Animal Crossing: New Horizons – January 29th – February 14th

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I’ve decided the drop the day count as we get closer to a year and since I played from the start anyway… Regardless, this goes over pretty much everything exciting that happened in New Horizons since my last entry including Flurry’s birthday, new seasonal items, preparing for Festivale, Setsubun, Lunar New Year, and Valentine’s Day. Festivale will be getting its own entry tomorrow!

One thing that surprised me is I incidentally ended up making a Perfect Snowboy… I randomly had snowballs just spawn so I figured “Why not?” and did my best. Didn’t expect to manage a second perfect one which brings Snow Maestro up to 2/20. Still doubt I’ll finish it though.

The next day, Leo kindly gathered up fruit for me to help me with my Nook Miles fruit selling goal. There was so much fruit. So. Much. Fruit.

Then Flurry’s birthday was on January 30th.

Considering Peanut is essentially the newest villager we have, I was kind of surprised she was the one celebrating with Flurry as Flurry was like… the third villager I got. I guess they are pretty close to neighbors though.

With February hitting, new seasonal items were available for Valentine’s Day. I ended up placing the chocolate in the Kitchen and redoing Judy’s yard for the Heart Bouquet.

Festivale items also started showing up in Nook’s Cranny along with the new special Festivale Reactions.



I was also surprised to see decorations already out for Resident Services. Especially as there was no announcement yet on the bulletin board.

I ended up putting the garland on the beach. I think it looks kind of nice.

And the reactions are so cute.


It’s nice being able to dance again considering the Shrunk Shuffle is still MIA.

As the 2nd and 3rd came around, I was… truly surprised Setsubun didn’t get a mention. I suppose part of me shouldn’t have as we hadn’t really seen any of the Seasonal items get their respective events in any way, shape, or form, not to mention how disappointing the beans are in New Horizons, but just due to how much more of an involved thing it was in New Leaf. While other seasonals got some love, it was mainly just a gift from Isabelle and a special standee and that was it, but Setsubun had unique interactions with the villagers and with them bringing over the masks and outfits as well… It just feels so weird.

If you want to know more about how Setsubun worked and how it and the Beans varied between New Horizons and New Leaf, I’d highly recommend checking out my friend Zed’s video that goes into it (I also show up a bit to help demonstrate some things :P). You can also read the post I wrote over on my New Leaf blog.

I really think this would’ve been the perfect time to let us learn more about the events by experiencing them over just reading as we buy them from a catalog. Or, compromise of still having regional events, but letting people buy the items from the Nook Shopping Catalog even if they can’t do the event themselves (whether in their town or by visiting a friend in the appropriate region).

Meanwhile, I had been doing my best to try and buy up all the Festivale items that show up in the Nooklings’ Shop… For the most part, they’ve mainly ended up being used around the beach.

I had originally hoped to use the Balloon Lamp to switch out some of the Balloons in my shopping area but they’re just… way too tall. I’m not even sure it looks good where I put the one for now which is a shame (I might just remove it for now v-v) as I honestly adore the designs, but I’m just not sure if there’s anywhere on my island that they’ll genuinely look good. If anyone has any ideas, let me know?

The Festivale Announcement also finally showed up on the Bulletin Board which I get them usually not putting them up until a week before, but with all the decorations out already plus the furniture and reactions in the Nookling shop, it still made it feel kind of late.

On the 10th, items for Lunar New Year were added.

I found it odd that they made them wrappers though? I guess it makes sense, but they look the same when dropped and you can’t store the wrapped money versions… I also find it really weird that the Bokjumeoni wasn’t actually wearable considering.

With the lack of anything for Setsubun, I was so surprised to see Isabelle greet me when I booted the game up on the 12th. And for each of my villagers to say something about it– heck, I didn’t even get a single duplicate dialogue line:





Despite the initial greeting though, none of them commented when I gave them either the Lucky Money or Sebaetdon which felt rather odd. Though, I didn’t have enough for all of them due to not expecting the greetings so honestly, I’d probably have felt worse in this case if they did have more special messages.

Nothing really happened on the 13th, but the weeds are starting to change again. We’ve seen them all now.

As for the 14th, well… Happy Valentine’s Day! To go with my Animal Crossing valentines from last year that featured all my favorite villagers, I had to make one of Judy as she’s part of that favorite bunch since her official reveal. I think hers may have came out best (maybe because I’ve gotten better after a year, I don’t now), but that may be partially because her color scheme is my entire aesthetic.

To my surprise after Friday, there was no morning anouncement from Isabelle. But to my even bigger surprise surprise, I had a bunch of mail from my villagers, Isabelle, and friends as well for Valentine’s Day:




With just one exception, nearly all the letters were different too… We REALLY need more mail storage though… T__T Isabelle, Peanut, and Diana sent a Yellow Heart-shaped Bouquet, Judy and Maple sent a Dark Chocolate Heart, Flurry and Mira sent a Purple Heart-shaped Bouquet, Teddy sent a White Chocolate Heart, Marina sent a Milk Chocolate Heart, and finally Merengue and Cookie sent a Pink Heart-shaped Bouquet.

There was no greeting when talking to them (which I guess as they already sent a letter) so I wasn’t expecting much, but they actually did respond to me giving them a Valentine’s Day gift– I would say the only issue is there was so little variety here as it seemed like there was just one message per personality type.



I also finally managed to get the Treasure Hunt minigame after having properly made space for treasure to be buried so I could actually play.



I only got the game once before otherwise when I literally just started and there was just too many places to look to manage to find it. It was nice to finally finish the minigame.

Anyway, with this done, it’s time to prepare for Festivale…

Pretty Princess Party Thoughts!

So, if you follow me on Youtube, you may have already seen me upload my entire playthrough already which will be the main focus on this post, but I haven’t really shared my thoughts yet so even if you know what to expect screenshot-wise, there should still be some fun stuff to read here too.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that Pretty Princess Party made it on my radar. I had been following it on and off since its release in Japan as Pretty Princess Magical Coordinate (which I think is a bit of a better name considering the only “party” aspect is the six minigames you can play in the game itself and from the menu with up to three friends in addition to yourself) with the only reason I didn’t keep a closer eye on it was due to the fact that I felt it just… did not have a good chance at coming over. It’s not the first time a game I adored has not gotten the chance to shine overseas ((Magician’s Quest: Town of Magic is probably one of the biggest ones as I ADORED the DS game. Kuma-Tomo looked really cute too. And besides PPMC/PPP, I’m also hoping MODEL Debut #nicola* makes its way here too… I also still would like to see the Disney Magical World Arcade Cabinet come over from Japan as some kind of game as I love so many of the songs from it) and while you can at least play any game on the Switch due to it being region-free, my skill in Japanese is unfortunately lacking.

*MODEL Debut #nicola is actually a Switch sequel to Girls Fashion Shoot which I also really enjoyed.

So, when I learned Aksys was actually localizing Pretty Princess Magical Coordinate, now Pretty Princess Party, I was thrilled. The game really reminded me of Disney Magical World which I enjoy a lot and so, even if maybe the game was a bit on a smaller scale, I couldn’t wait.

Having now played, I will say that’s honestly a fair comparison, but I’d give it more of a combination between Disney Magical World and Happy Home Designer. Like the former, there’s achievements, a collection book, minigames [that grant you things], and you need to earn a currency, which one of the ways to get is by greeting everyone once a day, in order to learn recipes that will let you create items.

The thing I really like is that the currency isn’t terrible to get. You get 100 per character you greet, 3,000 for decorating a Resident’s house, and some for completing minigames. At no point did I really feel I had to grind for currency– I always had enough for pretty much everything.

My favorite thing however? After owning the recipes, it’s like Happy Home Designer. You just… have the item. No crafting. No material grinding. You can place it 100 times if you want (there’s a limit of 100 items per room), barring any space-related issues, and it’s fine. As someone who HATES crafting and gets fed up with it near immediately, this is such a welcomed relief and it’s made my enjoyment of the game increase tenfold.

There is still some grinding though which is where the Minigames come in. There’s three stats: Cute, Elegant, and Cool. Each has two minigames associated with them, each minigame with three levels of difficulty, and based off your score to a certain point and the difficulty you earn experience for the respective category.

