In 2012 some Animal Crossing fans where split by the release of Animal Crossing New Leaf. Is Animal Crossing New leaf good good? Yes, but there was a community that thought New Leaf was bad. / rocketelijah
I actually loved Animal Crossing New Leaf. I managed to get a new and old copy in 2020 at a game stop near me, one to collect and one to play. I think it offered a lot more to AC. I think it could have done good, if it had building outside more then the town hall commissions things.
I feel like there were some missed opportunities to put in the beginning stages. One being instead of having secret requirements to upgrade, have the villagers go around with dialogue such as “I overheard Timmy and Tommy say they plan to remodel the shop! Although they said they’d only proceed if they had the funds..” This could give the player hints/objectives. Maybe even have an NPC go to the mayor asking about upgrades, seeing if the mayor approves of it. Another addition to the early stages could be having the player do mayor-ly things. Example, offering to help shop NPCs/side quests for shop NPCs. Or organizing fundraising events (similar to the hide and seek function). These could be offered from the get go to give the player more to do while they wait to unlock more features (plus both go hand in hand with raising approval, as they are good deeds).
while new leaf does have some faults, I almost never get burnt out on it. I still play it every few months!! it is just something relaxing and nostalgic for me. new horizons does have more creativity but it felt like the use of the qr codes for designs was not as prevalent, which was major for the NL game!!! it wasn't as necessary in NH, it felt more stifled to me. plus I love the villager dialogue and events in NL. I love both but NL is my favorite for sure!! great video loved the analysis
When I discovered New Leaf, I had only previously played Wild World. I wasn't super well versed in the Nintendo community back then, and didn't even know about the Direct presentations! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I still do! In fact, when I became mostly content with my New Horizons island, I went back to both New Leaf and Wild World to make more progress on them! I wanted to complete the museums, get more photos from my neighbours, improve my HHA scores, and various other things. In my opinion, New Leaf was a real step up from the games that came before it. New Horizons introduced many great features, but it didn't feel complete. If we combined the town and Main Street of New Leaf with the style and features of New Horizons, we could have something truly perfect.
New Leaf isn’t my favorite. I think it’s a GREAT game, but honestly I like New Horizons more since the 2.0 update and DLC. There’s so much more to do, outside decorations, etc. I also truly love Wild World and the game cube version more than New Leaf, the villagers have 10x the personality, and the mayor stuff really doesn’t add a lot for me. It’s all aesthetics, without the interactivity of placing furniture in New Horizons. I still play Wild World, New Leaf, and New Horizons though. They all have different things I like enough for me to keep up my towns while I focus the most on New Horizons.
I love NewLeaf but when I started playing it 5/6years ago, I remember being soooo disappointed not to be able to place any item in your Town. (stared at the leaf on the ground) Made me really sad back then 😅I'm glad, that NewHorizons has the feature to finally decorate with any items you have, made me quite happy QQ NewLeaf has a special place in heart tho, and still playing it, cus can't lose my 6 year old Neighbors i love so much 💜
The dialogue complaint for New Horizons always gets me because the other day I'd been gone from the game for a week and Sasha told me "I had a bet with Shep that I could eat my weight in [food, I forgot which]. He said I couldn't but I tried but I ended up reverse-snacking all over the place" and I have never laughed harder in my three years of playing it. But it's true what you said about burnout not just being an AC thing, that it's just something natural that happens and you usually tend to not even think about or realise when you'll put a game down for the last time. Either something new catches your attention, or the next game in a more frequent lineup is announced/released and that's totally fine. Especially for a game like AC where it's essentially play however you want to play (to an extent, I know there are restrictions, don't come for me lol) and I think people need to learn or realise that...yeah. Sometimes even if you love something so much, one day you won't pick it up again, and that's normal. It doesn't mean you now hate it, it doesn't mean the game is bad now, it's just...what happens, unfortunately :/
I think the surprising thing with NH was how quickly the boredom came. And I think that points to a pacing issue. Completing the museum was too easy, money is too easy to acquire, nooks doesn’t upgrade and there’s nothing to do with friends online. Stardew valley is less than $20 and has 100x the content of NH. You could play 300 hours of Stardew and not reach endgame content. Ultimately I think the burnout/boredom of NH stem from a lack of content. Would love to hear counterpoints though
