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Animal Crossing: New Horizons details island life, home ownership, neighbors, land development, exploration, crafting, and more

Mista

Mista

Banned




Nintendo shared various new information on Animal Crossing: New Horizons during a dedicated Nintendo Direct broadcast today, which introduces viewers to island life, the basics of home ownership, neighbors, land development, exploration, crafting, and more.

Here is all the information covered in the Nintendo Direct, via Nintendo:
Features New to the Series!

  • Life on the Island: Nook Inc. confidently recommends a trip to a remote deserted island. And that’s not just because it’s the only company that offers this type of package! On the island, life is as peaceful and relaxing as it gets. Since the island is deserted, you can create your new life from the very beginning – just like a pioneer! Time flows as naturally as in the real world, including seasons and day and night cycles that mirror real time.
  • DIY: By collecting specific materials around the island, you can craft a wide variety of things, including tools and furniture. DIY workshops teach you how to enrich your life by crafting DIY recipes. As you become more familiar with DIY, you can even learn special skills like changing the color of your DIY furniture or decorating them with custom designs.
  • NookPhone: Nook Inc. will provide some basic necessities and services, including your very own NookPhone. It has standard apps, like a camera and map, but over time, new applications will be added to support your island needs. The camera can be used to take in-game photos all over the island – you can even add fancy filters like all the cool kids are doing!
  • Nook Miles: For players looking for more concrete goals, and to help offer guidance and inspiration on the island, you can take advantage of the Nook Mileage program. As you fulfill certain challenges and experiences, you will earn miles to pay off the cost of the getaway package or, eventually, to exchange for in-game rewards. Rewards range from in-game Nook Inc. merchandise and helpful items that can enrich your time on the island, to tickets that you can use to visit distant islands.
  • Island Tours: These “mystery island tours” are at the whim of the pilot, so you never know where you will end up! Once on these smaller islands, feel free to gather as many items as you want – like DIY materials and creatures – and take them back with you to your island.
  • Party Play: With the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway package, up to eight people can live on one island.* In Party Play, you can call up to three other players to explore the island at the same time. Whoever calls the others will be the Leader, making the others the Followers. It’s easy to change out the Leader, letting others quickly take charge. Any creatures or items found by Followers will be stored in a recycle box at the Resident Services building!
  • Land Development: While you can cross rivers on your island by pole-vaulting and climb elevated land using ladders, you can also change the landscape by adding bridges and slopes. Once your island is fully decked out, you’ll receive a permit to freely pave your own paths, as well as perform major construction like changing the paths of rivers or building and demolishing cliffs. With your own maintenance and construction permits, you can flex your creative muscles on the land itself, not just the stuff on it.
  • NookLink: Yes, Tom Nook likes to put his name on everything. But when it’s a Nook product or service, you know you are getting something that’s high quality. With NookLink, which is part of the Nintendo Switch Online app, you can scan a Custom Design QR Code pattern from previous games Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer with your real-life smartphone and then download them to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When connected online, you can talk with friends who also have the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game with the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app using your smartphone as a keyboard or for voice chat. NookLink will launch in March, soon after the selected departure included in your Deserted Island Getaway Package.
A Detailed Breakdown of the Getaway Package Experience!

  • Choose Your Island: Before boarding your flight to the island, you will choose the island from a range of options. Choosing to live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, for example, will affect the timing of the seasons, so select the location that suits you best. When the seasons change on the island, so do the activities. For Northern Hemisphere residents, spring will just be starting when the game launches on March 20, so expect blooming cherry blossoms to show up soon!
  • Orientation: After landing on the island, you will receive a helpful orientation session from the Nook Inc. staff. At this time, you’ll be provided with the tent that’s included with your getaway package. You can chat with other island residents about where you want to set up your new home, and help them choose their home locations as well.
  • Resident Services: The Resident Services facility is available to support your daily needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They provide you with services such as the sale of everyday goods, the purchase of unwanted items and helpful advice.
  • Become a Home Owner: The tent provided to you by Nook Inc. is great, but have you considered a house? Home loans have no deadlines, interest or assessment, and you can pay your loan back at your own pace. A house offers much more space than a tent and also includes storage space for any extra furniture and baggage. Once you own a home, you can channel your inner interior designer, setting up the walls, flooring and furniture however you like. You can also use extension and remodeling services to expand and customize your home even more.
  • Customization Deluxe: Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers more customization options than ever before, from personalizing the look of your character all the way down to skin tone, hairstyle and clothing, to placing buildings and items wherever you want on the island. You can even decorate the inside and outside of your home! Turn that island into a MY land!
  • Airport: This is the first place you will land on the island. (It is an airport, after all.) It’s also available to use 24 hours a day, beginning on the day after your arrival. At the airport, you can invite residents of other islands to your own island via the internet or local wireless. You can also travel and visit other islands yourself! Up to eight people can play on a given island at one time**, so feel free to get a good group together and make some fantastic memories.
  • Island-wide Broadcasts: At the start of each day, Mr. Nook, CEO of Nook Inc., will make a broadcast to all residents, updating them with the latest on important island events and advice about how to best enjoy island living.
Features and Updates to Further Your Island Enjoyment!

