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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – The 1.9 update!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other changes involved adusting things in the bedroom and basement.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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




It was also Judy’s birthday today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Mario items and Pie!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nintendo Direct thoughts

I debated on and off about writing up my thoughts for the Nintendo Direct yesterday— partially as I don’t feel I have too much to say! But some stuff has still been nagging at me so might as well write about it anyway.

As usual, I’ll just be talking about things that caught my eye or that I actually have something to say about. If it’s not here, it’s not that I forgot, it’s just that I don’t have any real opinion on it.

So, first we have the new Smash character(s) announcement! Honestly, there’s nobody I’ve been hoping for and with each new Smash iteration at this point, I’ve just not found the game as much. I feel Smash focuses so much on the competitive scene between the challenges and higher difficulties and with removing trophies, which was my favorite thing to collect, I just stopped playing after finishing the story.

I didn’t even purchase the second DLC pack and while for the most part there’s nobody I’m upset that joined (The one exception: Sephiroth due to scarring me for life when I was 8 because of what happens to Aerith and it’s why I won’t play the Remake unless something changes), there’s just… nobody I necessarily want. I feel no pressure to pick up the second for that very reason (though, I will admit, I would love to have Aerith’s Mii outfit and the remake of her theme, but then I’d have to buy Sephiroth and I really don’t want to so I am very conflicted), but even so… I just don’t play anymore. Regardless, the irony that the one character I absolutely hate is the one I’d have to buy for the theme song of one of my all-time favorite characters is not lost on me.

That said, I will say this is a very overly dramatic trailer?? Like I really thought it was going to be some DLC thing or something or even somehow a new game with how story arching they made it and it just being her getting into Smash felt like such an anti-climactic twist, but not even in a funny way like what happened with Banjo Kazooie? It just felt weird. Super happy for those who wanted them! I have no particular feelings about Xenoblade so I don’t really care, but that announcement trailer is probably the first one that frustrated me a bit from that whirlwind of emotions.

I will say the Stage looks really pretty though.

Next up was Fall Guys getting announced for the Switch! I feel like I’ve seen a lot of Japanese players really be excited for the game (for obvious reasons considering its inspiration– I love Japanese game shows so much), but also people who would prefer to play on Switch so I’m happy for them.

Personally, I will not be getting it as data isn’t shared between games and I already own it on PC, but maybe we can at least see Nintendo collaborative costumes then… I just hope they won’t be exclusive to Switch.

That said, I will admit I haven’t played tons of Fall Guys lately either. This is partially because I always thought of it as Players vs The Course, but that’s clearly not the popular opinion and sucking due to my own inability is one thing, but losing because of someone else grabbing me and causing me to die sucks and is just not a good time. I hope people playing on the Switch will be nicer/better sports.

The first thing to super grab my attention interest-wise was the announcement of the Famicom Detective Club games (The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind) finally being localized and coming over! I don’t think anyone really expected this, but as someone who loves mystery games, it’s really exciting and it looks great just from the initial footage.

I might just get The Missing Heir to start as The Girl Who Stands Behind looks kind of spooky and I am very skittish, but if I like it enough, I might pick it up anyway. I’m hoping we might see the Collector’s Edition come over too, if only because I prefer Physical Editions over Digital ones. I always worry about running out of space otherwise.

Since the game is Region free, obviously there is a chance that you could just order this version and maybe there will be an option to select your language when you boot it up (or it’ll pick based off your Nintendo Account’s region), but I’m not sure I’d want to gamble that.

The next game to catch my eye a bit was the new Mario Golf. I’m not sure how I feel about it just yet. I kind of suck at Golf, though, that didn’t stop me from enjoying Pangya so… That said, Speed Golf is especially odd to me? Is it just about who manages to get it in first? Because that could be neat and even a bit more relaxing if you don’t have to worry about stroke counts. The special running animations look super silly though.