The minigames are… odd, but not necessarily bad. I find myself generally able to do each without any issue, though, sometimes they can be a bit stressful. The one I struggled most with is the Horse Racing game– I find it really gives you little room for error (Ironically, I had an easier time unlocking Hard than I did unlocking Normal) and not a lot of time to switch lanes either. I feel like maybe I would’ve had an easier time if they had it so the player wasn’t running towards the screen/you were following their back and not from the front.

The way the minigames work is you there’s two periods– a “regular” period and a “fever” period that usually adds some new rule or mechanic about halfway through the round. The Cute Minigames are Studying and Cake Decorating. Studying involves you answering relatively easy true or false questions (That said, try not to think too much about them– they’re definitely aimed for kids, but it’s easy to overthink if you’re not a kid). You get more points for answering first and when the fever round starts, ONLY the person who answers first gets points. Answering incorrectly causes you to lose points. Cake Decorating requires you to just… pick anywhere from 2-4 ingredients in the same order (starting from the bottom) as the cake in the center. If you mess up, you lose points, but you can try again as long as time hasn’t run out for that cake. The fever period requires you to repeatedly make the same cake over and over until its switched out versus just making the cake once. The Graceful minigames are Bouquet Making and Dancing. Bouquet making requires you to gather up Roses from the garden. 3 of the same color gets you 50 points, 1 of each color gets you 30 points, and any other combination gets you 10 points. The fever period just speeds up the flower growth. Dancing is your standard rhythm game/tap to the music, though, it’s mostly just one button except for Hard Mode. Like Bouquet Making, the fever period just speeds the game up a bit and the music is a faster rendition. Target Practice requires you to shoot various targets while avoiding any possible bunnies that may show up. Your Marker is actually bigger than the targets and you get no extra points for WHERE you hit the targets so you can kind of go ham on it which is nice if your aim is garbage like mine. Regular targets are 5 points, Golden Targets are 10. Fever mode makes it so every target is gold and also more are spawning at once. Finally, the Horse Racing game has you racing down a track trying to collect flowers, avoid/jump over hay, and also jump over hurdles. Flowers give 5 points. Hitting hay or the hurdle makes you lose 15 points each time. Fever mode switches the game mode entirely to just spam A. While winning first is helpful there (it gives 50 points), you really need to do well in the first part for it to matter which is interesting as usually the fever section is the make-it or break-it section with your score.

Difficulties really don’t change much in the long run. They generally just add more variables (IE: Higher stacked cakes in Cake Decorating, more things that can be asked about in Studying, more obstacles/flowers in the Horse Racing, more Bunnies moving around in Target practice, Dancing makes it so some of the buttons may require a specific button direction pressed but there’s so few it’s not that bad) and the NPCs play a bit better. You don’t even necessarily need to win to get the best rewards– you just need to get at least 300 Points. That is required for the achievements, the difficulty unlocks, and to get the maximum amount of experience and Lumina per round. There’s no bonus for getting first place or not so you could even just stop once you hit 300. I honestly do find this kind of nice, but at the same time, it’d be nice if there was a bonus for getting higher than 300 Points, if only because the Stat level ups is where the game’s biggest grinding element is. You can only get 150 experience points maximum per game round so you will need to play them a lot to get everything to level 10 in order for everything to be for sale at the Fountain.

I would say my only other complaint is how slow some things can feel. There is a gachapon element, but you can only get things once so you never need to worry about getting something twice and it’s cheaper than it would cost if the items were available for regular purchase (100 Lumina for the Gacha ones versus 300 for the direct purchase ones) so I actually don’t mind it– the problem is that you have to do it one at a time… which can take ages when there’s 60 items to grab from it. Every time you buy anything, you need to watch a little cutscene where your character essentially learns it and poofs it into existence and while it’s cute, it gets old VERY fast. There is no way to do a mass amount of pulls. There is no way to add a bunch of things to buy at once either. And while you can technically skip the cut scene, you still need to press to skip each time and it just adds to everything else.

The game also has a handful of loading screens which, while I don’t mind most of the time, become incredibly annoying between Minigame rounds. As mentioned, this is the biggest grind in the game and as most of the shop items are locked behind those stats, you NEED to level them up. But there’s no play again, you talk to a Rabbit, go through a loading screen, read the instructions on how to play, you see a cute cutscene (which you can at least skip, but it’s relatively short so not the biggest issue here), and then play the game… and then get kicked back out and repeat. Having a play again would have been AMAZING because having to constantly talk to the Rabbit again and again and go through that same loading screen over and over as I had to continuously play these minigames for progression purposes really sucked.

But like I said, that is literally my biggest complaint. The only other thing really worth mentioning in a negative sense, which feels more weird/out of place if anything, is the Deciphering thing. Essentially, each room has 5 requirements to be completed. You can guess what they may be based off what the room is for or pay 100 Lumina to Decipher them. You can only have 5 things deciphering at a time and must wait a certain amount of time for them to be finished or pay 100 more Lumina per item to finish deciphering immediately. Outside of the greeting thing, NOTHING ELSE about the game is real time and even that is relatively loose time-wise so the specific time of the deciphering feels just… incredibly out of place. The cost is relatively cheap so it’s not a huge deal and honestly, 99% of the time I manage to guess all the parts anyway (and usually if I do forget something, it was something I thought I had placed already and just forgot to), but it just feels like a really weird design choice. Regardless, that’s really it for my biggest negatives for the game. Everything else is more of a nitpick.

Outfits generally have two color schemes– a Warm color variant and a Cool color variant so I’ve found a lot of stuff I like. Furniture has various styles and each with four color variations. Room sizes generally feel pretty great– I think the only ones I had issues with was my character’s room which I wish was bigger and the library where I had the opposite issue: it felt too big! Even the 100 Item limit hasn’t been too bad? The only time I’ve hit it so far was with the dining room because I wanted to put food on every single part of each table. I probably didn’t need to go that hard, but I still was able to do most of what I wanted. I think if I could up it, even just 125 or 150 would be great, but 100 still gives me a lot to work with. I do wish our room got a size upgrade though.

I will say I’m a little baffled at how hairstyles/hair colors unlocked– after the initial amount at the start, the rest are through the more gachapon element and there weren’t many options… There were mainly long down hairstyles. There’s only a couple of short ones and the few updos are either buns or pigtails. No ponytail. There are some braids, but that’s… it really. I like long hair so I still found something decent, but the lack of a ponytail here disappointed me even more than usual as they have so many great wavy/curly/ringlet-y hairstyles in the game that it really felt like a good chance to actually have a ponytail I really liked. I’m also incredibly shocked there wasn’t a darker hair color/black hair… I ended up just using the initial hairstyle from the start and also a hair color from the start a well– this is pretty much the darkest natural hair color and it really isn’t that dark.

The left is my character at the very start of the game while the right is my character when I finished.

The game has a cute story for hy you have to unlock the Castle. It’s not anything super amazing, but it’s still cute and sweet and I liked how they developed each of the characters as you went.

Even the various Rabbit Villagers, despite having a lot of duplicate dialogue, all had their own unique requests for what they wanted and they varied a lot more than some of the Happy Home Designer ones did.

The story has a really sweet ending. And despite the size, I still did my best to make my room work.

Finally, below, you can see some of the different rooms I’ve made! These are some of my personal favorites out of the 20 Castle Rooms and 25 Bunny Villager Houses you can decorate. If you would like to see more, you can see them at the summary page for the game!




Anyway, if you enjoy interior decorating and/or cute dress-up games, I’d absolutely recommend it. If you’re only interested in the party aspect, there’s probably better games for you.

Pocket Camp’s 3rd Anniversary (why must it taunt me so), the Pocket Poll Awards, and the 4.0 Update

Disclaimer: I actually started this article November 19th! But due to various circumstances and this entry continuing to get added onto, it somehow only finished now so if some of the article sounds odd, keep in mind that it’s been written over the course of over two and a half months.

So, Pocket Camp’s 3rd Anniversary was in November. I spoke a little about it in my last Pocket Camp post with some of the new backdrops, but having played quite a bit between them using my weaknesses against me and needing so many items, I wanted to talk a bit more on how Pocket Camp has changed along with my votes for the Pocket Poll Awards.

Since the Award Ceremony went up on November 19th with the voting results, I’m going to start with that first. If you don’t want to be spoiled on the winners (if you haven’t watched by now), be sure to watch before reading below.

I at least had some hope right off the bat as three of my top favorites and three of my runner-ups were in the crowd/audience which it seemed to be choosing the winners from.

