Why was it so good? - /vr/ (#11863476)

Anonymous
7/12/2025, 3:26:33 PM No.11863476
Animal_Crossing_Coverart
Animal_Crossing_Coverart
md5: 36586afd905ee9dcd6f51497a8704695๐Ÿ”
What about the gamecube Animal Crossing makes it so much better than the later iterations? I just can't seem to get into any of the later entries other than Wild World. Everything about the first one just keeps drawing me in and makes me play the game in either short bursts or long sessions and both of them feel productive and fun. I fire up New Leaf or New Horizons and I just can't get into it at all despite it just objectively having more gameplay elements and more customization and furniture options
Replies: >>11863550 >>11863634 >>11863637 >>11863820 >>11863841 >>11865059 >>11865094 >>11865125 >>11866168 >>11866610 >>11867061 >>11868581 >>11868958 >>11868989 >>11873835 >>11887490 >>11889068 >>11889501 >>11890465 >>11891162 >>11892669
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 4:11:44 PM No.11863550
4912a7298141c8595a608cb29f9a51e4
4912a7298141c8595a608cb29f9a51e4
md5: 6507ed6c24101de5203db6588f068771๐Ÿ”
>>11863476 (OP)
The dev team had real passion behind their work. They were making the game THEY wanted to make and poured their hearts and souls into it. The new entries in comparison are made out of obligation alone and take steps back from what was once a very innovative game to one that tries to cash in on modern trends.
Replies: >>11863764 >>11889068
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 5:01:00 PM No.11863634
1628477890294
1628477890294
md5: 8097f41bef01d065c22852bf695691a6๐Ÿ”
>>11863476 (OP)
It's the devs pure creative work before they knew what they had. Success brings a fanbase with expectations and corporate suits who all of a sudden are much more interested in your quirky animal forest game. The harsher dialogue from some of the meaner villagers in the localization is an example of something that can only happen before corporate notices and scrubs it clean.

The series reminds me of The Sims in that the first game in both series was a pure passion project with soul overload made by gamers for gamers and then it drifted chasing a new and much more profitable audience.
Replies: >>11865080
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 5:02:01 PM No.11863637
>>11863476 (OP)
it had NES games in it
none of the later ones did
Replies: >>11863764
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 6:21:02 PM No.11863764
>>11863637
It was a nice touch. Even not playing those tho I'm still interested in the game despite having little interest in the others.

>>11863550
I agree. I feel like there's this trend where players have to be "in control" of the game a little too much. I feel like with New Leaf they gave the player too much freedom, it feels like I'm not as much a denizen in the world of animal crossing as much as I'm just making a town/island.
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 6:58:48 PM No.11863820
game
game
md5: 1c5b081a4e00c2005a2693978bce0175๐Ÿ”
>>11863476 (OP)
Art direction played a big role. The original was really colorful. Whatever slop is in pic rel looks like it was made in UE5. There are also a million little things that add up too.
Replies: >>11864035 >>11864116 >>11866175 >>11889078
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 7:15:38 PM No.11863841
>>11863476 (OP)
I heard a theory that they started trying to actively appeal to the female audience after Wild World.
Replies: >>11864059
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 9:23:59 PM No.11864035
>>11863820
Fuck you NH was a perfect evolution of the AC art style, one of the few modern games where the graphics/lighting aren't depression inducing
Replies: >>11864070 >>11864102 >>11864556 >>11865853
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 9:33:02 PM No.11864059
>>11863841
I could definitely see that. At that time it wasn't uncommon anymore for a girl to have something like a DS or DS Lite so AC definitely appealed to women. My gf at the time loved New Leaf when it came out.
Replies: >>11874846
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 9:41:23 PM No.11864070
>>11864035
No, fuck you. It's dull, washed out bloomslop that has none of the charm of the original.