But what I’m most happy about? Story mode and the return of Miis! I honestly love the Miis, if only due to my love of customization, so a story mode where you play as them has me really excited. Not to mention one of my biggest issues with a lot of the Mario sport-esque titles as they added more into stats is my favorite character to play as doesn’t always fit my playstyle so this could possibly fix things…

The only worry is I have no idea if I’d be good enough to finish story mode… I do hope there could be other outfits too at least.

Of course, that wasn’t the only Mii-related announcement we received– much to my surprise, Miitopia is coming over to the Switch and I can’t say enough how conflicted I am about it. I really enjoyed Miitopia. I have a whole playlist on Youtube for Miitopia and it was the last game I managed to finish before my Capture Card died. I had some of the last extra hard challenge things left, sure, but the battling was never my favorite part– it was the silly antics and story and story-wise, I was essentially done.

But the grinding was awful. Level grinding for various classes, trying to get higher weapons (in which you spin a wheel and hope you get lucky or just hope the Mii you need the item for asks to buy it and actually does so when you give them money)… It took me so long to grind up for everything and it wasn’t a fun time in the slightest so when it comes down to it, I absolutely wouldn’t replay Miitopia. And that’s not really solely a Miitopia thing, it’s rare I replay much of anything.

What really gets me though is they’re adding in some really cool features and I hate that I’m going to miss them because I just don’t have interest in replaying the game again (If I could transfer my data and just do stuff I didn’t finish and/or new stuff? I’d do that in a heartbeat, but unfortunately that option doesn’t exist).

Miis have been incredibly sidelined with the Switch so to see them get a forefront is great, but what kind of kills me is knowing these Mii Creation improvements with tons of new hair due to the wig system and even more eye options among other things is restricted to the Miitopia Port.

I would LOVE to see these get adding to the full Mii creation options. The lack of good hairstyles is one of the most disappointing things with Miis so seeing all of these and just… not knowing if that’ll happen. Just imagine a good long curly/wavy/ringlet-y ponytail!! While there’s still worries of those being exclusive to Pigtails or Sidetails (an unfortunately super common occurrence in games), I can’t help but be hopeful… Heck, I’d pay for more hairstyles too :( Just let me make my Mii beautiful.

Besides the additional Mii features, Horses are also being added. I wonder how many different ones there may be…

Regardless, it just… isn’t enough for me to want to replay the game. It’s not even necessarily rebuying a game I own– I just don’t enjoy playing games. There’s people who have repeatedly reset their Animal Crossing town or played a game over and over and that’s just… not me. It’s part of why I struggle with things like “dailies” in MMOs and the general way you farm resources in games– I find it too repetitive and it burns me out. I’ll just constantly have the feeling of deja vu and it frustrates me incredibly fast.

The only games I’ve personally actually replayed are Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. That is it. Besides those, the closest you can get are Pokemon, where I’d transfer my level 100 Pokemon from the original versions to be able to immediately plow through, and Visual Novels which is only really possible if they have Save States and Skipping options so I can quickly get passed all the content I’ve seen before. Outside those exceptions, it’s very rare for me. I don’t find playing more than one character in an MMO interesting (unless the story is fully different and even then, any quests that overlap will be a grueling experience for me), I don’t enjoy doing the same thing over and over, and once I complete a game, I’m good. There’s no real nostalgia for me to go through it all again. I’d rather just play around in my completed state and just enjoy being done.

And that’s kind of my biggest issues with ports. I’m fine with Ports for those who prefer better graphics or maybe didn’t get a specific system or better accessibility options (always a good thing), but when they add on new features, it’s just… so frustrating.

I’m mainly just hoping that maybe a Miitopia 2 can happen with these features at the least, though, I’d love for them to become permanent Mii features and see a Mii Creator update, or even an enhanced Mii creator I can essentially “buy”. Just give me more content with Miis, Nintendo.

We had the Animal Crossing update next which I was very surprised to see. I guess it does line up with the end of the month, but them constantly advertising the update for March (The one for Festivale was announced as coming late January), having the initial announcement in the middle of February during the direct with the update being out next week threw me off entirely.

