplified Chinese (This is something that has been happening since the beginning of global launch, long before the recent announcement)
  • While not Pay to Win, if you want to collect everything, there are literal Charge-up events (and a permanent one that requires a lot of money to get through) for cards and furniture which kind of stinks. Similarly, many invitations are only available through paying (they change the background of your home screen in the game), and you can also get more rewards through special passes during Events
  • The expeditedness of the Event schedule gives less time to prepare in general and while difficulties have been lowered, we do not get more rewards to make up for the skewed balancing.
  • Every single dub changes the names of the characters. This is a really weird choice and when there’s no English dub, you don’t even hear any of the English names with whichever voice dub you pick. But honestly, even if there was an English dub, I’d be listing this here because… it’s just really strange? I feel like we’ve long since left the days of needing to “localize” names to such a degree and especially looking at Genshin Impact which has most names kept entirely intact, I’m really curious about why that was needed. The only things that stay the same are the character’s codenames.

Generally, if you enjoy Ace Attorney or Mystery-styled investigation games, I’d suggest giving the game a try despite the Otome Game elements. It really feels like just two different types of games, and you can more or less ignore the one you don’t care as much for (You can just tap through or keep using hints).

I will say I do have some concerns though with the way content is releasing. With Chapter 6’s and Personal Story Chapter 3’s delay, I’m concerned how it could affect Personal Story Chapter 4 as those directly tie into the 1st Anniversary Cards. I also originally thought the speed-up was to somehow get us caught up with the original server doubling up on maybe the 2nd and 3rd anniversary content and birthdays, but with the timeline so scatted, it just feels… odd? I don’t really see the point in rushing content if there’s no way we’ll ever get on the same schedule. And when you have such a huge overarching story and actually have these character growth where you SEE the characters become closer, mixing the timeline up like this to just pump out events makes it kind of confusing as that closeness goes back and forth.

I’m hoping maybe they plan to at least release story content altogether even if the Event schedule continues to be a little borked, but despite my concerns, I’m still really enjoying the game and Mysteries getting a role even in many of the Events makes it so even those are a lot of fun for me.

Overall, I don’t see any reason I’d stop playing anytime soon (Unless they like… ended the main story and it somehow became solely romance-focused) and I’m endlessly curious just where the overarching story is going to go– I have many theories, but I’ll save those for another day.

Cats vs Pickles: The Snowball Situation

Edit as of November 2022: Snowball is back up for sale! The only difference is the hang-tag colors.

If you saw my post about my favorite soft plushies or Cats vs Pickles Condo set-up video, you may at least have some inkling already about what I’m talking about, especially considering I went into a tiny bit of a tirade early in the video where I briefly address something that every single piece of merchandise hits at some point in their life: Price-gouging.

This is Snowball, a pure white cat besides the usual Screenprinted logo on the back:

It was announced as exclusive and very limited along with how it likely would not be restocked about a day before it went up for sale on December 3rd. Snowball officially sold out in about 10 minutes, though people started seeing it saying it was sold out within 2-3 minutes due to the amount of traffic, besides just people who wanted Snowball for whatever reason whether it be personal, really liking the design, or due to collecting all Cats and Pickles (or just all the Cats), there were also those who wanted it solely because it was a limited release.

And since then, it’s been rough as, unsurprisingly, some people were quickly selling them for $20-$40+, quickly hitting $50-$70, and most recently, over $100.

As for my reason for wanting to buy Snowball– it was a personal one, due to the nostalgia of me being a kid and often naming anything pure white “Snowball”, the first horse I ever rode on being named Snowball, and the very first “perfect Snowball” I made that I kept in the freezer. It’s a bunch of silly, but sweet, memories that upon seeing a pure white little Cat named Snowball, it was no question that I really wanted it and so as soon as it was up, I grabbed mine (pictured above).

I had considered maybe getting a second one (as there was originally a limit of three) for a personal project but decided to stick to just one so as many people could get one as possible.

Besides the initial shop stock, some were distributed to Learning Express stores which occasionally have exclusivity deals with Cats vs Pickles and another 100 were raffled off in the official Facebook Group where if your name was pulled, you’d get the option to buy one.