@@genericperson8295 Well, for one Stardew is a farming sim whereas AC is simply just a life simulator. Boredom is a natural thing for any game, and again, they made it very clear how and what the game was. People who have played previous titles of the franchise will obviously be more accustomed to what you can do than those who were new to the games with ACNH. It all depends on what type of player you are. What didn't help was how competitive things became with what villagers to have and what themes to do, it took a lot of the initial and natural fun out of things because there was no need for that, that's not what AC is about. Besides, there is no proper endgame to ACNH. It's a life sim, you play as you want for however long you want. You simply, at some point, have to make the game your own
I like New Leaf but I get burnt out so easily. I never know what to do and I get bored. I like New Horizons more simply because there is more creativity. I can decorate outside and we have so many more design spaces and terraforming. I got burnt out form playing New leaf everyday and I lost my desire to play while for new horizons I’m still playing everyday for at least an hour normally. I also just don’t know how to make big money which I think is why I got burnt out. I didn’t have the money to get into the full game. Once I got the cafe I just stopped playing
They should have added 20 more lines to each personality and a few more quests. The island should have been bigger, with your own cabin along 2 tropical special villagers that only go into the island, spanding it with medals. (But with less rooms than the oiriginal) P.D: I still enjoyed it a lot, it was literally most part of my childhood and first teenager years.
I get burnout for every game but I always come back to the good games. I will get back in the mood to play it. Animal crossing, stardew, harvest moon/ story of seasons, sims, Mario (many), Zelda (many), Skyrim . If it’s a really good game you will burnout (bc everyone burns out and gets tired) and you will come back to it in due time ❤
I still play new leaf every day 😭😭 the aesthetic of the game is just unbeatable. I also play population growing on the GameCube every day so maybe that says more about me than the game. I just never get tired of it, but I definitely got tired of new horizons
New Leaf was an awesome game at the time, probably one of the best titles on 3DS. But I don’t think it holds up well to New Horizons today. New Leaf main problem is how much the gameplay revolves around soulless bell grinding. The only way you could customize your town was throught Public Work Projects. To add something as simple as a bridge to your town, you would have to grind several weeks to get to 200.000 bells. As much as a house upgrade. PWT would also come quite late into gameplay, finding the projects was a chore, and non-Mayor players couldn't access it. Sure, it was already great at the time to be able to customize your island ! But NH really stepped up. New Horizons allows to customize your island as soon as your arrive. You don't need to grind as much as you can place any item, or even craft them. It really helps getting attached to it, and to not have to pour thousand of hours to be able to experience town customization.
I remember I also felt like new leaf strayed too far and I felt really sad about all the big changes. Still liked it a lot but that's when I personally felt like AC was different
I'm still part of the community that thinks New Leaf wasn't great haha, but it's fine, i know not everyone will feel the same and that's okay! There were a few things that just didn't keep me wanting to play the game even though at the time i saved up as much as i could to get the Special edition 3DS bundle with the game... Starting off with the fact it moved away the shops like City Folk had done, it was just too much running around to sell and do the daily things. The soundtrack....The most disappointing part for me 😭A lot of the love and nostagia i have for games are more or less tied to the soundtrack in the games, New Leaf's music wasn't anywhere near as catchy as Wild World and Population Growing was and Animal Crossing is just one of those games that i can't play without hearing the music in the background..So when i heard the music for this game for the first time? It just didn't give me that cosy feeling like the previous games. The public works projects didn't feel great to complete, it just didn't make me want to complete them for something you could barely interact with, and the only exciting thing was when the Welcome Amiibo update was added but it didn't engage me for long enough
I think, if I didn't finish the game back in 2015; a year after I got it and got unbelievably rich to the point I had nothing to pay off; I would have loved it more and kept going back. It was amazing and I loved it but I stopped picking it up after 2016. I didn't really get into the welcome amiibo update but I also didn't have many amiibo cards to add into it. It wasn't burnout, I just didn't know what to do anymore. I felt like I just had nothing to accomplish left. My favorite villagers left when I was in college and couldn't play as much and they killed my drive more. I wanted to play, I tried a lot too, I just couldn't find anything to do anymore. I got my fill I guess after 500 hours. But new horizons, I have near 1000 hours and still play it frequently. I don't feel like I ran out of things to do even if I've done the main island story. I don't quite get it but it happens.
