When the GameCube came out, I was as excited as anyone about the prospect of the new generation, and the new series that Nintendo were developing were no exception. Among those new series was Animal Crossing, which look like a fun, unique RPG. But, my family didn't have money for a GameCube, so I resigned to wait. Years went by, and new Animal Crossing games came out for the DS and the Wii, but again, there was no money for them.

Last year though, I bought myself a 3DS, and I took the chance to jump in on a series that gets consistently good reviews an looked really fun. For a few days, I was immersed in a world where I could collect sea shells, dig for fossils, pick fruit, catch bugs, talk to neighbors, and do lots of little fun things that took no great obligation. I was told I'd have mayoral things to worry about later, but in those first days I wasn't really allowed to do them. That was no worry, I could wait for them, it was just the beginning of the game, after all.

Then, I was told that to become mayor, I had to win over the populace. So, I was given notes telling me what my constituents wanted, and could meet their needs at my own pace. I did so, and now I was the mayor of my own little town. As soon as I became mayor, though, I started getting complaints. I didn't have inventory space once, and dropped a shell on the ground, liked it, and so made a little design on the ground with shells. "That looks nice!" I thought, but not the townsfolk. They now said there was "too much litter on the ground," and that the town seemed run down because of it.

There was tall grass, and I liked that as well, but some horse guy didn't seem to agree, he complained of weeds making the town ugly, so I pulled up all the tall grass. After that, pretty clovers started to grow in too, and I really liked those and wanted to keep them. But, apparently, clovers are weeds as well, and those had to go.

Over the days, I had accumulated a mortgage because I wanted to live in a nicer house, and I was working to pay that off, but then I got requests for more civic improvements, so I decided to split the money between the two. I was promised, as well, that the townsfolk would also give donations, and that we would, as a community, work together to make the town presentable and pleasant to live in for everyone. At this time, I donated about $20,000 to build a fountain. Now, I didn't expect the town's people to give nearly as much as I would, this is a video game after all, but I expected them to give more than $200. Over several weeks.

But I didn't dwell there, I had new varieties of fruit to plant, I was going to make a grand arbor for everyone to frolic in and dwell in shade and the scents of nectar! Until new people started moving into town and bulldozing the trees I'd planted for the community.

I was less than thrilled with my progress, so I didn't play for a few days. I had other games to play, so it didn't cross my mind that a little break might make these frustrations more evident the next time I played. And I think that they wouldn't have, except that since it had been a few days since I played, some pelican guy had some mail for me, and he had a loooooooooooot to say about this particular delivery for some reason. After a few minutes of reading his drivel, I'd changed my mind, I didn't want to play any more that day, so I turned the game off. It was a few weeks before I played again.

The next time I booted the gamed, my assistant had a bunch of stuff to say to me, and the pelican was there, at my front door again, with another delivery that I didn't care about that he had five days worth of dialogue to go with again. Once more, the inability for me to just get going and play the game had sapped my interest. So he stopped talking and I was done again, this time I turned the game off without saving, and it was a few weeks again before I played.

Well that whole no saving thing? That's a problem, apparently, because now some ugly looking mole fuck was yelling at me, telling me I needed to personally fund a government building so that he could yell at me again the next time I decided to quit without saving. Yeah, sure, that's gonna happen pal, 'cause I really wanna see you again. Fuck off man, let me play my game. But, now my assistant wants to badger me again. Don't I care about the town? Why have I let all my mayoral duties fall to her? Blah blah blah, let me play already, I'm an adult, I have a busy life, I don't have time for your shit, let me play. Before I pressed the A button for the last time, I remembered, that stupid pelican is going to bother me. I was already frustrated, and I knew that if I wasn't mentally prepared, that guy would push me over the edge and I wouldn't be capable of playing my fruit picking simulator, so I took a breath, and mentally acknowledge that he would be there, with mail I didn't care about, and a description I didn't want to read to go along with it. Then I pressed A.

I was not met at my door by the pelican, not this time. I was met by some ugly pink thing that I have no idea what he was. He wants to open a club, but I'm the mayor, so he needs my permission. Sure, go ahead, open your club I don't give a fuck, I just want to pick my fruit, catch my fish and help my owl friend curate his museum. I wash my hands of you, you ugly pink whateveryouare. But yes isn't good enough for this guy. No, he wants me to go out and canvass the town, win the hearts and minds of the animal jerks that I've learned to dislike and avoid when they try to run up to me with some banal request coveting my items or trying to shrift their crap off on me in some kind of trade. And I bet you want me to pay for the damned place, too. Well the pelican I could have handled, but I wasn't ready for this guy. So I turned off the game. I vented a few minutes. But I really wanted to catch some bugs and collect some seashells today, man. So I turned it back on.

