Surprise surprise, dear fellow gamers: I'm being playing ACNH casually
for the last 50 days, totalling a respectable 40 hours of play — and lo
and behold, I really like it. Before I elaborate on that (kinda
unexpected) last point, I should explain what I mean by 'playing casually':
we're talking about 15 to 30 minutes of daily play, centered mostly on
foraging, selling stuff and socializing. It's worth noting that I'm taking my
sweet time here, doing just what I feel like doing and nothing more each day,
and not worrying one bit about hitting gameplay milestones. If I wanna spend a
whole playing session harvesting wood and then call it a day, then that's
exactly what I do. As a result, my island's urbanization is progressing at a
most languid pace: my second batch of fellow islanders moved in a mere week
ago, and I just barely unlocked the Town Hall.
'Playing casually' also involves not obsessing over money-making schemes and
debt repayment. The loans are not going anywhere, and it doesn't matter if I
pay them in two days or two weeks; what matters is that I have fun with my
daily dose of NH and play it my way. One of my little pleasures
is to finish each session with an empty inventory, ready to be refilled the
next day; another is to fly to a Mystery Island, strip the place of all its
resources, fly back and sell all my loot in one fell swoop. I know I'd get more
money if I crafted stuff from those resources and sold it; but it's tedious, so
I'll rather keep the materials — and the fun — intact. Heck, I
don't care about time anyway: I might be in for the long run, so better save
some stuff to do for later.
This is undoubtedly the main difference between my runs of New
Leaf and New
Horizons: this time around, I have things to do — meaning
both things I can do and things I want to do. While I struggled
to find interesting activities in New Leaf and had absolutely nothing
to look forward to, I have a batch of long-term goals in New Horizons
on top of my daily grind. NH is much more RPG-ish than NL, to
yours truly's delight — heck, paying back Tom Nook alone is enough of a
objective to keep me going. As for other differences between New Leaf
and New Horizons, I can gladly say that everything — and I mean everything
— that bothered me in the former is blissfully gone from the latter. No
more villagers that force me to rendezvous with them one real-time hour later,
no more boring never-changing Tropical Island, no more guilt-tripping because I
didn't play for a couple of days — and boy, is NH all the better
for it.
Since I just played for 50 days and 40 hours and just unlocked the Town Hall,
the time is perfect to take a small break from NH, take stock of what
I've accomplished and build up anticipation about what's to come. Other games
are calling me anyway; and as you know, my gaming instinct runs the show!
Still, I'm really glad I could already enjoy NH so much, because that
was far from being a given considering my history with the series.
Hopefully the best is yet to come; until then, dear fellow gamers, I'll see you
soon with some fresh gaming goodness!
Melanie30 July 2020 at 15:36
I'm so glad to
read that you've been enjoying my favourite game ever !!!!
I totally agree with you about the improvements made between ACNL and ACNH.
Couldn't agree more.
Your character is really precious and OMG the sunset light is amazing in this
game.
I feel that everybody can find something to like about ANCH. To me, the main
interest is to collect fishes and bugs ;)
Catch 'em all !! :D
I'm looking forward to see the winter and the snow in few months.
Hope you'll write your forecoming
adventures on ACNH! <3
Thanks a lot,
dear! You wouldn't guess from seeing my MC's haircut, but he's actually a guy.
:D Don't know if you've noticed, but the exact same facial features are
available for both the male and the female avatar... except for the hair
colours. For some unfathomable reason, the male avatar has more hair colours to
choose from than the female upon creating the MC. Weird, really.
I totally agree about everybody being able to find something they love in NH.
Factor in the prettier landscapes and smoother gameplay, and you get the
perfect feel-good casual game; a game that can be played by anyone, anytime.
Gee, Nintendo really outdid themselves with that one. :D
I'm also looking forward to the other seasons, all the more so as each day is
visibly different from the last and the next thanks to the ever-changing
weather. Another improvement on New Leaf, in which days flew by without any
notable difference.
I'll definitely write more NH run reports, so stay tuned! ^^
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