The first category was “What animal did you first become close friends with?”. In retrospect, I realized they likely meant in Pocket Camp when you choose your preferred theme. Regardless, I thought back to when I first played AC and Cookie and Peanut were there from me in the start.

I ended up picking Cookie as I always especially loved dogs and considering my favorite color, I recall really being attached to her even though I love both her and Peanut (AND COOKIE IS STILL NOT IN POCKET CAMP FOR SOME REASON T__T )

If I had realized what they were asking while voting, I would have picked Rosie as I had gone for the cute theme. She did end up being the Runner-up in the results too though which I suppose worked out. Goldie won who was actually my favorite of the starting villagers and I did almost consider going Natural first but… Cute is more me.

The next question was “Which animal resembles you the most?” and I actually just made my husband pick because my mind went entirely blank. He narrowed it down to Rudy, June, and Maple before finally settling on Maple. June may have won if her eyes weren’t blue.

Maple at least probably matches my character pretty well who I suppose is based off me anyway. The winners were Goldie, Raymond, and Marshal in that specific order which I will admit I found kind of surprising. I guess it’s a hard question to answer, but I wonder how many votes they got… I could maybe kind of see Marshal (especially as he reminds me of Gill from Harvest Moon), but the other two I can’t really place. I suppose Raymond is a go-to vote if you have heterochromia though.

Going by the votes, I don’t recall being asked why and if it’s about having something in common with the characters well… Honestly, Maple still works (for stuff we’ll get into more soon enough), but Merengue and Judy would probably be also in the running for me then.

The next question was “Which animal do you inspire to be like?” and I picked Judy. While I mostly prefer normal personality types (and that’s probably the one I’m most similar to), she’s just my entire aesthetic and I appreciate that.

I think if there was ever a cub that combined Merengue and Judy somehow, that would essentially be me. The winner order this time was Raymond, Marshal, and Whitney and I can’t say I’m surprised as all three are quite popular, even if I don’t personally care that much for them (I do like Marshal and Whitney enough, but I’ll never understand Raymond’s popularity. Good for those who like him though).

Next was “Which Animal would you most like to have lunch with?” AND THIS IS A STUPID QUESTION HOW DO YOU JUST PICK ONE. I want to have lunch with all of my favorites!

I ended up picking Merengue because she’s just who I think of first when it comes to food. I get all the Normal personalities enjoy cooking and baking, but I don’t think anyone could love doing so more than Merengue.

Still though, if I could, all 8 of my favorites would have been picked :( Raymond won again (sadly not surprised) followed by Marshal and Goldie and at this point I felt like none of my favorites would win.

Next up was “Which animal do you consider to be most reliable?”. While I would say all the Normal personalities are probably in this, I actually ended up voting for Diana.

The reason being is I just kind of think of her as the most mature one. Like the one with the most experience and could give good advice and just has this air of fancy poshness that has everything together. Maybe it’s just me.

Apollo actually won this with Goldie and Raymond in second and third respectively. Apollo is pretty cool and I guess I can kind of see it. Goldie, Raymond, and Marshal are just everywhere here.

“Which animal would you want as your roommate?” was the next question and I ended up voting for Merengue again.

This is because her room is a mixture of Cute and Sweet and Cooking and stuff and I appreciate that. Judy has a lot of my aesthetic, but her house doesn’t really work with what the rest of her gives off beyond her wallpaper and hanging stars. I don’t know why they just gave her the Pastel block furniture.

Maple was also a close runner-up (TEDDY BEARS and so cozy), but I prefer more pastels and pinks and less green and yellow.

Goldie won again (and well, with all her books, I can understand that) with Poppy and Rosie as runner-ups.

Next was “Which Animal has the best sense of humor?”

And this is going to sound strange, but I voted for Filbert.

The reason being is because when I first read his character profile in Pocket Camp, I just… laughed so hard. Out loud. I just found it so funny. “His lazy, dreamy smile is sure to win you over. And then his lazy, thoughtless comments are sure to lose you again.” I can think of people that applies to. Regardless, it was just the funniest thing to me and it still makes me laugh.

My runner-up was Teddy solely due to his Halloween costume, but since I picked a main game answer for the first question, I decided to go the Pocket Camp route for this one.

Dom ended winning first place and I think he actually would’ve been my third pick (How can you not find the super fluffy jock sheep funny?) so it was nice to see him win. Bob won second with Pietro in third.

“Which Animal do you think is the Coolest?” was the next question which I found really hard to pick from. I ended up going with Eugene as I feel like his entire persona is “cool”, but there’s really a lot of good candidates.

Raymond ended up winning… which I wish I could be surprised, but alas -_- Marshal was second (who maybe would’ve been runner-up in my list but definitely not in the first pack of candidates) followed by Apollo. Both Apollo and Marshal are absolutely cooler than Raymond though.

The final category was “Which animal do you want to cheer on?” and while I’d obviously want to cheer on all my favorites, I ended up voting for Cookie as I feel like she probably asks for the most support. Even though both her and Peanut are peppy villagers, Peanut always felt more confident to me. I don’t know. Anyway, that’s why Cookie received my vote.

Lucky actually ended up winning which is really cute and I can see why he’d need that cheering on. Marshal was second (why??) and Dom was third (again, I can get that). Honestly, I think of all the nominations, this is the one I was most happy with followed by Dom’s win. After that, I guess Goldie’s first win, but I am absolutely side-eyeing most of these.

I’m just glad Lucky didn’t trip on the stage like Goldie did at first. He’s been hurt enough.

Regardless, I have to say I’m shocked that out of a possible 9 winners with 18 runner-ups, there were only 11 different villagers chosen.

I think I only super like Dom of those (that said, I really do like Goldie and Marshal too). But I guess I’ve rarely had the same taste as most people.

The results ended with a trailer for their new AR mode which… I don’t even really use the option in Pokemon GO but it looks really cute and it seems like they can interact more than Pokemon can so I at least decided to try it, even if I won’t use it much.

But what I was most excited for is the Campsite Upgrade…

My campsite layout has been pretty close to how it’s been since early in the game’s release so the idea of more space was really exciting. Unfortunately, kind of like how I feel with terraforming— it seemed more interesting in theory than in practice.

Rather than really increasing the space, the game only made it so nearly all areas of the campsite could be used instead of a rectangle grid, which while nice, with the size of the items, I found I had little space around the area I could really use regardless. Especially due to some areas being blocked out due to events that required them to be free.

The other big thing was, rather than just having amenities, you could now remove them entirely and use the space for either more items, or new Amenity-sized items which I have conflicted feelings about. I did end up removing one to see how I like it due to how much I love one of the new Amenity-sized items (and there is literally no room in my campsite otherwise), but I feel bad not having both fountain Amenities now and I can’t decide if I like it more or not.

I would’ve preferred an actual campsite extension with maybe another amenity slot besides just opening up the placement area. I still think that’s nice and makes things a bit more flexible, but it can get crowded so fast and some of the areas you can’t place anything are really odd. I’m already finding some places I can’t actually get through now which while partially my fault, is still kind of discouraging.

Honestly, what really gets me (both with this and New Horizons) is these are essentially big options to increase customization, but for some reason, I feel more stilted and overwhelmed than ever than particularly inspired. This is partially due to rules and sizes of things that just make it really hard to work with.

With that out of the way though, it’s time to talk about some of the Anniversary Events, how Pocket Camp has changed since I last played it, and just what I really am hoping for from it still along with where my problems still lie.

The biggest change is that there’s no longer three different flower types for Gardening events. There’s one for the first two critters you need to collect and then one for the second set of critters. At first, I was kind of concerned about how this would balance out, but with the increased spawn and capture rates, it actually worked out really great. I managed to complete the main bulk of the event rather quickly including the Hard Tasks… But despite that, I didn’t actually finish the special Flower goals for planting and harvesting enough of them. I also don’t think it would’ve been possible if it wasn’t for so many people on my friend’s list. The task is still really rough if you don’t have many, if any, people who play.

The timing just continues to cut way too close otherwise. And I will say that’s where Pocket Camp still has its biggest issue: It wants you to play nearly constantly. You can’t take your time. You can’t pace yourself. You need to play on its schedule or you may end up missing out.

And even if you manage to pull off a few events (or maybe just one or two), you won’t necessarily manage to earn enough of whatever the item of the month is to earn the special monthly thing (And as a note, even if you were thinking about paying for some, you won’t earn enough just from that and could still end up short if it’s late enough in the month). It’s odd how they could take a series that is supposed to be relaxing and find the way to make it stressful and a chore.