That mole guy that wanted me to give him a job yelling at me, you remember him? Well, I didn't do that. So my assistant has made it her job now to annoy me when I don't save. Plus she wants to tell me the date and time before she lets me play. And I didn't save, so that pink ugly thing is at my door again, still wanting to open his club. But I've got a new answer for him: No. Get the fuck out of my town you ugly piece of shit, I don't want to see you again. But he doesn't like "no," so proceeds to whine at me for two minutes before running off to pout in front of the place where he wants to open his club.

I didn't get any farther than that, and I haven't played since. I have to say, I've never been frustrated by a game like I have been by this one. I've found that the simpler a game is, the less patience I have for it delaying my play.

This isn't a thread for Animal Crossing bitching per se, this a general LttP thread for New Leaf and for people to share their experiences. I want to hear them all, good and bad.

This is also my first thread, so don't lynch me guys.

For a first post, this is hilarious.

Also, new villagers moving in did my nut in as well.
I used 'tiles' to decorate my town and give my village a lovely footpath to everybody's front door. Looked great, until some jackass always built their house right in the middle of the path. Their was plenty enough space either side of the path I'd made, but nope, the only space suitable was right in the middle of the road.
Every god damn time.

That sounds really boring and frustrating actually

I'll give you an answer but you'll have to wait three days.

Hey don't be mean to Dr. Shrunk.

GOAT

You made it further than me man. God what a game. Insufferable idiot characters and mindless tasks. I was happier laying on my couch looking at the ceiling.

Kyzer said:

That sounds really boring and frustrating actually

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Then I told the story right. Well, at least half right. It would have been fun if they'd just let me play.

themagicalkitsune said:

Hey don't be mean to Dr. Shrunk.

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What kind of animal is Dr Shrunk even meant to be?
He vaguely only reminds me of that naked mole rat from that Kim Possible kids show that I think was on Nickelodeon.

New Leaf was the first game in the series for me too.

Found it a pretty frustrating experience as a game. But it has this bizzaro appeal where the frustration kind of fuses with the crazy character of the game and the residents of the town, and it all just becomes so ridiculous that it's totally compelling.

Case in point, I know exactly what you mean, but reading you describe "ugly looking mole fuck" and "stupid pelican" has just made me burst out laughing and want to play it again.

I love this game. Even after a year I'm still on it. I play it only a couple of hours a week maybe that's why.

KJRS_1993 said:

What kind of animal is Dr Shrunk even meant to be?
He vaguely only reminds me of that naked mole rat from that Kim Possible kids show that I think was on Nickelodeon.

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Looked it up and turns out he is an Axolotl? That's a mouthful.

Best Animal Crossing game. Also, the OP is pretty great.

Also, just open the club by getting signatures, the guy stops bothering you after you open it and you never have to deal with him again, it's not that difficult to do.

Skelter said:

I love this game. Even after a year I'm still on it. I play it only a couple of hours a week maybe that's why.

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Does the economy ever pick up, or is it still just you paying for everything?

themagicalkitsune said:

Looked it up and turns out he is an Axolotl? That's a mouthful.

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Not the first time Nintendo used an axolotl as a base for a character design.

I love New Leaf. Being there when the game first came out and playing every day until mid-October was a lot fun. It was a lot of fun playing with people from GameFaqs and /v/. Even though I stopped playing mid-October I still played at least once a month to complete my museum. On, the other hand, my sister has been playing every single day since the game came out (hasn't missed a single one). Originally she was going to just play it for a year straight but now says she has no intention of quitting after the 9th rolls out. I'm really impressed by her dedication.

I just wish you had more storage space or "loadouts" because it would make the HHA competitions a lot easier. I got all the golden house pieces but I think I missed the very last HHA item.

plus Vladimir is a dick.

Rest said:

Does the economy ever pick up, or is it still just you paying for everything?

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Hell, isn't it? Without you, the town would collapse. This... Sort of makes it a dictatorship. But you're merely a puppet ruler, seeing as everyone else pulls your strings.

I get annoyed when one of the animals says "Hey so I am really busy even though I have nothing to do but walk around town all day and pretend to move the funiture in my house, but the villager that is standing right next to me needs this letter I have so can you do it? And make sure you do it by the end of the day or I will not do anything because this is a Nintendo game and not meant to be so punishing."