Replies: >>11864075
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 9:44:36 PM No.11864075
>>11864070
bloomKINO*
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 9:54:57 PM No.11864102
6379661282189322908984579-2339061060
6379661282189322908984579-2339061060
md5: 34784a40131add0df1050ddd1af0f99b๐Ÿ”
>>11864035
you're kidding, the color palette of NH must have been inspired by vomit and diarrhea. what an ugly piece of shit. AC's art style peaked with the first game
Anonymous
7/12/2025, 10:01:57 PM No.11864116
>>11863820
I don't hate it, my character in the Switch game looks a billion times cuter than in any previous AC, but I am also not a fan of all modern mainline nintendo games having this washed-out, kinda foggy look, not sure if it's low contrast, low saturation or whatever
Replies: >>11865068
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 1:59:33 AM No.11864556
>>11864035
OC animal crossing looked like a cartoon with a distinct style. This shit looks like a playmobil set.
Replies: >>11879554
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:13:13 AM No.11865059
>>11863476 (OP)
>What about the gamecube Animal Crossing makes it so much better than the later iterations?
Nothing, because it's not.
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:28:09 AM No.11865068
>>11864116
>my character in the Switch game looks a billion times cuter
fag alert lol
Replies: >>11869416 >>11873861
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:37:17 AM No.11865080
>>11863634
Same thing happened with Pokรฉmon and many other series, too much of a cash cow to maintain its spirit
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:45:45 AM No.11865094
>>11863476 (OP)
villagers have more dialog and more personalities like douche.
acres gave you more attachment to your town. you memorize every tile per acre.
you have less control over the town, making you feel more like a resident.

graphics/music are subjective, but i greatly prefer the hourly gc songs
Replies: >>11865730 >>11867034 >>11886529
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 7:12:59 AM No.11865125
>>11863476 (OP)
way better dialogue with more personality. new games each character has like 3 cliche lines and that's it. more immersion. better music. way more SOVL. captures the game's essence about moving somewhere new and trying to make friends. new games are more focused on customisation and making your own island. kino vibes all around.
Replies: >>11865730
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 2:59:02 PM No.11865730
>>11865125
When revisiting the original after not having done so for a long time, I was genuinely impressed by the villager conversations. I didn't find myself easily getting the same phrases over and over like I did in the newer iterations

>>11865094
yeah I actually liked having less control over the town. It made it feel a little more immersive to me. If I can go into a game and immediately start changing everything I feel a little overwhelmed by the options. Once I get accustomed to it then it just becomes a design/building game and less of a lifesim type of game
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 3:55:22 PM No.11865853
>>11864035
I have to say I generally agree. It could use just a bit more color, but other than that, it's executed perfectly. NH has plenty of problems, but graphics are not one of them.
Replies: >>11865860 >>11865878
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 3:59:38 PM No.11865860
1583625652530
1583625652530
md5: b5c1169d1ef73f974d7f1ffbb568c4c5๐Ÿ”
>>11865853
Bland
Replies: >>11865995 >>11867887
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 4:11:14 PM No.11865878
pGCN7tc3FGA2Knf4QpCw3m-974106381
pGCN7tc3FGA2Knf4QpCw3m-974106381
md5: 891e55a988a0caa4a6c52a7399750ad2๐Ÿ”
>>11865853
I think you've been inhaling too much anti-soul gas, friend. it looks like a sterile plastic toy world that takes after minecraft with its artificial straight lines all over the place. an incoherent art style that abandoned everything that made the original unique. the only thing that remains is the triangle grass (because we complained when they tried to remove it.) but not the other shapes because that would have been too much work for them. The graphics definitely are a problem, not to even mention the godawful framerate and pop in.
Replies: >>11866137 >>11866156
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 5:20:42 PM No.11865995
look at how they massacred my boy
look at how they massacred my boy
md5: ce2eb165efe65dbafcfae6ba953c1906๐Ÿ”
>>11865860
This might be me being old, but I genuinely cannot see how anyone can prefer the ones on the right. The colors are washed out. The buildings look like they're plastic. None of them look distinct. They look like background props not places you're suppose to go to.