I definitely wouldn't say I hated or even disliked New Leaf, but there were a number of things I thought were pretty substantial issues with the game. While I misplaced my list that I made years ago, off the top of my head (coming from someone who played the game a TON. Unlocked every PWP, got every golden tool, traded online for all the region exclusive DLC I wanted, all without cheating): - The economy in the game was just completely broken. PWPs were generally far too expensive, and this forced players to grind for money a lot. The island was horrible in the sense that instead of a neat little additional area to decorate and hang out, you were encouraged to destroy everything there so only certain things would spawn to farm rare beetles and finned fish, with not only devalued the achievement in finding both but also money and subsequently all other rare fish/bugs in the game in general. -PWP unlocking was very tedious. Unless you knew the trick, you'd be lucky to get one recommended a month. This was a big problem as most players would go their entire playthrough with only unlocking
Meh. I didn't like new leaf at all, and still don't like going back to it. I just hated being the mayor lol i didnt engage with promo materials back when it came out, so i just saw it in the store one day and i got it. But that aspect of it just turned me off. I liked being just another villager in town, with no power. It was the vibe i came for. But i dont mind the duties it came with, just the fact that i have to be the mayor to do it. It's just my weird sticking point there. Also i hated the PWPs. Most of them were ugly, and really awkward to implement, not to mention when i finally found out how they were given out, i realized it was a horrible system of letting me decorate my town. There are so many PWPs ive just literally never seen in my towns because no villager suggested them lol It was also the game where i noticed most of the charm characters had that brought me in from OG AC and WW (never played CF) were being heavily sanitized out of the series. Villagers were toned down a lot, but also most of the big characters also had big character shifts and all of the seedy vibes kind of just disappeared. I just prefer the mechanics of NH now, and never really want to look back at new leaf (although i do dip back into GC lol)
So… I don’t get it? I can’t understand dislike NL over older games but… New Horizons? Like… it literally has less features or interesting villagers than NL or anything before it lol
@@starcrysis23 new leaf was the game that "ruined" the reasons I liked it. It became a decorating sim from that game, gutting the villager personalities and taking away whatever grime any major character had. I also firmly disagree that the villagers in NH are *worse* than NL. They're about the same, they just don't have games like hide and seek or quests anymore. They changed the way you interact with them in NH, for some awful reason, meaning you have to get through kinda BS responses before they say interesting things in NH. And I personally don't really find them to be all that repetitive at all actually. I'll always have a soft spot for the GC title, but villagers there would literally only repeat one bit of dialogue for the whole hour if you talked to them more than like twice iirc, and not only that, but villagers of the same type would often have the exact same dialogue too. Nothing will be as bad as that lol. Anyways, I hated PWPs all the way back in NL, and the focus was obviously shifting for the series, so NH is just every major goal NL had but better. Especially because the PWP system was absolutely shit. Admittedly I have never played a game religiously for years on end, but I have never gotten even close to having most of the PWPs unlocked, let alone all the ones I even want in my town. It was a terrible system. The only thing I actually miss about NL is the 3DS and WiiU mini games. The multiplayer mini games were unfun for me lmao and as a gamer who's almost entire alone all the time, even in the age of the internet, multiplayer functions dont even really do anything for me. Also NH is pretty, and third tiers returned. Idk 🤷🏼♂️ it's just personal preference. I really like what NH has done for the series, and can't wait to see how they build on it, and I'll never really like NL. Also I hate the upgrades for Timmy and Tommys store. The final one? Wtf even is that .. lmao didn't like the city/main street features either, and I don't like Harv's island, but oh well. I just hope we get more shops in the next title and can place them around our island, but I definitely understand why you can't in NH.