Glittering Crux said:

I love New Leaf. Being there when the game first came out and playing every day until mid-October was a lot fun. It was a lot of fun playing with people from GameFaqs and /v/. Even though I stopped playing mid-October I still played at least once a month to complete my museum. On, the other hand, my sister has been playing every single day since the game came out (hasn't missed a single one). Originally she was going to just play it for a year straight but now says she has no intention of quitting after the 9th rolls out. I'm really impressed by her dedication.

I just wish you had more storage space or "loadouts" because it would make the HHA competitions a lot easier. I got all the golden house pieces but I think I missed the very last HHA item.

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She's been playing for a year? I can't imagine that, my few days were all I could take. Do you know what she enjoys in particular?

After playing literally thousands of video games for over 25 years I can say with 100% certainty that Animal Crossing: New Leaf is my favorite game of all time.

There is a good reason so many people can sink hundreds upon hundreds of game time into this title, it is incredible.

Animal Crossing is a game that plays by its own time and not by yours.

I adored the DS version of the game, but really found the 3DS version frustrating for some reason. Just didn't click with me.

I forgot to mention in the OP: I can't buy or sell anything. The times that I have available to me to play video games are early in the morning or late at night, so all the stores are closed when I'm playing. I'm supposed to be able to make ordinances that allow me to dictate when the stores are open, but I haven't gotten far enough into the game, so I can't change the laws. Which means I can't get further in the game. I'm stuck in some kind of loop.

Rest said:

She's been playing for a year? I can't imagine that, my few days were all I could take. Do you know what she enjoys in particular?

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Collecting furniture, decorating her town with different public works and tiles, talking to villagers, and doing holiday events.

I was looking forward to it as I hadn't played any since the GC version. But it was just fucking boring. There is nothing fun to do. It's one of those games that are just addictive outlets for people to waste time on when they're too lazy to do anything else. Ask if it's fun, and people will quote how many hours they spent on it as if that's an answer. I've been there with MMOs. I now wish I had spent my time on something else--even other video games that were actually fun rather than a mind-numbing grind.

And, yeah, it also pissed me off that I had to play within certain hours to do a lot of things, with my 12-hour night shift.

Rest said:

I forgot to mention in the OP: I can't buy or sell anything. The times that I have available to me to play video games are early in the morning or late at night, so all the stores are closed when I'm playing. I'm supposed to be able to make ordinances that allow me to dictate when the stores are open, but I haven't gotten far enough into the game, so I can't change the laws. Which means I can't get further in the game. I'm stuck in some kind of loop.

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If you can build public work projects, you can set an ordinance too. The only requirement is that initial 100% approval rating. They cost 20k each and you can only have one at a time.

Also, no offense, but you seem impatient. There's never a point where Pete (the pelican) says more than like two lines about mail. You can also skip the signature thing for the club and just select it through the public works projects menu later, though I don't see why you would. It takes like 5 minutes at most.

God I hate this game. I just don't understand the appeal at all.

Shit double post

Animal crossing gives you more of a world than a game. The mailman bothers you because that's his job and he's just trying to be friendly. The neighbors move in where they want because they like that spot, and technically you don't own every patch of land in town. If you can't stand to read some lines of text, or you need everything to be perfect and meticulous, then yeah the game isn't for you. But if you want to see a small town evolve with and without your input, then give it another shot.

I do agree that it would be nice if the game gave you more options, or if it was a little easier to have a legitimate source of income after a while, but I think the game is very good about presenting a town that is its own character with real "people" who aren't completely dependant on you, and where the sun rises whether you're there or not.

I guess a certain degree of patience is required? Shit, I'm one of the most impatient people in the world and New Leaf has more hours from me than any other game this gen.

Just play by the game's rules I guess. The only thing that really really frustrates me is not being able to dictate where new residents place homes. It does sometimes fuck up some hard earned foliage. But other than that I can't see a problem. Money is very, very easy to come by, just little by little each day. So while it's frustrating that residents don't pitch in more on Public Works projects, it doesn't bother me because I know the projects will be funded soon enough. And that's kinda what AC is about.

Oh, and I can't ever remember Pete talking to me for more than 20 seconds when delivering. Or Isabelle when I forget to save for that matter. Just tap through it and move on.

badnewsbeers said:

You made it further than me man. God what a game. Insufferable idiot characters and mindless tasks. I was happier laying on my couch looking at the ceiling.