In all honesty, as neat as it looks, I don’t really think I’ll be able to work with most of it. I am excited for the Princess Peach outfit though and I’d like to fit those mushrooms in the grove area.

I also think the Warp Pipes are really neat, but just won’t really fit with my island. I’m not even sure where I would put them, but after a conversation with a friend, I may just carry them around and use them for quick warps between two areas whenever I need.

What really bummed me out though is that yet again, other aspects of the update are just left out entirely such as the return of one of my all-time favorite items: The Hinaningyo.

I still find the way Seasonal Items (And Promotional and Posters and really most of the Nook Shopping Specials) are done incredibly frustrating, in part that they are never truly registered in your catalog. I don’t really like how apparently the items for both Hina Matsuri and Shamrock Day (which I’m surprised they kept over St. Patrick’s Day considering how Thanksgiving and Christmas were left alone in New Horizons) will change each day. We’re already stuck only being able to order 5 items a day, do we really need yet another barrier to deal with? New Horizons constantly forces people to go at the pace they want and it really removes the whole “going at your own pace” which let people relax in their own way :/ Despite my grievances, I hope to get the Hinaningyo ASAP and have even made room in advance for it (You’ll see that during my next New Horizons update). I already have ideas for 4-6 of the Blossom Lanterns as well. I also find the Pi Day Pie really cute. I don’t really have room for it (please let us expand our houses… Every room should be at least 8 spaces each way :( ), but I definitely want it. The Shamrock Soda also looks really cute.

As it is, there’s at least 33 Mario items, possibly more if there’s anything beyond the Yoshi’s Egg Rug, and as mentioned you can only order 5 a day so even to just get one of each thing (for showing up in Harvey’s Photopia), it would take about 6 days. The Mario items don’t show up until the 1st so you at least have 5 days to focus on the Hina Matsuri stuff again (which will be available from the 25th until the March 3rd, the actual day of Hina Matsuri) before having to deal with all the Mario stuff and with the Pi Day Pie being available from March 1st until the 14th, that means I can order the 2 I want there and still more or less get the Mario stuff done in 6 days as 2 Pi Day Pies + 1 Extra Pipe = exactly 36 items (well, technically 35 considering we get a Mushroom Mural for updating… but I can use that spot for maybe an extra Peach Dress for Judy or Cookie…) and then I’ll be set until the Shamrock Day items appear the 10th-17th as long as I don’t need to randomly order anything else for some reason :|

Despite my anxiety over balancing Seasonal/Promotional items, I am looking forward to Nintendo’s official Dream Suite Island to be updated for Mario Day and will definitely be doing a visit there again. If everything is all set-up, maybe I can even do the full Dream Suite stream I’ve been planning…

Moving on, World’s End Club caught my eye a bit considering I’ve enjoyed most of the other games from the Zero Escape and Danganronpa characters, but it might be one of those games I have more fun watching played than playing myself.

We also got some more brief Zelda news. Not really much, but I’m still looking forward to Breath of the Wild 2. I’m also happy for those who can finally play Skyward Sword due to it not requiring motion controls this time around. The Joy-cons are really cool and considering my husband’s joy-cons have been drifting like crazy, I’m hoping we can pick them up so he can have a new pair and maybe play some of his Switch games more.

Finally, the new Splatoon 3 announcement… Splatoon is a weird series for me because I really like the characters and lore, but the gameplay just isn’t fun for me. It’s not a gameplay I’m good at, I dislike PVP, and really the idea of a full adventuring game sounded more interesting to me than just more of the same thing with some solo story added on (especially as I found Splatoon 2’s story really difficult). Little Buddy is also really cute, but honestly, I enjoyed Splatoon 2 less than I enjoyed 1 so I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet for 3. The new customization options already look great though.

And I would say that more or less sums it up! I think, at the very least, everyone had something to look forward to and plenty of my friends are happy so that’s great.

BUT PLEASE NINTENDO JUST GIVE US THE EXTRA MII CUSTOMIZATION IN THE ACTUAL MII CREATION…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – February 15th, 2021: Festivale!

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So, it’s officially the 15th which means it’s Festivale today in the Animal Crossing world!