It feels like every game or movie is using PBR lighting for cartoon stuff like this. It is peak slop design.
Replies: >>11866137
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:51:26 PM No.11866137
le squiggly man_thumb.jpg
le squiggly man_thumb.jpg
md5: 223ae7481217fb6beaa7151a43a195ef๐Ÿ”
>>11865995
>>11865878
It's not like "omg I love desaturated colors and less cartoony textures omnomnom give me more" but it's a fun game so you look past that after 5 minutes of playing. It's like adjusting to 30fps after playing a 60fps game for too long or vice-versa.
I am concurrently playing files on the N64, DS and Switch versions and it's not killing me.
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 6:56:57 PM No.11866156
>>11865878
It's fine. You're complaining about "sterile plastic toy world" when wacky geometric textures in the original were meant to evoke the toyroom feeling. It is higher fidelity, it does have more straight angles for sake of customization, but neither of it detracts from the whole. Different graphics would not have made NH a better Animal Crossing game and it feels to me like people just don't want to admit NH did something right.
Replies: >>11866509
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 7:04:11 PM No.11866168
>>11863476 (OP)
Interactions with animals didn't fucking suck or appeal to facebook women
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 7:09:39 PM No.11866175
>>11863820
The game was made in Monolith Soft's sweatshop division and not their actual creative teams making Xenoseries Part 3: Slopblade and Disaster: Day of Kino.
Back then, Nintendo would hire some crafty European men with speccys to do the meat of the work, and Nintendo provides the potatoes with what they engineered.
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 9:44:37 PM No.11866492
Placing shit outside trumps all the benefits of the original. Maybe someone should mod the original to allow you to place a chair on the grass?
Replies: >>11866575 >>11886529
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 9:54:51 PM No.11866509
>>11866156
Nah, it looks like cheap plastic. The original didn't look like cheap plastic. It's the same reason the medievil remaster looks like shit.
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 10:27:06 PM No.11866575
>>11866492
The animals cringe at the garbage you force them to walk around.
Anonymous
7/13/2025, 10:45:00 PM No.11866610
>>11863476 (OP)
nintendo backed off (maybe understandably) on the villagers being so weird and hostile. the original vibe is just so perfect and unique it's cute and childish looking but beneath the surface everyone is shady and a little nasty.
like right from the beginning rover is working you over, he spots you as a mark and "just happens to know a guy" and basically leads you into the scam. the initial houses in the gamecube game are also like... silent hill. everything about it is shady its wonderful.
by new horizons most of that edge is sanded off and it's just cute and friendly. which makes it kind of empty. like its just a sanrio game or something now.
Replies: >>11866946 >>11867980
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 2:19:40 AM No.11866946
>>11866610
I think youโ€™re reading a bit too much into it. What youโ€™re talking about sounds kind of human-trafficking-esque. I think itโ€™s just more about how living on your own can be shitty in the beginning but after a while you get used to it. When you speak to Rover you basically tell him that you have no idea how youโ€™re gonna get by but heโ€™s generous enough to know a guy who can get you a home and not even hound you about paying him back. To me that sounds a lot kinda then whatever situation Nintendo CAN come up with.
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 3:18:53 AM No.11867034
>>11865094
zero lies, especially the music
original AC tunes were so soulful and lovely. those heights have never again been reached
Replies: >>11867053
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 3:32:05 AM No.11867053
>>11867034
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmwaD0t0Es&list=PLBgTps2_DYGZWD8KyYa7zcvGrAjKZjVAn&index=3
so many hourly tunes were bangers
nothing beats waking up at some random time like 2 am, booting up the game and it feeling alive
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 3:38:12 AM No.11867061
>>11863476 (OP)
Catching the bugs and fish was more challenging, obviously wouldn't call it hard but still. And that was the only part of the game I truly enjoyed. Also the villager dialogue just got lazier and lazier.
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 2:58:48 PM No.11867887
>>11865860
I think on the right it feels more detailed, which I like. It would be perfect to have the detailed model of the right but with a more lively color palette like the pics on the left.
