The format of these posts is simple: let's discuss a specific game or series!
Sadly I am feeling horribly ill right now, as I have Covid for the 3rd time in my life. Nothing serious, but just feeling like shit for the third day in a row. This made me think back to a game that released at the perfect time during the pandemic (the one that isn't Among Us).
Let's discuss the Animal Crossing series. What is your favorite game in the series? What aspects do you like about it? What doesn't work for you? Are there other games that gave you similar feelings? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let's get the conversation going!
If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).
Previous entries: Age of Empires, Super Mario, Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Half-Life, Earthbound / Mother, Mass Effect, Metroid, Journey, Resident Evil, Polybius, Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire
If New Horizons was your first animal crossing game and you were disappointed by the lack of personality that the villagers had, go play the original AC. Almost no customization options outside of your house interior, but the villagers have way, way, waaaay more personality. Not really surprising since, iirc the series was originally supposed to be focused on your interactions with the villagers.
Yep! I'm pretty sure I can remember Resetti in the original Gamecube version making me cry as a kid after getting yelled at for accidentally turning off the system without saving...
I also remember Phyllis, who basically hated your guts for interrupting her night shift.
And of course there's the actual villagers of the town too, some of them were definitely a lot more... liberal... with you, personality wise!
Oh man, they get absolutely pissed if you hit them +3 times with an axe or net, which is way easier to do by accident than you'd want; if you hit a villager once, the game seems to assume that you want to hit them again, so attempting to interact just results in you pummeling/slashing the villager. I've had them tell me I don't deserve friends, that I'm a freak, that I'm a horrible creature who shouldn't be around people, etc...
Even if you don't accidentally or intentionally piss them off, they can be very rude and condescending when you first start playing. They chill out after you start interacting with them (and you have to interact if you want them to treat you nicer), but it can take weeks for them to start doing that. That's what I love about the GameCube animal crossing; the villagers aren't tripping over themselves to make you happy. In New Horizons, villagers basically exist to make you happy and feel better about yourself; however, they make it very clear they don't like you at first in the original.
(Also yes, you can hit villagers with an axe in the OG game and they have a slightly different reaction to it. It's hard to do though and would seem like a bug if it weren't for the fact that they react differently to it)
and the gyroids! and the NES emulators! There are additions to modern AC that really bring it up a notch (custom fashion, WAY more furniture items), but there really was a charm to the original that modern Nintendo would never bring back. They don't want to scare kids with villagers that could be anything other than vaguely positive towards you, and they don't want to give their back catalog away for "free".
New horizons has gyroids now, but it never got the NES stuff.
wtf it DOES!???? this is important news
Yeah, it was part of the happy home paradise update. I don't think you need the dlc, I think they're part of the base game.
Is the original N64/GC the one where other villagers have the most personality? What are some other differences regarding NH, New Leaf and City Folk?
Oh, some more differences vs New Horizons:
no autosaves and Resetti will chew you out if you reset/quit without saving (New Horizons added autosaves and almost entirely removed Resetti).
time travelling back in time relative to your last save will also trigger Resetti.
playable NES games. They can be hard to find, but you can play them if you get any (iirc you can also transfer the roms to your GBA/GBA SP to play on-the-go)
home customization is still a thing in the original; however you only have a max of 3 rooms (2nd floor, 1st floor, basement). However, you can't customize your basement floor or walls and the basement won't count towards your HHA score.
no "cloud" storage, all storage is in furniture items, which have a max capacity of 3 non-furniture items (clothes, tickets, flooring and walls are fine, but not furniture). This is what the basement is for. (It's actually kinda fascinating how furniture storage works, but I won't get into that unless you're interested)
maximum of 15 villagers instead of 10.
you can ask villagers if they have any chores for you; this is actually a great option and I'm annoyed they removed it because it means you don't have to repeatedly spam villager dialog with the hope they'll eventually give you a task.
there's an island you can visit with another house which you can use as storage if you want. However, it's a bit difficult to access on emulators because you can only get to it if you have a GBA connected, so you have to either emulate a connected GBA or use gecko/AR code to permanently enable Kapp'n.
no town hall
there are cops (they don't really do anything except tell you if there are any ~~free~~ lost items in the lost-and-found or if there are any upcoming events).
Tom Nook is the only real vendor, as afaik Mable and Able only sell custom designs. Additionally, instead of Redd, it's Tom Nook who occasionally sells artwork for the museum.
There are probably others I'm forgetting, but that's kinda the main gist of it.
I haven't played City Folk, Wild World or New Leaf, however my impression is that the GC/N64 version is the only one where the villagers can be actually hostile to you. One of the biggest differences aside from personality, is that you have very little freedom when it comes to village customization. You can basically plant or cut down trees or flowers, and that's about it.
Note: there are like, 4 different versions of the OG animal crossing, the international GameCube release is the only one with an English translation.