Animal Crossing has been one of the best-selling Nintendo franchises in years. From the personal relationships you can create with the villagers, to the city/island building, and the creative freedom you have, there is something for everyone to enjoy. But with Animal Crossing: New Horizons being the series’ fifth major entry, you’d have thought they would have fixed one of the series’ biggest persistent problems: the lack of end-game content.
In the old titles, after upgrading your house and donating all the bugs and fish to the museum, I’m getting a little tepid – wanting more into that kind of “is that it?” way more than the most coercive way. Animal Crossing: New Horizons tries its best to counter this, but ends up missing.
At the end of the game, you have your primary task of filling the museum, catching all the insects and fish, and paying off your loans. New programs have been added to New Horizons, such as completing all Nook Miles challenges on your NookPhone. Although it is introduced at the beginning of the game, it plays a big role at the end of the game because there are a large number of missions that you cannot finish in a month or two. Completing these challenges rewards you with Nook Miles that allow you to visit random islands to collect resources and talk to villagers you might want to recruit.
Some of these challenges are tasks such as talking to a certain number of villagers, collecting fruit, and building certain itemsAnd the While other tasks are more extensive like expanding your house six times or buying 300 items from Tom Nook. The problem with this system is that if you are really happy with your residents and have completed everything, there is not enough incentive to do these challenges other than blind achievement.
The Islands of Mystery themselves are not enough for the endgame experience. The interaction on these islands is very limited because they are essentially identical to each other. Its main use is to collect resources, but this can be done on your island. You can certainly meet new villagers on them, however, it is pointless as there is a limit to the number of what you can get. If you are already happy with your current lovable friends, why should you go? When you have all the items, resources, and islanders you need, mystery islands become ancient.
If the system takes a page from Stardew Valley and rewards players with in-game items or money, it will motivate you to complete challenges. Stardew Valley has a community center where you can donate items to complete a specific section of the center. Each section has something called a pack where if you donate the specific items you ask for, you’ll get rewards for doing so and unlock key new in-game items (like the Greenhouse, which lets you grow crops from any season all year round).
If Animal Crossing has to do the same by having a center where the residents can go and relax, it will keep you occupied at the end of the game. It would be better if something like bundles could be implemented as well, allowing players to unlock more locations or features that they can use. It would be an escalation compared to previous Animal Crossing titles.
The Island Designer NookPhone app gives you free control of your island, allowing you to customize it the way you see fit. It allows you to create walls, paths and waterfalls. Unfortunately, this feature gets boring after a while. What do you do after creating the perfect island for yourself? The option to demolish your island is available, but you will lose everything you worked so hard to accomplish. Your home, museum, collection, items, and inhabitants are all gone.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a limitation of one island per device. This means that no matter how many people are registered to one Nintendo Switch, only one person can own an island at a time. This feature did not help with the longevity of New Horizons. With the limitations of one island lifted, you’ll be able to create not only a new character, but another, giving you more reasons to keep playing and experimenting with different ideas.
The series is known for its real in-game holidays and events. Although it can be useful and charming, the truth is that many people will be partying with family and friends on those days rather than playing the game. Having events that aren’t just about vacations in the real world might give you more action at the end of the game. Events such as a mini carnival, sports festival or even a sausage-eating competition will add some freshness to the game.
Having a mini game mode that you can play with friends online can spice things up as well. Activities such as hunting contests or even tag might be worth adding. As it stands, the multiplayer mode has been the same for years and nothing has changed with it.
Nintendo ended up taking a huge step forward, but also a huge step back. Last November, the Happy Home Paradise DLC was released. Although it gave the game an influx of players into the title, Nintendo also stated that this would be the last major update to the game’s content, so any hopes of improving the final game will need to wait until the next round.
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