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 3:56:56 PM No.11867980
>>11866610
I know Tom Nook is a bit of a meme but come on man he gives you home loans with absolutely no interest to people with zero credit history, that's downright charity compared to anything close irl.
Replies: >>11880156
Anonymous
7/14/2025, 10:37:56 PM No.11868581
>>11863476 (OP)
original animal crossing has this weirdness to it that gives it a lot of personality. Also villagers could be mean to you which made it more meaningful when they came to like you
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 2:18:43 AM No.11868958
>>11863476 (OP)
The first one was made by a man with a vision.
It was special because it was something unique: it was a game about EXPERIENCING life. It was about things that happen TO you, not about you taking action in the world, and they somehow managed to make that fun despite it being almost antithetical to what a video game is in the first place.
Limited control over your village, just one free bridge woven organically into the "plot" and once it's down, it's there forever. Uncuttable shrubs stop you from digging or planting trees or flowers where you want. Essentially zero control over what neighbors you have or wear they park their houses, or when they move in or out, and why should you? They have just as much right to be here as you do, you're just another rando like everyone else in this forest. Villagers will force you to buy stuff from them whether you like it or not. They'll paint your roof and if you don't like it, you can wait as long as it takes for Tom to get your paint colour in. They even put in a mole that shouts at you if you don't play the game exactly the way they want you to.
Ever since then, the game has just been slowly transforming into another generic sims game, until the most recent one, when they finally just gave you total power over the earth itself
Replies: >>11868986 >>11869175
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 2:28:51 AM No.11868985
it comes down to genre, animal crossing seems to me conceived essentially as an RPG like harvest moon, while the later entries are worming their way progressively toward becoming a full on Simslike
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 2:29:56 AM No.11868986
>>11868958
Turns out getting to design your entire island is a lot more fun.
Replies: >>11869404 >>11871067 >>11886529
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 2:30:35 AM No.11868989
>>11863476 (OP)
Itโ€™s not, you just think so because itโ€™s the first one you played.
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 3:40:06 AM No.11869129
It's an extremely simple game and isn't bloated with mountains of items/features. That and you're an actual villager aka part of the village in this game and not the god king of the island
Replies: >>11869442
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 3:49:23 AM No.11869147
Every single person having the same extremely specific and irrelevant complaint is pretty creepy, almost apocalyptic. Its pretty evident that none of those opinions were created organically.
Replies: >>11869170 >>11869398 >>11884251
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 3:58:47 AM No.11869170
>>11869147
Yeah, I guess we're all just puppets in your schizo world, and it's not like, games have regressed or something, man.
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 4:01:31 AM No.11869175
>>11868958
Transmuting into a more creative-orientated game is not bad at all. I mean shit, if they just repeated the exact same formula for the entire series, nobody would like it.
I think gamers get their panties in a bunch over series breaking free from stagnation too much. One game late in a series can be for you, while the earliest entry wouldn't be. The same goes in reverse.
Replies: >>11889530 >>11889592
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 5:28:53 AM No.11869398
CIr7TvC
CIr7TvC
md5: 65e88657d889258b1fb7b981fe404d57๐Ÿ”
>>11869147
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 5:30:20 AM No.11869404
>>11868986
Yeah, them not bringing back the GBA island you can visit was another thing on the pile of mistakes.
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 5:35:11 AM No.11869416
>>11865068
loser
Replies: >>11871093
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 5:45:53 AM No.11869442
>>11869129
>isn't bloated with mountains of items
are you retarded? there are hundreds of items in the original AC.
Replies: >>11870109
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 11:41:16 AM No.11870109
>>11869442
>there are hundreds of items in the original AC.
>axe
>fishingrod
>net
>shovel
>Fruit
>umbrella
>pinwheel
>balloon
>fan
>seeds/sapling
>paint
>sign
>pitfall

All the other items are reskins of these or are non-usable items to do villager jobs/events.