Yes yes still do I recently shot down the silver balloon instead of gold crazy right because other content creators say that the gold one has a higher chance to appear then the silver one
I'm wondering how ACNL got disliked on release, considering that City folk/Lets go to the city before it was panned for being essentially a HD version of Wild-World minus some things like the whole net sneakint thing, and then before that people took issue with wild-worlds graphics and how its a good game but the graphcis hold it back,so really,no animal crossing game since population growing hasn't been critiqued on release.
The burnout can definitely be quelled in ways. I still play Halo 2, 3 and Reach till this day because the gameplay loop is just that good. It's rewarding and challenging in different ways and packs a lot of community features that keep the game going still. Animal Crossing has all the potential to be a game that lingers for years upon years but the late game is never fleshed out. My late game in the gamecube version was just getting to know the villagers to the max. that part has never been expanded on yet.
If they added immersive sim mechanics to the next game, i think it would lend to more dynamic interactions and thus keep players playing. Instead of adding a gimmick on to the foundation, flesh out the foundation more.
I'm so excited in 2024 to have just started a new New Leaf town. Just found my 3DS and my DS Lite. Stalking the mail man for my new copy of Wild World!
New Leaf is still the best. The game has so much content! It'll keep you busy for 5 years or longer! The only thing wrong is the bland villager writing. Sure, AC (GCN) and AC: WW had quality villager writing with relationship dynamics and a lot of really great personality overall. AC (GCN) didn't have as much content, which is kinda unfair because it is the first game. That's why AC (GCN) can be an acceptable answer for the best AC game too. AC: WW also didn't have as much content and even removed holiday seasons, while also being small and performing worse than any other AC game.
Don't even get me started on New Horizons, that game just pisses me off. Like, not only does it perpetuate the problem of New Leaf, it adds several of its own problems distinct to it, while also not having nearly as much content at launch and probably still not as much today.
I have over 10,000 hours on New Leaf I used to play it every day after school and my friends and I would have the time of our lives. Some of my favorite gaming memories where made there. I feel like a shortfall of New Horizons is not including the island where you could meet random players and do all the mini games. Such a misstep for the franchise in my opinion
I loved new leaf. And when that camp update happened, I was at a con. The fact that game got an update after how long it came out, surprised me. If only new horizons would do that.
I don’t like New Leaf for the sole reason that you can’t put furniture outside. Like what’s even the point then, apart from making money?! I think the 3DS was advanced enough to be able to decorate your town. All you have is flowers and fences! It amazes me that the first time you can put furniture outside WAS IN 2020!
I enjoyed New Leaf, for what it was. It felt more like a classic Animal Crossing, with lots of upgrades. There was one step back when it came to the villagers though. I've played most games in the series, apart from City Folk. I played it for a long time, got to see the tree I planted to grow to full size and all the main street shops to open, buy a more custom home and so on. I got to "endgame" but yeah, eventually got tired because there was nothing left to do. I felt sad about leaving my villagers. But honestly, New Horizons is my favourite, because I loved the gathering, crafting and design aspects. Maybe it's because I play Sims a lot, it felt more engaging to me. There's a ton of downsides though, like the characters getting repetitive and bland in personality and I was disappointed by the lack of NPC appearances and shops or other unique venues. I kept playing and hoping for old favourite characters to show up. I hope that in the next game, they again, take some critique on board and adjust. I haven't played the game in a long time, even got the expansion but I felt like they abandoned the game too soon, could have done more with it. I personally don't think it's a good idea to keep a series stale by doing the same thing, so I hope they surprise us some more and polish what they got right in the previous games.
While I don't hate New Leaf, it's probably my least favourite of the "old" games. No doubt that it has a LOT of content, but that can also make the game feel like more of a chore. NL is the only AC game I've burned out on because there was too much to do. It wasn't the relaxing experience I has come to expect from the older games. When it comes to the villagers, it doesn't have the charm and depth of character that WW and gamecube has. I think it relies a lot on being able to play with friends, to the point where the social simulation aspect of the game itself fell by the wayside.
