A reader is impressed by the new Animal Crossing but identifies some key areas where a sequel or DLC could make it even better.
I don’t know how much of an accolade this is going to be in the end, considering how many games are getting delayed right now, but I’m pretty sure Animal Crossing: New Horizons is going to be my game of the year.
I’ve played and enjoyed Animal Crossing games before but even as a I fan, I have to admit that they’re all pretty much the same game with just some minor differences. What’s great about New Horizons is that it does shake the formula up. It’s not a complete reinvention like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild but it’s definitely the best game in the series.
However, nothing’s perfect, so here are my suggestions for how Animal Crossing can be improved in the future, either in a new game or maybe even via a DLC expansion.
1. The animals
This was touched on in the GC review but the animals are the one thing that hasn’t really changed at all in the new game. A lot of them are cute and charming (and a lot of them are annoying) but as computer characters they’re all very limited. They don’t really respond to what you’re doing and their dialogue very quickly begins to repeat. This is the obvious area to focus on in the future and I’d love to see them have proper artificial intelligence, rather than just a small set of things they randomly do.
Being able to have a proper conversation with them, with a dialogue wheel and everything, would be great. Treat it like conversations in a role-playing game and give us loads of options. Occasionally New Horizons hints at this sort of thing but it’s only scratching at the surface.
2. Voices
Some might consider this sacrilege, but I’d like to see the vocaloid style speech upgraded into something that you can completely understand. When it was used in the first game it was just the best that could be done with current technology. But they’ve left it since then because everyone thought it was cute and I think people have forgotten that you’re supposed to be able to understand what they say. At the moment you can hear a couple of words here and there (Blathers always seems the clearest for some reason) but that’s it. I’d love to see a state-of-the-art upgrade where it was much clearer.
3. Bigger world
Obviously, I’ve only been playing the game for two weeks now but I’m already beginning to think the island seems a bit small, or at least that it could be a bit bigger. I don’t know who on earth uses the helicopter rescue service as it’s impossible to get lost, but I think it would be cool if you could. I’d also like it if you could see other people’s towns/islands and visit them just as if it was one big open world. But that brings me to my next point…
4. Load times
A simple one this, but the load times when entering a building are really slow. I can just about put up with them if it’s going in but the wait while you switch rooms in your house or in the museum seems really poor. I know the Switch hasn’t exactly got an SSD, but you’d think there’d be something that could be done considering the rest of the game works quite well from a technical perspective.
5. Multiplayer
Next to the animals this is my other big issue, that the multiplayer is very basic. Since you can visit with eight people it’s technically more advanced than the previous games but there’s nothing specific to do with them once you meet up. Maybe there are some mini-games or something later on, that I haven’t got to yet, but I don’t get the impression there are.
So that means no races or fishing competitions or anything, which seems a backwards step. Meeting up with friends online is great but given how hard it is to set up voice chat it all seems a bit wasted.
6. More customisation
Having the more Sims style controls in your house is great but I’d like to see these go further. I want to build the house myself, piece by piece, just like the Sims and be able to add floors and designs and so on. And extend the house controls to outside, or at least my plot of land, so that I can landscape that more effectively. Making my own furniture out of basic pieces wold be great too. The crafting is a great addition to New Horizons but the extra customisation could be taken even further and I hope they are.
By reader Rhys
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