I really like Animal Crossing and I agree that faux-RPG mechanisms would not make for a much better Animal Crossing, but in many ways New Horizons felt just like step back from New Leaf. The Animal Crossing Bells decoration systems are improved but the furniture assortment is supremely lacking, so that it felt much more difficult to make something which felt as though it's represented me. I've seen lots of very creative layouts, but I've also seen a ton of basically the exact same bedroom or kitchen or living room. It doesn't help that they destroyed the customization options of NL by making like half of the items unable to be customized, so forcing you to wait forever or attempt to trade for the right color box couch.

Having the ability to personalize your island is very trendy, but the real time aspect means that my island felt half baked. I'd begin to execute an idea, spend two weeks moving buildings, then realize that I do not like the outcome. I guess I need to focus on the positives of this island reshaping, but that was something which left me feeling bummed.

The tagging system is cool, but the lack of infinite durability tools has essentially made me never want to touch the game again. I see no reason why gold tools will need to break. Or why any tools need to break. Is it just a mild inconvenience to make/buy brand new tools? Sure. In Breath of the Wild, your firearms break. Some found this annoying, I quite liked it. Why? And I had many weapons at once and collected them so switching to a new weapon was not a job. At New Horizons, switching to a new fishing rod after yours breaks changes nothing about the gameplay. Each pole is the same as the past, there is no significance to any fishing pole. Unless you're actively timing your usage to coincide with trips to sell your fish then you'll need to waste time working to a store or crafting seat. It's a poorly designed system that directly up destroyed fishing and bug catching.

Talking of insect catching, Nintendo chose to ruin that too. Exterior of grabbing beetles on the island in New Leaf, bug catching has ever been terrible for earning money. It had been so much easier to capture fish. Several bugs with strong spawn prices were worth good money. I was enjoying making 300k or so an hour by actively catching bugs. Considering that the costs of the large ticket items at the shop, that seemed about honest, and was fairly equivalent to fishing. Subsequently Nintendo nerfed the spawn levels of these good bugs for apparently no reason. They also cracked down on the interest you got for having bells in the bank. It seemed just like Nintendo thought it was too easy to make money, but they dismissed the biggest moneymaker, the Stalk Market. In previous matches, the Stalk Market has been an actual gamble. Seeing other towns was a really involved process, in order that you were essentially relying on your own prices. With the growth of social networking and the comparative ease of visiting other islands (a process which is still dogshit awful, Nintendo never stops to amaze with their internet ineptitude) it became commonplace to find a good turnip price each week to not just double, but triple or quadruple your investment. And with the increased inventory, purchasing a large number of turnips was cheap Animal Crossing New Horizons Bells insignificant. So people may easily make millions of bells with minimal effort and almost zero risk. And my social media (discord, twitter, etc) was filled with folks saying and asking about turnip rates. It was incredibly annoying, and I feel like it stifled more intriguing conversation.