Animal Crossing
Personal History with Animal Crossing
I first got the game, Animal Crossing: Wild World for the Nintendo DS in 2007 by my older cousin. My daddy just died when I got the game and it helped me cope with his death and it still hold dear to my heart. I later got Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii in Christmas 2008, Animal Crossing: New Leaf fo the 3DS in Christmas 2013 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons on release day (March 20, 2020). I played two of the three spin-off titles: Animal Corssing: Happy Home Designer and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and even the DLC game, Animal Corssing: New Horizons- Happy Home Paradise.
My Towns
Wild World
In my first town in Wild World, I named it Tokyo as the game came from Japan and Tokyo is the capital of Japan. Anyways, I fell in love with the game as it's slow pased and I don't like games where you have to be quick and fast. This game allows me to take things slowly and collect all the things. One of my favorite activties is fishing as helped me make money (or Bells they are called in the game) and shooting balloons to get presents. Another thing I liked about the game is that both my cousin and my aunt have the game and we would visit each other towns and even trade things. I remember that my aunt has the final fossil piece I need to 100% my fossil collection for the museum.
However, I remember abandoning the game after almost year as I paid off my mortage for my house and got the final upgrade for Tom Nook's store. For me, there is nothing left for me to do. I don't even have the game cartage for the game anymore. I think my mom toss it out or something.
So instead, I stole my niece's copy of the game (who doesn't play it anymore either) and remade my town in Wild World. The only difference is that I named it was Sedalia (the same name of my town in "New Leaf") and try to complete the catlog for the museum with little luck. But at least I tired to catch the scorpion and the tarantula. The key is "tired" as they're one of two of the hardest bugs to catch and the ones where they knock you out if you try to catch them or run near them! I rememeber that was one of the reason I abandoned the game when I was younger was because I was too scared to see my character "die"! Now older with a bit more knowledge (and more patient), that's no longer an issue. But sadly, I can never catch them for the museum, because if I did the next time I catch them again, I can sell them it for a cool 8,000 Bells a piece!
Pictures of Sedalia from my iPhone since the 3DS doesn't have screenshots for older games. You can see the weeds as it's been 5 years since I last played it.
City Folk
In City Folk, I think I also named it Tokyo as well. I got the game along with the Wii Speak, an add-on accessory to the Wii, where you can talk to your friend online. I remember playing that with my aunt and cousin, who also got the game. I also like that you can go the city section to buy some of the things that they don't sell in your village. One thing I rememebered about this game is that they celebrate holidays!!! Like Festivale, Easter (or Bunny Day), Halloween, Thanksgiving Day (or Harvest Fest they called it as only America celerbate it in November) and Christmas! This stands out to me because Wild World was my first Animal Crossing game and they didn't have holidays as they couldn't fit it in the DS cartiage, so for me, this is my first time seeing them (well...most of them)!
But one of the issues of the game is that they play the same music from Wild World (like the hour music, what they played in the store, etc). And that...there barely changed anything from the last game, which will turn off newcomers who haven't play the game before. I think this is the reason why I left the game after about 7 months as I quickly paid off the mortage and accidently forgot to save and didn't want to face Mr. Resetti. A few years later, I tried to boot up the game and found out that the disk was too scratched up, which keeps my Wii from reading the data. So, this means I can't see my town anymore :(.
Since my disk is damaged, I took photos of the game from the Internet to show what City Folk looks like.
New Leaf
In New Leaf, my town name was Sedalia (don't ask how I got that name). Unlike the last two games, I played this a bit longer as there were more things to do. Such as building the main street where all the stores and the musuem were located. Then there was the HHA plaza where you can StreetPass (rememeber that?) your house to other people's copy of the game. I rememeber people filling most the neighborhood in the HHA plaza and can even inspire by them. So inspire, I used one house to order some of the Princess Furniture Set (one of the most expensive furniture set in the game) that I wanted and time travel to 5pm to get them from the mail. And when I went to San Japan, an anime convention on Labor Day weekend 2023, I still received house copies from people!
As for the other things I did in Sedalia, I put layout of cabble stone for my walkway. One of my pet pevees is that everytime I ran on them, I accidently delete them by kicked them away, so I have them put a new layout on the spot that I ran threw! I also managed to mostly compelete my musuem, (beside the bugs and the art section). And one of the biggest accomplishment was getting all the paintings for the art section, but not the sculptures. I think I need 4 more sculptures to complete the art section. But by then, I abandoned the game for the Switch and university. But at least I have the "Keep the Town Beautiful Ordience" in place, which means no crockroches in my house!