I got New Leaf in late January 2021. At first I did insanely long breaks due to boredom. Tbh I do get why some people are criticizing the game, you can't place furniture outdoors (aside from public works projects), your villagers can move out without your permission (it happened to me with Moose, and I'm so glad I used the ignoring method right after he moved in uninvited, it took 3 months though), and they can even cancel their move out plans just to troll you (happened to me with Stitches 😡 he's so overrated and I wanted him gone, thankfully he left a long time ago)...
I Love New Leaf. The shops getting upgraded, the music, the mini games and more were amazing features in this game thag New Horizons Lacked. I will always prefer New Leaf over New Horizons as always. New Leaf also got me into the Animal Crossing Franchise back on 2019. Its a very nostalgic game to me.
4:58 Did you not play the game when it first came out? I know this is about New Leaf but people complained about how much stuff was added to New Horizons after launch because people thought "they should have been there to begin with" (which I disagree with because it really felt like that content was addon other than holidays)
I have “Animal Crossing New Leaf,” this game was actually my first steppingstone into the Animal Crossing Universe, I love it still sadly enough I haven’t played the game in a long time!! 😥
This game got me through covid because back then i didnt have animal crossing new horizons but im glad i played new leaf as it is my favorite nintendo game of all time. Wonderful game :)
Even games that update often can cause burn out. Its funny to me how I can play Animal crossing or the sims for a month or even longer, but then I I play Genshin Impact for a few days and I'm already burnt out
I feel like burnout isn’t a way to rate a game in general. People can get burnout from all games. And while replay ability is a thing I would rate it’s different than quoting burnout. My biggest issue with the whole franchise is that you can only have one island per game cartridge/ console. (Depending on game)
Well my biggest problems for me is the fact that in order to get darker skin tone you had to stay out in the sun for a while and growing being a black gamer that really suck and kinda offensive and that for all animals crossing games except for new horizons and yes i know you can just put your mii head on your character but i didn't want to do that
I understand is pretty weird they did not added dark skin tones, but thats not a reason to hate the game. You dont need to make the character exactly like you.
new leaf is probably the best animal crossing game. it could’ve used a lot of new horizon’s customization options and availability, but for a 2013 game, it was pretty damn good and still is. i can’t see why anyone would go as far as to say they “HATE” it.
For me, there are 3 big problems with NL. 1) Lack of QoL/storage. Inventory space is always a huge problem. Nothing stacks. Dresser space is limited. The secret storeroom helps eventually. You can't preview any of the Nook's Homes customization on your home. You just buy it and find out if it looks good tomorrow. Public works projects are annoying to place and plan out, moving step by step with Isabelle. The game just fights you a lot. 2) Dialogue. I always have to laugh a little while I see the New Horizons dialogue complaints, because those same people will turn around and praise NL... Dialogue in NL is so much worse. It's even MORE repetitive than NH, and what is there... They neutered all of the personalities to just speak like normal type villagers.NH I can finally tell the personalities apart again. NL they're all inoffensive nice.... Nothings who never say anything worth reading unless you listen in to a conversation between them. NH made me laugh regularly for the first 400ish hours. (NH has a LOT of dialogue! It's just unfortunate that for most of the game's life, you had to talk to the villager over and over to read it, because they front loaded conversations with basic greetings and status updates. This has been fixed, but too many people have moved on.) 3) It's visually very same-y and ugly. Graphically limited by the 3ds. It gets the job done. But because it's handheld, it's worse to look at than the two games surrounding it. And the biggest flaw visually... Every town is an identical flat landscape. No cliffs, no defining feature to be found. The location of a handful of PWPs is the only thing that gives a town any identity. No 2-3 tiered towns, no bridge islands, just... Flat with a river passing through. All of this might make it sound like I don't like NL. I'm currently playing it and NH right now. But the community is so hive mind against things in NH... That any criticism of NL is pretty much lost.
I don’t know why, but I never got into New Leaf. I just didn’t like it for some reason. New Horizons was the game I started with and it’s Animal Crossing game I love.
As someone who picked up New Leaf for the first time a month ago, I can't put it above New Horizons as someone who LOVES decorating and customisation. I can see all the quality of life changes they made for NH, which has in turn sparked some inspiration to start a new island on my second switch. I am enjoying New Leaf a lot tho! But because of how slow it is I really appreciate the ability to time skip, even if it means I'm not really playing it "properly"
New Horizons is a amazing game if you like decorating, i hate it cuz i dont like decorating. Animal Crossing was better when the main point of the game was befriending your villagers.