Thanks to some friends in other time zones who had the event start when it was last night for me, I actually managed to get a few items already which is nice.

They sent some feathers too, but I’m going to do my best to try and catch some as well.

Besides what I still need for cataloging purposes, the Festivale item colors I still am hoping to get to keep that I haven’t gotten yet are (Crossed off as I went along):

  • Festivale Balloon Lamp – Red
  • Festivale Balloon Lamp – Blue
  • Festivale Balloon Lamp – Rainbow
  • Festivale Parasol – Red
  • Festivale Parasol – Blue
  • Festivale Parasol – Rainbow
  • Festivale Flag – Blue
  • Festivale Flag – Rainbow
  • Festivale Garland – Blue
  • Festivale Garland – Rainbow
  • Festivale Stall – Blue
  • Festivale Stall – Rainbow
  • Festivale Drum – Blue
  • Festivale Drum – Rainbow
  • Festivale Lamp – Blue
  • Festivale Lamp – Rainbow

Of those, the only extras I have onhand to recolor are a Drum, Stall, and a Lamp. That’s it. I don’t have any other spares. Though, I apparently got extras of the Purple Stage twice…

And I’ll be honest, just between the information from datamines, friends who have started the event already (as timezones), and the way getting items from the shop worked (Color locked by town, only one can be purchased each day so you can barely trade with friends (Sure, you can get up to 6 extras if you pop on each day, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be the same things your friend gets), and they can’t be reordered) along with the fact that the items require Rainbow Feathers to be customized and I already felt anxious and frustrated right from the start.

At minimum, if I somehow managed to get all the different colors of the other items (whether through the event itself or by working with friends who didn’t want them or buying from other players), I would still need 9 Rainbow Feathers to recolor everything (not to mention an extra to keep since you can wear them). And like… they’re rare to even show up for catching and while there is a DIY for it you get from Pave, crafting requires you getting one of each other color feather (so 9 of each color on top of any you may want for other reasons) and you also need 3 Rainbow Feathers for Pave to essentially get the only exclusive thing outside of the Rainbow Feather DIY (and apparently have to give him a bunch of feathers before he even asks for the 3 for that…) and just… like that would be rough enough, but why do the feathers only stack to 3??? RAINBOW FEATHERS DON’T EVEN STACK AT ALL :| And one stack of the other feathers equals one of the furniture items. Removing the three extras I have, there’s 13 total items I would still need (and who knows how many I may need for the ones I want Rainbow) and that adds up to 39 Feathers minimum X-x

It’s just such a pain in the worst ways right from the start. I just hope the Feather spawning rate isn’t as bad as some of the catching seasonal ones has been x__x I have a whole lot of feathers to catch after all.

At the very least, I sort of dressed-up. I don’t really like the Festivale outfits (seriously, why is the more feminine outfit sleeveless?), but the headdress is cute so hopefully this is festive enough.

Unfortunately, I learned Pave wouldn’t approve so for the second event now, I had to once again change my outfit and have my poor character freeze in another sleeveless dress because for some reason so many dresses are only available sleeveless:

Finally, the 15th officially rolled over and with some items down and some feathers already given by Friends, I really hoped it would go well and not be too bad despite my concerns.

Unfortunately, my optimism was short-sighted and I’m so thankfully for the feathers I was given ahead of time by friends who already done the event because I don’t know if I could’ve dealt with it otherwise.

Regardless, before I spoke to Pave, I went and spoke to my villagers… Unfortunately, there was really only one dialogue per personality type.



As for Teddy, despite trying many times, he was just always in his house. I eventually just went and spoke to him and honestly, the first part through me off.

I did finally catch him later when on the way to mail friends some extra stuff.

Meanwhile, Pavé is just as you remember– very excited and his love of dance continues to shine through.

He also gave me the Rainbow Feather DIY.

I ended up catching a Purple Feather first, followed by a Rainbow that was pretty much floating right on top of the Purple… After that, I caught a Red, then a Blue, and finally a Green.