It just kind of kills me because there’s so many neat things in Pocket Camp and then it just has some awful mechanics. Or like everything has a catch. For example, there’s a gifting system now, but it only lets you gift specifically wrapped gifts that look similar in shape to the ones in Pokemon GO.

Most of the different types of gifts you can get are through having a Camp Helper which requires a subscription. Otherwise, you can only get a limited amount through the occasional log in bonus (usually with very limited items), possibly one of the random campaigns we get, or recently through the Gulliver Islands (and just one of the more basic ones). You can only have 5 gifts pending at once, you can only send out one per day, and some gifts have a minimum of gifts you need to have sent already anywhere from 5-35. I wish I was kidding. Everything about this is just… so incredibly convoluted.

I’m sure part of it is is because some of them can give Fortune Cookies, but it’s just… frustrating and I’m constantly paranoid I won’t have as good a gift to send back to someone that they send me.

I do think Pocket Camp is doing a good job with Quality of Life features, but they still are making no attempt to fixing some of the core issues like how much time the game requires and the fact that it’s literally pay to win in some ways.

Heck, sometimes I just go into the previews just to look at items I know I’ll never have the Leaf Tickets for because they’re so pretty.

Of course, I couldn’t resist some of the new items which quickly took away my Leaf Ticket savings…

Kind of tempted to get the Brown Boots too. Would love the other dress as well, but that’s unlikely.

I think what really gets me is just I feel like Pocket Camp could truly be a lot of fun and good, but it goes for a lot of cheap money-grabbing tactics and it’s so disheartening.

There’s so much more focus on paid stuff too between the amount of Fortune Cookies, the constant mention of things that cost Leaf Tickets (Lottie’s “help”, more HHA Design tickets, the Golden Fishing Rod, the better honey/nets, speeding up literally everything, more Mining chances, etc.), the focus/highlight on the Fortune Cookie Memories*… It just goes and on.

* It kills me there’s no record of the regular memories/cutscenes you can get. This has always bothered me, but after losing out on the newest Valentine’s Day cutscene due to a glitch and thus, not getting screenshots of my character and Judy having a tea party, I’m especially heart broken from it.

Pocket Camp had a lot of promise. In a sense, it still does, but I don’t feel like they care about changing anything to fit more into the franchise it’s inspired from.

Evaluating what I want/like in a Game

With the latest Steam Game Festival currently happening and even more games available to try out, I’ve been spending the last few days playing… a lot of demos as you may have noticed from my Youtube channel.

And with a lot of them, I’ve definitely noticed a theme such as more photography based ones (ala Pokemon Snap) or farming-esque (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley, etc.) and even plenty of fun Detective and Point of Click ones or things that are more silly physic-related racing and golf games.

I don’t bring up the comparisons in a negative sense– every single one I played has absolutely done not just a phenomenal job, but put their own spin on it that it’s never felt “boring” so to speak. But it’s made me think about how certain games stuck with people and inspired them to make their own, but well, better (whether just to them or a universally shared opinion or somewhere inbetween).

I’ve mentioned before how excited I am about the upcoming Pokemon Snap. In general, that hasn’t changed and I’m still so excited. More than anything, my only hopes had been just to have more (if possible, all) the Pokemon and more maps. Maybe also character customization, but that’s optional and just getting to play as a girl this time around will be nice.

But after playing the Beasts of Maravilla and Alekon, it really hit me how nice it is to just… be able to explore the environment at my own pace and interact with them, outside the Rails segment.

Alekon does something interesting where once you’ve done all the segments of a level on Rails, you have the option to explore on foot and when you get back, you can interact and get quests upon returning back to the hub world. It makes it so you can just relax and take your time working on things without the pressure of a time limit over your head.

Beasts of Maravilla is completely on foot, but it lets you really get to bask in the environment and get up close in personal beyond just the lens of your camera.

One thing both feature is a special pose system– with Alekon, it shows all the poses each species could have that you can try and get. With Beasts of Maravilla, the “main” species of the area has special poses for you to try and find. What I especially appreciated from both was a checklist of what exactly to keep an eye out for which helps less the stress and anxiety over missing out on something.

They, inadvertently, gave me things I would love to see the new Pokemon Snap do as well. I don’t think it’s likely, but at the same time, wouldn’t it be a nice surprise?

And I think, in a sense, that really put into focus one of my biggest issues with a lot of more mainstream games nowadays– rather than building on what they’ve done, it’s always about the next big gimmick. Pokemon has had so many amazing features in each gen, but it’s so rare they carry over. Especially with game series, I feel like taking so many of the things that worked best and finding a way to make them fit into the core mechanics while adding some new things is the way to go, but it’s always about a focus on battling or some kind of… soft reboot thing like Splatoon 2 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons had and I don’t really get it.

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons has also been guilty of this on both accounts. Harvest Moon in general is obviously not the same anymore since Marvelous decided to have XSeed take over instead of Natsume so the new Harvest Moon games are entirely their own new thing… The problem there is rather than looking at why those games were good, they are focusing more on the genericness and putting in gimmicks of other games that just don’t jive well.

A lot of people adored Stardew Valley, but beyond a few exceptions, it just kind of went back to the basics while adding in some combat to the mines.

My personal favorite Harvest Moon/Story of Season games have been Harvest Moon 64, A New Beginning, and Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade. The first was my first Harvest Moon ever and I really loved the style and most of all, that animals didn’t have lifespans– something that has really frustrated me with the turn to make the games more “realistic”, the second for the characters and customization, with the final one for its story and puzzles and some of the characters and things. I honestly never really played much of Animal Parade itself due to disliking how some of the character personalities have changed, but it opened up so much customization with your family in the game and kids that it’s a shame that’s never made a return.

But I think, if anything, so much of what I’ve found I’ve enjoyed as I played these demos is that they’re just fun. Something in common with my favorite demos I’ve played (and added to my wishlist) is that there isn’t really a penalty for just… not being the best. I can try again if I picked the wrong answer without losing out. I can just be silly and play around and do whatever without worrying about screwing everything up or not being able to unlock the next thing.

There’s something so freeing about being able to just sit and play through these games and have a good time without worrying about how much everything else could fall apart. Though, with some of the games with big choices/butterfly effects (like Song of Farca), I would absolutely love some save states at some point :P

I really love getting to experiment and try different things without feeling like I have to start over or repeatedly bang my head doing the same thing over and over for a slightly better ranking to unlock the next part.

And just I really hope more games could look into what made them so great in the first place– you don’t always have to start over or from the basics to make something good.

I really love collectathons and exploring (though, not in an open world I get too lost). I like finding things. I like stories and meeting characters and helping them. I enjoy when I can play things just to play without worrying about never being good enough to finish. And where I can do things at my own pace and on my own merits without constantly having to keep track of events and random short campaigns.

It’s also made me really think more on a game I’d really like to make. I don’t really have art or programming skills, but maybe one day I can try and do it. I’d think it’d be a lot of fun. And hopefully relaxing too.

Thoughts about the Balan Wonderworld Demo

It’s so rare for me to feel so many thoughts about a demo I actually need to write about it, heck, I’m not entirely sure if that’s happened before, and yet here we are. I played and essentially finished (I say essentially as there’s definitely some other things I could probably try to do) the demo and to be honest, I have no idea how I feel about the game. Some things I liked, some I didn’t, somethings I’m really intrigued… but hey, I’m writing this entry for a reason so let’s get talking about it.

One of the really nice things is having some different options for the main character. It’s always nice actually getting to play a female character, especially when there’s an option that I can relate to (Too often the only light skinned option will be locked with blonde hair and blue or green eyes or at best, light brown hair and still usually light eyes).

We then immediately get into a cutscene featuring the character we chose along with their counterpart? The male’s name is Leo Craig while the girl’s is Emma Cole so not entirely sure on the link just yet. The beginning actually varies slightly depending on who you pick as well.

It continues to switch between the two as it goes– even your very first Tim varies.

And if there’s one thing I can give the game: I’m so curious about what the heck is going on. It absolutely pulls you in with whatever the mystery is with the story and the exact connection between the two characters and why.

Unfortunately, the intriguingness of the story doesn’t carry the somewhat frustrating gameplay. I’ve also never considered myself a graphics person, but it felt like a complete 180 seeing the difference between the story cutscenes and the actual graphics during gameplay (the first screenshot being the area with your Tims and the second being an actual level).