And of course, this brought up people asking if Snowball could ever return which always has the same usual argument: People who bought them for their “Limited Edition” moniker and/or had spent a lot to get them versus People who just wanted to see them return so others could get them (Usually those who missed out, but personally, I was also part of this group despite having one– I just like seeing more people happy).

Generally, the former is almost always catered to. I can think of one exception up to this point where, as someone who spent a lot for something, I was actually contacted if I’d be upset if the item in question was re-released and I was okay with it. And I still recall how surprised they were because they didn’t expect me to be.

The official CvP account had mentioned a few times now that Snowball would come back in some way with various people discussing if it should come back with some changes (whether it be a different “form” such as a figure, chonk, jumbo, hugger, or even a reversible or a slight adjustment to expression or an addition) while others wanted it to come back exactly as is.

So, imagine my surprise when the official Cats vs Pickles account posts a statement essentially agreeing with that latter opinion– for Snowball to return due to their focus on “Inclusivity”.

Transcript:

Hi everyone,
I am going to post this to address the Snowball matter and then am going to start taking down the fan posts if they become too much. I hope you understand.
The truth is that we did not anticipate the demand for this simple white cat. That is why the website was overwhelmed and there was a delay or people’s carts didn’t work.
Now that we know how many people want Snowball, it changes things – for the simple reason alone that CVP was founded on the premise of inclusivity.
Our company makes toys for kids and for people who want to feel/act like a kid – and hopefully that makes you want to collect us. Bottom line, we are in the business of bringing joy to people.
So with all due respect to the serious collector, we are trying to build a different collectible model. We don’t subscribe to false valuation or unattainable chase items. Most of you noticed that right away when there were even amounts of characters in our assortments.
I’ve been that parent who overpaid for a toy because my child wanted it. And we know that many of our little fans just simply don’t understand so we have to think of them, too. There will be beans that are seasonal or limited to certain retailers, but we do try to be accessible and affordable.
And, with all the weirdlings and silly typos the pickles make on our hang tags and bios, that should give you plenty of rarities for your collections! 😻⚡️🥒❤️🤦🏻‍♀️
So please hang in there with us as we decide what we will do next with Snowball. We have heard you but it will take some time before we do anything else with this bean.
Why? Because we have SO MANY cool new things that are coming your way, all of which will be announced in February. (We will have another zoom meeting or Facebook live event to announce to everyone).
Thanks for listening, and now hopefully we can move on.
Peace, Love and Beans!

In a world where the common thing to see is limited time stuff, whether limited in number or being a new thing every month, it’s essentially a constant at this point. Even Kickstarters are often filled with some kind of Exclusive item (or several) that are only for those who backed or Patreons with monthly clubs and it’s rare to not see that anymore.

And yet here is a toy company flat out saying how seeing how so many people want it, the limited moniker isn’t worth it. It’s so refreshing to see and such a rare stance that I REALLY hope other places look at this and realize you can make a difference and still be profitable. Seasonals are still a good compromise (and it sounds like those could return as well so those who don’t want to wait can pay more, but others can hope to catch them when they come back around) and even Store Exclusives aren’t awful when people work together and help one another.

Even the blind bags are confirmed to just be stocked evenly (though, only so much can be done about how the batches get produced… That’s all on where they are made) there’s not a single one that is rarer than the other. They are all produced in the same numbers. And it’s really nice! Obviously, some will always be more popular than others, but this feels like such a nice stance to take and I really hope it could encourage other things to follow along in the future.

And it definitely encourages me to want to continue to keep an eye on the product in the future. With Toy Fair 2022 next month, I’m sure we’ll see some new announcements soon and I’m looking forward to seeing who I may want next.

(This is maybe about a third of my actual full collection, but I love them all)

Edit as of July 14th, 2022: Cepia LLC has officially announced that Snowball truly will be back this year, just with a different tag. You’ll be able to buy it at MSRP and it will be out alongside a special story on Santa.com called “How the Gherkins Stole Christmas”. I am SO happy for those who initially missed out.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Random things, Goodbye to 2021, & 6 new Vacation Houses!

In general, things should be a bit slower with not too much happening. Regardless, I figure posting after a good ammount of houses may be the usual post schedule for ACNH right now with just a few exceptions.

Before we get started, some stuff before I felt up to doing new houses.

Some nice mail.