You could also trade Villagers for feathers– whatever color they were wearing is the type of feather they were looking for. Unfortunately, you had no control over what they offered in return.

Regardless, with a Rainbow Feather in hand, it was time to talk to Pavé.

While he would generally take just one Rainbow to give you a Rainbow color variation of the furniture, you needed a stack of 3 of any other color for the respective colored Festivale furniture item (Which was given out a bit random– what you have didn’t effect it, though, if you managed to give enough for 9 items, it should get you the whole set.. He won’t duplicate until after giving out the 9). One thing I liked was how he’d throw out the appropriate colored feathers and say something different based off which color you gave.


After giving him many feathers, he eventually asked me for 3 Rainbow Feathers in exchange for something special.

I still had plenty from what Leo had given me so I had the three right away since I had been trading in for some of the Rainbow items. And thus, Pavé broke into his Super Rainbow dance.



As nice as it is, I don’t really have anywhere to put the Float. The only idea I had for it that could have maybe worked is a block too small.

As for the other Festivale items, I still pretty much kept them more beach focused.


I also ended up putting the Rainbow Lamp in the Grove area later as I thought it kind of fit.

To be honest though, this event was just… exhausting. I felt completely wiped after finishing it and that was with help. The net I bought specifically for the event broke at one point (which just increased my anxiety over the tool durability), constantly getting items I didn’t need was frustrating (At least with some other events up to this point, if they noted you already had something, they wouldn’t give it to you again until the rest of the items were given), and it just… added up so fast.

To get a full set, if you had nothing, would take 27 feathers of the same color. Sure, you could recolor them if you didn’t like any and just kept recoloring, but you’d need 13 Rainbow Feathers per set which sure, you can catch if they show up (though they’re rarer than the rest) or craft them with one of each of the other four colors which then adds up to 52 feathers. That is so many feathers.

I feel like I’d have been less frustrated if the items could be bought multiple times at least from friend’s so you could work together each day if they couldn’t just be re-ordered… Or like just the Rainbow furniture being exclusive to Pavé and could be gotten for certain feather amounts overall with him giving other colors (and more Rainbow) once you have the entire Rainbow set. I feel like New Horizons has been better at, when it comes to final item things, making it a bit clear-cut your job and getting everything without constantly hoping for RNG to be kind, but Pavé has so many random RNG elements and it just got exhausting.

Not to mention after giving Pavé a certain amount of feathers, he’d once again ask for 3 more Rainbow Feathers for another float and whether you want another float or not, you would be unable to give him more feathers until giving him those 3 Rainbow ones. That absolutely sucks. Are there people who maybe want more than one float? Sure, absolutely, but I 100% feel there were better ways to do it. Like once you hit that amount, have Pavé ask if you have 3 Rainbow Feathers for him or just 1… It’s that simple over forcing us to get 3 Rainbow Feathers to proceed every time we hit a certain amount of feathers given.

I really don’t think I would’ve finished without help from friends. And even with that help, I still ended up with the following extras (as a note: Some of these have already been sent to friends):
-2 Purple Confetti Machines
-1 Blue Confetti Machine
-1 Rainbow Confetti Machine
-1 Float
-1 Blue Drum
-1 Blue Flag
-1 Blue Lamp
-1 Blue Stage
-2 Purple Stages
-1 Rainbow Stage
-1 Purple Parasol

I also ended up going through nearly all my Blue Feathers and only had 2 Rainbow Feathers left. I didn’t really have to use any Purple or Green as Purple was my island’s color and I was able to catalog the green from a friend, but I had awful luck with getting the Blue items. I thankfully got lucky with the Red at least.

As for some other things after I poked back in to send stuff for friends… For one, as per usual, some of the NPCs were wearing an event hat:

And it was fun seeing everyone hanging out and dancing.

I also updated my Dream Suite with some of the items added from Festivale… I’m still not satisfied with the Balloon Lamp placement though, but still can’t think of anything better :/

For now, I’m just… really tired. I don’t know what to expect next, but I hope it’s less hectic.

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…