It’s not like I was expecting it to look just like the cutscenes, but it almost felt like a completely different style of game.

An odd thing that happens through the levels is outside of enemies, any other kind of NPC will fade out of existence if you get close. It’s incredibly unsettling, but also just adds to the questions of what is going on. The first boss is the Farmer from Act 1 of the first Chapter who disappeared in the level having been taken over after a crazy tornado.

After defeating him, he manages to get un-akumatized back to his senses and then there’s… suddenly a dance number?

I’m not sure if I’ve ever been so curious about how the heck a story unfolds from a game I really didn’t enjoy playing as much as I hoped since like… Doctor Lautrec (still curious how that ends but apparently so few people bothered playing it T__T).

Anyway, I did say I had an issue with the Gameplay which I’m going to get to now– if you notice those… interesting creatures who are your back-up dancers in that dance number, each of them has a power-up associated that you unlock through crystals.

There’s over 80 Power-ups apparently (not all in the demo, obviously) and many of the levels feature certain paths or collectibles that are only possible to get with a later power-up. The main issues are:

  1. You can only have three power-ups at once. (You can switch them around at checkpoints, but it’s just kind of annoying to go back and forth)
  2. Getting hit just once can cause you to lose a power-up.
  3. You need keys to unlock the crystal for a power-up and it’s recommended to hoard up on all of them so you can re-get them as needed from checkpoints.
  4. If you lose a specific power-up, depending on where you are, you may be completely out of luck and not really be able to proceed. You have to backtrack quite a bit or maybe just die to get back to the checkpoint.
  5. Some power-ups don’t allow you to jump.

In general, I think power-ups are something I’m kind of tired of in the first place. They often feel gimmicky and while I’m used to them in some series (like Mario or Kirby), my biggest problem is really when stuff is locked behind certain power-ups.

I really hate back-tracking. I don’t mind it if it’s not super far or anything, but not being able to take care of something back at the start of a game unless you got it later (Exception: If it’s super quick/easy to get to, but even then, I think the only time I haven’t minded as much as I could is with the Sonic games and I think that’s partially because it felt mostly optional– it was usually just to get something special for Chao) is just… exhausting to me, especially if it’s a level I didn’t enjoy.

And just, especially if you have to like… perfectly keep these things with you and hope you don’t get hit or accidentally die which I did a few times due to wonky camera or feeling like my character was sliding when I didn’t want her to, it makes it all the more stressful and frustrating. Imagine if you got a power-up from a later level and head back and then just… don’t manage to get where you need to and no longer have it and have to essentially fully quit out and go back? That just isn’t fun to me. And knowing there’s so many power-ups and I got frustrated with just the few in the demo doesn’t really bode well for the rest of the game.

The thing I honestly had the most fun with, besides wondering about the story, was actually the whole area with the Tims. Building up the giant Tower o’ Tims which was essentially a big Rube Goldberg machine was great:

I really want to know how big it can get in the full game.

The only thing I’m sad about with it is it seems you can lose some of your Tims as while I had 10 at one point, I had only 7 by the time I finished with the demo :(

Regardless, I’m really curious about how the story unfolds… But I just don’t know if I’ll ever get around to finding out myself.

Just random New Horizons thoughts

In general, whenever there’s an update, there’s always some amount of arguing from different sides. And in the same vein of people getting upset every time there was any kind of thing from Nintendo that did not mention the brand new AC game (which I still think New Horizons could’ve used more time honestly), people are upset for generally one of two reasons:

  1. Not everyone was added back yet

    2. or

  2. The time-locking of events

On the subject of the first one, I feel it’s along the same lines of everyone getting angry anytime we never got information for a new game. We had no indication of it. Just because you want it doesn’t mean it can happen and yelling about it isn’t going to encourage it either.

We’ve seen how they’re doing things for nearly a year. You don’t have to like it, but acting like we were going to get anything more than Pave this update was silly and there’s no reason to get angry at the update for not being something it was never going to.

I hate that we’re still missing so many things. I know some people like this update system where we get some stuff every month or two, but for me, it’s just… frustrating? I’m very much a “get as much done as possible and then prepare for the rest”. And then I can… take a break. I can play just to play. I can work on other minor goals.

But I never get that break point because I can’t predict what’s coming. I can’t prepare for events in advance because I have no idea what to expect. I’m entirely at whatever schedule they decide to bring things back. Even preparing my island in advance is an issue to the point where part of me just hopes there won’t be something I like even more because I’m out of room to put things and I don’t want to change what I have.

And I think, one of the most frustrating parts, is I can’t even just… do mindless activities like fishing or catching bugs to work on the Nook Miles thing like how I worked on the Gold Badges in New Leaf because every time a tool breaks, it’s just… a chore. And that’s one of New Horizon’s biggest issues– where New Leaf encouraged doing things you loved and just getting rewarded for having fun, New Horizons just feels… exhausting. It doesn’t have that same lighthearted easy-going and like, I’m not going to say Animal Crossing has never felt chore-ish– we had moments where we essentially worked for Nook and had to pay off our house loan (even if we have no pressure on how long it takes), but in the realm of the former, it wasn’t that long and was over quickly. With the loan, we could take our time and not really feel rushed to do it.

But tools breaking? It’s constant. It is something you will keep running into in some form, whether you decide to make a new tool each time or customize one, if it can be, to reset the uses. It takes you out of the moment and either way, you’ll run out of materials at some point and have to go gather more up.

I struggle so much with repeatable tasks that I really have to get into the mood to feel like working on fishing and catching bugs once my museum is complete. But I need to just… fully sink my feet into it. The moment my concentration is broken or I’m forced to break from the specific cycle I worked out for myself to catch as much as I can, I can’t get back to it. A tool breaks or I run out of customization kits? My concentration is broken and that’s all I can deal with for the moment.

It’s hard to say what my favorite Animal Crossing game was. Gamecube stood out for me a lot honestly, and while a large part of it was absolutely nostalgia, with the exception of a few things I didn’t miss (like villagers painting your house), there were a lot of things I preferred from it such as the town layout, the hobbies villagers could have (though, I wasn’t fond of the meanness that others seemed to like), and honestly, I liked not having the rolling map. I also enjoyed the cozy feeling of the map– like you just found this place in a little valley and did your best. I also really loved the train and having a cute Gyroid just hanging out in front of your house was fun.

Two of the biggest things for me with Gamecube though were not having an item limit so I could just… literally fill up a room to the brim if I wanted and having the regional items just being around.

Wild World didn’t bring much for me beyond some nice villagers I liked, a bigger house (which was partially dwarfed by the limit of how much you can put in each room), and being able to customize your hair. Obviously there were some new furniture and clothing I liked, but focusing on just new features, those were really the only big changes I was happy with (besides anything that fixed issues I had with the original).

City Folk is still my least favorite game due to somehow feeling like a dialed back version of both the original and Wild World with only a few exceptions. NOT TO MENTION CHANGING MY FAVORITE OUTFIT TO MATCH A NEW SET :|

Not to mention both games removed regional items which was… a huge disservice, to say the least.

I actually did like the city area though. I wouldn’t mind there being more areas you can take a trip to/visit in the same vein we have Harvey’s Island/Photopia and the Nook Miles Islands in New Horizons. I think it’d be a good way to balance the fact that a lot of people already planned out their towns too and really don’t have room for more shops and things.

The credit card was also handy. Honestly, considering we have a phone in this game though, I feel like there’s no reason we can’t use that. In fact, there’s a handful of quality-of-life stuff missing from New Horizons that we had in other games (The Credit Card, the Megaphone) could be regulated to the Nook Inc. Phone we get.

New Leaf also let us withdraw and deposit money even in friend’s towns and adjust storage– things we can’t do in New Horizons unfortunately.

In general, I feel like New Leaf brought a lot of things I really liked: Exterior House customization, a full shop street (which was a nice re-do of the City, even if a bit smaller– I also liked having the museum there with the only issue being that people visiting or using Dream Suite couldn’t visit it), Dream Suite, the Public Works (though, how you got a lot of them sucked), the Town Ordinances (still wish you could’ve had multiple though), nearly half of my newest favorite villagers (Maple, Peanut, and Cookie were the original three followed by Marina in Wild World. City Folk didn’t have anyone get on there, but New Leaf brought Merengue, Diana, and Flurry), and just was a really good time. The tree planting ceremony was also really touching.