  • New Residents: When you first land on the island you will only have a few animal residents living there with you. But as you develop your island from the ground up, more neighbors will visit and choose to move in. You can even invite some of the new residents to live there yourself! There’s nothing better than a welcoming neighbor.
  • Free Updates: Free updates will be added after the game launches, with seasonal events continually added throughout the year. The first free update will be on launch day, March 20. By installing this update, you can celebrate Bunny Day with a special event in April. If you own both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile devices and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll receive special items in each game. Details will be announced at a later date on the official Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Twitter account.
  • Additional Facilities: As you grow your island, more facilities will be built. This includes a museum showcasing the rich ecosystem of the island, a shop full of ready-made furniture and goods you can’t craft yourself, a tailor offering clothing and fashion items, and a campsite where you can invite guests for recreational purposes.
  • Tourists & Events: Your island will not only be home to new residents, but also tourists as well! These temporary visitors are always welcome and can offer up items that cannot be crafted on the island. Visitors can also participate in fun events like Fishing Tourneys and Bug-Offs, which will pop up throughout the year. Through free updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, new special events and seasonal guests will be introduced.
  • amiibo Support: Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports amiibo figures and amiibo cards from the Animal Crossing series. You can also invite these familiar faces to Photopia, an island that exists in the game, where you can place models in creative photo shoots.
  • Twitter Takeover: Keep an eye out for social media savvy Tom Nook, who is rumored to take over the @AnimalCrossing Twitter account right after today’s video presentation.
Click to expand...
Gematsu
www.businesswire.com

Plan Your Island Getaway Today! New Details Revealed for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Tom Nook has an eye for business. That’s why the staple Animal Crossing character took time out of his very busy schedule to host a new video presenta
www.businesswire.com
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
The island tours you can take with Nook Miles, I wonder about them. Are the islands randomly generated? Was the Nook Miles requirement to keep people from exploiting the "go to island catch rare bugs then sell them for sacks of bells" trick? The island tour thing seems like it solves a lot of minor problems. Say I have no friends, which is obviously not true :messenger_loudly_crying: , I can go on those island tours and get the fruit, bugs, fish, and whatever else I might be missing out on by playing solo. Does that seem correct?
 
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Sp3eD

Sp3eD

0G M3mbeR
EHuntingon said:
The island tours you can take with Nook Miles, I wonder about them. Are the islands randomly generated? Was the Nook Miles requirement to keep people from exploiting the "go to island catch rare bugs then sell them for sacks of bells" trick? The island tour thing seems like it solves a lot of minor problems. Say I have no friends, which is obviously not true :messenger_loudly_crying: , I can go on those island tours and get the fruit, bugs, fish, and whatever else I might be missing out on by playing solo. Does that seem correct?
Click to expand...

what it looks like to me that is a yes. I remember in new leaf I had to ask on the forum for some people that had some hard to find fruit to play multi for a bit to get those. This looks like it won’t let you go at your wil (I’m assuming you will only be able to get so many miles per day so you would run out), but still can get new stuff every few days. Totally a welcome feature!

I think it would be fun if they change the island you go to on a weekly basis to keep the game fresh.
 
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Onikaan

Onikaan

Member
Will these tours make visiting friends aimless? That was always the pull for that feature, to go visit a friend and pinch their fruit.

It's cool to visit a friend but if you can't have an impact on their island (or vice versa) the only reason to go is to see what they've been up to. Which maybe enough of a reason for some. I'd like to pop a tent down in a friend's town at least. Have a small stash there, maybe bring them materials to help them erect structures?
 
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Sakura

Sakura

Member
Looks pretty good.
Seems weird they are counting seasonal events as "free updates" though. Didn't the games always have these events?
 
Sp3eD

Sp3eD

0G M3mbeR
Onikaan said:
It's cool to visit a friend but if you can't have an impact on their island (or vice versa) the only reason to go is to see what they've been up to. Which maybe enough of a reason for some. I'd like to pop a tent down in a friend's town at least. Have a small stash there, maybe bring them materials to help them erect structures?
Click to expand...

from the direct, if you are “best friends” (ie you put a Star next to their name on your switch system friends list) you can do whateve you want on their island when you play multi. I’m not sure if the ghost town option will be back to see their space without a multi game active, but you can also send letters with presents to other islands now which should make sending items a little easier then setting up multi games to just do it.
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
I wonder if the game adjusts to your play style at all. Like say I want to stay in a tent and keep the population low. Do any of the upgrades still become available? If you decide to keep the remote island aesthetic, does the game sort of hang there or do other things still open up?
 