And the slow part is pretty true, there isnt much for NL at the first days of gameplay unless you time travel. But after getting the shops and minigames, the game is way more fun.
I definitely prefer Animal Crossing New Leaf over New Horizons although, I do like almost unlimited design options and the fact you can place items outside.
New Leaf? I have that dislike of Horizon. New Leaf had mini games, even though most mini games were against other real players which is a missed opportunity to make use of your villagers. As a game, there was nothing really meaningful to do. You could collect a heap of stuff, and most of that stuff had no purpose other than to look nice, and that was mostly important to show off to others. My main critizm of this franchise is the lack of things I could do with the local animal people. I don't feel like the game environment is alive. My town board was there for no real reason since I didn't have people visiting my town/island to make use of it. Sending letters is rather boring since there isn't all that much to them (I liked the fake messaging the .Hack games had to create conversations, and it wouldn't be impossible to add parsing like text adventures do). I'd prefer less characters that had meaningful interactions than hundreds of shallow puppets. I really hated the updates were marketed as "free dlcs", making them sound like they were adding new content when in fact they were just catching up to add in aspects previous games had. Such a shoddy job. The series as a whole is rather bland. New Leaf was my fave out of the 3 I played (City Folk, New Leaf, and New Horizon).
Acnh is the only ac game I've played but honestly I feel like from what I've heard I'd prefer new leaf or city folk over acnh IF it had the same graphics as acnh
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with the graphics but that’s probably because I played ACNL to DEATH as a kid along with the other previous games being a series veteran but I do kinda agree. I would kill if it meant nintendo would make a remastered version of the previous games with updated graphics.
The dialogue system already started to change in City Folk and yes also got worse in New Leaf compared to Wild World. But New Horizons is on a completly different level. The problem is that there is good dialogue in New Horizons but you simply never see it. Here are two videos about the topic which I highly recommend. The first one is from Dagnel, specifically talking about dialogue in New Horizons: ttps://ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-70e3wzIJlAc.html The second one is from Tama Hero and dives way deeper into the topic, talking about the development in all of the games: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vxQHRHGqbYc.html When you watch these videos you will realy realise how not only the design of the dialogue system, but the design of the whole game can change how the interactions with villagers feel dramaticly. Again I highly recommend these videos to everyone reading this.
Well I think "hate" is a strong word here and pretty much not well suitet here either! Maybe Rocket Elijah do not understand the word "hate". Just because people does not like something, that does not mean they hate it. Hatred is a whole other lever!
He showed, in this video, what commenters and reviews said about this game. As usual, another game has a lot of hate in the beginning, then the next generation comes out or there's a sequel then everyone claims the last one was the best. This game had a lot of hate when it came out. Take a look at the comments below this video.
I personally don't like being in full control of my island. I don't want to be the mayor, I like Tortimer as the mayor. I like the feeling of living in the town, not running it. New Leaf wasn't too far over the edge in that regard, but New Horizon absolutely killed it. The only thing worth while in NH is terraforming and decorating your town, while living in it feels really hollow.
New leaf is and always will be my least favorite animal crossing. The player models look odd, the city area is ugly, and many of its innovations were handled poorly. I've put hundreds of hours into GC, Wild World, City Folk, and New Horizons, but can't play new New Leaf.
Not everyone likes decorating. I don't. I burned out on New Horizons after three months. I haven't played NH since last October. I still play New Leaf once a week.
This just proves that people are always gonna be unsatisfied. People who said new horizons is worse, sure had points, but as of its state now, it’s way better. Sure new leaf has some better features but overall the game is objectively better. I try to remember that whenever hearing that game criticism online. Just remember, nobody could be more disappointed than the switch from wild world to city folk. 🫡
Personally i still think New Leaf is better, New Horizons for sure got amazing graphics and lots of decoration aspects, but AC isnt only about decoration. Is about befriending your villagers and having fun, and NL got both aspects in a balanced way.