If it wasn’t for the Beautiful Town Ordinance, I would have never managed to do anything with my town. I didn’t have the patience for watering my flowers every day so I rarely managed to keep them alive.

Regardless, this is supposed to be about New Horizons and to be blunt, so many people talk about how New Horizons has brought so many quality of life improvements, but other than Villagers not moving without your consent (which was a huge problem especially in New Leaf), most of the other things I felt were done better in side games or address some things, but also take away things at the same time rather than being the best of both worlds.

To kind of expand on that, Happy Home Designer, while not a main game, was the first to give us decorating outside, different room sizes, and being able to close curtains and/or even have different window types. New Horizons, while it has the decorating outside in full force, doesn’t give us the option to choose what rooms we may want a bigger size or not, gives us smaller side rooms, and the windows are dictated solely by your wallpaper chosen. We also are missing the door customization and ceiling items that HHD introduced so in a lot of ways, the interior decorating feels kind of like a downgrade.

Sure, the longer rooms are nice, but just imagine how much variance we could have if we could pick. I’m okay with the current side room size for the bathroom (though, 8×8 would absolutely make it less cramped and let me use a few other things), but I’d love to have a longer Kitchen and maybe yard area as well (though, again, 8×8 would be great) and honestly, 8×10 would be nicer than 6×10.

We’re also missing exterior options for the house. Why are there no housing styles this time around? HHD had the ones from New Leaf in addition to many others and we have… none of them.

Similarly, so many style types just aren’t here. I loved the Fairytale stuff especially and was really hoping to see that back with maybe a few other color options and we have nothing. Not to mention the large amount of items that are just… gone. Sets that have been around since the start are no longer here. Could they be added in again later? Sure. Is it possible some of the changes were due to adding more color options? Of course. But I feel like, especially for their home console, there had to be some kind of way to truly improve on all those aspects without removing so much.

Happy Home Designer even had more pattern space in a sense– while we technically have the same amount in New Horizons, forcing 50 to be for clothing makes it a lot less flexible and it’d be nice to see that increase. Considering they did increase storage, I’ll keep my fingers crossed at least.

Moving on to expand on my latter point– the International Items. Having them in the Nook Shopping as Seasonal Items is great especially for those who didn’t know players with the game in different regions and/or preferred playing by themselves. However, I miss the events.

Even if they were small and just a little decoration and Isabelle out in the plaza, I really enjoyed them. I liked learning about them and participating in small ways no matter how minor it was. And I would’ve preferred either seeing the events in conjunction with the Nook Shopping or just… actually having the events in all regions. Part of the nice thing with Gamecube is it just… kept everything in. It didn’t matter if we had no idea what some of these items were and at least for me, it inspired me to look them up and learn about them.

It’s nice having something built in right away to tell us, sure, but I just… miss having that interactivity and fond memories of visiting friends and inviting them over for unique events too. Like I said, I think it would’ve been possible to do it so nobody was left out, but I just wish it didn’t go solely the way it did.

And just, my biggest issue with the Nook Shopping way of handling is that… All the Seasonal Items can’t be re-ordered until it’s that time of year. They don’t show up properly in your catalog which stresses me out so much as I always worry if I got enough or did remember to order it and there’s no real reason for it at all. Why not let it work like regular cataloging? Why do Seasonals exist in this like… ghost zone? It’s probably my biggest issue, especially for people who don’t time travel and want to help out friends who started playing late or couldn’t get on at the time.

Like even when Nintendo had the sending out some new DLC monthly, a lot of them were reorderable. And the ones that weren’t unfortunately were fairly rare. It’s just not a good system and in a game that encourages collecting, it’s especially frustrating.

Going past Nostalgia-view and how past games did things, I want to talk more about the second point I made at the start: Time-locking events.

There’s a lot of people who don’t like being spoiled for events and fine, that’s fair, but personally, I really enjoyed being able to plan ahead. It helped reduce a lot of the anxiety over if I’d manage to get everything done in time and let me not really worry every day up to the event.

Also while Nintendo may want these events only done at certain times, when it comes down to it, that’s not possible for everyone. I have friends who, due to their job, literally can’t get on the game during the fishing or bug tourneys as they have the same hours as their work. Time Traveling is a good alternative for those who may miss out otherwise and it’s part of why I have such an issue with games where they just… put in and take out events in patches because it sucks to miss out due to something that may be out of your control.

I don’t time travel personally, but just having that safety net is honestly a huge relief and helps me play the game in a more relaxed state than I would be otherwise.

And when it comes down to it, if someone wants to buy a $60 game and rush through it in a few days, so be it. I won’t say it doesn’t bother me sometimes because that isn’t true, especially in this game where the first week is kind of agonizing as you’re so limited to what you can and can’t do.

I think especially with New Horizons and everyone being able to share, it’s a lot harder to not compare your island to others so when you see people so far ahead whether it be due to time traveling and getting certain items, getting items you should not be getting (or shouldn’t be possible), or just due to what they managed to do with terraforming, it can be really disheartening.

Terraforming in general is just… not something I’ve found myself enjoying as much as I could. I’ve seen so many people praise the sandbox format, but if it’s not a format you enjoy or if you struggle with so much freedom (IE: When I play Sims, I do a lot better taking an existing house and customizing it versus taking an empty lot and building my own), it’s just… really distracting in a sense? It feels so looming and foreboding and it’s hard to feel happy with anything you make, especially without an option to easily test things out and reset it if you change your mind.

There’s also so many rules with it and how everything has to be tiered that even the few things I was excited for quickly became frustrating and all the more stressful. If Terraforming didn’t return, I wouldn’t really miss it, especially if it meant we wouldn’t have another North beach situation. I think the biggest irony at all is that they added so much freedom in shaping, but not fully customizing. Looking at Pocket Camp and all the different terrain options, it’s so surprising to me that we found nothing like that and in fact, even have less options in a sense as there’s no different grass types this time around.

And like, I feel that’s the focus of the game a lot and New Horizons feels like a big twist on the series, in a similar vein of Breath of the Wild compared to other Zelda games, even if on a much smaller scale. You can find those similarities, but at the same time, certain things feel so different. And as a note, I hated the weapon/tool durability there too.

Crafting is honestly just not a system I ever enjoy. I don’t find it relaxing because of the repetition and I almost always worry about running out of materials and not being able to do anything about it. The whole reason I put down flowers and transparent patterns everywhere is because I can’t stand digging up fossils and pulling weeds once I’m done with things that require them along with controlling how many flowers I have.

And that doesn’t even go into how much of a pain it is. Materials share storage with everything else, there’s no way to bulk craft, you need to hit A a few times each time to speed up, and it’s tiring. They wanted New Horizons to be slow-paced, clearly, between the week long start (at the shortest!), the time-locking, how K.K. works (as a side note, I kind of liked AC having some kind of side story where you helped out Nook and wouldn’t have minded that being longer if only because we can’t really do any favors for anyone otherwise), and the way “new” content is coming out, but the whole point of Animal Crossing is to go at the pace you want to– not the Creator. Forcing it on the pace they want you to play takes away from how a lot of people enjoyed the game and it’s caused so many of my friends to stop playing altogether because they just got bored. And even if new updates seemed fun, it just wasn’t worth the effort to bother and hit another wall.

I just wish I could fully enjoy New Horizons, but there’s always something that… as soon as I hit it again, just ruins my enjoyment. Whether it be due to tool durability or just trying to talk to my villagers. The Villagers dialogue is just… such a mess. There’s a lot based off things around them and they can interact and stuff, but some odd things I’ve seen at this point include:

  • Villagers kind of hate talking to you. You talk to them more than once and it’s suddenly “Did you need something?” “I’m sure seeing you a lot!” “Is this island not big enough for the both of us?” and just… it makes it hard to want to talk to them at all.
  • So much was put into observation dialogue that just regular dialogue often repeats with the same villager personality type and unless you only have 8 villagers, you’ll have to double up on at least one personality type.
  • In a similar sense, while they were giving Hobby Animations, we rarely see them talk about it.
  • No longer being able to ask if they need anything. You’re just kind of hoping they’ll have something for you to do.
  • Villagers also generally seem to congregate where you are. In general, if I just stand somewhere long enough that normally they wouldn’t be, they all just seem to start showing up rather than having their own routines.