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 7:32:18 PM No.11871067
>>11868986
I don't think it's necessarily more or less "fun" I just considered animal crossing as almost of a life-sim and now it seems like it would rather lead into a build/decor sim
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 7:45:56 PM No.11871093
>>11869416
yeah i'm sure the "winner" here is the grown man talking about his le heckin cute game character online
Replies: >>11871114 >>11873861
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 7:53:48 PM No.11871114
>>11871093
Imagine being so fragile in your own masculinity that if someone describes something as cute you have to call them a fag. Some people just want to have fun anon
Replies: >>11871136 >>11871141
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 8:01:33 PM No.11871136
>>11871114
>fragile masculinity
sounds like something a faggot would say
Anonymous
7/15/2025, 8:04:31 PM No.11871141
>>11871114
yeah... fags
Anonymous
7/16/2025, 7:55:50 PM No.11873835
>>11863476 (OP)
i played it for about a year recently and made loads of videos, got some decent views but in the end it was mostly furry weirdos and not people my age who just like the game.
Anonymous
7/16/2025, 8:06:05 PM No.11873861
>>11871093
>>11865068
I'm sure you slay pussy when girls find out you play AC
Replies: >>11874868
Anonymous
7/17/2025, 5:11:31 AM No.11874846
>>11864059
Is he your bf now?
Anonymous
7/17/2025, 5:33:58 AM No.11874868
>>11873861
i don't
Anonymous
7/17/2025, 8:33:06 AM No.11875209
Good question!
Anonymous
7/17/2025, 7:36:23 PM No.11876268
1st AC was a game you lived in. AC became a game you play. 3DS Game was the turning point by allowing you to be mayor and letting you control too much.
The DS game was already heading the wrong direction but I can see why some people liking it. The Wii game was basically just the DS game.
Anonymous
7/18/2025, 12:56:18 AM No.11876857
I always hated the rolling world of the later games for some reason
Replies: >>11877802 >>11879490
Anonymous
7/18/2025, 10:25:12 AM No.11877802
>>11876857
This. The grid-pattern map was way more functional and the villagers had better conversations. Beyond that, being able to use the password system to send letters and gifts to people was a semi-multiplayer feature, with lots of cutesy communities popping up online to make "AC friends".
Replies: >>11879490
Anonymous
7/19/2025, 12:39:07 AM No.11879490
>>11876857
>>11877802
>I heckin' love 2 seconds of delay everytime I move out of bounds
Replies: >>11879509
Anonymous
7/19/2025, 12:45:33 AM No.11879509
>>11879490
It has a certain charm to it and makes the town feel a bit bigger. There's a hack now that removes the screen transitions and it's just not the same.
Anonymous
7/19/2025, 12:50:24 AM No.11879525
>you were a kid
>NES games
>grumpy villagers
>best music
That's the gist of it.
Anonymous
7/19/2025, 1:04:07 AM No.11879554
>>11864556
playmobil has soul tho
Anonymous
7/19/2025, 5:36:02 AM No.11880156
>>11867980
yeah isn't part of his backstory in wild world that he was literally too nice for the city real estate business which is why he works in rural towns in the first place?
Anonymous
7/20/2025, 1:31:32 AM No.11881978
Annalise_GC
Annalise_GC
md5: 6f14ffa16191c18be2c2198d95c73795๐Ÿ”
Bump and asking this here because why not: Is there a way to trade islands on Dolphin? My town's island has this miserable fuck and I would love to have anyone else
Anonymous
7/21/2025, 12:24:51 AM No.11884251
>>11869147
>extremely specific and irrelevant
nigga the dialogue, music and customization are core features that are very upfront
Anonymous
7/21/2025, 6:52:37 PM No.11885950
The grid-based map, soundtrack, comfyness and kino dialogues
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 1:05:29 AM No.11886529
>>11865094
>music is subjective
false because gc music is the best by a mile and that's objective fact (WW theme is also 11/10)
>>11866492
They already did that
>>11868986
It isn't more fun because you either get to a place where your island is "done" and largely never changes again or you rebuild at some point invalidating all the work you ever did at that point. It was more fun and rewarding to make the most of what you were given rather than just being given everything to do whatever you want with. I think NL was as far as it should have gone because NH is just a subpar design sim with a vague AC coat of paint in a few areas.