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This describes me perfectly too. I used to love animal crossing on gamecube too. I decided to try out New Leaf for nostalgia's sake, and found myself not only ruining any memories I had of the series but being bored out of my mind. The music in New Leaf wasn't even any good like in past games, so it wasn't even worth turning the game on just to listen to the music.

Rest said:

She's been playing for a year? I can't imagine that, my few days were all I could take. Do you know what she enjoys in particular?

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Theres new and exciting things to do. I've played every day since launch. I love it!

It's fun. I started my town June 15th last year and have played every day since. My activity log says I'm close to 300 hours and I still have a lot to catalog and such. Definitely not the type of game you can just play 8 hours per day but the kind of game you can play 30-60 minutes every day. After the first week everything opens up. Events are mostly fun the first time through so you have a full year of that sort of thing.

I played the DS version but playing every day and not being able to get online killed it for me. Knowing I can hook up with AC-GAF to trade paintings or sell turnips or do whatever.

outunderthestars said:

I adored the DS version of the game, but really found the 3DS version frustrating for some reason. Just didn't click with me.

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same. no sky, but, most of all, no sarcastic/crazed neighbors. in wild world, the neighbors were often flat-out nuts. they'd sometimes get depressed, or ticked off, & occasionally even trash each other. in new leaf, it was like they were all on prozac...

I gave up on the game once I realized that catching beetles on the island was the easiest way to make money. Game isn't fun, especially after that being the best way to make money.

GiantBreadbug said:

I guess a certain degree of patience is required? Shit, I'm one of the most impatient people in the world and New Leaf has more hours from me than any other game this gen.

Just play by the game's rules I guess. The only thing that really really frustrates me is not being able to dictate where new residents place homes. It does sometimes fuck up some hard earned foliage. But other than that I can't see a problem.

Oh, and I can't ever remember Pete talking to me for more than 20 seconds when delivering. Or Isabelle when I forget to save for that matter. Just tap through it and move on.

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For me, it's not a patience issue. I play Nethack with ASCII graphics. I learned how to play the original X-Com without manuals or guides or any of that. I have plenty of patience for a good game. Animal Crossing is not a good game, it's a good time waster. That's all. It wastes your time if you have way too much of it and you are looking for an easy outlet to put it into rather than something that demands something back from you, such as an action or strategy game. The game offers boring micro-games, the boring grind of collecting items, and frustrating experience of customizing the town. That is not appealing to me. If you want something that doesn't demand effort from the player because he's in a micro-depression with way too much time on their hands, I'd recommend visual novels.

You're fighting against the game's pace, OP. That way madness lies. Or long frustrated posts, anyway.

Fraull said:

I gave up on the game once I realized that catching beetles on the island was the easiest way to make money. Game isn't fun, especially after that being the best way to make money.

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Yeah but things are too expensive. I don't want to be poor like real life. I WANT TO BE FREE.

Also while you can adjust the store hours to open early or close late, I'm pretty sure nothing is open between midnight and 6 AM (except the club?) and the store hours are still staggered so the only time everything is open from about mid morning to early evening, regardless of the ordnance in effect.

I have night owl in my town and I'm pretty sure the shops on Main Street are open until 10:00pm and Re-Tail is open until maybe 1:00am. I work in a school so I can only play mornings a couple days a week most weeks.

If you always work hours that make Animal Crossing a pain, start the game up and when you are asked if the time is correct, tell it no, it is not. It lets you correct the time, bump it forward like 8 hours or however much is needed, and from then on the game is on your time. Just don't use time to cheat!

I think this game is just not your thing man (and there's nothing wrong about that). You have to be patient and in the right mood in order to enjoy it.

I lost steam after 300+ hours around Thanksgiving last year. I love the game, but the sheer chance art getting the public works projects I wanted made the game feel like a chore once I'd gotten to the sorry if end game, where my house was paid off and I had mostly decorated it how I wanted.

I've thought about losing a weekend to it again and catching up to present day. I miss AC GAF.

I kinda lost some steam and stopped playing it anymore after my first set of neighbours moved out. I wanted them to stay but I didn't want to have to pretty much sign in every damn day.

Now I'm certain if I logged back in all my original neighbours will have been replaced and ... it sucks just thinking about it.

Animal Crossing is the result of a bet. Someone bet Nintendo they couldn't make a game that consists of mindless, tedious "quests" and endless streams of inane dialog.

Villagers kept moving in on top of my projects and my goals and I just eventually gave up on the game entirely. What's the point of being the Mayor if my plans are constantly being spit on by the game itself?