I made some more adjustments to rooms. I’m still not 100% satisfied with the Basement room, but I’m not sure I ever will be. I just don’t work well with less than 8 squares on each side and I felt no real inspiration for what I wanted beyond I have more items I like that I would like to put somewhere and really like the new Gyroid designs.

I also finally started actually running into characters at Brewster’s.

Something new I was surprised to see were Black Friday sales. Which while nice, honestly, they stock so few items that it’s underwhelming.

Regardless, it’s now time for the first few houses I did.

Drago – My Lucky Lodgings

Megan – A Place for Dreamy Thrills

Sprinkle – Castle of Cold

If only I could actually have a Castle option for the house exterior… Regardless, I also updated my little HHP Design thing:

Back to usual antics, a neat thing I found was if you run into a character again, they do greet you aware of that.

I then made various adjustments to the “Secret Grove” area making it a bit more open. It was impossible for me to do everything I wanted with it due to limits, but I think this made it a little nicer.


I also added a bit more glow moss to the Camp area.

I’ve also been doing my best with the Group Stretching to try and hit 50, but the fact that I can’t have it count all in one go bums me out.

I also ran into Isabelle again at the Cafe and got to see more of my villagers in there for once too.

They ended up dropping all the Zodiac symbols which in addition to getting from the Nook Shopping Seasonals (which at least finally show up in the catalog all year even if you can’t always order them), you can also get from Katrina which is neat. I ended up keeping just a few still out in the Gyroid Room.

Villager Mail still tends to make me emotional.

And then of course, New Year’s Eve arrived… But before we got closer to midnight, I went to do a few more houses.

Julian – Cloud-Nine Chalet

Sherb – My Fantasy Theme Park

Nibbles – Nibbles’ Study Space

And finally, it was countdown time.

We’re officially in 2022. I just hope it goes better.

In general, I hate how long it took me to get even just 6 houses done and the fact that I couldn’t make it to 10. As much as I don’t want to say it, it feels like maybe I just need to pack New Horizons away for a while and to be honest, I think I would’ve taken that break until April if I wasn’t stuck still trying to get coffee and do group stretching 50 total times. I only have 3 more times to go for Brewster, but I still have 31 left for the Stretches and I just… New Horizon’s repeated pace control drives me crazy. I miss when I could just sit with a bunch of friends and listen to K.K. songs for hours to knock out a badge over having to listen to him every week for nearly 2 years just in my own town.

Brewster’s I don’t even think would bother me as much if he was just around from the start when I actually was playing every day, but now that I have no real reason to play much each day, it’s harder to keep up with. Group Stretches is also just something I’d rather knock out in one go– not take nearly 2 months to do. Honestly, I hate how Reactions were handled in this game. I don’t know why they had to remove Shrunk entirely (I would’ve at least forgiven it if he was added as part of Harvey’s thing) and make it so Villagers would teach you reactions. Even if maybe I could’ve gotten all the Smug and Lazy ones if I kept those villagers longer, I never actually got a Cranky villager so I would’ve been short some no matter what unless I moved out one of my villagers that I didn’t want to move.
And it’s like, if I’m going to always be missing reactions, why bother? And I hate feeling that way.

There are things I like about New Horizons, of course, but it feels so far and few between– I like many of the new items, I like that we have more color options for items, I like Happy Home Paradise, I like the new Museum and how it’s laid out so much, I love the new villagers (especially Judy), I think the pathing tool is neat, I like Harvey’s little area, I like that Villagers can’t move without asking… and that may be it.
Terraforming wasn’t fun for me in the long run, I hate crafting, I hate cooking, I hate farming… I can’t stand that they gave us smaller side rooms (and while one side of the longer rooms is bigger, it’s still smaller the other way). I miss being able to have more exterior customization. I think the Nook Miles are a poor replacement for what the Badges were for. There’s so many quality life features missing like actually telling you if you’ve bought something before. It just all added up to quickly make New Horizons not much fun for me and I’m not in a place right now where I can easily do the things I do enjoy like decorating houses.

So I guess this is a way to say a bit of a proper break from ACNH. I’ll still be trying to finish up with Brewster and the Group Stretches (and will have videos for those respectively) and I should have a final island tour in April, but otherwise, everything else will just be kind of on hold or more random and I’m not entirely sure when I can say they’ll be back.

I still plan to have posts for some other things, but I apologize that there won’t be much AC content for a long while.