As much grief as I give Pocket Camp (and you’ll see plenty when I finally finish an entry I’ve been writing since November), I will say it does a great job of giving Villagers more personality between their biographies to their fortune cookie theme and the memories. Too bad so much of it is locked behind Leaf Tickets -_-

Regardless, I’m not going to say none of the other games had these types of moments that just kind of killed my enjoyment because that wouldn’t be true (the whole broken moving mechanic in New Leaf was one of the biggest reasons I stopped playing and again, I can go on and on about Pocket Camp but that’s also a side game), but there’s so many ways I really hoped New Horizon’s would be the best of everything we’ve seen so far. And it’s not. It’s really not.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Day 327: The February Update AND MERMAID FENCES!!

Twitch Collection | Youtube Playlist | ACNH Overview

Can you tell what part I was most excited for? Before we get to the update that happened today though, I do want to talk about some stuff I’ve been doing until now!

First, let’s head back to Day 293 where I actually had my very first Aurora!

It took a while to show up, but it was really pretty.

I also got a new letter from Mom featuring Mom’s Art which is probably one of my favorite items. All the paintings are so pretty.

The 3rd was the Fishing Tourney, but having already gotten all the items and the stamp from a friend’s Southern Hemisphere town, I decided not to participate. The very next day though was Diana’s birthday!

The Pink Camellias also started blooming and are honestly probably my favorite bush this time around. It’s too bad they aren’t around during Cherry Blossom season.

I also had my highest turnip price yet (though at a time too late for anyone to really be able to use it T__T)

And gave myself a new project of giving my villagers aesthetic-related tools for them to use instead.

Unfortunately, some of them still displayed them in their house and god I wish I could re-do some of their houses.

I do like how Villagers can change some of their items based off what you give like their Winter/Snowing wear as an example.

Meanwhile, I finally found Wisp again after not seeing him for ages. Considering where he spawned, I can kind of see why. I only have to help him one more time to finish up the Nook Mile now though at least.

Valentine’s Day stationery also showed up and I love it so much. It’s so pretty.

I also ended up doing something with a simple panel enough to set up a “door” for the area with the “backyard” so to speak in the house. I had hoped the door options from Happy Home Designer would come over and while a part of me still hopes, I’ve mostly given up on that point.

In general, updates just feel so stretched out and so often it’s content that we’ve had in some form from previous main games already. And while adding some new DIYs to existing things to be nice, honestly, I like relaxing and being fully done with something. The idea of having to get back to that same season or event or specific thing just in hopes to get the one new DIY added isn’t that fun to me.

Finally, we’re here on update day!! For one, the Maracas are super cute.

I don’t know how much I’ll use them, but I still adore them.

At this point, I thought there may not be anything else to do right now. I ordered the new seasonal items (Beans, a Megaphone (I got the Starry one today), Football Rug, and the Resetti Model), but Maintenance was still ongoing for online connections so I still couldn’t gift things to friends or get anything.

But then I found out the Mermaid Fence was finally properly in the game. And I immediately went to find a scallop for Pascal and pray for a Mermaid fence. Much to my delight, after several minutes or so of searching, I not only found my scallop, but did indeed get the fence I’ve been longing for!

I immediately set out using all of my Coral and Sand Dollars making as many as I could.

Thanks to Leo, Noxness, and my husband, I managed to get enough for all the fences I needed (and I’ll take more photos of that during the day and probably edit them in tomorrow), but my Coral and Sand Dollars are completely drained.

Despite the paranoia of lack of materials, I’m so happy about the fences. I’ve felt really unhappy with my island/town and paths and everything felt wrong, but despite being such a small thing and me even keeping other fences in certain areas, finally having the Mermaid fences really felt like things were actually coming together. I hope that means when Cherry blossom season hits, it’ll really set the tone and aesthetic I’ve been hoping for.

And with maintenance over, I received some of the Nook Shopping Seasonals from Zed and my husband!

Using the Megaphone is honestly a little scary, but they’re still cute. I also kind of want to find somewhere for the Resetti model, but I don’t really have any ideas yet.

As for the beans, I’m a bit disappointed they don’t really bounce anymore like they did in New Leaf. They also don’t seem to cause birds to show up like what could happen at the campground in New Leaf (I even tried going to Harvey’s Island, but you can’t equip anything there v__v;) so that was also pretty upsetting. Maybe it’ll work during the day or it’s just not a thing this time…

They’re still cute though and I decided to put some beans at the end of the dock. I don’t know, I guess I thought it looked cute or like the idea of little pellets for the fish or birds or something…

Anyway, that finishes up today’s entry! Next entry will likely be mid-February with Festivale, new seasonal items, and Flurry’s birthday (which is on the 30th of this month). Also be sure to keep an eye on Youtube channel tomorrow as I’ll be uploading me checking out things with the new update hitting in a fun video along with getting all my fences done in a second video :)

Edit: As promised, some screenshots from Day 328 showing some photos during the day! But first, thanks to friends, I managed to get the other Megaphone colors so now I have all four!

Now, the main focus– the Mermaid fences!!

I had been feeling so dissatisfied with my town and just having nicer fences have made me feel a lot better about so many things. I’m even happy with my path again. And I really like my entrance too no!

As I worked on the park though, I was reminded of some of the pink sand patterns I’ve seen. I decided against using it on the beach as it can’t actually fully line-up to the areas the water flows on.. But then I thought, why not try using it for the playground?

With some encouragement, I gave it a shot and I’m honestly pretty happy with how it came out. Definitely makes me wish I could actually have a pink beach though.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Days 291 and 292: Happy New Year!! (and a few days before)

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So firstly, Happy New Year’s Eve (for when I’m writing parts of this) and Happy New Year (for when this is posted)! While tons of other events are missing in New Horizons, New Year’s Eve is one of the ones that is still around and has actually been in from the start!

Despite that, I have done my due diligence to wait until the proper date to celebrate the New Year, even if doing both the event while also spending time with family has always been a weird balancing act.

Of course, the celebration started a little bit early with various new seasonal items available in the Nook Shopping app until today that are right in time for New Year’s Eve along with an announcement about the countdown today!

There was also an announcement for Diana’s birthday. I already picked out a present for her.

Regardless, it’s time for New Year’s Eve so Isabelle and Tom Nook were both out at Resident Services.

I didn’t expect so many Balloons. I also didn’t expect Resident Services to be completely closed so uh, I hope I have more than enough bells today.

Isabelle had a Light Stick for us.



Tom Nook had Party Poppers for us. And was also selling New Year’s hats.


I don’t really like how they’ve made it so you only get half the colors and only one type is available… But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised considering how many other walls this game has had this time around. Regardless, despite how cute they look on Isabelle and Tom Nook, they kill my ponytail so I’m not wearing one afterall.

Regardless, I took their advice and still dressed for the occasion!

Now it was just the wait until 11PM…

It was fun talking to all my villagers, even if the dialogue was all set by personality so quite a bit of duplicating. I was annoyed they kept making comments about the hat though if I wasn’t wearing one. Maybe I’d wear one if it didn’t kill my ponytail :(

There was seriously way too much emphasis on if you were wearing a hat or not. And I still don’t understand why there isn’t a New Year’s Tiara like I actually wear in real life.

I checked in a few times for various dialogue and you can see more of it in my video of it, but I decided to focus on more of the end stuff screenshot-wise.

I have a tradition with my family which means I never really get to watch the countdown as it’s impossible for me to both record it and be with them. I like having the recording though. I feel bad I wasn’t able to count down along with the light stick though.



I then went around to talk to all my villagers. Repeated dialogue was excluded from below, but you can still check everything out in my recording.





I also got to stop by Meg’s town for her island’s New Year’s Eve celebration as she’s 5 hours ahead of me! It was fun partying with all the Sheep.


I was surprised to get the Nook Miles stamp from it though considering you can’t earn K.K. Slider ones from friends’ islands. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and I at least got to count down a little then!

Anyway, here’s hoping 2021 to be a lot better. I’ll edit this later when it’s hit 5AM and I’ve managed to get some of the new Nook Shopping items ^-^

Edit: As promised, New Year’s Day (post-5AM) small update! There was even special music today.

Meg sent me over two of the items– the Olivier Salad and the 2021 Balloon Arch. Am I the only one sad that the original recipe for the Olivier salad is essentially lost to time? I don’t know, I just find that kind of heartbreaking. As for the Balloon Arch, it’s cute but I have no idea where I’d use it.

