#Like I can't get into games like Animal Crossing I just love progression and immediate rewards

[some-pers0n]

I dislike how the concept of "comfort games" has been relegated to these cutesy and soft pastel and bright cheerful games where you just walk around aimlessly or fish/farm/whatever. Minimal gameplay in exchange for aesthetics and charm. More power to the people who love those games, but for me a comfort game is like a high-octane nightmare gauntlet where I have to be alert at every second less I fail and have to restart again

[madzilla84]

Do you play animal crossing? I can't decide if I should try it. If you play it would you share what you like about it?

Oh, anon! *Thank you* for this ask and thus the chance to ramble about Animal Crossing, because YES I DO.

(I cut it because it got long AF, unsurprisingly)

Back in 2013, shortly after Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out, I was on holiday in NYC and pretty depressed (I know! In NYC! But it turns out it follows you anywhere, what a snek), and I was wandering aimlessly around, and found myself in the Nintendo store (as you do). I'd never played Animal Crossing before, but I tried out the newly released New Leaf on one of the shop demo consoles, and immediately bought one (cheaper there, plus it came in purple!!) and the game. I sort of told myself it'd be useful for the long journey home, and then I could maybe dip into it every so often and maybe get some other games.

I never did get another game for my 3DS, as I was immediately hooked on AC, and remained so for the next year-and-a-half (until my first video game love, Dragon Age, released a new instalment). I also play the AC app, Pocket Camp, which came out in 2017, but it's quite a lot less engaging and fun due to its microtransactions system (typical mobile game) and repetitive challenges. It's still cute though.

In its most basic form, Animal Crossing is a community/life sim/sandbox, where you play a human villager (or islander, in this new instalment) who lives in a town/island populated entirely by cute, anthropomorphic animals. The animals have different personalities and you can befriend them by completing simple tasks for them, visiting their homes or giving them gifts. (Or whack them in the head with your butterfly net if you don't like them and want to them to leave. Aww.) In the last title, New Leaf, you arrived as the town's new mayor, whereas in the new one, you're arriving on a deserted island as a new resident.

Usually, you start off with nowhere to live and no money, and through collecting items and completing tasks you earn Bells (£££) to be able to buy and upgrade a house, buy furniture, tools, clothes, etc. You can also craft and customise items, and design your own clothes. As you develop your town/island, more facilities wilt open such as shops and other businesses; you unlock other places you can travel to, you can go deep-sea diving, fishing, bug hunting, shell collecting and fossil digging. This is how you make money, but you also fill your town/island's museum with all your findings, turning it into an amazing exhibit. (Which is actually interactive! When you complete a full dinosaur skeleton, you get DINO FACTS for each one!) The new museum/aquarium in New Horizon; looks *incredible*.

It's quite a slow progression - it's impossible to like just obsessively play for hours and unlock everything, there's a lot of You Must Wait baked into the game, which is actually really satisfying as there's a real sense of progression and milestones and achievement over time. Some stuff is seasonal, like rare fish you can only catch in the summer at a certain time of day. You really see the impact you're having on this little town, as it progresses from a handful of tents and a shack to a thriving community filled with animals and shops and architecture. Your villagers have set birthdays, and will invite you to birthday parties at their home.

There's so much I love about AC. I find it absorbing and relaxing - the world is beautiful and cute, and the music is lilting and soothing. It's a persistent world, so it carries on when you're not there and things change regularly, so it encourages checking in every day. The shops sell different items each day, the fruit and flowers regrow, etc. If you don't play for quite a long time, your animal friends will notice and become concerned. (Or leave town. Rude) There's so much to do, but it's all optional - some people love the collecting aspect and want to find every fish and bug in the game. Others just want to expand and decorate their house, while others just want to play with friends. Others only care about populating their town with their absolute favourite animals and focussing on friendships with them. You have 'daily tasks' that will be available every day but you don't have to do them; it really is something you can play for 15 minutes or 5 hours. (And your animals will gently chide you if you play too long without a break, aww, thanks Uncle Nintendo)

It has seasons that reflect the real world, so it's winter in-game when it's winter where you are, and the landscape and plants will change to reflect that. (Cherry blossom, sun, autumn leaves, snow!) There's variety in weather and it also reflects the time of day, so if you log in at 2am, it's 2am in game. (There is nothing more cute than logging in to find it's raining and all your animals are walking around with little umbrellas awwwww) It makes it feel like you're visiting a real, tiny world in your console. There are also in-game events reflecting real world ones like Easter, Valentine's Day, or Christmas.

AC really did help me a lot. I found playing it in the evenings so relaxing at the end of the day, I loved being able to be creative with how I designed my town, I loved the sense of community I found with my little group of animals I got so fond of. (Oh, the pain when one of them moved unexpectedly! Noooo!) I'm *so excited* for the new game - it looks absolutely gorgeous from what I've seen so far, and they've added so much new stuff, as well as addressing a few irritating niggles from previous titles.