StormCell

StormCell

Member
EHuntingon said:
I wonder if the game adjusts to your play style at all. Like say I want to stay in a tent and keep the population low. Do any of the upgrades still become available? If you decide to keep the remote island aesthetic, does the game sort of hang there or do other things still open up?
Click to expand...

If it's anything like past Animal Crossing games, then the answer to your question is a little of both. These games are kind of like plinko, right, where depending on which path you start down you may lose some opportunities. Still some decisions are required for certain events while others are completely independent of everything else. You can keep living in the boonies if you want to, and you may never reach the bottom of the pile of new events attainable to you. Obviously, doing this will mean losing out on entire branches of ammentieis that you can only find on a more urbanized island--which makes sense.
 
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Stitch

Stitch

Gold Member
Sakura said:
Looks pretty good.
Seems weird they are counting seasonal events as "free updates" though. Didn't the games always have these events?
Click to expand...
yeah this is weird. so if people play offline a lot they don't get any events? :messenger_hushed:
 
iconmaster

iconmaster

Banned
Jooxed said:
Who wants to be my island neighbor.
Click to expand...

anigif_enhanced-1308-1392266233-1.gif
 
Ornoku

Ornoku

Member
Jooxed said:
Who wants to be my island neighbor.
Click to expand...
From my understanding that isn't an option. The only way you can live on the same island as someone you know is playing on the same switch console. You can visit friends islands though.
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
I’ve been watching that Direct again, and I have to say that I’m pretty excited. The whole game oozes charm. Nintendo managed to update the art style while still keeping the Animal Crossing style. It looks better than I thought it would. The seasons look great, and the wind blowing the trees and flowers is a nice touch. It’s going to be a pleasant game to play after a long day at work.
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
EHuntingon said:
I’ve been watching that Direct again, and I have to say that I’m pretty excited. The whole game oozes charm. Nintendo managed to update the art style while still keeping the Animal Crossing style. It looks better than I thought it would. The seasons look great, and the wind blowing the trees and flowers is a nice touch. It’s going to be a pleasant game to play after a long day at work.
Click to expand...
There is just something I really like about the way you just chill in the rain, out in nature, with a little umbrella.
 
jshackles

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Loving what I'm seeing!
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
Looking at the video and screenshots, I don't know how I feel about the items on the ground. On one hand, I like the customization. On the other hand, some of the screenshots and video make it look pretty cluttered with all the things strew around. The good thing for me is, I don't have to do that if I don't want to.
 
Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Quick question, can you completely ignore the online part or is it big part of the experience?
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
Danjin44 said:
Quick question, can you completely ignore the online part or is it big part of the experience?
Click to expand...
Mista said:
You can but its a big part of the experience honestly
Click to expand...
It probably is a big part of the game, but I've never played much multiplayer in the series. My wife and I would play Wild World together sometimes, but for the most part it was solo. I think you can have a great time without the online experience.
 
bRacing

bRacing

Banned
Danjin44 said:
Quick question, can you completely ignore the online part or is it big part of the experience?
Click to expand...
It’s easy to avoid. But you should still have internet enabled on your Switch to get game updates from Nintendo so that your island gets all the holiday items. I played the last one alone and occasionally randomly visited other people’s worlds to get design ideas. I think I visited Reggies world once.
 
Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
bRacing said:
It’s easy to avoid. But you should still have internet enabled on your Switch to get game updates from Nintendo so that your island gets all the holiday items. I played the last one alone and occasionally randomly visited other people’s worlds to get design ideas. I think I visited Reggies world once.
Click to expand...
My Switch is connected to internet so I can get the update and DLC like FE3H's Cindered Shadows but I'm not paying online subscription, same way I'm not paying for PS+ because I have no interest in online play with anybody.
 
bRacing

bRacing

Banned
Danjin44 said:
My Switch is connected to internet so I can get the update and DLC like FE3H's Cindered Shadows but I'm not paying online subscription, same way I'm not paying for PS+ because I have no interest in online play with anybody.
Click to expand...
You’ll still get the holiday items without an online sub.
 
Katsura

Katsura

Member
Danjin44 said:
My Switch is connected to internet so I can get the update and DLC like FE3H's Cindered Shadows but I'm not paying online subscription, same way I'm not paying for PS+ because I have no interest in online play with anybody.
Click to expand...
I never play online either except for Tetris 99 and i'm getting AC on day one. Never had an issue in previous AC games
 
Newly Vacant

Newly Vacant

Member
I really wish this game was out sooner. All the COVID-19 news has me a bit freaked out. It'd be nice to relax with a game like Animal Crossing right now. I just have to make it through another month.
 
Dontero

Dontero

Banned
Finally Animal Crossing in which there is something more to do that catching bugs and bullshit like that.
Will play on yuzu with pass day cheat. No way i will deal with unskipable days bullshit.
 
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