TheAnimal Crossingfranchise has managed to prevail since its inception, growing and adapting to the whims and wants of its dedicated player base, and carving itself a sizable place at the top of the cozy game leaderboard, rightfully claiming its place as the coziest game series of all time. It has achieved this through a number of means, largely by remaining relevant, but also through its numerous changes in both game philosophy and design. Players aren’t really getting the sameAnimal Crossingexperience now as they did in 2001. That is both a good thing and a bad thing.
Theoriginal idea forAnimal Crossingwas a far cry from what players enjoy now, and that’s largely for the best. However,while all the alterations and updates toAnimal Crossing’sgame design have made the series more enjoyable on a purely mechanical level, they have pushed aside the whole point of the entire franchise. Hearing the series' creators discuss their original intentions forAnimal Crossingand realizing just how much the series has deviated from that is genuinely disappointing, and hopefully something future entries can turn around.
Animal Crossing Was Originally About Communication
It Was Designed To Get People Talking
During a 2003 interview - archived on the websiteshmuplations-Animal Crossing’screators Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami discussed how the core foundation for the series was always communication. That didn’t necessarily mean communicating withAnimal Crossing’sunique villagers, but also one another in the real world.Eguchi discussed how the key concept of the series for them was “people communicating with each other,“something they spent a lot of the game’s development trying to figure out how best to achieve. He went on to explain that they wantedAnimal Crossingto almost be practice for talking with real people, saying:
“Part of what we wanted to do there, I admit, was show something like “practice” for conversing with other actual human beings, like “this is how you have fun communicating!” […] I hope players talk with each other about what the animals said, what they were thinking that day, what they did… and hey, we can’t help it if these cute animals just say cute things!
It is a fascinating concept, one that was captured by the earlierAnimal Crossinggames when the villagers had a lot more to say.Eguchi also wanted players to learn challenging concepts throughAnimal Crossingwhich they could “go ask [their] Mom about.” To achieve this, they had villagers - most likelyAnimal Crossing’sworst villagers- say “scary” things, or, more aptly, tell mature jokes, discuss things like death and the meaning of life, or pontificate on their purpose. All of this, Eguchi and Nogami hoped, would spur players to go and talk to their parents, friends, and other family members.
Animal Crossinghas long since lost its focus and rarely resembles the game Nogami and Eguchi had once imagined.
Nogami explained in the interview that “All the surprising or interesting dialogue we added was done towards that end, so people would actually talk with each other in real life.” Fans of the series may find this concept alien, especially as this is not the directionAnimal Crossinghas been taking for quite some time. A lot ofAnimal Crossing’smature contenthas been stripped away, and anything difficult, challenging, or complex has been replaced with lighthearted banter. Simply put,Animal Crossinghas long since lost its focus and rarely resembles the game Nogami and Eguchi had once imagined.
New Horizons Doesn’t Have The Same Focus
It Is More Interested In Gameplay
Animal Crossing’sshift in focus can best be seen in the removal ofhostile gameplay featuressuch as Resetti. Players were punished for quitting the game without saving with a lengthy and unskippable tirade from Mr Resetti. Now, there’s no punishment for not saving as the game auto-saves for you. It’s a nifty feature, one that will save players a lot of heartache, but nevertheless takes away the more challenging side of the game. Of course, one could safely argue that it’s all being done in service of makingAnimal Crossingas cozy as possible, and that’s admirable.
However, while some may disagree,Animal Crossing’sshift to being a more mechanically-focused experience that prioritizes gameplay, resource collection, landscaping, and other chore-like activities, over the player’s interactions with their fellow villagers and building a sense of community is absolutely to the detriment of the overall series.InNew Horizons, players will get the same bland responses from their villagers that are repeated ad nauseam, meaning they all lack a genuine sense of personality outside of their appearance and catchphrase. It’s the mostdisappointing part ofNew Horizons, especially as previous games likeWild Worldhad gotten it so right.
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To be clear, this didn’t start withNew Horizons. This change has been gradual, but inevitable.New Leafis incredible, but it suffers from the same issues, lacking a lot of the bite its predecessors had and pivoting towards giving the player more things to do, rather than reasons to spend time with their villagers.People may care about who they get on their island and spend forever attempting to get them there, but ultimately, especially inNew Horizons, it’s meaninglesswhen all they do is wander around and say the same five things repeatedly until you wish they’d leave.
How Animal Crossing Could Re-Emphasize Communication
It Needs To Put The Focus Back On Villagers
Animal Crossingcan absolutely re-emphasize its original focus on communication with future entries.All it needs to do is realign its focus back onto the villagers and the player’s interaction with them, rather than making the experience more mechanically complex. As fun as landscaping an island can be, it is all pointless if the reason for staying on that island is moot. In its attempt at getting players to continue playingAnimal Crossingfor as long as possible by busying them with chores and unlockables, Nintendo pushed away the only thing that truly gave the series its longevity: connections.
People love this series because of the villagers, because of the friendships they made with them when they were younger, the wild things they said, or the gifts they gave. These moments of connection, of communication, are what made saying goodbye when they inevitably moved out all the more somber. It’s what made letting go so heartbreaking, which is yet another lessonAnimal Crossingteaches players. So, Nintendo needs to removeAnimal Crossing’smost annoying featuresand bring back the great and varied writing, challenging concepts and themes, and even harsh gameplay features.
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It’ll restore that original idea of communication and add some much-needed spice to theAnimal Crossingexperience. As much as the cozy genre should focus on giving players a heartwarming experience that they can reliably fall back on during difficult moments, it should also give players a safe space in which to understand why life can be difficult, why communication with others is so important, and how to best heal.Animal Crossingdoesn’t have to be your therapist, but it should get you thinking about understanding what’s wrong or, at the very least, reaching out to friends and family.