The world is scary and stressful more than it's ever been these days, and Animal Crossing’s uncomplicated niceness and goodness couldn't have come along at a better time. I've never wanted to yeet myself off to a cute, abandoned island more, tbh.

Some videos!

Nintendo Direct: New Horizons [Nintendo] 

Animal Crossing and Mental Health [Boldly Wired] 

Animal Crossing Ruined My Life [AmazingPhil] 

[fiixerupper]

gamer note headcanons

i saw a funny video and it made me think of Light, so thank my friend for rambling w me about these dorks as gamers, because now this AU exists. ironically light has the least hcs despite this AU happening cuz i thought of him

no Death Note in this ofc, its probs just a more casual and normal setting

Light

- Plays LoL

- I mean

- Do I really have to say more

- Fr tho he played an online game and got killed by L and definitely flipped when he went "gg"

- Lowkey judging you for your choice of games

- I feel like he's the dude fighting in forums about lore or your builds/strats

- So perfect-like irl but online is a whole other story

- Ban-trigger-happy mod yeah I said it, he is SERIOUS about the rules of a server he moderates

L

- Stays up late often if he's invested in a game, sometimes he won't realize how many hours have flown by until a bit of sunlight sneaks through his blinds and hits him in the morning

- I can see him having multiple screens + Monster cans stacked somewhere

- I'm sorry but there's definitely remnants of some snack he just had on his desk or pants

- Voice chat with him is hell because all you hear is him. eating. all. the. time.

- Idk but I think him saving up a ton of in-game currency to get his fav in a gacha game (COUGHcookierunkingdomCOUGH) is cute

- He's a p silent streamer imo, I can't see him really doing much commentary

- Besides maybe when he dies in a multiplayer game and he reads some stuff from chat

- I can see him playing horror games, esp stuff like Friday the 13th, Outlast, Dead By Daylight, and Pacify

- Freezes in silence for a moment when he gets scared before moving on casually

Misa

- I feel like she'd have a cute setup (maybe something like this?)

- Plays The Sims 4 with all kinds of mods for outfits and her house

- And you better believe she has the cutest Animal Crossing house

- And Houseflipper home

- She just LOVES getting to decorate in games honestly, doesn't matter what game it is if she can make it have a bit of that Misa Misa aesthetic she goes for it

- Is it a surprise that she has simps if she streams .

- They are v jealous of Light

- Sometimes she'll talk to him during stream as he's off-screen or he'll be in the background but the camera is like cut off from his upper body

- She def shouts out Light if he also does streaming, girl's gotta support her man after all

Mello

- Oh good lord he can't be trusted in choice-based games

- He is legally obligated to pick the rudest/most violent options

- Doesn't save characters that could easily be saved

- "It's just me, myself, and this gun I found last chapter" is smth he said once when chat begged him to choose a pacifist/nice option just ONCE PLS MELLO

- V chaotic in streams, I can see him being the kind to rage a lot

- If Matt or Near play smth w him it immediately becomes a competition, at the very least to him

- Even if they're supposed to be working together .

- Tbh it does help them sometimes if he rushes to get an item or soemthing first that they actually need to progress

- Is v cocky about his skills in fighting games, cuz Matt taught him all the combos and shit

- Ofc Matt still beats him cuz...c'mon, you can't beat the master

Matt

- Not to meme him to start his hcs off but this dude is definitely a Minecraft player and has roped everyone into playing Among Us at least once .

- I can see him doing casual Stardew gameplay sometimes

- Speedruns almost everything he plays though

- If you play smth like Minecraft w him don't be surprised when he already has diamonds within like...the first hour of playing

- Builds his own PC definitely

- Definitely has a collection of old consoles and games

- Idk why but I can see him loving classic Sonic tbh

- Introduced Near to video games when he was playing Pokémon on the Gameboy I'm calling it

- He has the skills and setup to be that toxic player but tbh I can see him being helpful and nice to ppl that are new to a certain game

- Ofc he will also destroy you in anything vs him but that's just part of the learning process he swears

Near

- Def has a lot of figurines and plushes of his fav video game characters

- Puzzle games are def his favorite

- Chuzzle esp

- Has he named Pokémon after ppl he knows?

- Yeah def, and Misa is not happy to have a Jynx named after her

- Has the habit of staying up late gaming like L, though Mello usually slams the door open to his room and yell at him to go to bed (he's aggressive but he's still an older brother to him in a way after all)

- Probs plays Animal Crossing as well tbh, and has the Kiddie series somewhere in his home)

- Says random lore facts about a game or character sometimes

- I feel like he's a fan of handheld consoles more, I can imagine him out in public just sitting somewhere playing on his 3DS or smth