I bought the game midnight on release day and played every day for months, but the way it is I just don't want to play a game that's actively playing against me. I want to play Animal Crossing but, as it is now, thinking of New Leaf just frustrates me.

Rest said:

Does the economy ever pick up, or is it still just you paying for everything?

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I pay for everything pretty much. This is where turnips are useful. Basically Animal Crossings version of NYSE is the "stalk market". Everyday the prices for turnips fluctuate and some towns you can sell turnips for as high as 600 bells per and others as low at 90. This is how I make my money and after a couple of weekends of doing this you'll have more than enough money to never have to worry about it.

I HATE that the villagers can move in where ever they want though. It makes planning my town so much more annoying. I even got Coco who I want to keep but she moved to a STUPID SHITTY spot and I'm seriously considering letting her go. Hell I'd by a cheat device if I could physically move her house location.

I really love Animal Crossing New Leaf, just as I loved Animal Crossing GC before it, but it's also a very, very specific kind of game.

- The tutorial section of New Leaf (i.e. everything before you unlock public works projects, so maybe like a 4-day stretch) is undeniably bullshit. It takes absurdly long and makes the game seem totally barren. Once you get past it, the game opens up more and more with each passing day.

- The saving quirk, with Resetti, is just a side effect of the game's real-time nature. You need to save before quitting, straight up, or the game can't operate the way it's supposed to. But since they can't force you to save before quitting, they just have to make it really really unpleasant to do so, by adding Resetti to bug you every time.

- I get the sense that a lot of people who are down on AC think that getting Bells and upgrading your house is the end-all be-all of the game. It's really not. I bought the game in July of last year and by August I had gamed the turnip market (a sort of stock-market-y weekly trading system) so hard that I would basically never need money again. And yet I'm still playing today, almost a year later. Cause Bells ain't shit. My favorite AC memories are not "Oh man, that time I caught hella Red Snappers and made bank," they're stuff like:

• Planting a cherry orchard near my house and watching it grow
• Going night-swimming on the island with a buddy (and laughing at the amazing songs that Kapp'n sings. Seriously, some of the villager writing in this game is incredible)
• The lead-up to Christmas, where you get to watch the first snowfall of the year and see your town transformed, see your town's trees decked-out in holiday lighting, build snowmen, talk to your villagers to see what they want for Christmas, and then dress up as Santa and deliver their favorite gifts to them on Christmas Eve. I had been playing the game for like 6 months and yet there was all this new stuff for me to experience. It was really cool.
• Writing my villagers all sorts of weird-ass letters and seeing how they responded
• Planning out a path through my town using some cool brick patterns that I had found online, and planting a bunch of hybrid flowers the make my town look gorgeous (the flower breeding system is surprisingly robust, and many people get way into trying to breed rare flowers)

- You don't have to be into super collect-a-thon-y stuff to be into the game, but there is admittedly a lot of that, and at some point if you don't engage with it you'll probably end up tired of the game after like a month as opposed to after 6 months. Everyone ends up getting into a different area. Some people really love fishing and trying to get all the seasonal fish. Some people love trying to get pictures of all their favorite villagers. Me, personally, I got way into home decoration. I love tracking down complete furniture sets and making my home look awesome. Music collection is cool too, if you like seeing K.K. Slider perform.

When I was a kid, I would do this weird thing where I would pretend that I was actually living in the world of the game. Like, in Pokemon, I would just stay in the starting town, pretend that I had just woken up, go downstairs and go to the table and pretend that I was eating breakfast. Then I would go and visit people in the town, take a bike ride, etc., then go home and pretend that it was bedtime. And I did this in a ton of games: Banjo Kazooie, Ocarina of Time in Kakariko Village, and so on...

Animal Crossing is a game literally built around that idea: just pretending to be a little guy in a little down, living a very relaxed and menial life. I don't know why I like that, but I do. Like I said, it's very specific.

Also the soundtrack is amazing, and it's gotten to the point where just hearing certain tracks, like 8:00 PM, makes me feel really calm and happy.

Sober said:

I kinda lost some steam and stopped playing it anymore after my first set of neighbours moved out. I wanted them to stay but I didn't want to have to pretty much sign in every damn day.

Now I'm certain if I logged back in all my original neighbours will have been replaced and ... it sucks just thinking about it.

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Yeah that annoys me too. There should be an option for like "pick your 3 favorite neighbours and those three won't ever leave your town no matter what happens" (except if you take them out of the list).