I had a few new New Years greetings from villagers, but nothing too different from last night. I did, however, get an extended one from Isabelle:

Even though Isabelle will often have something said for certain holidays/special days, I’ve noticed Tom Nook never does which I find odd? He’s not heartless and he was definitely celebrating last night so I have no idea why he doesn’t get any special dialogue as well.

Even the Nook Stop had extended special dialogue:


With help from my husband, I did get three more of the new seasonal items today and they were ones I had an idea of where to put them…

I did update my Dream Suite so feel free to visit “in person” as well :) The last two items (and a few extras) should arrive tomorrow.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Days 284 and 285: Toy Day!! (and a few days before)

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Happy Holidays everyone :) It was Toy Day yesterday in New Horizons– I did my best to knock it out before having to take care of my own Christmas Eve plans even if it’d probably have been more appropriate a bit later in the day. Regardless, my playthrough of the event is already up on Youtube as well as the day after so feel free to watch those as well if you want to see more than some of the screenshots.

Before we get into all the Toy Day stuff, a little on the lead up! I was really excited to see a tree actually get put outside Resident Services in conjunction with some of the Cedar trees now being decorated.

The Plaza was even nicer at night.

I also received a gift from Maple– a Festive Wreath!

I also got a letter from the Perfect Snowboy with a Frozen Tree.

Finally, some cute screenshots enjoying the Winter mood before we start talking about Toy Day.

Knowing I’d probably be delivering presents, I decided to dress the part the night before. While there is the Festive Dress, the lack of sleeves while in the Northern Hemisphere felt silly so I made use of the Santa Top and a nice skirt. The shoe decision was the hardest part! I was originally leaning towards the black boots, but in the daytime, the brown honestly looked better.

I immediately headed to the Plaza to meet Jingle as soon as I started playing.

As a side note, I really the Resident Services decorations.

My first task was to make some wrapping paper.

I ended up making 14– one to keep, 3 for Jingle, and 10 for the presents I had gotten my villagers. I had hoped to give them their presents before starting the Jingle job, but to my surprise, it seemed I wasn’t able to. I kind of wish I spoke to all my villagers before continuing the next part to see what else they may have said about the Holidays.

So, I headed back to Jingle to give him the wrapping paper.

Jingle then asked me to take over the gift giving as one of the greatest joys is seeing people’s expressions/excitement when giving gifts and he wanted to share that feeling.

Honestly, I agree with him. One of the things I’d love to be able to do, if money situations stop sucking, is give gifts more often to both friends and strangers. I just like helping people. It’d be nice to be able to make more people happy.

It was then time to go around giving gifts! I didn’t screenshot everyone due to some dialogue repeating and also having only so much time to play, but I had a lot of fun giving gifts and seeing the villagers excited. I think what surprised me the most was when some of them gave me gifts in return during all this along with asking to exchange gifts later.










I think Merengue’s, Judy’s, and Teddy’s comments hit me the most. Regardless, with the deliveries done, I made my way back to Jingle.





With deliveries for Santa and Jingle all done, it was time for the gift exchange will my villagers! Again, didn’t screenshot everything due to some repetition, but I did get gifts for everyone!













Honestly, the whole thing was so much more heartwarming than I was prepared for.

As for the gifts from Jingle… I got the gift box DIY and actually made 7 so I can have one of each color.

And after seeing the sled was a lot smaller than I anticipated, I had the perfect place for it.

As for the stockings… I didn’t really have room in the living room, so I ended up putting them in the Kitchen:

As for today, well, I went to check my stockings as advised by Jingle…

Honestly, it’s kind of a gift when you consider it, but it’s really neat for it to be set up like this too.

To my surprise though, when I went to talk to my villagers today, each of them ended up starting out talking about how thankful they were. Once again, some of these hit really deep, even if there was some repetition with my normal villagers.









I don’t know what I wanted from Toy Day or what I was expecting, but it was really warm and fulfilling and I’m glad I got to do it. Tomorrow the new Nook Shopping seasonal items should be available and then it’s just the wait for New Year’s Eve…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Days 271 & 272: The Snow that broke the Villager’s back

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In general, if you watched my video yesterday, you may already know some of the issues I had, but if not, I’ll be talking about it here along with some other feelings.

This entry, barring these issues, would’ve been posted yesterday, but oh well. Regardless, yesterday snow finally starting sticking to the ground. I actually love when the snow starts falling and I really like the Winter-look (The light mint color of the leaves is so pretty and I wish I could mix parts of Winter and Cherry Blossom season together…) so my general feeling was excitement, at least at first.

I had set aside a small area in advance putting the chess set near Able Sisters somewhere else in the meantime. Unfortunately, there was one “small” problem. The area was too small this time around for the Snowballs to spawn.

I was expecting it to be similar to New Leaf where I could remove a few flowers and have it spawn in the empty spaces, but that… was not the case. I needed a much bigger area. After a quick tour around, there was really only one place that could work and thus, I had to uproot the small orchard behind the village area. As expected, the snowballs spawned there immediately after reloading.

And then it was just… a long time of waiting for a Dung Beetle to spawn as it was the last bug I needed.

With that out of the way, it was time to work on my very first Snowboy. Only to hit a new problem. After measuring out carefully, it turns out there was another frustrating change from New Leaf: You can’t make a Snowperson on flowers. So as I continuously tried to push the smaller snowball onto the large one that I had placed into some flowers to make more room for rolling (especially as rolling them felt harder to control between how they’re kicked (and somehow not destroyed??) early on and then how they roll later– I get it’s more realistic, but I’m not exactly playing a game with Animal Villagers for realism), I also was making the smaller Snowball bigger.

After moving the big one out, I placed some paths down to try and make the smaller one a bit smaller again, but alas, did not manage to do a good enough job and only did a “nearly perfect” Snowboy. Which also meant I couldn’t unlock the Nook Miles Stamp/Card just yet.



With my failure set in stone, I went to donate the Dung Beetle to the museum at least much to Blathers’ delight.



I honestly am curious now what would’ve been said if you completed the museum before the Art collection was in and then beat it again. Regardless, the Dung Beetle now has a happy home though I am kind of concerned about it sharing its exhibit with the Scorpion…

I pretty much stopped playing after that, frustrated, but the next day, I did get my letter from The Farway Museum with the Golden Net DIY. I already had a Golden Net from a friend, but it’s nice to actually earn it.

I then made my way back to Snowball field to suffer try my hand at once again making a Perfect Snowboy. And thankfully, succeeded.



And that was… it. I don’t think there’s really a good way to explain when you just feel your goals kind of begin to crack and shatter, but it’s how I felt between ruining an area of my island, suffering to make a perfect Snowboy, and then getting that stamp where I would need to do this 19 more times to complete it was soul-crushing.

And if I’m not going to complete it, I don’t exactly feel motivated to continue with the other Nook Miles. I’ve mentioned before how Nook Miles Stamps feel so different compared to earning the Gold Badges and I still feel that way. While I felt I had some level of control in New Leaf, I feel like a lot more of the New Horizons ones have walls and other obstacles to make things longer. And like… Why does Snowmaestro need PERFECT snowman? Why aren’t just not-bad ones good enough? I’d think those would be “quality” too. New Leaf was about encouraging you to do what you love. New Horizons is about doing it a certain way to matter.

Maybe I’ll still try some of the more simpler ones like the selling fruit one as I’d like the words for some of the Stamps from that… But as for certain titles from completing Nook Miles+ things and Snowmaestro, among finishing in general, I don’t know if I can deal with anymore.

At this point, I feel more like I just want April to come back around just to upload my Dream Suite and be done with the game because it’s beaten me down so much, I barely want to play it anymore. It’s ironic how the game that added things for “more freedom” can feel so overbearing this time around and it really breaks my heart.

Moving onto something more positive, the other day Judy was unfortunately sick. I still am kind of surprised she’s Snooty, but I really do adore her. And outside of the weirdness of the Block furniture being used (I blame the lack of several sets– I bet she’d have loved the Rococo set), her entire room is just incredibly aesthetic. I hope they make Amiibo cards for all the new villagers.

If I could ever afford to, I’d love to get plushies of all my favorites.

Anyway, I don’t know, I’ll likely still pop in each day for now, but it just… feels so much more like a chore than any fun at this point. I wish I was still enjoying myself.