On a "sadder" note, Nintendo is shutting down the online server for the 3DS in 2024, so this means I can't go online to do trades to complete my museum anymore. Can't go play those minigames that Tortimer host on the tropical island. You can't even visit people's houses in your sleep anymore either (and get 5,000 Bells when you do update your dream address)! So now the only way to trade and play with your friends is by doing local and not everyone lives near each other...
Here's my town of Sedalia and the various photos I took through out the years I played the game.
New Horizons
In New Horizons, my town name is Niji, which is Japanese for rainbow. I got the game around the time the pandemic lockdown started and everyone stayed indoors. At that time, I was living in Germany with my mom, where the government took the pandemic more... SERIOUSLY (compared to America...)! When I bought the game, it was for the American release, so I recall staying up until 7am (German/European time) just to even play the game! And man, the game was great when it came out, there were lots of people playing it because of the lockdown. And there were memes that came out from it! And it was the best thing that happened for months (until it didn't...)
As for the game itself, it was a big improvement compare to New Leaf. You can actually make cliffs, place buildings where ever you want! You can customize your furniture, your tools and even your apperance! You can even put furniture outside, which was one of the biggest complaints from the past games!!! I remember making a beach bar for one of the beaches, a cafe (back when there wasn't one) and I even build a fictional school!
However one of the biggest complaints that people have with the game is that they added a feature where tools can break after being used for a certain time (you can thank Breath of the Wild for that). And also after the game came out for months, there wasn't anything else to do. The villagers' dialogs are boring compared to the past games. There's no minigames that New Leaf had you can play by yourself or with your friends. The game also starts out very slowly, where in the past games, you have houses and stores, ready to go. Not here, you have to start from strach and for some, it gets tiring real quick.
At the end, this cause at least 70% of people who bought the game on day 1 to abandoned their islands for something else. Not me however, I stayed. Even with the slow updates to the game, I kept playing. Mainly because I have to limit myself playing the game for 2 hours before forcing myself to take a break and do something else. And I think that's how I didn't get burnout compared to rest.
But I did managed to 100% complete my musuem this time around thanks to having free time and joining a Discord for the Animal Crossing subreddit, where we can trade art piece or go to their island when Redd's ship was there for the day. I even managed to catch all the bugs (the rare ones that are hard to catch)! By then, I abandoned the game once more (I got to stop that). But at least I spend 2 years and over 700 hours in game time playing it! And yes, I was still played it when that big update came out in November 2021, along with the DLC.
Here's my town of Niji and the various photos I took through out the years I played the game. And some of the struture that I made.
My IDs
My New Leaf ID
My New Horizon ID
Creater Designs
Favorite Villagers
Kiki was one of my first neighbors in my original town, Tokyo in Wild World. She has a normal personality and that her apperance is based off of Jijii, Kiki's cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. I also liked the interior of her house as it's country themed and has the Ranch Furniture set.
Rod was one of my other first neighbors in Tokyo. He has a jock personality and the interior in his house is pirate theme. He's also appear in my town of Niji in New Horizons. However, the interior of his house is different as the Pirate Set wasn't included when the game first came out, so it was replaced with a cruise theme instead.
Tiffany was one of my neighbors who later moved to Tokyo. She has a snobby personality and that she dresses like a goth as her original shirt was a Spiderweb tee. While the interior of her house doesn't have a theme, in New Horizons however, made her a 50's diner theme that has shade of red and black. After living in Tokyo, Tiffany returned to my town, Sedalia in New Leaf and was one of the first villagers to give me her picture frame!
Biskit was one of my neighbors who like Tiffany, later moved to Tokyo. He has a lazy personality and his name is based off of dog biscuits, a comment treat for dogs. As for the interior of his house, he has some of the Ranch Furinture set. Like Tiffany, he later apper in Sedalia but with some of the Cabana Furniture set as well. I like his apperance as it look uqiune compare to the others.
Bella was one of my neighbors in my town, Tokyo in City Folk. She has a peppy personality, but also is a huge METAL FAN!!! She wears a Skull tee and listen to K.K. Metal!!! Her interior house is mixed with the Lovely Furniture set, Green Furniture set and has industrial wallpaper and flooring.
Paula was one of my neighbors in my town, Sedalia in New Leaf. She has a big sister personality and orinigally appear in Doubutsu no Mori e+, an updated Japanese version of the first game for the GameCube as the Nintendo devolpers liked the American localiztion did to the game, so they decided retranslate the game back into Japanese. After appering in that game, she wasn't seen again until New Leaf.
She dresses like a hippie because of her head-band, which make her look retro. The interior in her house is mixed with various furniture sets and for some reason, plays K.K. Dixie as her main music. And there's the fact that Paula appears on the album cover of that song, which is probably why she plays it. Paula then later moves to Niji in New Horizons, but changes her music to K.K. Disco as it matches her apperance.