TheAnimal Crossingfranchise has many beloved features, but fans are thrilled that one particular aspect never made it intoAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. The series is known for its cute playable characters and memorable animal villagers. The game is also beloved by many for being a relaxing and cozy island decorating experience. That said, there’s one feature of the older games that fans agree was more stressful than cozy.
FellowNew Horizonplayers agree wholeheartedly with userScorbunny_Ear, who pointed out in a post that “I’m glad that grass deterioration didn’t return in New Horizons.” InAnimal Crossing: City FolkandAnimal Crossing: New Leaf,the grass had a realistic mechanic that saw it deteriorate as more players walked across it. This meant thatwalking the same path often enough would result in worn-down grass-free dirt paths.
Grass Deterioration Did Not Make It Into Animal Crossing New Horizons
The Feature Messed With Island Aesthetics
Scorbunny_Ear shared a screenshot fromone of the earlierAnimal Crossinggamesshowing a completely barren island, devoid of grass and looking worse for wear. The cute bunny-hooded and ballooned character shown standing on the brown ground seems out of place with its cheeriness on the grass-free island. The Redditor also mentions in their post thatit was very difficult to get lost grass to regrow without using save editors or cheats.
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LongtimeAnimal Crossingplayers agree that the feature was “honestly so stupid and useless,” assumemodudeputs it. They go on to add thatthe feature was made even worse by the fact that villagers could also damage the grass when they walked over it,so players had no way to avoid the deterioration, even if they walked in carefully planned paths. Despite their best efforts, sumemodude couldn’t manage to get the grass to fully grow back, even three years later.
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Fans Are Happy To Leave Grass Deterioration In The Past
Even though grass deterioration is a small feature that didn’t seem to affect much in terms of gameplay, it bothered many fans. In a game that’s all aboutdecorating and designing your own space,it can be incredibly jarring to have so little control over such a fundamentally visual part of the area.Like many others in the comments, RedditorTheGuy789is happy thatNew Horizonsleft the feature in the past. “It was a bizarre experiment,” they say. “A punishment for simply playing the game. I love City Folk and it holds a special place in my heart as one of my favorite games ever, but grass deterioration is just…bad.”
Although most fans agree that the grass deterioration element was a nuisance, some players actually enjoyed it. Several comments point out thatthe feature made the island look more lived in and let them see the passage of time.Usersleepydan333has a great solution that I’d also love to see in future games: “I’d love to see natural paths be a toggle feature that each player could choose to utilize for themselves or not!”
New Horizonsis a fantastic game that I love dearly, but I would personally love to see future games give players more power over how they want their islands to look and behave. I hope future gamestake a page fromAnimal Crossing: Pocket Camp’spageand let players choose everything from how the sky looks to which villagers come to live on the island. Until then, I’m just glad that the grass deterioration feature was removed fromAnimal Crossing: New Horizons.