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 2:09:11 AM No.11886668
1753018748235b
1753018748235b
md5: 0d2bc7564c603b730737a7bde3d4448e๐Ÿ”
https://aurumsmods.com/accfdeluxe/
City Folk with classic controller support is the best animal crossing
Replies: >>11886724 >>11887792 >>11889483 >>11892718
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 2:15:55 AM No.11886675
As someone who only played the handheld ones, I find it hard to imagine being able to consistently play AC when it's not on a handheld device. Like are you all sitting down every day on your pc and playing the game? Some weeks I don't really have the time to play games let alone every day
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 2:38:28 AM No.11886724
>>11886668
its literally the worst by a significant margin, and its not even retro so you are doubly retarded
Replies: >>11889483
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 10:59:09 AM No.11887490
>>11863476 (OP)
Never played this Reddit Crossing, something about the artstyle just puts me off.
Replies: >>11887792 >>11892723
Anonymous
7/22/2025, 3:58:13 PM No.11887792
>>11886668
now that its wi-fi community is dead it has literally nothing to offer over GC.
>>11887490
filtered by soul I guess
Replies: >>11888956
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 2:28:57 AM No.11888956
>>11887792
there's no homebrew online like mario kart wii? what about with wild world and new leaf?
Replies: >>11890414
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 3:30:33 AM No.11889068
>>11863476 (OP)
>>11863550
I think we can chalk this up to the fact it was made for Japanese Audiences and slowly morphed into becoming the "Global" and "Western" audiences due to everyone buying them more. Animal Crossing has so much charm to it from the Character expressions, the artstyle feeling absolutely unique even to this day. But it is nothing without the Characters and their sense of expression and unique charms to them. Plus the Art Direction I would argue has went from Pixel Textures to a semi realistic look which is not fitting for Animal Crossing.
Replies: >>11890414
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 3:32:31 AM No.11889078
>>11863820
It's too bright and I would argue textures are trying to be more colorful/cartoony which works, but it should have pixel rendering for the models to make them look interesting.
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 6:22:02 AM No.11889483
>>11886724
it's the best one actually
>>11886668
and motechuck is perfectively serviceable
Replies: >>11892718
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 6:29:25 AM No.11889501
>>11863476 (OP)
The first one has the best camera for one. I can't stand the log world camera of the later games.
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 6:42:55 AM No.11889530
>>11869175
>if they just repeated the exact same formula for the entire series, nobody would like it.
[citation needed]
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 7:31:04 AM No.11889592
>>11869175
the creative stuff is a lot of fun and i don't get why most of it gets hate (except the terraforming shit in the new game which is a little excessive, makes it feel too much like the sims), but you can have that and good dialogue too, it's not like they have to choose
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 5:37:39 PM No.11890414
>>11888956
there is but I don't think there's an active community like there was in City Folk's heyday
>>11889068
It's too bad the original character designer is no longer at Nintendo and gets no recognition for her work.
Anonymous
7/23/2025, 6:16:21 PM No.11890465
>>11863476 (OP)
it's not
Anonymous
7/24/2025, 12:29:42 AM No.11891162
1723247257139799
1723247257139799
md5: 2bc796b63dffc792ca944493b3ea1a2f๐Ÿ”
>>11863476 (OP)
No censorship.
Anonymous
7/24/2025, 4:39:17 PM No.11892669
>>11863476 (OP)
Because it works
Anonymous
7/24/2025, 5:04:58 PM No.11892718
>>11889483
>>11886668
Not retro, modtard.
>>>/v/
Anonymous
7/24/2025, 5:06:46 PM No.11892723
>>11887490
Same, Mother is better in comparison.